Fuji Safari Park

Today I will make a slight variation from my normal reports on "traffic" and "parking" and give a completely different view of driving. That is, driving through a park full of animals ready to take your head off if you open the window... awesome.

I took the day off on Thursday, and headed downward Mt. Fuji's famous "Fuji Safari" park.

It was a very smooth drive down. We left Tokyo at 8am, and we heading along the Shuto expressway in no time. The weather was terrible with little respite from the rain, but that didn't discourage the speedsters.

Interestingly the speed signs along the exressway were all updated to display "50" km, and this too didn't stop people from driving at 120kmp/h.

We got off the expressway at the Susono Exit and headed up toward the safari-park. The drive from the exressway to the park consists of a short windy section of road, which is frequented by small trucks who's drivers are unable to keep on their side of the road on the corners. If you do take this path, pay careful attention to the corner mirrors located on each of the hairpin corners.

The lush green of the Fuji foot hill forrest is so dense and beautiful, it is

Fiji Safari

The ticket gate is like a toll gate, you drive up, wind down your window and pay the (cute) lady at the gate. Who will give you 5 minutes of "overly" helpful information. There are park guides in English also so if you aren't offered on, ask for one (if you prefer EN over JP reading material).
Once in the park, we drove streight on in to the Safari drive. This wasn't my intention at all, I had a fear of some big clawed animal sidling up to my car and clawing the paint work. Once you are in the safari drive, you have no alternative but to complete the circuit. However, as soon as I saw the first lot of bears just strolling along the road we were on, I decided to relax and enjoy myself.

It is amazing how close the animals are to you. A zoo is great, but this was something else. With Tigers only a couple of feet from the car, and lions fighting within meters of you, there was definately an adrenaline rush to be had. Once we had completed the (what I will call) first leg of Bears, Lions, Tigers & Cheetahs it was on to the more placid animals, the Elephants and Giraffes. This was when we had a new first experience (of the day). A giraffe walked right along side the car, bearly missing the side mirror. OK maybe it was a foot away, but it was so big that it could have easily been a meter away yet still felt close.

To anyone interested in risking a few claw marks on their car (and I think this is a very minor risk) to see some of the planets most intriguing animals up close, I highly recommend a visit to the Fuji Safari.

Driving back to Tokyo was great, the traffic flowed at a cool 120kmp/h with some cars travelling over 150 at times.
All was good until the navigation unit gave me directions about 10 seconds after we had headed in the wrong direction.. Lucky as it would turn out, we ended up close to our favourite restaurant "Sizzlers", so decided to avoid the thickening ruch hour traffic and stop for dinner.
The Tokyo Dome Hotel parking is VERY narrow, driving a V8 Holden Commodore down the spiral to the basement parking floors was a pretty scary feat, and I wouldn't recommend trying to get a Hummer down there. Lucky again, there were no scrapes or scratches when we finally pulled into a park. The good thing about this parking facility is if you spend more then 3000 yen at any of the restaurants or shops in the hotel building, you get 2 hours free parking. Pretty good if you are planning on eating at Sizzlers at 2990 per meal on average..

All in all, a great day trip away from Tokyo. Well Recommended.

Yoyogi Park - B Boy Park

My sister paid me a visit this week all the way from NZ. Her mission was to attent the B Boy park thingy they hold/held at Yoyogi park. She and her boyfriend are both semi-pro break-dancers, and with Japanese break-dancers being amongst the best in the world, my sister and her man couldn't miss the oppertunity to check out their moves.
Anyway, I decided to tag along to get a good look at the hip-hop honeys and check out any hip-hop rides I might see... Unfortunately there were only a few nice rides to be seen, but "fortunately" the saving grace was the number of spectacular hip-hop honeys and their fly bboy break dancing boy friends (god damn it).

Still, having said that, I did see a couple of pretty cool Humvees. Never before have I seen a Humvee with such a mean looking "pimp-out"... Am I getting this lingo right?
Here's a couple of pics I took

The following picture needs some explaining
The sign says (Chlamydia test kit. Free (for under 25's) That's not a word for word translation but that's what it says. I was a bit worried about the 6 - 8 year old boy talking with the "chlamydia" team

Yoyogi park is home to the rock'n'roll dancers. That was pretty fun to watch too.

Kamakura

The weekend saw me driving to Kamakura. I had been there before about this time last year, but last time I went by train, this time I went by car.

The drive was pleasant, until we exited the expressway in Tostuka, and got onto the main drag. "Drag" being the operative word. Traffic was backed up because someone had rear-ended another car and bent their numberplate. But instead of moving their cars 15 meters down the road to a Denny's car park, they chose to block a very busy street by taking up 1 of 2 busy lanes while they waited for police.

In any case, it took just over an hour to get through the traffic and onto a quieter section of road. From there it was another 30 minutes. As soon as we got into Kamakura, arriving alongside the Kamakura Daibutsu, we hit more traffic. It took us another 30 minutes to get to the beach which when we walked the same road later that day, only took us 10 minutes to walk. All in all, buy the time we got to the underground carpark next to the beach, we were all pretty sick of being in the car, and quite ready to stretch our legs. The carpark was extremely spacious, and for only 500 yen an hour, very cheap. As it is now summer it makes a lot of sense to park in the shade, so the underground carpark is highly recommended. It is also right next to the beach, making it ideal for beach goers.

We spent the day in Kamakura, enjoying the many touristy religious money making attractions it has to offer, and downed a few soft serves in the process. The people in Kamakura all seemed very happy, and very healthy. A bit of a contrast from Tokyo where people often look depressed and lack the muscles to make a smile. It was very refreshing to see so many smiles.

The evening came quickly and we decided to call it a day and head home. Again, we were stuck in traffic heading over the hills toward the expressway. I got very proficient at clutch control. Perhaps this was the trip I needed to get my feet and car in sync, as by the end of it, although my leg was a little shaky from the excessive clutching, in the slow progressing traffic I was able to clutch my way up the mountain without the handbrake. This may not be such a feat for many, but for me, having learned that all hill starts are to be done with the handbrake, and no other method ever being introduced, this was a big step forward for me.

After a long slow journey over the hill we hit the expressway again. It was plain sailing from there, all the way back home. Even the traffic lights were kind to us. The only thing that wasn't kind was the weather. It was amazing to watch as we drove toward a heavy rain storm along the HONSEN. Then the rain hit the windsceen. Heavy globs of water requiring full wipers to give some kind of visibility through the rain.

Kamakura is a place I think I would go to again soon. This time I might take a friend with me who knows the back streets and can keep us from getting caught in such heavy traffic.

Driving in Tokyo

Yesterday I thought about taking my video camera for a drive. Most people I know will never experience what it is like to drive through Tokyo, so with my video camera, and Youtube I am proud to bring you "Driving in Tokyo".
The quality is unfortunately a lot lower then I had expected, but you will get a good idea of just how big Tokyo is.



It's 1 hour of driving through Nihonbashi, Ginza, Yurakucho, around the Emperial Palace, Otemachi, Yaesu, Kanda, Akihabara, Ueno, Nezu and Nippori compressed into 10 minutes.

Oh, and I found this video too. It doesn't show any of Tokyo or much of the ferarri either, but it does show what kind of pricks drive ferarris. Check out what the guy does about 20 seconds into the video.

Ushiku Daibutsu

I have just got back from a drive out to the Ushiku Daibutsu. Unfortunately we arrived after closing time so were unable to enter the park. However we still managed to get photos of it from the park perimeter. We could have taken photos of it much earlier on, as the it is one of the tallest statues in the world. I think it even has an entry in the Guiness Book of Records as the biggest statue or something.

It is massive!

The drive out along the expressway was pleasent. In fact, I love how noone pays attention to the speed limit. The limit along the road was 80km. NOONE was driving at 80, the slowest speed was 100, but the average speed was 120. Some even travelled at 150kmp/h. A great chance to test what my car was made of I thought.

The ride took just a little over 1 hour from Arakawa-ku to the Daibutsu. Once we left the expressway, I was supprised at the route my Navi took me. We ended up driving through some pretty thick bamboo groves. Not that I was complaining. It was great to be surrounded by such lush green, having been stuck in the concrete jungle of Tokyo for so long. It was also quite interesting to think that I was probably the only person to have ever driven an Australian Holden Commodore through such a picture perfect grove. I wanted to get out and take a photo, but with the sun almost all gone, and the little amount of light coming through the thick bamboo canopy, it wouldn't have been a very good photo. Needless to say, I will remember the image for a long time.

The drive back was just as pleasent until we reached the Tokyo area. Traffic began to congest, and I had to travel mostly in 2nd gear.

I have to point out something I discovered today. I don't know if it's a rule, or if it's just curtosy or what, but it impressed me enough to bother writing about it. That is, when approaching a sudden queue of vehicles drivers will flash their hazards, so the vehicles behind them know about the queue and can begin breaking early. Each vehicle begins sending the message to the vehicle behind them using their hazards, and the result is no nose to tails. I don't know if this technique is employed in any other country, but I never saw it in NZ, or AUS. If it's not used, I suggest people start doing it. It's bloody good thinking.

Anyway, we were stuck in traffic for a while but finally broke free at our exit, and the remaining drive through the normal streets was smooth and pretty much nonstop.

I recommend going to see the Ushiku Daibutu... Before 5pm, so you can actually go inside the park and inside the Daibutu also.

Expressway to Haneda

I got up early this morning to take a friend of mine to the airport. I picked him up in Iriya just north of Ueno. From there we entered the expressway using ETC (Electronic Toll Collection system). And proceeded along the expressway toward Haneda Airport.
I discovered along the way that one has to pay attention to the details of the road signs. Most of the road signs on the expressway are in both English and Japanese, however when heading to Haneda or Narita airports it's important to ensure that you follow the road to Haneda Airport and not just "Haneda". The same I imagine goes for Narita Airport.

The ETC system takes a lot of hassle out of travelling on the expressway. I didn't need to worry about fumbling around for change at the toll gate, I just drove through the gate and the ETC system picks up my tab at the end of each month pulling the funds from my credit card.

We got to Haneda in no time. Driving the Expressway was a fast and comfortable ride. It is common knowledge that noone really follows the speed limits here in Japan. On the expressway, for the most part the speed limit was 60KMp/h, with most people travelling at about 100. I decided to travel at a mean 80K's just because it was more comfortable for me with the unfamiliar roads.

Parking

At the airport we drove up into one of several parking buildings. The enterances to each floor indicate if there is any available parking spaces meaning you don't have to drive around looking for a space. Even the sections of the parking building have availability indicators, so finding a park was pretty easy.
Each floor was represented by an animal, so you could easily remember which parking floor you left your car on. I think this is a briliant idea. We parked on level 5 (AKA Zebra). The picture to the right is of level 4, the Panda. I forgot to grab one of these do-dakeys for level 5. You can write the section and park number on these slips and take them with you so you don't forget where you parked.

What really amazes me is how convenient everything is. After saying goodbye to my friend (who might I add cut things very fine, leading me to make a mental note not to travel with this particular person internationally), I went back to the parking building. You have to take your parking ticket with you in most parking buildings, this was no exception. I paid my ticket at the machine (400yen for an hour. Not so bad). And went to level Zebra. Now the most convinient thing about a lot of the parking buildings in Tokyo is the automatic vehicle recognition. When you enter the parking building and press the ticket button, a photo of you number plate is taken, and the characters are recognised. When you pay your ticket, that is pretty much it. Once you get to the exit gates, a camera will take another snap of your number plate and match it to paid tickets, if there is a match the gates will open automatically and away you go.

You will be able to see if the ticket is one of the automatic ones by looking for your number plate written on it. Like the one above.

The drive back was just as quick and smooth. I might have been pinged by a camera though.. I will find out in a few months I guess.

Big head

Last night was the first chance I've had since clearing the Engine codes (note previous post) to take my car for a spin. I had to find myself a gas station to fill up her tank at 11 o'clock at night as she was just about running on fumes.
Because I am still unfamiliar with the area I live in from a vehicular access perspective, I am still relying on my navigation system to get me to places. Luckily it is programmed with several hundered thousand points of interest, such as .. gas stations.
I can't read enough Japanese to use my navi to the fullest, but I was able to select individual gas stations in my area.
1 by 1 I entered a gas station, drove there and discovered it was closed, then on to the next, and the next.

After the third try, I gave up, and decided to just drive around a little more to check that the engine was OK, and then head back home.

I turned off the Navi, and just decided to follow my own path, anticipating that I would get completely lost (which I enjoy) and then using the Navi to get home again.
As it turns out, I did get lost.. But I started recognising the surroundings I was in and realised that I had driven in a round about way to the sportcenter where I go swimming sometimes.

Interestingly enough, a little further down the road I found a 24/7 gas station. YAY! Funny how when you stop looking you find what you want.

The gas station

I pulled into the gas station, one of the larger ones I have seen so far in Tokyo, and within seconds of winding down my window the attendant was excited and exclaiming how cool my car was (as if I didn't know.. geez). But it wasn't long before the other attendants came over to have a look, and the questions started pouring. "What kind of car is this?", "What country is it from?", "What's the engine?". The level of enthusiasm and the flow of compliments about the exterior and interior made me feel like THE MAN. I again re-affirmed that my choice in vehicles is top notch.

That Little Engine Lamp

About 30 minutes after getting my car, and saying goodbye to the dealer, I got a "Check Engine" warning on the dash. This was a little bit disapointing concidering I had just got the car.
Anyway, a lot of tooing and frowing between the dealer and myself resulted in the dealer requesting that I get the car shipped back to their shop for a checkup. They are located several hours drive away from Tokyo in Nagoya. I am happy that they want to fix the problem, but a little peeved that they can't organise for it to be resolved in Tokyo. They requested that they have the car back for a week.

This didn't sit well with me, as I really need to enjoy my car, and don't want to part with it, especially if the Check Engine error is something minor... Which, it turns out it was.
I got my hands on a CAN OBDII scanner, and retrieved the error codes from the cars onboard diagnostics.
P0420 and P0430, suggesting that the O2 levels were not sufficient or that the O2 sensors aren't functioning correctly. Well, I reset the error codes, and plan on giving the car a spin to see if they re-occur. If not, then I can safely tell the dealer that the problem is resolved.. Thank you very much.

My Car

My car finally arrived, finally I have had the chance to experience driving in Japan. More specifically driving in Tokyo.
I had waited for about 4 months to get my car, so as you can probably imagine, when I did finally get it I was pretty darn happy.
In Japan there are many nice cars, infact you could go as far as saying there there are ONLY nice cars in Japan, however I think I have seen one or two old bombs driving around, but still.. most cars are new and in very good condition.
My car stands out though. Inspite of all the flash European cars and wicked Japanese cars, my car gets a lot of looks. Why? Because there are only 2 in Japan. My car is dubbed "the billion dollar baby". That is not because I paid $1bil for it, but Holden, the good old Aussie child of GM spent $1bil designing and developing the Holden Commodore VE series from the ground up. And what a remarkable job they did.
I have the Holden Commodore VE SS-V series. It's a full 6 litre V8 powerhouse. Unfortunately for me, I have yet to give it a real run, as I am still getting used to the dense traffic in Tokyo city.

The warnings:
I had a number of warnings from my collegues at work. "Don't get caught speeding", "Be careful, it's VERY dangerous", "The expressway is really difficult, you will definately get lost" etc etc.
Well, yea they are all right. It is quite dangerous, and getting caught speeding would suck, oh and loosing my way on the expressway, well, it just means I can drive a little longer trying to correct my wrong.. Nothing wrong with that (unless you are in a hurry)

I was really nervous driving here for the first time for a number of reasons. The first being that I hadn't driven a manual in a long time. The second reason being that I hadn't driven in such a big city before (unless you count Auckland as a big city). And the last reason was because I had just got my flash new wheels and didn't want to damage it.

Driving in Tokyo
Driving in Tokyo has been interesting. The main roads are very busy, and people tend to pull in front of you without indicating. I don't know why they even bother putting lines on the road, because half the time there are cars driving right on the line. That said, driving on the main roads is pretty easy and although there are some sudden forks which will take you miles in the wrong direction if you aren't in the right lane by the time you get to them, getting around is quite straight forward. Traffic is quite heavy in the late afternoon and early evening. The mornings seem OK, although I did get stuck in traffic due to an accident one morning.
The little roads and backstreets are where things get interesting, especially when you have a car that has been designed with BIG in mind. On only my second day of driving I damaged (slightly) my rear left alloy (all 20"). The reason... Narrow corner and a K-Truck part way onto my side of the road. No body damage so a sigh of releaf, but it has me wary of taking a wrong turn into some narrow alley.