So this is Japan....

[Aforbit]

Hello everyone I made it to Amori Pref Japan:)

Well first let me say HOLY SHIT it snows a Metric shazaam ton up here.

I just wanted to do a random forum post. I did some asking around and it turns out Airsoft AEG's of any form are not authorized on Misawa Ab. So if any of you Gi's plan on going to Misawa you have to keep your AEG at a friend's house off base.

I found out from asking the some of the JN's who work in my shop that there is a hobby store a few min away in the city of Hachinohe that sells all kinds of Airsoft stuff, I will be driveling there to go check it out this weekend. I am hoping I can get some leads on local teams and games from them.. more to come on that.

The rest of this post is just about cool stuff I found in my first few weeks here you can stop reading here if you want.
The restaurants are wild over here. They have a place here that Sushi comes out on a conveyor belt. The belt runs around the entire place and people just grab what they want off the conveyor belt and they charge by the plate ($1.00 US a plate).I shoved about 2000 yens ($20) worth of sushi down my gullet... It was freaking awesome!

There is another food place called "The Viking" it’s a place strange place it like a super buffet of meats but you get it raw and cook the food at your table. Each table has a fire pit with a grill over it and you just throw you food on to grill and cook it how you want it. They charge by the hour but for 1500 yen ($15) an hour it's not bad and you can really hit the meat bar hard and come away with a good meal. (Huh huh meat bar..)

The last place I have had a chance to go has been is not exactly a place to eat but a festival called salmon festival it's really fun because you get to catch a salmon with your bare hands (or gloved). The fish are not all "small" some can be as big as 8 lbs or 9 lbs. you pay 1200 yen ($12) and you and a 100 other would be anglers stand outside a massive pool filled with salmon, they do there ceremony, explain the rules and then everyone jumps in and try's to catch fish. It's a pain in the tool to catch one but that's half the fun. I managed to get a 3 pounder after about 5 min so I was very happy.


The Japanese as most of you know have a strange love affair with vending machines. They got vending machines for EVERYTHING! Eggs, porn, drinks (hot and cold), smokes, meds, produce, boos, beer, Ramón and just about anything else you can think of. I can't walk a one block without running in to one.

I know you gamers will love this one but the coin Op's (arcades) here are not dead like it is in the USA. They have massive arcades here there is a place just down the road from Misawa City that's called SEGA word it and it's an entire shopping mall sized video game arcade.

Driving over here is kind of fun. It's cool to drive on the other side of the road. Skylines, GTR's, Civic type R, RX 7's, WRX's, and Silvia's are all over the place out here and you can get them fairly cheap (5 grand). The thing is the cars may be cheap but you have to get something called a JCI it's an inspection on your car and that can get very expensive (JCI every two years), there is also road tax payed once a year in Apr road tax can cost as little as 50 bucks up to 500 depending on your engine and car size.

So that’s kind of all for now I will post more random stuff as I find more cool stuff to talk about and as I find out more about the airsoft stuff over here.

[Tankwitch]

Try to find one of the vending machines with used panties! Those are legendary.

[McNair]

The restaurants are wild over here. They have a place here that Sushi comes out on a conveyor belt. The belt runs around the entire place and people just grab what they want off the conveyor belt and they charge by the plate ($1.00 US a plate).I shoved about 2000 yens ($20) worth of sushi down my gullet... It was freaking awesome!

They have these all over back in the states as well. In fact, my favourite cheap decent place to go has a electric train instead of a conveyor belt.

[Aforbit]

Try to find one of the vending machines with used panties! Those are legendary.

yeah found those... They seem to have used feminine hygiene products for sale in some of them as well. I found it in the back of an adult hobby shop of sorts.

The restaurants are wild over here. They have a place here that Sushi comes out on a conveyor belt. The belt runs around the entire place and people just grab what they want off the conveyor belt and they charge by the plate ($1.00 US a plate).I shoved about 2000 yens ($20) worth of sushi down my gullet... It was freaking awesome!

They have these all over back in the states as well. In fact, my favorite cheap decent place to go has a electric train instead of a conveyor belt.

Aww man I wish I would have found one back in the states...

SO my stop last night was an onsen (public bath) its kinda like a Turkish bath house.. just no charley sheen or tigers blood . They did have an a really nice heated pool with coy fish swimming around in it and a pool with an electric current that would make you tense up the closer you got to the electric bar that they had in the pool. all and all if you can get past the fact that everyone is walking around in their birthday suit it's a very relaxing time. I think tomorrow after PT I will hit up the onsen to chill out and the best part it only cost like 3 bucks.

[Tombstone]

Try to find one of the vending machines with used panties! Those are legendary.

yeah found those... They seem to have used feminine hygiene products for sale in some of them as well. I found it in the back of an adult hobby shop of sorts.

The restaurants are wild over here. They have a place here that Sushi comes out on a conveyor belt. The belt runs around the entire place and people just grab what they want off the conveyor belt and they charge by the plate ($1.00 US a plate).I shoved about 2000 yens ($20) worth of sushi down my gullet... It was freaking awesome!

They have these all over back in the states as well. In fact, my favorite cheap decent place to go has a electric train instead of a conveyor belt.

Aww man I wish I would have found one back in the states...

SO my stop last night was an onsen (public bath) its kinda like a Turkish bath house.. just no charley sheen or tigers blood . They did have an a really nice heated pool with coy fish swimming around in it and a pool with an electric current that would make you tense up the closer you got to the electric bar that they had in the pool. all and all if you can get past the fact that everyone is walking around in their birthday suit it's a very relaxing time. I think tomorrow after PT I will hit up the onsen to chill out and the best part it only cost like 3 bucks.

Onsens, for all the culture shock they provide, are one of my favorite parts of being in Japan. There was one my friend and I were planning on going too that let you bath in all sorts of crazy shit like milk, coffee, beer, wine, sake, and soda water. Unfortunatly we got turned away at the door because I have visible tattoos and they are a no go and a majority of public baths.

Now get out there and enjoy Nomihodai! and since you are in Aomori, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to attend Nebuta Matsuri when the summer finally returns.

[Aforbit]

Nebuta Matsuri sounds like a really fun time. all the floats and dancing is going to be really cool to see. I still think summer is a lie sold to us by the jp and us gov. It's cold up here! Speaking of cold things, the snow festival is up in Sapporo! I am looking forward to checking out all the ice carvings and snow sculpting. In dec we plan on seeing the Sendai Pageant of Starlight and doing some shopping while we are there.

Speaking of festivals the Japanese street food is another thing that's fun to try.

some of the more common foods I have seen are:

chicken on a stick

Bacon on a stick (it's a 2 inch thick slab of bacon on a stick)

Pork on a stick (same as chicken)

Bananas on a stick covered in chocolate

Salmon or fish of some kind (you guessed it) on a stick

By now you kinda see a theme with some of the more common stuff but you will also find burgers, Ramón and sushi as well.

An update on the hobby shop in hach I went down there yesterday and from what I could understand with my bad Japanese and the shop owners broken English there are people who play in this area but most of the games that are played are played in spring, summer and fall. Its seems that most people take the winter off. So though out the winter I will try get to know the shop owner better and hopefully in the spring time I can get a good line on who is playing were.

[Aforbit]

Ok In my Travels over the weekend I found a little jem.. well more like a bunch of little jems. I found a second hand store that sells all kinds of random stuff.. to include Airsoft AEG's and equipment. I checked out the shelf's of AEGs trying to find a RS or Tokyo maru but sadly I found none, however for 300 yen they did have used tac vests and masks. They also had something like a bone yard or what could be best described as one. bins and bins of small parts, springs, motors, battery's, cogs and gears. I am not even 100% it was all Airsoft stuff but rest assured in the next few weeks I will be on the hunt for some Airsoft jems.


Some other non-air soft stuff I have been able to check out:

Pachinko: Pachinko is like "vertical pinball" (thx wiki) just you don't have any flippers basically you shoot balls into a sea of pins and hope the ball lands in a spot that will let you win something. "The object of the game is to capture as many balls as possible." ( thx again wiki). You can win stuff like cartons of smokes and other random stuff that you can walk right next store and exchange for cash money. Not really my thing but worth a word because it's so poplar here.

Ichikawa ( hope I spelled that correctly): it's a place where you can rent a room for a few hours and basically be all drunken, loud and smoke(some even offer karaoke). They serve small dishes (kind of like tapas) and have drinking deals like for the first 2 hours you can drink for free ( you can drink enough to get good and smashed in two hours). It's a lot of fun however, rumor has it that most ichikawa's are yakuza run so don't mess with your servers or with the help because they will bounce you out of there with a lot more than a bloody nose. If you have seen the movie kill bill the scenes were the crazy 88's are partying in a room above the main dance floor is kind of what they are like...well the really nice ones are like that.

Diso store (Aka the 100 yen store): Nifty place All kinds of useful stuff for cheap. blackout cuirtans,toys, candy, dishes pots pans and all kinds of house hold goods. if your ever in japan it a good place to pick up basic stuff for a few bucks.

In my next post I'll talk about the supermarkets out here and the walmart/target/lowes stores. ( ie: Homemeck and samwados). Please forgive my bad spelling of the Japanese names of things it's kinda tough for me to convert some of this stuff into Ro-maji.

[Aforbit]

I went to the Hobby shop in hatch again and this time I took some cell phone pics of the store. Most of the new stuff is around 200 to 500 bucks. The used stuff ( on the table) is about 100 to 200 dollars.

If any of you go to northern Japan look up misawa Airsoft on facebook they have a good group of guys there who play and its a good mix of JN's and GI's. I got a gopro for christmas so you can expect to see some videos come springtime.






Edit:
Yes that is a new in box M79 granade launcher on the shelf above the mp5.

[Aforbit]

Hello my fellow AP'ers,

So over the holidays I took some leave and headed to Tokyo for Christmas. It was a different experience to say the least... As I was doing the tourist thing I happen to come across these guys: http://www.emei-landarms.com/ they make some really nice AK47, AKS, AK 74 ect.. I think they ship to the US but i am not 100% on that but wanted to let you guys know about them. I will find out more when their customer support/sales e-mails me back with their shipping info.

Traveling in Japan can get expensive if you plan to fly or drive ( you pay a metric f*ck ton in tolls). It's cheaper to just take public transit and that takes me to bullet train, I have never had to ride on one before and it was a fun new experience they get up to about 120 to 200ish MPH and that will get you to Tokyo in about 3 hours. If any of you every get the chance to do so ride the bullet train.

Once you get to Tokyo just take the commuter rail system to get around the city... soo speaking of commuter rail during rush hours the trains are PACKED with people not like new York packed I mean packed in like you can't move your arms packed in and the weirdest part was it was dead silent (other than sounds of the rails and the voice to announce the next station) everyone just sat or stood there reading a book or playing on their cell phone.

In my exploring I happen to come across a maid cafe, it's basically a cos play restraint the waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants, and treat customers as masters in a private home, rather than as cafe patrons. Now it's kind of odd to see young girls 16 to 18 yrs old dressed as maids and seeing them wait on 40yr old men, Don't get me wrong I am all for girls dressing up as scantily clad maids... just not the under 18 yr old kind. The place I went to had pink walls and stuffed animals every were. If it was not for all the tables, a stage and dudes sitting around, you would feel like you were walking into a 16yr girls bed room. Normally at this point I would turn around a walk right out but I had my daughter with me and she positively loved it ( as any pink and stuffed animal obsessed 6yr girl would) soo low and behold I find myself sitting center row with a few maids waiting on us. There are certain "Rituals" you have to follow if you want call the maid over to you have to say "meow meow" and one of them comes running over to you, also when you get your food everyone at the table you have to make a hart with their hands and say " special tastey magic kuu kuu" and then you can eat. All in all if you can get past the creepy candy coating of the damn place the food is not half bad and they even sing and dance for a small fee. I would recommend you go for the experience alone but be for warned once you go it's really hard to delete those memories from your mind, even after a few bottles of Jim I still shutter at the fact of having to go there... only in Japan man...