Kyo ni kuruma de Tokyo ni ikimashita
Today by car to Tokyo I went.
Its an hour and a half by car from Chichibu to where KZ teaches in Tokyo - at his wife Megumi's parents' place. The first 50 mins was through spectacular mountains with wild rivers and the ever present jungle. The rest of the trip was suburban Tokyo - for me as eye popping as the mountains.
The Japanese definately have a thing for Mini's. The cars, not the skirts. Almost the only pre-1995 car you ever see is a mini, usually done up like a replica racecar. That and VW Kombi vans. Everything else is so shiny and new it hurts your eyes. The current trend for modern versions of 1950's and '60s british cars goes deeper than I thought. Some fantastic new ones today. Cars are *cheap* here. I saw in a car yard a Honda Jazz, maybe a year or two older than mine, for the equivalent of about $5000 australian. They even make a 4wd version of the Jazz!
Luckily for me this cheapness extends to other modes of transport, and tomorrow I'm off to buy myself a bike. KZ tells me I can get a new bike for about $70 aus. My feeling is that there ought to be a huge market in 2nd hand bikes here, but there just doesnt seem to be. It appears they just get thrown away, or left to rot (or be eaten by the jungle). If I could figure out where the bicycle graveyard was, I'd just rescue one, but I have no idea where to start.
Election-Fist. This is a condition that politicians seem to suffer from at election time here. It seems there was a local election around the time I got here, and it was clear from the posters that there was an epidemic of Election Fist going around. Everyone had it, though there were many subtle variations. The version that hit most of the men made them look like power mad megalomaniacs, bent on world domination. The clenched fist held to one side, at about mid chest height - seeming to say either "And dont you ever come back!" or "If you only knew the *power* of the dark side...". The womens' variants were my favourites - one woman in particular who looked like a middle aged schoolteacher, holding her clenched fist low, with a naughty look on her face "ooh, look, ive got what it takes too - but shhh! dont tell anyone!"
No Ninja attacks today, but I saw my first Bosuzoku last night - the rebel motorbike revving yakuza wannabes. I heard them coming and got to the window of the van in time to see a black lexus with mega-dark tinted windows fly past at high speed, escorted by a pair of guys on what appeared to be trail bikes with no mufflers. The bike riders somehow managed to maintain forward motion while revving their bikes up and down as if they were on the starting grid of a motorbike grand prix.
And of course, there's the Love Truck.
Its an hour and a half by car from Chichibu to where KZ teaches in Tokyo - at his wife Megumi's parents' place. The first 50 mins was through spectacular mountains with wild rivers and the ever present jungle. The rest of the trip was suburban Tokyo - for me as eye popping as the mountains. The Japanese definately have a thing for Mini's. The cars, not the skirts. Almost the only pre-1995 car you ever see is a mini, usually done up like a replica racecar. That and VW Kombi vans. Everything else is so shiny and new it hurts your eyes. The current trend for modern versions of 1950's and '60s british cars goes deeper than I thought. Some fantastic new ones today. Cars are *cheap* here. I saw in a car yard a Honda Jazz, maybe a year or two older than mine, for the equivalent of about $5000 australian. They even make a 4wd version of the Jazz!
Luckily for me this cheapness extends to other modes of transport, and tomorrow I'm off to buy myself a bike. KZ tells me I can get a new bike for about $70 aus. My feeling is that there ought to be a huge market in 2nd hand bikes here, but there just doesnt seem to be. It appears they just get thrown away, or left to rot (or be eaten by the jungle). If I could figure out where the bicycle graveyard was, I'd just rescue one, but I have no idea where to start.
Election-Fist. This is a condition that politicians seem to suffer from at election time here. It seems there was a local election around the time I got here, and it was clear from the posters that there was an epidemic of Election Fist going around. Everyone had it, though there were many subtle variations. The version that hit most of the men made them look like power mad megalomaniacs, bent on world domination. The clenched fist held to one side, at about mid chest height - seeming to say either "And dont you ever come back!" or "If you only knew the *power* of the dark side...". The womens' variants were my favourites - one woman in particular who looked like a middle aged schoolteacher, holding her clenched fist low, with a naughty look on her face "ooh, look, ive got what it takes too - but shhh! dont tell anyone!"
No Ninja attacks today, but I saw my first Bosuzoku last night - the rebel motorbike revving yakuza wannabes. I heard them coming and got to the window of the van in time to see a black lexus with mega-dark tinted windows fly past at high speed, escorted by a pair of guys on what appeared to be trail bikes with no mufflers. The bike riders somehow managed to maintain forward motion while revving their bikes up and down as if they were on the starting grid of a motorbike grand prix.
And of course, there's the Love Truck.
posted by ben at 6:29 pm
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