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Today I attended a car show called "Autocon". It was at the Fairplaex in Pomona, which is only a 30 minute drive from my house. I took many pictures, which I will post in another blog entry. This entry is just pictures I took of the G35's (V35's) that were showing for our team. The original name of our team was "Rare JDM". This has always caused a little confusion, since our shop name is also "Rare JDM". This year the name of the car team changed to "Garage JDM", which you can see on the windshield banners. All of the cars have a lot of detail work completed on the engine bays... too much cleaning!!!

Before I knew I would be traveling to Japan, my wife planned a small trip for us to Napa Valley on 4/16. So when I planned my last minute trip to Japan, I had to make sure to return home by 4/15. Everything worked out great, and even though I was extremely tired from the Japan trip (very bad jet lag), we still had a great time in Napa!

Napa is only a 3 hour trip (1 hour flight and a 1.5+ hour) drive away from our house... so it is not a very difficult trip. We usually drive, but that takes about 6-7 hours, so this time she decided to fly. We both enjoy wine, so when we travel to Napa we visit many wineries and sample their selections. We travel to Napa a couple of times a year, and have started a pretty good collection of wine. There is also a lot of great restaurants in Napa and Younteville, which we also enjoy very much!

Here are a few pictures from Napa, and some of the food we ate while we were there.

Napa is very beautiful... lots of vineyards all surrounded by green hills.





"Casa" restaurant... this is a grilled salmon fish taco. Very good!


"Ca’ Momi" restaurant - Carbonara pizza. I enjoy most things with egg on them, especially pizza.


"Angele" restaurant - Broiled chicken


"Ad Hoc" restaurant - One of my favorite chefs is Thomas Keller. We've been fortunate to dine at many of his restaurants, and they've all been wonderful. Ad Hoc serves a set menu that changes daily. This meal was another great one!

I arrived in Kyoto on Sunday evening close to 5pm. The trip on the Shinkansen was about 2.5 hours from Kanagawa, but it was very easy since I slept almost the entire time! I went to eat a great dinner of Shabu-Shabu / Sukiyaki (more on the food here), and then went out for a night of drinking!

After searching on the internet for good bars in Kyoto, I found that "Bar Kazu" kept showing up in the results. The only problem is that the bar is very difficult to find since it has no clear address, no signs, and is down a dark alley on the 3rd floor of a very nondescript building. I searched a little more and got a rough idea of where it might be. The best tip I found was that it was above a place called "Elephant Coffee", or something... so I set out to find it. When I got close to where I thought the bar should be, I decided to stop by another place and get a drink while I asked for directions. I saw an interesting character on a sign with an arrow pointing up some stairs, so I decided to check it out.



The bar was Called "Bar Henshitsuya"... which I was later told might mean something like pervert? Well it was nothing crazy, just a very, very small bar (4 seats and a small table) with a good selection of cheap alcohol and great music. The bartender and 2 customers that were there didn't speak English, but it didn't stop us from talking a little and enjoying a couple of drinks. Unfortunately they couldn't tell me where to find bar Kazu, so after a couple of whiskey's I headed out to keep up the search.

I continued on down the same alley and turned the corner. I knew I was near and knew the place was on the 3rd floor, so I was walking down a dark alley looking up for any kind of sign or indication of a bar. It was super dark and really quiet... you would never guess anything commercial was down this alley. Suddenly an older Japanese woman (I found out later that she was the ice lady for Bar Kazu) asked "Bar Kazu"? I was surprised, but answered "yes"! She didn't speak English, but she pointed me down the alley while giving me directions in Japanese. I thanked her and after a couple more minutes of walking, I found "Elephant Coffee"... another place that didn't look open. I went up to the 3rd floor and found a blank door... walked in and found that I was in the right place!I think the address might be:

309-4 Bizenjima-cho, Nakagyo-ku

From the map of Bar Henshitsuya, it can be found pretty easy.



Bar Kazu is a dark little bar with candle light and great music. There are 3 other things about this bar that make it great;

1. The bartender. Rei is half Finnish and half Japanese. He speaks both Japanese and English perfectly (probably Finnish too) and is more than happy to sit and talk with you when he's not busy serving drinks. I had such a good time I stayed a lot longer than I planned (they close at 5am), and Rei was nice enough to order us some late night curry udon delivery. Very good late night drinking food! Rei, in the very unlikely event that you read this... thanks again for everything, I hope to make it back there again soon!

2. The crowd. There was a mix on Australian, Japanese and even a Jamaican that I met in the few hours I was sitting there. Everyone that came through was very friendly and wanted to talk. I even sat and stumbled through a conversation with a Japanese guy using our phones to translate and share pictures. The crowd is another reason to come here, as it takes a special person to search out such a difficult place to find!

3. The drinks are cheap and the bar is open until 5am (or later depending on the crowd). This makes for a fun night out if you're willing to miss the train - which I did!


I left the bar at about 4:30am and started the long walk back to the hotel. The streets were completely empty, which is always very unusual for me to see in Japan. The trains didn't start back up till 5, and by that time I was only a station or 2 away, so I just walked the entire way back.

The next morning I got up and surprisingly I wasn't hung over! It must have been the late night udon. I gathered all my camera gear and headed over to Uji. Keizo's wife's aunt suggested I go to Uji to see the Byodoin. This was a beautiful temple, and even though it was raining very hard, it was still an enjoyable trip.


After the temple I walked across the bridge and found a mountain trail. It was raining and a little slippery, but I made it to the top.


I kept going on the trail and eventually ended up at another temple.


I walked over to the bridge and headed back across to get back to the station.


On the way back to the station it started raining very hard. I stopped at a tea room to warm up and get out of the bad weather. The tea was delicious!


I headed back to Kyoto, and had a great dinner at Haffu Honten. The food was fantastic, as was the service... and the owner and his wife were both very welcoming. The owner spoke English very well, and was very good about making sure I had everything I needed. The place is a little out of the way, and might be difficult to find (I took a taxi there)... but you can definitely walk from the station.


The next day I got back onto the Shinkansen and traveled to Shinjuku for my final night in Japan. It was another rainy night, so I grabbed a quick meal and went out for a final night of drinking. I have been to the Shinjuku area many times in the past, but never visited the "Golden Gai" alleys of bars. I headed over there and quickly met a guy named Dennis who lived less than 1 mile from my home! Very strange. We talked a little and decided to go into one of the bars and get a drink.

All of the bars in the Golden Gai area are very small, maybe 6-8 people maximum. So it's very easy to start a conversation with anyone in the bar. The bartender in the bar we chose did not speak English, but we met a group of 4 Swedish students. We talked and drank with them, and when they left a group of Danish came in and sat down. We talked and drank with them and when they left an English couple came in. We talked and drank with them, and by this time it was getting very late again. I said my goodbyes and headed back to the hotel to pack up and prepare for the trip home.


Just like at the end of every other trip to Japan I've made in the past, I was sad to leave and wish I could have stay longer. I had to get home though, my wife had made plans for a trip to Napa California for the day after I returned (this was a difficult trip, I was very tired the entire time... but we had a good time). Hopefully I'll be able to visit Japan again very soon. I'd definitely like to spend more time with Keizo and his family, and maybe next time travel north.

When I travel to Japan I really enjoy all of the food. Since my vacation is only for a few days, I like to eat really great food, even if it is a little expensive. Here are some pictures of my favorite restaurant meals from the trip (of course the best meals were the meals prepared by Keizo's wife, but I didn't take any pictures).


A very delicious tonkatsu set that included sake and ice cream for dessert!


Hot soba with duck. I ate this with Keizo and his family after visiting a temple in the mountains. This was a great day, and very good soba!


All you can eat shabu shabu / sukiyaki. Since I cannot read or speak Japanese, I did not know this was "all you can eat" until they offered to bring me more food. After that I ate a lot!!! I drank 2 large beers and had a total of 14 plates of meat (9 beef and 5 pork). This day I walked almost 17 miles (27.35 km), so I had a very large appetite that night for dinner!


Deluxe tuna set. This included tuna, fatty tuna, extra fatty tuna, broiled fatty tuna, and 2 different types of tuna rolls. Excellent!


Premium beef lunch. This was a sampler platter of all the different cuts of beef that the restaurant offers. This meat melts in your mouth, it is very good!


Another premium beef meal... this was on my last night in Kyoto. Another excellent dinner!


I also stopped at a tea room in Jui and had some great tea. It was very cold and raining that entire day, so this was a nice way to get out of the cold for awhile.


I ate some junk food as well on my trip. I think my favorite junk food in Japan is available at the convenience stores. The sandwiches they have available are pretty good, and the hot food is very good too, especially very late at night after lots of beer! In the USA convenience store food is not good, not fresh, and you only eat it if you have no other options.


I ate a hot dog and a soft pretzel while at the baseball game. These items look very similar to the American versions, but are very different.

The hot dog looks identical to a hot dog in the US, but the taste of the sausage is completely different. The spices are not the same. The bread is also a little different in taste and in shape. The Japanese hot dog sits on top of the bun, but the US hot dog is nested inside the bun (makes it much easier to eat). The Japanese hot dog was very good, just different.


The pretzel looked different as soon as I got it. There is a different topping on it, and the outside texture is different (very soft). The US version has a slightly firmer outside texture, and is usually only topped with large salt. The other big difference was that there was a cream filling in the Japanese version. The US version does not have this. Instead you dip the pretzel in mustard or a hot cheese sauce. Again, the Japanese version was good... just a little different.


Finally, I had a Mc Donalds Apple Pie. In Japan the pie is still fried, and is very hot and crispy. This is the same way Mc Donalds in the US would make their pies when I was a child. However they changed to baking their pies many years ago (which doesn't taste as good), so it is a nice treat to have a pie made the original way.

At the end of March I received an email from my work saying that I would be traveling to Japan sometime very soon. The next day, they sent another email saying I would be traveling on 4/5! This was a very last minute and unexpected trip to Japan! I would travel from 4/5 and arrive in Japan on 4/6. I would be traveling for work (to take pictures at Nissan Zama Operation Facility) until 4/9, and then would be free to enjoy a short vacation until my return home on 4/15. All of the arrangements were made, and my flight and all hotel reservations were booked - my trip was less than 1 week away, and I was excited to travel to Japan again!


My good friend Keizo and his family live in Kanagawa, and every time I visit Japan I really enjoy visiting them. His family is always very welcoming and hospitable, and I always feel like I am part of their family when I visit. Of course I informed him that I would be traveling to Japan very soon and hoped that I could see him. I also asked if he could possibly travel with me to the Nissan Facility to help with translation... I also thought it would be a good trip for him to experience since entry to the DNA Garage is very restricted. Fortunately he was able to arrange it with his job so he could travel with me, and I also got to visit and stay with his family for 2 nights!

I would fly into Narita and then travel to Yokohama where I would stay at the Pacifico Yokohama Hotel until the work part of my trip was over. This was a very nice hotel, and my room had a very good view of the Cosmo World Amusement Park. While in Yokohama I would travel to the Nissan Zama Operation Center to visit the DNA Garage and take pictures - this was a great experience!

Once I get approval from work, I will share some photos with Keizo for him to post on his blog, and I will post them on my blog as well. I also visited the Nissan HQ, where I was able to take pictures of the 2015 Nismo GT-R - very cool car!


Yokohama was a very successful trip! From there I traveled to Tokyo, and stayed at the Tokyo Dome Hotel for 1 night. While I was here I hoped to watch a baseball game, but the game was sold out on the night I arrived. Luckily I got a ticket for a game the next afternoon. So for the first night I ate a good dinner and then walked around and drank at a few different bars. After a lot of drinking I found myself at a professional wrestling match. This was a fun event, and the crowd was very loud compared to a normal Japanese crowd... very fun!


The next day I watched a baseball game. It was Tokyo Swallows vs. Tokyo Giants! The Giants were the home team, so I purchased a hat and rally towel so I could properly support the crowd favorite. I wanted to sit in the outfield since I had read that it was the most fun area to sit, but it was all sold out. I have been to many MLB games, and Japanese baseball is very similar. The biggest difference was the crowd. The outfield area was very loud, they would cheer, wave flags, stand up and chant... but the rest of the audience watched very politely and did not ever get very loud or even stand up and cheer. The crowd here is much louder and there's lots more cheering and yelling from everyone at the game. Otherwise, it's very similar and besides the game, there is a lot of "junk food" to eat.







After my trip to Tokyo, I visited Keizo and his family. Keizo took me to a famous ramen shop where I ate some spicy soup. It was the spiciest version of soup they had, and included a very strong warning to consult a doctor before attempting to eat it. Back home I eat lots of very spicy food... some of my favorite foods are Mexican and Korean, which can both be very spicy. I was a little bit worried about the warning, but I tried the hottest version of the ramen, and it was very delicious... not too hot at all! Unfortunately I did not take a picture of it, I wish I had because it looked very spicy! The following day we visited a very beautiful temple in the mountains and then had a lunch of soba. I was sad to leave, but after lunch I had to travel on to Kyoto.

These pictures are from the mountain temple we visited -






After lunch I said goodbye and took the Shinkansen to Kyoto. I will have another blog entry soon with more details about the rest of my trip!


Keizo, thank you again for everything this past trip! It was a pleasure to see you and your family again, and I hope some day soon you will all be able to visit me and Cheryl at our house.