I traveled up and down Japan for about 2 weeks last year and shared a ton of photos. This year, i'm going to be here for about a month so I should have a lot more photos this time around.

I left LAX on the 6-4-09 and unfortunately my flight was scheduled with United Airlines. I was shocked by their poor customer service and their nonchalant nature in handling their job duties. Without going in to much detail, I plan to never, ever utilize United for airline purposes ever again. Luckily, my flight was switched over to Nippon (ANA) because their customer service was top notch. ANA even located our luggage that United could not find in their system. When I arrived they had 3 airport employees and 2 Ana workers waiting next to the luggage to make sure it got in to my hands safely.

I landed in Kansai, Osaka and began my trip in the countryside. The trip will transition in to the big cities, but for now I am enjoying the laid back feel of the smaller city. It's nice to be away from all of the traffic, bad drivers, smog, and lack of courtesy from citizens of Southern California.

Anyways on to the pics with more coming soon:

On the plane with a mask to avoid the influenza lol:



Quarantine station at Kansai Airport:





McDonald's dining area:



I ended up picking up a shrimp burger combo (Don't expect a free refill. They charge! :P):







Smoking lounge at the airport



Business lounge @ the airport:





Open bar in the business lounge:







Relaxing in the countryside:













First modified car I spotted



Old school Yokohama AVS wheels



First ramen place we hit up:





Some interesting items I spotted in the store:













Interesting Zippo Lighter haha:





Even buddha rocks the 420:





Perfect reason on why to stick with "domestics" in japan haha



USDM rice in Japan



Nismo Edition Z33 w/ Amuse Exhaust:







Food in Japan is just awesome:









"JDM pedobear keychain"?



Chicago Style Pizza in Japan



Telephone booth



Surf Shop



The famous japanese vending machines:



and of course...if you want your beer fix they got you covered:



Beautiful temples (my camera sucks at night):







Everyone puts in their part to keep this place clean (The pic reminds me of the grudge 4 some reason):





Evo:



The back of a small fire truck:



construction workers

 

i want some JDM fries.

 

Do you speak Japanese at all?

I've been wanting to go for years now, but probably won't.

 

glad you are telling us what you tried to make the focal point in each pic.


thanks for sharing.

 

Awesome, just awesome. I would love to visit one of these days and just relax for a month. The food................... I better stop typing and get some food.....makes me hungry just by looking at their ramen. By the way, their airport lounge is by far the best i have ever seen.

 

when my bother was in osaka japan a few years ago he said that people there were as intrested in our car culture as we are in theirs. people had mini trucks and low riders done up american style...u see any of that?

 

Thanks for sharing these pics! I would like to go there for a visit someday. I don't speak a lick of Japanese, but I see that most signs there are dual-language w/ English (Engrish?) Do the Japanese people look favorably upon American tourists?

 

Great pics!!

 

keep them coming, before I die I want to visit Japan

 

wow nice pics rick....i´m soooooo jealous...but one day do you plan on going to the TAS next year? me and a buddy maybe want to go.

 

Nice! Thanks for sharing, Rick! I expect a sh*t ton more photos.

 

Great pics, wow the wing on that evo was high lol.

 

I'm jealous...keep posting pics if you have them! And thanks for sharing!

 

Awesome Rick! Looking forward to more pix!

 

Really cool pics, looks like fun=)

 

Nice pictures Rick, thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for sharing Rick, I hope you have a great time, can't wait to see more pics!

 

love the pics.. cant wait to go there one day and experience everything first hand.. keep the awesome pictures coming

 

love these kinds of pics

 

Thanks guys. I definitely plan to post a lot more pictures. The volume up pics should ramp up as I get in to the bigger cities.

Unfortunately no. I only know random words here and there. It helps a lot that my girl is fluent in Kansai-ben and traditional Japanese as well

The car culture does not seem as big as it is in the US, especially in areas such as Southern California etc. However as your brother stated, the guys that are interested cars are very much in to American car culture as well. The gentleman that plans to paint my car is really into lowriders and VIP minivans.

During the day, you are not going to see many modified cars roaming the streets. Most of the modified cars tend to come out at night for local meets or drifting in the mountains.

From my experience, Japanese people are extremely courteous and much more genuine than what we are used to in the US. Common courtesy is typically shown on a regular basis. The level of courtesy drops a bit as you get in to Tokyo. I'm assuming that it is because Tokyo is more diverse in the sense of people from different parts of Japan flocking there for work etc. I've always been treated really well. Speaking the language will help tremendously. Even though there are some english translated signs etc, it's easy to get lost.

I don't plan to attend TAS since I have school etc. However, it is always a possibility