Nismo Festival

Nismo Festival

Here you can read about my weekend in Japan. Ive been to the land of the rising sun twice before so I already somewhat knew my way around. But I hope you enjoy my cheesy comments. I brought a point a shoot camera along so I did not have to lug big bertha around everywhere I went. Many of the photos here are shot by my friend and I with the point and shoot.

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Here it is! In all its glory! Mt. Fuji! From what I have heard we got lucky this year because it usually rains or its usually very cloudy on the day of the Nismo Festival.

So it begins here. I got lucky and I got 5 seats all to myself.

Korean Air has some of the best food for economy class.

Narita Airpot after a light rain.

It was fun shooting everything since I had my point and shoot. This bathroom just screams spaceship to me.

This is what you press to open and close the door of the bathroom.

This is the train station right next to where I am staying. Very close to Narita Airport but far from Tokyo.

The train company owns the mall right outside the station so everything is decorated with a Christmas theme to attract people.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

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HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

My friend has a place in this building. This is where I will be staying for the weekend. I also stayed here last year for the release of the GT-R.

This is the view from the top floor.

Me being dumb.

The hallway.

My room.

Dining area.

The little room I stayed in last year.

Kitchen.

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Bathroom, much less startrek like.

This is the shower room. Pretty traditional, with a tub etc.

Temprature controls for the shower, much easier to use than two knobs.

Toilet, kinda cool cause you can do a little flush or a big flush and after you flush you can wash your hands on the top with the new bowl water.

First meal of the trip. I love ramen. If it was up to me I would have only eaten ramen the whole trip.

I couldnt go to sleep even though we needed to wake up at 4am because I slept so much on the plane so I went for a walk and bought breakfast.

Breakfast of champions! Bacon like dish cleaverly spread out over rice so you don't realize how little meat you get for 7 dollars!

My backpack filled to the brim with my camera gear. for you camera nerds I brought my 1DmIII with a 17-40 24-105 and 300 F2.8 and 580exII, BITCH.

Advertising in the train station next to a mirror, very clever! I taped up my point and shoot so it would not get scratched up.

I thought this was funny cause my little cameras face detection detected that guys face from far away.

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I should have not been this happy considering what time it was.

Not many people on the train at this hour.

So after taking the train for 3 1/2 hours and bus for another 30 min we finally arrive.

Mt Fuji from the bus.

Lots of old skylines, not many old 240z's.

First Nissan race car, the hatch has a picture of Mt. Fuji and in the back should be Mt. fuji but its blown out so you can't see it.

This must have been the Nismo 350z parking lot.

Fuji speedway has the cleanest facilites I have ever seen. Just look at this media room. Great view of the pits and straitaway as well as TV screens everywhere showing the action!

Media Lounge.

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Media lunch, Bento box and unlitmied instant noodles! I didnt even have to beg for food like I usually do at the Formula D tent.

This would never work in America. To access the track they tell media the combination to the locks on the trap doors located around the track. My friend and I were thinking of smuggling civillans in for 500 yen a pop!

Me shooting cars with the mountain in the back.

The cutout I was shooting through.

Some fans painted their faces red and some just waved giant Nissan flags. Again, this would never fly in the states, this man would have had so many beer cans thrown at him.

Nice Datsun pickup.

Me ready for action. They told us to stay behind the fence, we hardly ever did.

Everyone thought it was cold but I thought it was perfect T-Shirt weather.

The civilians had better gear than most of the media. Some even brought out $8000 600mm lenses!

The R34 is seriously double the size of the cappuccino.

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One of my favorite front wheel drive cars.

So afterwards we went to tokyo to eat some ramen even though we where dead tired.

This shop was so crowded, those automatic doors never closed.

It was kind of stressful for guys to stand next to you while you eat burning hot ramen.

Pot of pork with a log stirrer.

I figured out why there was such a long line, the ramen was some of the best ive ever had.

Next morning we went to the Narita Temple but before we got there we stopped and did some shopping in this nice little town.

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We went to the fish market for breakfast.

Fresh sushi for only 1500 yen! about 17 bux, not bad!

They either put it on the table or in your hand so it wont fall apart.

Heres the temple.

After this I just went to the airport. I kind of just wanted to go to the Nismo Festival just to check it out so I wont go next year. Maybe I will make another trip to the Tokyo Auto Salon but I will stay for a week so it wont be so rushed like this trip.

I always love taking photos from the air plane and this time I was lucky because there was some low fog over LA. This is UCLA. I thought it was cool that those buildings along whilshire blvd blocked the fog.

This is hollywood. You can see the CNN building near the middle.