Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

[Yakumo]

Now that I've got a phone that takes high quality pictures I've decided to start a "Life in Japan" thread just to give you guys a sort of idea of how life is in Japan. Don't expect anything exciting though :-D I'll probably post once a week with images I've taken through out it.

This week I'll start off with Wednesday 20th April 2005. I was woken up at 6:20am by a bloody earthquake (measured 4.5 on the scale) which is very odd for this part of Japan. Anyway, off to work I went. When I got to Shimonoseki Station at 7:30am this was the site I was met with.
http://img172.echo.cx/img172/7236/earthquake3mm.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
What the hell was going on I though. It soon cameto my attention that the earthquake had damaged the tunnel under the sea which connects Honshu to Kyushu. I ended up waiting for 3 hours plus had some git from KBC (TV Station) try to interview me. I ended up being called by work who told me to take the day off with pay since it wasn't my fault :)

So next I went to Deo Deo to order a headphone adaptor for my phone so that I could use my decent headphones for listening to the MP4s. While there I spotted this typical effort of EngRish with all the PSPs. There was also one written in Korean.
http://img172.echo.cx/img172/2329/pspengrish8ct.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
They must of heard about me flogging them all to you guys :-D

I ended up walking about 1 mile until I got a bus since they were packed thanks to the trains being down. It was quite hot and as you can guess wearing a suit doesn't help. So I decided to buy a can of CocaCola C2 (Sort of a diet version I guess but actually very tasty).
http://img172.echo.cx/img172/6872/coke3cp.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
And I bet you guys thought CocaCola only made Coke :)

So there you have it. My Wednesday of last week. More coming in the following week.

Yakumo

[AntiPasta]

Interesting! Keep it up!

[the_steadster]

Nice, Should be a very interesting read

[Johnny]

Keep it up Yakumo. It's great to read and see those kinds of stuff.

I'm planning to get a new cellphone with a camera just to do something like that!

[Sinjd]

Yakumo, i hate you so much for living in Japan :P haha. I spent 10 days there back in March of last year, i didn't want to leave, I got the airport, and was like NO!!! I WANNA STAY DAMMIT!!! but then I realised I had no money, and that I would get in trouble if i did :( - so back to England I came... But come august I shall return, and buy Coffee from vending machines, abuse the wonder of Manga Cafes, buy video games at a fraction of english prices, and eat Japanese food till i pop :D

Can someone explain Qoo (seeing it in that vending machine made me remember), right when i saw the ad over there, it showed a rabbit sniffing flowers and sneezing, and then he drank Qoo and was ok, and I got confused and asked my girlfriend at the time what it was about and she said "its a drink" which really did not help my curiosity at all..

I also love the weird can/bottle hybrids they have over there, so many cool things Japan has that England doesn't, its not fair :(

[Calpis]

Qoo is like Calpis IIRC, I think it's nasty

[Sinjd]

Calpis? Nasty???!!! BLASPHEMY!!! haha, to each their own, but i kinda like calpis :o - what i was meaning about Qoo, was with the ad showing anti sneezing ability, is it some sort of anti hystemine (sp!) drink or somethin?

[Yakumo]

Qoo is just a fruit drink nothing more. Calpis on the other hand is..... errrrr, well it looks like watered down milk and taste like errrr.............. no idea, it taste like Calpis or Cowpis as I call it.

Yakumo

[The VGM]

And I bet you guys thought CocaCola only made Coke :)
Yakumo

CocaCola makes many more products than just Coke. There are a shitload of variations of Coke aswell. Some are: Coke, Diet Coke, Coke with Lime, Vanilla Coke, Coke with Lemon (don't know if they still make it). Coke also makes a lot of sodas too like Sprite and I think Dr. Pepper. Anyways I'm babbling right now.

Cool vending machines though, ours are pretty boring.

Edit Wait all of those are Coke products? I could see Fanta being a Coke product but not all that other stuff....

[GaijinPunch]

Don't you feel like they were singling you out of a crowd with that Engrish Warning? You ever flown on an airplane within Japan? Same thing. You're the only white person on the plane, so someone has to stumble through some canned spiel.

[Yakumo]

Don't you feel like they were singling you out of a crowd with that Engrish Warning? You ever flown on an airplane within Japan? Same thing. You're the only white person on the plane, so someone has to stumble through some canned spiel.

I know just what you mean. I hate being the only English sppeaker on the plane then having to listen to the English part even though I've already heard it in Japanese.


Edit Wait all of those are Coke products? I could see Fanta being a Coke product but not all that other stuff....

Yes, everything in that machine is by CocaCola company. There's more too. that machine is missing many of their drinks. It's scarry the amount of drinks they make. In the UK I think we only had Sprite, Fanta (Yes it's by Coke), Lite and err, many types of Coke.

Yakumo

[zappenduster]

wasnt there also a cherry coke loved that stuff but i stoped drinking coke and all those drinks cant come clean with the bubble now iam a juice person =)

[GaijinPunch]

Coke distrubute an ungoldy amount of beverages in Japan... even canned coffees and green teas. They are the Starbucks of the vending machine world.

[Zilog Jones]

They were trying to ban Coke in my university a few weeks ago - most of the campaign was utter shit - those murders in Columbia (which haven't been proven to be Coke's fault or anything), how they put coca leaves (which cocaine is dervied from) in Coke (even though they haven't done that for about A CENTURY, and even then it was microscopic amounts), and basically just the old "big evil corporation" wank. If they did ban it, it would just be the Students' Union (and some of the clubs who get sponsered €20,000 a year by Coca-Cola) and Coca-Cola Bottlers Ireland Ltd. who'd be losing out on money - no-one else.

Anyway, the referendum never met quorum (at least about 1,700 students had to vote for it to pass) - yay for student apathy! :smt023 And even at that, the votes were about 600 to 400 AGAINST the ban!

[Paulo]

Pretty cool...

[The VGM]

wasnt there also a cherry coke loved that stuff but i stoped drinking coke and all those drinks cant come clean with the bubble now iam a juice person =)

Yes, Cherry Coke is the most popular Coke variant.

[AntiPasta]

It is?? At one point, I heard, they intended to bin it.

[Paulo]

I like it but dont buy it often... prefer to get doctor pepper.

[AntiPasta]

Yeah, plus it solves all your problems! :p

[Paulo]

I wish...

[GaijinPunch]

how they put coca leaves (which cocaine is dervied from) in Coke (even though they haven't done that for about A CENTURY, and even then it was microscopic amounts),

Yeah, it was legal then to. If they put cocaine in their soft drinks these days it woudl only incline me to purchase more (and buy a shitload of their stock!)

[The VGM]

It is?? At one point, I heard, they intended to bin it.

Maybe over there.....

There are sodas that no longer sell well here but still do well enough to be made in the midwest, like Pepsi Blue and Mr. Pibb.

[Zilog Jones]

Anyone remember Tab Clear? God I used to buy that all the time. It was like Coke, but *COOL*!

[LeGIt]

I remember Tab clear, but it seemed to get phased out pretty quickly -_-

[AntiPasta]

Yeah, it was legal then to. If they put cocaine in their soft drinks these days it woudl only incline me to purchase more (and buy a shitload of their stock!)

From what I've heard, taking cocaine orally is not a good idea, a friend of mine passed out at a party, they couldn't wake him up for several hours and his muscles were all tense, the doctor suspected that some dud put cocaine in his drink... and I've heard of woman having heart attacks during intercourse because men put cocaine on their dick... why anybody would do that is beyond me, but it certainly sounds nasty...

[Yakumo]

Come on guys, this is my Japan thread, not the coke on your dick thread :p

Yakumo

[The VGM]

Come on guys, this is my Japan thread, not the coke on your dick thread :p

Yakumo

LOL. I have a sudden urge to sig that. ;-)

[Pek0]

I like it but dont buy it often... prefer to get doctor pepper.

MMmmm doctor pepper... I would like it to be sold in spain instead of the 20+ clones of Red Bull that you could find here. (Though some of them tastes great, coffee is a cheaper and more efficient source of caffeine)

Btw nice photos.

[SilverBolt]

nice pics yakumo keep it up

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Keep the pics coming Yakumo.
Oh, and how is the fell of being wake by a earthquake?

[Yakumo]

Keep the pics coming Yakumo.
Oh, and how is the fell of being wake by a earthquake?

Do you mean "how did it feel?" Hmm, nothing special really :smt045 I just lay there in the bed. I basically thought that if the house is going to fall down then I'm just as safe staying in bed where I was nice and warm that what I would be running around the house ina panic :smt043

Yakumo

[Paulo]

Do you mean "how did it feel?" Hmm, nothing special really :smt045 I just lay there in the bed. I basically thought that if the house is going to fall down then I'm just as safe staying in bed where I was nice and warm that what I would be running around the house ina panic :smt043

Yakumo

Well stand on a doorway its less likely to kill you..!

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

LOL, you're right :P I never thought about this...



Well stand on a doorway its less likely to kill you..!

[Paulo]

I thought people got taught these things in japan...

[Yakumo]

They do but if your house is going to fall down your going to get killed no matter where you stand. Personally I'd go under the kitchen table.

Yakumo

[WolverineDK]

hmmm well i wake up every morning at 6:30 by workers who will put new balconys in our flats (we have two balconys)

and the lift/elevator is so shaky and noisy i can feel it in my bed and my hearts pounds fucking fast when they arrive every morning so i think an earthquake right now would freak the shit out of me
(luckily we are on a big and stable tectonic plate )

and the workers will work untill the whole building has new balconys
(they will begin in my flat the 23. of may the day after my sisters Birthday.)

and they have worked for over half a year (in my "side" of the building)

so i don´t think i could take an earthquake right now.

the freakyiest thing is that the lift is right in front of one my balconys.

and back to you Yakumo-san :-)

[Yakumo]

Few new picture for you today that I took on the way home from work.

First up are these strange carp (Fish) flags that you can see normally hung over rivers during Golden Week here in Japan (Golden week is the 1st week of May). I'm not really one to care much for the reason behind these which is why I forget even though somebody feels the need to tell me every year. As far as I remember it's something to do with Boys day which falls on a day (maybe the 5th) inside Golden Week. These people that have them out side their house must have a son or just want to be noticed :ayashi
http://img134.echo.cx/img134/8453/jpflags7tp.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Next up is a typical site of just how much money the Japanese waste every year. Now from the image you probably think "So, it's road works" What you don't know however is that the reddish looking bricks that they are laying down are identical to the ones that were there before. In fact they are the same bloody bricks !! Yes, that's right, in Japan they seem to find it necessary to dig up the road then fix it again. You won't notice it if you're on holiday but after living here for years you will notice it. The reason behind it is that the city must use so much money to get the next years budget. So basically they just waste it by digging up roads then fill them back in.
http://img134.echo.cx/img134/404/jptrainroad2du.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Now may of you may go to Japan and be faced with the horror pictured below.
http://img181.echo.cx/img181/7200/jptrainj1tr.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yep, it's a train sign saying that the next train is for Shin Yamaguchi (my train) which will arrive at platform 2 and has 4 cars. The problem is that it's all in Japanese. Don't worry though because if you wait for about 30 seconds it will change to English , TADAAA!!!!!!
http://img181.echo.cx/img181/483/jptraine6sg.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Here's a site you probably won't see up in Tokyo :-D The time this picture was taken was 5:40pm yesterday which was Thursday at Nishi Kokura Station in Kita Kyushu. Maybe not the biggest station in Kokura but still it has 5 platforms. Not a soul in sight. If you look carefully you'll notice an elevated train track to the left of the picture. This is for the Shinkansen trains.
http://img209.echo.cx/img209/7601/jptrainstation7ll.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

more pictures coming soon.

Yakumo

[Paulo]

Nice pics!

[Fonzie]

http://img209.echo.cx/img209/7601/jptrainstation7ll.jpg
Just for this sort of atmosphere, I want to live in Japan!
I think I would waste my time walking in the streets, just taking pics...

(drool)

[Yakumo]

I was at that train station again today after spening the night at a friends place. Wasn't that empty today though. I should have taken another picture to compare them.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

My local Sega World has been under construction the last few weeks but today they finally removed the screens to reveal the new look Sega World :happyhap:

http://img146.echo.cx/img146/3476/segaworld0bx.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Now I wonder if it's possible to keep that Sonic story board in your bed room? Hmm, maybe not. Below is a pretty cack side view of the new look Sega World. Sorry for the poor image. I forgot to set the phone to "NEO" mode.

http://img146.echo.cx/img146/6776/segaworld25wv.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

No new games added though apart from Out Run 2 Special Edition.

Yakumo

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Again, very nice pics! Loved them!

[SuperGrafx]

Fascinating pics!
I'll be watching this thread regularly! :)

[The VGM]

I hope Outrun 2 SE comes out here....

[SuperGrafx]

I hope Outrun 2 SE comes out here....

Indeed.
Seeing the ad in Arcadia magazine has me very hopeful. Seems like a rather thorough update with some great new locales and an assortment of new vehicles.
Xbox port, please? :)

[ASSEMbler]

Wow, I forget you can drive up to places in Japan. It almost looks like the usa.

[GaijinPunch]

Wow, I forget you can drive up to places in Japan. It almost looks like the usa.

It's even weirder when you go to those places. I went for about 2-3 w/o going anywhere outside of Tokyo (besides back to Texas once) and then went snowbaording... man, surreal. We parked at a restaurant.

[Yakumo]

I had to go to hard Off today so I took another picture of Sega World at day time. Bloody hot !! 28'today and it's only May 3rd !! I hate summer :(

http://img127.echo.cx/img127/8297/segaworldday4tw.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[macwest]

The hotter it gets the more I love the beach :)

[Yakumo]

I was a bit of a sad git today spending the day on my own :( So I went to Kokura (the next city to Shimonoseki) to visit the cinema. While there I took a few pictures from the cinema's roof. In these shots you can see Kokura castle and the house in it's grounds plus a pretty dull picture of Kokura City which looks really crap in this view. By the way, I saw Constantine in the cinema which was pretty good. Only came out in Japan last week. Oh and they had a new Star Wars add which showed much more of Darth Vader.

These pictures were taken at 6:30 today. You'll notice that the area is surrounded my mountains wich is pretty common here.

http://img110.echo.cx/img110/9799/kokuracastle15hb.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img152.echo.cx/img152/4531/kokuracastle29ja.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img152.echo.cx/img152/2028/kokuracity7ov.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[AntiPasta]

Nice pictures, is Kokura castle a reconstruction or one of the few "real" ones?

[Yakumo]

It's a real one. Of course inside is now all different but the actual building is original. You can't see from the picture but it's actually built on a large wall surrounded by water which now has massive carp in it.

Yakumo

[SilverBolt]

That's one impressive building.

[cos2k3]

nice pics yakumo, very good quality

[wheelaa]

As soon as I saw that castle I thought of Ninja Gaiden.

Does it have big statues with laser spitting eyes lurking behind each door?

Seriously though, cool piccies Yakumo, especially for someone like me who has yet to make any sort of pilgrimage to Japan. Please keep em coming:)

[Yakumo]

As soon as I saw that castle I thought of Ninja Gaiden.

Does it have big statues with laser spitting eyes lurking behind each door?

Funny enough it does have two big statues but no lasers unfortunately. I'm off for a drive with a few people from work tomorrow so just maybe there'll be some new pics coming.

Yakumo

[wheelaa]

Funny enough it does have two big statues but no lasers unfortunately. I'm off for a drive with a few people from work tomorrow so just maybe there'll be some new pics coming.

Yakumo

Aaah..but were you dressed up in ninja garb at the time? The lasers would blatantly appear then:)

[f_bohmann]

just in case you are intro more or less creepy pictures, check this link... "abandoned japan", sorry if this is already known.

http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/research.html

and of course the gcans project.

http://www.g-cans.jp/photo/index.html

yours,
f

[Funk Buddy]

Very cool links f! I guess several of those were hotels, but what would make them just shut up with all the stuff inside? You would think they would sell it off before closing it down.

[Calpis]

That is cool, if I were at No.3 I'd try to somehow take home the monitors on the ceiling, they could be RGB.

[Yakumo]

Thanks for the links f bohmann. yeah we had a theme park like those pictured in Shimonoseki. I visited there one summer or more likely broke in :p to take loads of pictures with what was then my new digital camera. I had some really great shots but unfortunatly some bastard sent me a virus through the Email which killed EVERY jpeg on my PC :(

Yakumo

EDIT - I just noticed thathere'sa video on those links http://home.catv.ne.jp/rr/poston/hpdata/katsu_eed.wmv

[The VGM]

Does that site show just abandoned buildings? What's the point?

[nocomply]

I love stuff like this...!

VERY Silent hill!

Nothing more unsettleing than a abandoned fairground..!

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

Nice links!

[f_bohmann]

@the vgm: the stuff is way creepy, and for some people places like those emit a strange kind of affection or probably a sort of decay romanticism. such places tell stories and keep mysteries about their past.

you dont have to watch them if you dont like them. :)

[The VGM]

@the vgm: the stuff is way creepy, and for some people places like those emit a strange kind of affection or probably a sort of decay romanticism. such places tell stories and keep mysteries about their past.

you dont have to watch them if you dont like them. :)

I was just wondering what it was all about. I can't read anything on the site.

[Yakumo]

Inspired by Bohmann's wonderful link, I took a photo of this dump I go past on the way to work sometimes. The thing is that people actually still live here !! YUK !
http://img135.echo.cx/img135/8246/vfsh00079qi.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[karsten]

Inspired by Bohmann's wonderful link, I took a photo of this dump I go past on the way to work sometimes. The thing is that people actually still live here !! YUK !
http://img135.echo.cx/img135/8246/vfsh00079qi.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

this one really looks like the flat in excel saga :)

[lwizardl]

Yakumo i love the pictures. but for some reason if i click on them i get a page about signing up for hosting and that my ip has been logged.

any way to get them emailed (that is if they are bigger than the ones that show up in these posts.

lwizardl

[Paulo]

Yeah its image shack. Its a free hosting site for pics. Dont worry about your ip being logged its just so that if you put some screwed up illegal image they can come and kill you.

[Yakumo]

Yakumo i love the pictures. but for some reason if i click on them i get a page about signing up for hosting and that my ip has been logged.

any way to get them emailed (that is if they are bigger than the ones that show up in these posts.

lwizardl


Yeah, like Paulop said, you don't have to worry about the IP Logging. Most sites probably log your IP anyway without telling you. It's just to stop people uploading porn images and so on.

I could email you the original images if I still had them but I normally delete them straight after uploading them to image shack. The original size of the pictures was 960x1280 or sometimes 1224x1632 depending on if I was using my SD card or not.

Yakumo

[Taemos]

Maybe over there.....

There are sodas that no longer sell well here but still do well enough to be made in the midwest, like Pepsi Blue and Mr. Pibb.

They still make Pepsi Blue? I loved that stuff - no one else over here did, though. :(

Great "documentary" of sorts, Yakumo. Keep it up :).

By the way, we have dumps like that over here. Most of them are downtown, but if you drive out into the country there are plenty of run-down shacks that people actually live in.

[GaijinPunch]

Inspired by Bohmann's wonderful link, I took a photo of this dump I go past on the way to work sometimes. The thing is that people actually still live here !!

You know, there was a complete shack in the middle of my neighborhood (which was a pretty nice neighborhood) for years. The people had to freeze their balls off in the winter. It looked like something out of little house on the prairie. The finally tore it down and built a new one.

[Yakumo]

I can belive that Gaijin Punch. Japan is strange at times. One area I go past called Hiagari or Hiakari (yes, it's one of those places were they can't decide how to pronounce it) has loads of ultra modern buildings then right smack in the middle are a load of really shitty looking shacks with grit for the ground. no tarmac. I'd hate to have to walk there when it's raining. Mud everywhere. Looks like some Brazillian shanty town or something.

Yakumo

[Paulo]

Ill have you know brasilian shanty towns are getting better!

[Yakumo]

Ill have you know brasilian shanty towns are getting better!

I'm not bad mouthing them, just saying that's what it looks like to me. The original ones that is.

Yakumo

[Paulo]

I was just joking lol

[Zilog Jones]

just in case you are intro more or less creepy pictures, check this link... "abandoned japan", sorry if this is already known.

http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/research.html
This is some crazy stuff! Interesting, but crazy. What happens to these businesses and stuff? It looks like some of them were just suddenly abandoned - the hotels are still fully furnished and everything, and judging by the decor they've been like this for 20+ years! What's the deal with these places?

If some place here went out of business, they'd sell whatever they can and sell the place - or more importantly sell the land it's on. When crappy old hotels close down in Limerick, they just knock down the fuckers! Though saying this there was a Carlton cinema left derelict for about 10 years down the shit side of town, but even that's been knocked down now...

[Funk Buddy]

^ I asked the same questions, but no one replied.

[Yakumo]

Japan is very odd. You see it cost money to knock these places down so they just don't bother until someone actually wants to buy the land which probably won't happen because of the area. I've seen a few dumps like those in my 7 years here. The theme park that was left was standing abandoned for 6 years. The only reason it was finally cleared away was because we had a typhoon that flooded the whole area plus made it unsafe. If that typoon had never came it would still be there now. Shame really because it was rather cool. They even had one or two beaten up arcade cabs there. The odd thing was that they were the stand up western style ones.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

One thing you'll have to watch out for if you ever come to Japan are the japanese swat bogs as I call them. These are a right pain in the arse to use and first timers may stand around for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out just how the hell you use them.
http://img262.echo.cx/img262/3267/swatbog0zo.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
The above picture was taken today at Chofu Station (not the Chofu in Tokyo) where I live. You'll notice there is no toilet paper, only a little blue basket. that's because in this station you're meant to buy some tissues out side the toilet from the machine then dump the wrapping in the blue basket if you use all the paper. Actually this toilet is pretty clean concidering the picture was taken at 6:15 pm. 6 years ago however I wouldn't have never dreamed of visiting the train station toilets in Shinjuku or Shibuya up in Tokyo. YUCK !

Yakumo

[Paulo]

No shitting for me till i get back to a proper toilet...

[zappenduster]

ok and now solve the riddle for me how do you use this thing ?

[Paulo]

http://www.digi-affiliate.com/blog-test/images/j_toilet.gif

[Szczepaniak]

You'll find those toilets in France quite a bit too. Not everywhere, but in a lot of places built years ago.

Bloody awful things to use, especially after a night cap or several. ;)

[Yakumo]

It was a beautiful day today so I decided to take a walk past Kokura castle on the way home from work. Here's a few pictures I took plus a short video as well. The quality of the video is pretty nice but I removed the audio thanks to the phone picking up mostly wind sounds.

Remember I told you that Kokura Castle was surrounded by water?
http://img227.echo.cx/img227/4116/kokuracastle9yi.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

And in that water are these Karp.
http://img227.echo.cx/img227/3463/kokurakarp9nc.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

This is a photo of the main gate.
http://img227.echo.cx/img227/9784/kokuragate1sb.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

This huge place is called River Walk. It's a massive and I mean MASSIVE shopping center. The cinema in here is also very good with one of the biggest screens i've seen in Japan. This is where I see all my movies :) You can see the side of this place on the video download linked below.
http://img227.echo.cx/img227/9021/kokurariver8zh.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Here's a pretty short video that I took with my phone. The sound has been removed and video converted from ASF to XVid.
http://segagagadomain.com/KokuraCastle-phone.avi

Yakumo

[Paulo]

Really nice!

[Yakumo]

Whilst out and about on the bike today I stumbled across this TV burial place :( The sad thing is that some of these TVs are better than what some of us are using to game on. What's even sadder is that 90% of them will work fine. The Japanese really waste money.
http://img262.echo.cx/img262/1280/tvs3so.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
Sorry for the hazy image but the sun was directly in front of me when I took the picture.

Yakumo

[SilverBolt]

Wow that's one big pile of tv's

[Yakumo]

Wow that's one big pile of tv's

I've seen bigger as well. About 6 years ago I only had a shitty 14" TV so I went to one of these dumps and grabbed myself a nice 26" NEC TV (almost did my back in too) that I used for almost two years before it died. The picture was great as well plus it even had a SCART RGB Input !!!! That's pretty rare in Japan. No idea why it died though. One day I came to switch it one and nothing. It was as if the power just wasn't getting to it. Give it another few years and I bet plasmers will start to turn up in those dumps :D I've already seen a Sharp LCD TV (abut 12" or 14") that was battered to hell.

Yakumo

[kizzycrew]

Yes, i'm using a new, but obviously very small 14 inch TV. I wish we had dumps like that in England tbh. But loved the video, it makes me want to visit the smaller places in Japan now :D

~~GV

[AntiPasta]

Yes, i'm using a new, but obviously very small 14 inch TV. I wish we had dumps like that in England tbh. But loved the video, it makes me want to visit the smaller places in Japan now :D

~~GV

I had something similar in my town (well, not as lush in terms of new TVs, but I found a working MegaCD there, for instance), but a few months ago they decided to no longer allow people to take stuff out of there :smt071

[Yakumo]

Isn't that where you found the "Yakumo" PC, Anti?

Yakumo

[CpSteve]

OMG

every time you post pics, my desire to return in Japan grows more and more... :smt022

I hope to enjoy a lot more my TRIP in August...


less videogames search more lived life :smt023

[Perkunas]

I had something similar in my town (well, not as lush in terms of new TVs, but I found a working MegaCD there, for instance), but a few months ago they decided to no longer allow people to take stuff out of there :smt071

Hehe, everytime I go to the container park in my town I always find piles and piles of broken keyboards, pc cases, monitors, television sets,... Some stuff works, and there's some older stuff too (mostly C64/Amiga/...) occasionally, but it's that dirty and broken, it's not worth picking up...

A safer bet is to head to the recycle shop where they sometimes sell game systems or even televisions very cheap. ^_^ (not that I want another giant television set on my room ;p)
I once bought a 32X there for like 2,5 euro's, shame it was broken though. Luckely, I've bought stuff that worked too. ;p

[ccovell]

Hi, folks.

I finally got a nice new camera, so I have taken some pics from around my area as well. Please check out the page below:

http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/walkabout/index.html

Mostly it's nature pics, but there are some pics of an arcade at the very bottom. Enjoy!

[Yakumo]

some nice pictures there ccovell. What part of japan do you live in?

Yakumo

[ccovell]

I'm in the northeast, in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture.

My page explains it a bit: http://www.zyx.com/chrisc/lifeinjapan.html

[Paulo]

real nice pictures!

[PhantasyStar]

Wow, I've never seen a Japanese Arcade center. That looks awesome. Great pictures. Unfortunately, there aren't any Arcade centers where I live anymore.

[Yakumo]

Wow, I've never seen a Japanese Arcade center. That looks awesome. Great pictures. Unfortunately, there aren't any Arcade centers where I live anymore.

You mean to say you never saw the Retro Core feature in Volum e4 (I think) or saw the Sega World section on my site ? You must get yourself over to http://www.segagagadomain.com/ and check out the gaming in Japan section. It is a bit old now though.

Yakumo

[CpSteve]

I'm in the northeast, in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture.

My page explains it a bit: http://www.zyx.com/chrisc/lifeinjapan.html


iwate pref it is another objective of my travel... all guilt is yours and of your fantastic web site that I know from various time... :p
hey, maybe we can met for drink something...:smt1062 :drinkers:

[AntiPasta]

Isn't that where you found the "Yakumo" PC, Anti?

Yakumo

You bet :-)
I sold it later though.

[Mr. Casual]

http://www.digi-affiliate.com/blog-test/images/j_toilet.gif
Should be minimized into someones avatar! :smt042

[Yakumo]

While out today I met Godzilla's new rival :p
http://img201.echo.cx/img201/3803/insect7tr.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
BUGARUG !!!

Yakumo

[SilverBolt]

Ewwwwwww bugs !!!!! i hate them a lot, luckily living on the 9th floor we rarely ever see any bugs in the house.

[Yakumo]

I was bored today so I took a few random pictures.

How would you like these two Dragon Quest blobs to protect your car?
http://img7.echo.cx/img7/4069/car1op.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Below you can see 7 Eleven. Not to be mistaken for the US chain eventhough it's the same name and logo it's actually owned by a japanese company. I guess they just bought the name. Anyway, 7 Eleven in japan is a very clean place with everything you could want from boxies to butties :p Then even have ATMs, Fax services, print service and post service. Very hand place indeed. Oh and it's 24 hours. they can be found EVERYWHERE !!!
http://img7.echo.cx/img7/4109/7119pi.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

These train signs maybe able to put some of you thinking of coming to Japan at ease. There are two main types of train signs at stations in Japan. THey all have English, Hiragana and of course the Kanji. So you'll never have to worry at getting off at the wrong station. Only the most remote places don't have English.
This sign is taken in Nishi Kokura (a big city with many "gaijins")
http://img7.echo.cx/img7/341/signnishi8dq.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

This sign is taken at my train station in a small town in the country that has 3 "gaijins" including me :p
http://img161.echo.cx/img161/395/signchofu7vl.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

As you can see, both types of sign tell you where you are, the next station and the one you just came from all in English.


Coca Cola are giving away free Lupin III characters again with 500 ml bottles of Coke. Here's a few shots of the one I got today. I took these pictures in work today while sitting at my desk waiting for 5:15 to role by. As you can tell I was bored !!!
http://img161.echo.cx/img161/853/lupin19mh.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img161.echo.cx/img161/3517/lupin21aa.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img161.echo.cx/img161/9176/lupin34bp.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Roi]

OMG

every time you post pics, my desire to return in Japan grows more and more... :smt022


less videogames search more lived life :smt023

:smt045 !

[Yakumo]

More pointless crap images from me today :p

Looks like Pepsi are getting desperate to win at least 1 fan in Japan. Now they have these very nice Episode III bottle cans. The drink still taste like piss though. By the way, many of you may not know this but Japanese coke and Pepsi taste different than the western versions. They seem to be less sweet. Today I drank a can of coke from Singapore which tasted really sweet. Nothing like the Japanese version which I like. Anyway, don't make this in to a "Hey Pepsi is miles better than coke" thread please.
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4867/jupepsi5cg.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

I was also last out of the office today so I had to lock up. Pretty creepy walking around the building without a soul in it !
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6774/juoffice00ev.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/5969/juoffice10ei.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/1574/juoffice20oo.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
My company's office is just down this long corridor that you can see above. We are on the 8th floor which has two distinctively different views.

Over to the left we have a snooty Hotel and a few other office buildings.
http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/6308/juofficewinl7tb.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

And to the right we have the docks belonging to the Asian Pacific Import Mart.
http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/8868/juofficewinr4jj.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Big news here in Japan is that Panasonic after feeling the bite of not having a console on the market have decided to join forces with Microsoft and integrate XBOXes with their own TVs :D :lol:
http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/7604/jutv0iy.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Paulo]

I thought the pictures of the office looked like a car park!

[Yakumo]

A car park ? :) Must be the cleanest one in the world.

Yakumo

[zappenduster]

I thought the pictures of the office looked like a car park!

these halls just scream for a soccer match after work =)

[PrOfUnD Darkness]

I just don't want to see the light bill....

[the_steadster]

http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/5969/juoffice10ei.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/1574/juoffice20oo.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)


Wheely Chair Race time!

[Yakumo]

How about this for a crazy drink, BLACK Lemon drink !!! I can't even begin to tell you what it tastes like. I don't even know if I like it or not :p
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/209/julykirin7kf.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

Yakumo....and i know this question has been answered...but...if your from europe how did you end up in japan, could you live in japan reasonably well without speaking fluent japanese...?..is it hard to learn it?...

lol im desperate to go to japan....
canada sucks for videogames and attractions

[Yakumo]

I ended up living in Japan by quitting my job in the UK then getting off my arse and came over. At first I took any job that would keep me here and yes, I knew almost no Japanese. I was a waiter in a stake house, part time English teacher, handed out those tissues (any who has been to Japan will now what I mean) and did a bit of proofreading. From there I sort of studied Japanese :p found a nice woman (on my birthday :D) from then on things were on the up until we split a year later. But I did finally get a full time job (teaching English) This was all 6 or 7 years ago now. I still remember it like it was yesterday. It's also one of the reasons why I don't like going back to Tokyo very often. Too many good and bad memories plus it makes me feel old :( I was 22 when I came to this country and now I'm 29 going on to 30 in November. Ahh,........... I wish I was 22 back in Tokyo living the wonderful free life of a young man.

Now you've made me all depressed :smt022 :smt022 :smt022 Ah, but wait ! I have some great friends now where I live so it's not that bad I guess :smt023

Yakumo

[karsten]

Now you've made me all depressed :smt022 :smt022 :smt022 Ah, but wait ! I have some great friends now where I live so it's not that bad I guess :smt023

Yakumo

i'm coming to japan in august if you want to share :P

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

I ended up living in Japan by quitting my job in the UK then getting off my arse and came over. At first I took any job that would keep me here and yes, I knew almost no Japanese. I was a waiter in a stake house, part time English teacher, handed out those tissues (any who has been to Japan will now what I mean) and did a bit of proofreading. From there I sort of studied Japanese :p found a nice woman (on my birthday :D) from then on things were on the up until we split a year later. But I did finally get a full time job (teaching English) This was all 6 or 7 years ago now. I still remember it like it was yesterday. It's also one of the reasons why I don't like going back to Tokyo very often. Too many good and bad memories plus it makes me feel old :( I was 22 when I came to this country and now I'm 29 going on to 30 in November. Ahh,........... I wish I was 22 back in Tokyo living the wonderful free life of a young man.

Now you've made me all depressed :smt022 :smt022 :smt022 Ah, but wait ! I have some great friends now where I live so it's not that bad I guess :smt023

Yakumo



sorry bout that.........

im thinkin i might try to learn some japanese this summer......maybe...if i get motivated that is....and cahnces are i wont...lol....

oh well someday i will get down to japan.....
dont think my parents would be too supoortive of me moving to japan..

so instead ill paint a godzilla on my ceiling and eat sushi...lol..that was way to stereotypical

[Yakumo]

i'm coming to japan in august if you want to share :P
I found out today that I'll be working all summer :( No tokyo for me but at least I get money :)

Yakumo

[karsten]

I found out today that I'll be working all summer :( No tokyo for me but at least I get money :)

Yakumo

2 bad we could have met...

[Yakumo]

We can still meet up but not in Tokyo :(

Yakumo

[ccovell]

Hi, folks. It took me long enough, but finally I put up some interesting photographs of my little trip to the Aichi World Exposition. I went there on July 1st and 2nd, and came back home via Tokyo on the 3rd.

Take a look here: http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/Expo/

It's not exactly Japanese-culture-related, except it takes place here. But I did put a few more pics on my Akihabara page: http://www.zyx.com/chrisc/akihabara.html

Enjoy!

[Yakumo]

I put up some interesting photographs of my little trip to the Aichi World Exposition.
I've been thinking of going there myself. Would you say it's worth the trip from the bottom of Honshu?


Ah, now THIS is Akihabara! I remember seeing a photo of this exact location in a Super Play magazine back in 1993 or so. I had always been dreaming about it until I came to Japan
I know the exact image you are talking about and that very year I visited the same shop :) Oh, they were the days !! I remember looking up some teenages skirt, the stairs were that steep :smt082

Yakumo

[Greatsaintlouis]

<offtopic>

Should be minimized into someones avatar! :smt042

TADAAA!!

</offtopic>

[JTI2K]

What's even sadder is that 90% of them will work fine. The Japanese really waste money.

My buddy Genji is always goin to japan (he has some family there) and he told me about this dumps.

The funny thing is that they actually charge you (sometimes A LOT) for dumping your stuff there. He told me how most people would give away their PC or console to you so they dont have to go to the dump

I cant wait to go visit japan :douga

BTW, yakumo, why didnt u go and try to work as a pornstar? Theres some BIG (and you kno wut i mean) babes working in that industry. :smt082

[Yakumo]

I'm too tired as it is with regular sex to be a porn star :p 6 years with the same woman and it's still as regular as clockwork :D Japanese do like their Echi :p

Yakumo

[Mr. Casual]

<offtopic>


TADAAA!!

</offtopic>
:smt023
THATS GREAT!!! :smt082

[JTI2K]

Anyways, how you did with the legal stuff? you went there as a tourist or have a citizenship?

[Mr. Casual]

Hmmm, Maybe I can make a thread called life in Arkansas after this. Chicken houses, Barns, our Wal-mart super-sized...XD

[Greatsaintlouis]

"Big news! Farmer Thompson' heifer just gave birth to twin calves!" :smt043

You know, you could possibly combine Arkansas and eastern Oregon life and nobody would be the wiser. Except the Wal-Marts here are just the normal ones.

[Yakumo]

Anyways, how you did with the legal stuff? you went there as a tourist or have a citizenship?
I came over as a tourist then got an extention on the visa for an extra 3 months. After that I managed to get a 1 year visa which was changed to a 3 year one and now I own a spouce visa.

Yakumo

[JTI2K]

So i need to marry a japanese woman?

Now really, how they look at us (westerns) ? Do they (still) have some taboos about marrin gaijins?


PD: pardom my "inglish", i havent used it for some time now and its rusted

[Alien Workshop]

"Big news! Farmer Thompson' heifer just gave birth to twin calves!" :smt043


Never heard that one before, and I live even further out in the sticks than Mr. Casual
:smt043

I don't even officially live in any city/town/whatever. I live outside the city limits of the closest town to me, which happens to be about 10 miles from the town Mr. Casual lives in.

[Mr. Casual]

Yeah, Dequeen, AR, is so big, we got a Gamestop!

AWSis surrounded by fields and stuff, so he probably sees more cows than I do every day. :D

I occassionally see stray chickens running all over the place in the old part of Dequeen, though!

[Yakumo]

I went out for the weekend with 2 friends from work to a couple of country side places in Kyushu. I have no idea of the place names even though I was the one mostly driving. They were all in the middle of Kyushu around the ASO area and Taketa. The pictures look a bit blurry because I had the setting all wrong on the phone :( It was pretty dark in some areas so I set the settings for more light but forgot to adjust the focus.

First up is a rapid river we came across which leads to a very nice water fall. We all got a bit wet here thanks to the spray.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/2092/akriver9df.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/6955/akwaterfall5fx.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Here we have my two friends climbing the never ending stairs in 33 degrees Celsius. Of course I had to follow them :(
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/9797/akwalking6pr.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

At the top of the stairs was an entrance to a temple which had some strange writing on it. It may have been Mongolian.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4431/akentrance8bw.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

This is the view of the small village from the top of the stairs. You'll notice the grave yard is pretty close to the temple.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/391/aktown8lp.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

More steps that wound up a very dark (looks light due to the settings on the phone) trail to a place where a priest lived.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4288/aksteps6be.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

And this is where he lived. It's just a hole in the wall !! This place too was really dark and wet. The reason why he lived in here was to show the people that you don't need luxuries to be good. God would reward you even if you had nothing.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/2050/akchurch4rc.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Alien Workshop]

Your... I mean that guy's friend is really really cute :p

[JTI2K]

OK, you win dude

Now i believe you are british :-D

[Yakumo]

Your... I mean that guy's friend is really really cute :p
Yep, and one day she'll be all mine, err I mean his. Wahahahahahaaha :smt096

Yakumo

[Mark30001]

Man... See how beautifull those places are. See, that's why I need to visit Japan!

[Yakumo]

Man... See how beautifull those places are. See, that's why I need to visit Japan!
Save up your cash and come on over !!! You won't see stuff like those pictures by following the typical tourist maps though. These types of places are meant for Japanese since they are all to do with local Japanese history or completely out of the way meaning you'll need to drive there. Of course there are many beautiful places to see that are on the tourist's map but it's nice to go to a place where you are the only foreigner.

Yakumo

[Mark30001]

I think the only time soon I'll be able to go is when I try out a foreign exchance program in college. I'm hoping when I get accepted to the college of my choice, they'll have a foreign exchange program to Japan. I'm already researching which colleges I'm interested in & if they have such...

[Teo]

he house
I think the only time soon I'll be able to go is when I try out a foreign exchance program in college. I'm hoping when I get accepted to the college of my choice, they'll have a foreign exchange program to Japan. I'm already researching which colleges I'm interested in & if they have such...

I remember there was a Japanese foreign exchange student staying at a house of some friends in the neighborhood, dude didn't know any english really but somehow we talked and understood and hung out and it was all fun.

[Yakumo]

Here's two pictures I took yesterday on a walk I had to go on with my company. I bloody hate company walks :( Still at least we had a few beers.
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8775/kokurawalk18iu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/1469/kokurawalk24il.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The trail lead right past a dam which I'm sure I took pictures of but can't seem to find them.

Yakumo

[Putzi]

Nice pics do small vehicles travel on that trail?

[Yakumo]

no, it's just for walking or bicycles.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

One of my mates came over to Chofu from Kokura last week to show his girl friend around. So he asked if they could hookj up with me and the missus and take a trip to Chofu Gardens. So we did :) I've lived in Chofu (Shimonoseki not Tokyo Chofu) for over 5 years now but have never visited the gardens. I was quite surprised at how beautiful they are.

http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/6879/chofugarden19lm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/8320/chofugarden27zy.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/6638/chofugarden31cp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/3088/chofugarden47zb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This last picture is my wife. She may look like a timid Japanese woman but she certainly isn't how she looks. Oh, my poor ears.....nag, nag, nag !
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/6999/chofugarden52mq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Alien Workshop]

Why is your wife is giving her invisible friend bunny ears?

[Mr. Casual]

What does that stand for in Japan? Peace?

Wasnt there a place in Asia where flipping someone off was a good thing?

[Yakumo]

Why is your wife is giving her invisible friend bunny ears?
hahahaha, no idea. Japanese do that peace sign all the time. I've even been known to do it if with Japanese friends. Just a thing they do for pictures I guess.

Yakumo

[Putzi]

Nice pictures Yakumo, were you originaly from america or somewhere in europe?

[Yakumo]

Nice pictures Yakumo, were you originaly from america or somewhere in europe?
I'm British :smt023

Yakumo

[ccovell]

You'd also know it was Liverpool if you ever heard his voice on RetroCore. ;)

[Borman]

So ya gunna give me a tour around if i can get to japan next summer Yakumo? :D

[Yakumo]

yeah, if you want to come all the way to Shimonoseki, home of the Fugu (Blow Fish) :)

Yakumo

[AlbinoLove]

You'd also know it was Liverpool if you ever heard his voice on RetroCore. ;)
rofl, I am a dumbass, I thought he was australian from retro core!

[ccovell]

Australian? No way, man! Speaks just like Ringo. :D

[citcelaid]

You mean Ringo actually said something!?

;-)

[Yakumo]

You mean Ringo actually said something!?

;-)Of course ! Ringo is the narrator in the English language version of Thomas the Tank Engine !

Yakumo

[JTI2K]

yeah, if you want to come all the way to Shimonosekii

Can we crash in your place? :smt030

[Yakumo]

hmm, how many people?

[Borman]

If me and my friend go (2 people total hopefully), ill stop by if you let us crash a night or two lol :)

[Yakumo]

maybe :) Have to see when it is.
Yakumo

[JTI2K]

hmm, how many people?

Just me, and my console collection :-D

[Yakumo]

I was messing about with the phone (which I've had since February) today and found a shit load of new options for the camera such as special effects like kaleidoscope, mutation, rendering (can render your picture on to a aluminum can for example) and many other crazy shit. But one thing that stood out was the night vision mode. Surely it can't take decent pictures in the dark I thought. So I went down to the pier to test it out. The below picture was taken at 10:45pm so as you can guess it was dark and since I was standing on a fishing platform there were no lights around me. This is what the image turned out like. (Reduced size)

http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/4199/karatopeir8rv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

not bad at all really :) Now top test it on a person up close.

Yakumo

[GaijinPunch]

I just bought one of the new 7.1 Megapixel Ixy's. The pics are silly big. I'll post some later.

[Yakumo]

ooh, that should have some pretty cool shots. Hey, when are you over in Japan? maybe we could met up?

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

I was visiting one of my mates today who lives on the 5th floor of an aging apartment block near a park. When I looked out of the window I never realized just how crowded Kokura (where I work and he lives) really is. Nothing like Shimonoseki. You'll also notice from these pictures that the area is surrounded by mountains just like Shimonoseki and most other places in this part of Japan. the pictures that have no mountains are where the sea is.

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/6880/city17lf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/483/city24mo.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Look carefully in the background and you can see a ferries wheel (Big Wheel). My friend said that this is NEVER working even though it was only built two years ago.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8797/city32sc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/285/city43sg.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[fro]

It's the first time i have seen this thread, amazing! thanks for taking the time to put these pictures up. I've never really thought of going to Japan but i'm really thinking about a trip now.

I'm moving from the UK to Canada in december for about 8 months, maybe a trip after that is in order!.

[Japan-Games.com]

Hey

The ferris wheel works daily, it's just that no one rides on it. At least it as working last Saturday when I was there... :)

Eric

[Yakumo]

You mean that you live in Kokura?

Yakumo

[ASSEMbler]

You watermarked pics of your town? Hardcore ;-)

[Yakumo]

You watermarked pics of your town? Hardcore ;-) :smt043 I never noticed really. I just do it automatically after some twats stole a load of my stuff a few years ago. Really pissed me off that did.

yakumo

[Japan-Games.com]

Hey

Yep, I live in Kokura...small world, huh? hehe

Send me an email if you want to hook up... info@japan-games.com

Laters,
Eric

[Sinjd]

hahahaha, no idea. Japanese do that peace sign all the time. I've even been known to do it if with Japanese friends. Just a thing they do for pictures I guess.

Yakumo

From my experience being over there, they sometimes get it the wrong way round too, i have a few photos from my time in Nagoya with my ex's friends and they kept doing it back to front, effectively swearing at me or the picture taker, but they had NO idea, made me laugh all the time and they just thought I was mental, asking my why i was laughing all the time.

[Yakumo]

Hey

Yep, I live in Kokura...small world, huh? hehe

Send me an email if you want to hook up... info@japan-games.com

Laters,
Eric
I don't live in Kokura but I work there. I live in Shimonoseki, yeah the other part of Japan. I'm free all weekend I think. Let's meet up or come on over for some gaming ;) I'll send you a mail.

Yakumo

[Taucias]

Here's a site you probably won't see up in Tokyo :-D The time this picture was taken was 5:40pm yesterday which was Thursday at Nishi Kokura Station in Kita Kyushu. Maybe not the biggest station in Kokura but still it has 5 platforms. Not a soul in sight. If you look carefully you'll notice an elevated train track to the left of the picture. This is for the Shinkansen trains.
http://img209.echo.cx/img209/7601/jptrainstation7ll.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

more pictures coming soon.

Yakumo

This station looks EXACTLY the same as the train station in Peterborough, in the UK. It totally freaked me out :S

Great thread, ignore the hijackers and keep posting more :)

[Yakumo]

This station looks EXACTLY the same as the train station in Peterborough, in the UK. It totally freaked me out :S

Great thread, ignore the hijackers and keep posting more :)
Really, now that is crazy but I bet the one in Peterborough doesn't have coke machines that are still clean as new :)

I've actually got a few shots I took the other day in Fukuoka but I'll have to edit them first.

Yakumo

[virtual alan]

Hey

Yep, I live in Kokura...small world, huh? hehe

Send me an email if you want to hook up... info@japan-games.com

Laters,
Eric#

Well hello Eric...thought it was you when saw the user name.......I have bought stuff from you before....

Glad to see you here you are most welcome!!!

Still have your group of little people finding all those amazingly rare items you keep coming up with?

Think the the last thing I got from you was some rare Pippin CD/Disk combo game1

[GaijinPunch]

Random picture I took walking through Shinjuku on a rainy day. The kicker is, it's a work vehicle.

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~japangaming/gomi/kittymobile.jpg

[Yakumo]

hehehe, nice van.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

Took this guys ugly mug shot on the way home from the station tonight.
http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/622/satmonster7xb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I thought maybe at least someone would like it :p

Yakumo

[Sparky]

Kinda looks like Bowser from Mario Bros.

[Japan-Games.com]

Nice to hear from you again, Alan. I'll have a bunch of new stuff for sale soon.

I spent the last few days in DenDen Town in Osaka. I'll post my thoughts in a new thread. Special thanks to Yakumo for stopping me from buying the Dreamcast Karaoke set...heh.

[Yakumo]

Nice to hear from you again, Alan. I'll have a bunch of new stuff for sale soon.

I spent the last few days in DenDen Town in Osaka. I'll post my thoughts in a new thread. Special thanks to Yakumo for stopping me from buying the Dreamcast Karaoke set...heh.
You're most welcome ;)

Yakumo

[asnozz]

From my experience being over there, they sometimes get it the wrong way round too, i have a few photos from my time in Nagoya with my ex's friends and they kept doing it back to front, effectively swearing at me or the picture taker, but they had NO idea, made me laugh all the time and they just thought I was mental, asking my why i was laughing all the time.


ahh thats probably because its a english swearing sign (I think its to show we still have out bow fingers i.e. for the long bow). Americans and Canadians generally dont know its true meaning either (I lived in Canada for 2 years). I think George Bush does it fairly often :) lol

[Yakumo]

I was in the city center last Friday on the way home from work when they switched on the Christmas lights. I took a few pictures while there but the weather was awful. Really heavy rain was falling so it was almost impossible to take any shots thanks to the rain covering the camera's lens all the time. Anyway, I did manage to get a few that I thought you would like to see.

This first shot is of the illuminations over the bridge from a distance.
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/4923/ilufarbridge6vm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Next is the same illumination but up close.
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/6516/ilubridge5xt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here you can sort of make out the shopping center next to the river. The big white square near the top is actually a TV. This shot is really awful thanks to trying to hold my umbrella and take a photo at the same time :D
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/1277/ilufar7pb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

A close up of one of the illuminations infront of the shopping center.
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/7186/ilusanta3zb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is probably the biggest chandelier I've ever seen !! A total of 8 floors high !
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/4679/ilulight9jw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here's a shot from underneath. Surprised I managed to get a shot without a blob of rain water hitting the lens.
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/7396/ilubelow3xl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Mark30001]

Thanks for the updates! :thumbsup:
The Japanese are always doing something that catches the eye. :icon_bigg

[PhantasyStar]

3 words...beautiful pictures mate.

[Yakumo]

3 words...beautiful pictures mate.
:dance: happy to know you like them :dance:

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

As you may know I normally have nothing good to say about Japanese TV since 99% of it is the same shite time and time again. Well, anyway tonight I actually laughed quite a bit thanks to Hard Gay and the skinny wrestler (or so he things) ! Hard Gay is a newish character on Japanese TV who first appeared about 5 months ago. Since then they milk him like everything else which quickly becomes boring. The thing is that VERY disturbing or disturbing as far as heterosexual guys go is that Hard Gay is extremely popular with males of ALL AGES in Japan !!! Now if someone could explain to me why I'd be very grateful. Anyway, I admit he's funny but only in small dowses and even then I wouldn't be a fan.

So what's the point of this rant? Well, as I said before tonight's TV show was so bloody funny that I just had to share it with you guys !! Download the 66meg XVid video from my FTP for some laughs!! Believe me you won't be able to keep a straight face, especially when you see what the skinny wrestler does. I've also left in the TV adds since I'm sure some of you would like to see them.

Here's a few shots from the show. These are slightly reduced in size and quality from the original DVD resolution MPEG 2 capture. The download version is 320 x 240.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/1696/hgpic14ba.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/3870/hgpic22dj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/733/hgpic32hb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/4388/hgpic47ti.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/2231/hgpic59nf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

FTP login info is

IP ADDRESS - segagagadomain.serveftp.com

LOGIN - RetroCore

PASSWORD - kikugawa

PORT - 21

The file is called hardgay-vs.avi

Yakumo

[Warakia]

Downloading now.... Hope the uni network people don't see i'm downloading a file with the words "hardgay" in it.

As for talents of Bad Taste, I love Bobby and the fact he is going to be in that atlus fighter is wonderful news. Hope he says "Daijoubu" every time he gets hit!

[Yakumo]

Bobby is now on TV dramas !! Even though his acting is awful he fits right in since everyone else is awful too :)

Yakumo

[Warakia]

One of me ex girlfriends (queen of the UFO catcher - sad to lose her) got me a "bobby says.." key ring. You just hit the buttons to hear one of his quality phrases. Good stuff,

As for the HG, he is quite funny, probably because underneath it all he is probably quite a cool guy, better than the ultra feminine gay talents. Still thanks for that, even if I'm up in front of the principal tomorow morning for inappropriate use of the internet. Last time that happened was when I did 7 GB of data in a day. I even enjoyed seeing the CM, even though you have probably seen them them all 100 times already. Japanese TV in small doses = quality. Drama with overly attractive male lead actor = bad. The ufo catcher gf used to make me sit through that "engine" drama all the time swooning over Kimu bloody buggery taku.

I used to watch all those talent shows, love them, such a break from academics of any kind! I even had cable in my place in nishinomiya, all care of the Japanese goverment. (with the anime channel!)

I reckon I could be a talent on Japanese TV, put the whole English gentleman act on, speak Japanese with a strong english accent and I could make a quid or two. Either that or a gaijin host.

Edit - behold the best thing on Japanese TV -
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/6825/p10001623eg.th.jpg (http://img486.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p10001623eg.jpg)

[SilverBolt]

Yeah too bad the japanese version of red dwarf sucks balls because the jokes and such have been cut and edited

[Warakia]

It is quite fun though if you know the original well and see how they completly re-order scenes and utterly change jokes. Also translation of the word "smeg" changes regularly. I'm not saying it is better or worse than the original version, it is just fun to see how they take the dwarf to Japan. After red dwarf was "the thin blue line" which was translated very well indeed. As jokes that use puns are relatively easy to translate into Japanese.

My tutor once set me the task of translating something "funny" to Japanese and then some Japanese comedy to english. Good lord that is hard. The very fact that they got something that is still watchable into Japanese from English is quite amazing. Also it is worth noting that there are certain episodes that they just did not bother translating at all. Still my translations of galaxy angels are pretty poor retrospectively.

[Yakumo]

I have all the Japanese Red Dwarf on DVD. Bloody awful what they've done to the jokes and so on if you watch in English but if you watch in Japanese is isn't as bad. The voices used for the characters are actually pretty good as well. I was pleasently surprised when I heard Lister and Rimmer in Japanese. not bad at all. Still, the original English versions are best. By the way, have any of you seen the American made version? It's fucking awful in EVERY repect ! Even Kryton who is played by the original (Welsh) actor doesn't seem right thanks to the way his character has been changed. I have it on my HD is anyone is interested in seeing it.

Yakumo

[Warakia]

Wow I have never seen the american version. Would really like to as well..... nudge nudge, wink wink etc
BTW that hardgay clip is now doing the rounds here at oxford. I have even had one e-mail with "foo" in it so far.
I really love red dwarf, I would place it with the blackadders, black books, spaced and all other truly great sit-coms. I got all the japanese edition red dwarf on vhs from book off really cheap. I was feeling a bit homesick for english things in Japan, so I just had a binge on red dwarf with some other english gaijin. Good times.
I tried to get one of my Japanese gf into red dwarf, but she didn't take to it. If I could find a Japanese girl who "got" brass eye or any other top english quality I would marry her without a moments thought.

[the_steadster]

I've seen the american version, its on the extras on one of the DVD's. I'll find out which If anyone is interested.

Absolutely appalling though - lister was translated into what might be described as a stereotypical american - not a lazy bum!

[Warakia]

Yeah the DVD series 5 has the making of documentary. Not the actual pilot episode methinks. I do have the series 5 disc 2, but only at home, I never watched it though. Because I only brought the first disc with me to university, shame.

[Warakia]

I just thought I would do I quick snap-shot of my life in Japan, now that I have discovered the wonder of image shack!

First up is my gaming set up I had going, the black thing next to the psone is a 3do and take note of the Tokimeki av selector!
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/2114/p10000981do.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

This is where the uni where I was supposed to study, it is quite good apparently.
http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/595/p10001234kc.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

My very own train, a very rare moment!
http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/9158/p10001530nw.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

What you have all been waiting for, me! in disney land with my lady of the moment. (good picture of her, not of me!)

Edit - took the final pic down, cos I figured it was kinda mean on her, if she didn't want her face all over the net.

[Yakumo]

Went to the Vodafone shop today to get my phone back after it had been serviced (New casing, screen and buttons which I needed because I knackered the others playing too many games) only to find these very cool phone covers. THey only had them for one Toshiba model phone but I thought they were great. Turn your mobile in to a red demon !!
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/434/monsterphone18pp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/9915/monsterphone2rv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[babu]

just watched that hardgay film you posted yakumo.. didn't get a thing of the show but it was really funny :D

[Mark30001]

Phones over there in Japan are funky! They prolly have some that can play N64 games on them, LOL! The technology is very advanced over there, am I wrong?

[Yakumo]

Phones over there in Japan are funky! They prolly have some that can play N64 games on them, LOL! The technology is very advanced over there, am I wrong?
Yeah, the phones here really are nice. We don't have phones that run any form of windows or stuff like that like some top end western phones but what we do have are phones that are fully mobile entertainment boxes. Mine plays games (PSX 3D Quality), has TV & FM Radio, MP4 auidio player, video AIF or MPEG4 player, video recoreder from the TV tuner (saves to SD cards since you only get about 5 minutes if using the phones memory), navigation with maps etc, 2.0 Mega Pixel camer (newer ones have 3.0 mega !!), video camera running at 320x240 resolution 20fps, text scanner and a shit load more crap like E-books, comics, inferred, motion sensor and on and on and on....... The latest phones have bloody surround sound speakers for christ sake !! Now they are just getting way too silly.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

just watched that hardgay film you posted yakumo.. didn't get a thing of the show but it was really funny :D
hahaha, Hard Gay now has a rival !! It's H.L. yep, that's right, Hard Lez !!! The Japanese are bloody nuts.

I may do a translation of that clip if enough people want it.

Yakumo

[babu]

hahaha, Hard Gay now has a rival !! It's H.L. yep, that's right, Hard Lez !!! The Japanese are bloody nuts.

I may do a translation of that clip if enough people want it.

Yakumo

haha. that would be awesome http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/images/smilies/042.gif

[Unorthodox]

Lmao @ hardgay.....truly bizzare. Its like a Japanese version of Ant & Dec were they have wheeled some drug addict out of rehab and put him against a gay guy to win a years supply of crack :P

Thanks Yakumo for allowing us access to your FTP, and thanks for sharing all the wonderful videos :) Makes me want to move out of Liverpool and go to Japan like yourself :P

[WolverineDK]

Am I wrong when I say in Japan there is an amusement park made of inspiration of the Danish amusement park/garden Tivoli ?

And some other "Danish" stuff ?

[Sparky]

hahaha, Hard Gay now has a rival !! It's H.L. yep, that's right, Hard Lez !!! The Japanese are bloody nuts.

I may do a translation of that clip if enough people want it.

Yakumo

Please translate it!! And where can I find more info on this Hard Lez? Just bizarre...

[Warakia]

WolverineDK - there is indeed a dutch theme park, indeed they may be two. For the English crew there is also a replica traditional English country village as well. It has proper thatched cottages and pubs to boot. Gotta remember if you don't want to deal with gaijin you can always visit the countrys in very "accurate" replicas.

[Yakumo]

I'll see if I can find anything on Hard Lez but for now just type or copy and pastthis katakana in to Google images to see a shit load of Hard gay shots !!!

ハードゲイ


What the hell is he up to in this shot ?
http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/insidears/imgs/3/9/39c08ed6.jpg

Yakumo

[Survival Tobita]

More Hard Gay in video!


Hard Gay Works in a Ramen Shop:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8365620671418338388

Hard Gay Visits Yahoo Japan:
http://blog.kung-foo.tv/archives/001535.php

The second one has a torrent with more videos if you scroll down and look at the messages.

[Yakumo]

As you can see, Hard Gay is very popular in Japan. Makes you wonder doesn't it ?

Yakumo

[Warakia]

Indeed, yet most Japanese people I met were very suprised that I knew gay people! They really didn't believe me, I would be very surprised if MR HG was actually gay - he is just putting on a routine-foo. Odd really when homosexuality is so common in Japanese manga, etc, that actual homosexuality is still a bit of an oddity to your average Japanese person-foo!

[babu]

Am I wrong when I say in Japan there is an amusement park made of inspiration of the Danish amusement park/garden Tivoli ?

And some other "Danish" stuff ?

I remember going to Tivoli and Legoland back in the days when SNES was next-gen.. *dreaming away*

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

a little out of context, but would anyone living in japan have use for a couple of Nintendo club points slip thingy's?, i imported a couple of games, found them, relized they have no value to me, so i thought i'd ask here

Ryan

[Yakumo]

a little out of context, but would anyone living in japan have use for a couple of Nintendo club points slip thingy's?, i imported a couple of games, found them, relized they have no value to me, so i thought i'd ask here

Ryan
Importaku may want them. He get's his club nintendo stuff sent to my place. Send him a PM to see if he needs them.

Yakumo

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

thanks for the heads up yakumo, ill be pm'ing him soon

[Tatsujin]

here a small album of my new environment since last summer. the pix are about the same age (1/2y)^^

http://genjin-mifune.magix.net/

[Warakia]

Nice pictures Tatsujin, you got a good seikatsu there!

[Yakumo]

Some nice pictures there Tatsujin. The place were you live looks more "Inaka" than were I live Hahahaha. Well, maybe not but there does seem to be a lack of anything bar apartments.

Yakumo

[Tatsujin]

Oh yes..I foun..err..my wife found a nice place to life. the nature is growing around, but the "big dirty city" is next to us too^^

but the main reason of choosing that location is my short way to my work. it takes me just 20 min. by the bus or about 8 by bycicle, which is quite short for a japanese tsûkin! :lol:

[Yakumo]

Last night or should I say this morning around 3am I decided to take a walk around the unknown areas of Chofu, the town where I live (not the one in Tokyo). Chofu is famous for ancient buildings and samurai tales etc. Anyway, I took a walk up this mountain where I had never been before. It was pitch black until I reached the end of the trail. I could see some lights ahead so I thought maybe there was some construction going on. I was very surprised to see a really creepy old looking shrine !! The lights made things look even more creepy due to the low light. I took a few pictures with my phone but thanks to only having 1 battery bar left the flash wouldn't work so I had to make do with normal and night vision shots. Anyway, take a look at these pictures and tell me if you think this place is as creepy as hell. Remember I was the only one there in the dark in the middle of nowhere !! I felt chills down my spine as I was taking these shots. I wanted to get more but thought it would be better to leave.

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/7938/shine1a1me.jpg (http://imageshack.us)http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/328/shine1b2qs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/7457/shine29yv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/7649/shine34kq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Oh and here's a picture of the sunrise over the see I took last week.

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/8976/dec2005chofubehindyumetown6am6.th.jpg (http://img477.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dec2005chofubehindyumetown6am6.jpg)

Yakumo

[Unorthodox]

Yakumo, stop messing round now and adopt me damn it!

[Yakumo]

no problem as long as you pay me shit loads of cash :p

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

A few more pictures from today's travels. First up is a very nice set of cute toilet doors :lol: found in Sega World
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/4485/sonicbog6gm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Next up is yet another temple shot. I hate new year in Japan. Too much messing about with temples ! At least this one looks nice.
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/9612/jan2temple10tt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And here's the view from infront of that temple pictured above. As you can see it's actually quite a fair bit above the sea level.
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/7422/jan2temple20dg.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[WolverineDK]

Yakumo: the nightvision pictures of the little shrine makes me dream and think of old, and perhaps ancient ninja, and Japanese martial arts tales. And I wish I could sit there and meditate :)

[SuperGrafx]

Last night or should I say this morning around 3am I decided to take a walk around the unknown areas of Chofu, the town where I live (not the one in Tokyo). Chofu is famous for ancient buildings and samurai tales etc. Anyway, I took a walk up this mountain where I had never been before. It was pitch black until I reached the end of the trail. I could see some lights ahead so I thought maybe there was some construction going on. I was very surprised to see a really creepy old looking shrine !! The lights made things look even more creepy due to the low light. I took a few pictures with my phone but thanks to only having 1 battery bar left the flash wouldn't work so I had to make do with normal and night vision shots. Anyway, take a look at these pictures and tell me if you think this place is as creepy as hell. Remember I was the only one there in the dark in the middle of nowhere !! I felt chills down my spine as I was taking these shots. I wanted to get more but thought it would be better to leave.

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/7938/shine1a1me.jpg (http://imageshack.us)http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/328/shine1b2qs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/7457/shine29yv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/7649/shine34kq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Oh and here's a picture of the sunrise over the see I took last week.

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/8976/dec2005chofubehindyumetown6am6.th.jpg (http://img477.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dec2005chofubehindyumetown6am6.jpg)

Yakumo

Now things like this shrine would be areas that I'd be most interested in visiting if/when I ever get to Japan! Excellent pictures Yakumo...they really convey a great sense of mood and atmosphere for some reason.

[Roi]

No pictures from the huge snowfall :) ?

[Yakumo]

nah, that's miles away from here. Where I live there is no snow now. The place that's covered in snow is way up at the top of Japan.

Yakumo

[Importaku]

I love those temple pics you keep taking. Japanese temples are so beautiful, more more morrrre please (^_^)

Oh and if your at another temple anytime soon could you get me a omamori as my mum nicked the last one you sent to me hehe.

[Yakumo]

will do mate. Actually I can give you the old one from the car if you want that. looks nice and clean (^v^)

Yakumo

[Importaku]

Yeah ill have your old one from your car, is there any good luck left in it or has it all been used up by you doing initial D powerslides at night (^_^)

[Yakumo]

Yeah ill have your old one from your car, is there any good luck left in it or has it all been used up by you doing initial D powerslides at night (^_^)
hahaha, well I haven't scratched the side yet so there must still be power in it. I love my new little box car. So tinny yet so big if you know what I mean. I'm thinking of changing the gear ratio though. It takes off like a dart but from 3rd to 4th gear takes too long for my liking and 4th to 5th could do with a little adjustment as well.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

I got another train all to myself today for 3 whole stops !! It was quite spooky to be honest.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7915/train9lj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

Few new pictures taken tonight at around 10pm

Shimonoseki port next to the aquarium
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5821/jan29aqu3sx.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Shimonoseki Tower - better known as the big nob :lol: Believe it or not but I actually got really close to the tower, pulled out the phone, pressed the shutter button and off went all the lights !! Can you believe that? Just like out of a movie or something.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4826/jan29tow1sv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

Tonight I went to eat Yaki Tori which basically translates to grilled chicken. Japanese say that the best Yaki Tori restaurants are the dirtiest ones. This sounded really stupid when I first heard this years ago. I though, who wants to eat in a shit hole but it actually turns out to have some truth. So don't be alarmed by the "shittyness" of this place that I took the pictures in.

To start off this little feature I'd better introduce some of the food. Of course there's the obligatory beer which has some grilled spring onion and sausage near it. Just behind the beer you can see torikawa which is chicken skin and dango which is meat ball. Both of these are covered in a sweetish type of source. Next to them there's some dry curry rice which is very hot yet delicious. The dish looking all lonely in the corner is grilled pork. There was some daikon (radish) and eggs but I eat them.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4940/yakitorifood7wh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Below you can see some fried fish with shreded cabbage. Yep, the Japanese love to eat raw shredded cabbage. Actually I love that stuff. The actual fried fish taste quite nice with the lemon squirted all over them or at least would have done if I hadn't eaten the lemon :lol:
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/534/yakitorifish7iz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The menu for this place is dotted all over the walls. Below you can see just some of the menu. The rest of it was pasted on another wall :lol:
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7879/yakitorimenu5es.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is the main dude that runs the place. He's big, bald and very fast ! He never stops moving as you can tell in this picture. When he's not moving he's knocking away beer while cooking. The other staff are an old woman and an old guy who looks about 90 !! And he smokes near the cooking grill all the times !!! This doesn't bother the customers though. Remember, the dirtiest shit hole has the best taste. Actually all the plates and glasses are very clean :smile:
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/7123/yakitorithedude0ik.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The guy in the picture above loves motorcycle racing which you can tell by the amount of idol posters associated with the sport, dotted all over the walls. The picture in the booth where I was sitting is below.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7518/yakitoriposter4wo.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I originally wanted to take more pictures and a video to show you how small this place was but I forgot my SD card :(

Yakumo

[Warakia]

Ah Yakitori - my absolute favourite meal! The best way to have a months worth of salt stuffed into you in a couple of minutes. Agreed about the shitty to quality ratio, plus when you hit yakitori you want to eat a lot - can't do that in a 400 yen a stick place.

Presenting - I pretty much ate all this myself...

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7436/p10001714nw.th.jpg (http://img97.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p10001714nw.jpg)

Aww I miss japan so much. Bottle of something, nama beer, shocking amounts of very salty food, it is all good.

Oh and needless to say ogura can only make the meal better. Unless your with someone, in which case comparison may make your date seem rather lacking.

[Importaku]

YUM yakitori, but yakumo wheres the Takoyaki love???

Mmmm takoyaki, its on my list of things to do before i die (^_^)

[Phinn]

The guy in the picture above loves motorcycle racing which you can tell by the amount of idol posters associated with the sport, dotted all over the walls. The picture in the booth where I was sitting is below.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7518/yakitoriposter4wo.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

I originally wanted to take more pictures and a video to show you how small this place was but I forgot my SD card :(

Yakumo

Ogura Yuko dressed up as Cutey Honey I think.

... mmm, need to get out more

[Yakumo]

More pictures time. Well, 1 picture. I thought I'd show you the size of the road just up the road from where I live. I use this road once a week and believe it or not it's NOT a 1 one way road. Some people drive as fast as 50kmph (31mph) up and down here including me. It's no wonder I'm a whizz at racing games :lol:
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9757/chofuroad4ad.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

By the way I stopped the car to take this picture. Next time I'll take a video or picturs at least of the Initial D type road which is very exciting to drive on at night !! Great fun I tell you but also a bit on the scarry side !

Yakumo

[SuperGrafx]

More pictures time. Well, 1 picture. I thought I'd show you the size of the road just up the road from where I live. I use this road once a week and believe it or not it's NOT a 1 one way road. Some people drive as fast as 50kmph (31mph) up and down here including me. It's no wonder I'm a whizz at racing games :lol:
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9757/chofuroad4ad.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


It's almost like a real-life shot of Sakuragaoka or Yamanose from Shenmue 1!

[Yakumo]

Yesterday was beautiful (today its raining again just like Thursday) so on the way to the office after lunch I took a few pictures.

Here's an odd shot. Perfectly clear blue sky with the past meeting the future. The big building in the background is a whopping shopping center. You'll notice that the ground is also perfectly clean. This is something else that I love about Japan. No fear of standing in dog shit unlike the UK.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6696/picriver1dc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is the entrance to the castle's gardens. I'll be taking some pictures in there soon once the cherry blossoms bloom. I'll use a real camera then, not my phone.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/9929/picent3hw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here's Kokura Castle from another angle.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3213/piccastle2uv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Dydo just installed this machine next to the beer machine 1 minute from my house. As if I didn't have enough temptations already.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/715/picvending3tq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[CorruptionDee]

I've seen some of these places in Japan in person before, but it's still exciting to view them once more. Great pics.

[GaijinPunch]

Yakumo -- do you drive everywhere? Well... to work, mainly? What do you do if you want to get lit after work?

[Yakumo]

I never drive to work unless I have to go in at the weekend. Main 3 reasons are that A - I'm too sleepy in the morning, B - Takes too bloody long due to traffic and C - The company only give me 15'000 yen per month travelling expenses. So I just take the train since it's faster which means more time in bed plus I can sleep on the train unlike those packed tubes of human sardines in Tokyo. I drive everywhere else apart from work since down here the traffic is pretty much normal.

Yakumo

[Mark30001]

Thanks, I love the updates! :)

What strange Kit Kat and Mentos packs those are...

[Yakumo]

If you think they are strange you should see all the different type of Kikkat there are. Just off the top of my head there are

Standard
White
Dark
Strawberry
Pineapple
Green Tea
Coffee
and a few others. THey come in different shapes and sizes as well. YOu see, if the Japanese don't have a good choice then the item will fail or at least that's how it seems.

Yakumo

[Yakumo]

Today I have to pass thorough this rundown looking area that I’ve never been through before. The place was a right dump which just goes to show that Japan isn’t all high-tech like many of us think. Many paths are just mud and the home seem to be made from corrugated steel!! Just take a look at some of these shots.

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/774/sitedumpmud05pk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/7203/sitedumpmud14cz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/258/sitedumpmud25ea.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8236/sitedumpmud30to.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This set of apartments still has living tenants even though it seems to be abandoned. Below there are a few cars that must have been there for years judging from the amount of dust and crap over them. You can just about make out a red car behind the shutter.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2025/sitedumpapt9ct.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Best sight though was this sign that reads – “Unchi wa mochikaette shobunshite kudsai”, which basically means “Please clean up the shit and take it home” :lol: It actually sounds quite funny in English but not so in Japanese.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/203/siteunchi1pw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo