Zigging and Zagging His Way Through Japan - DWA! Podcast Ep. #912
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Car
Hyundai Santa Cruz
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a small truck that is easy to drive and useful for carrying things. It combines features of a truck and an SUV, making it good for both work and everyday use.
Term
steering inputs
Steering inputs are how a driver turns the steering wheel to make the car go left or right. It's important for controlling where the car goes.
Term
mimics
Mimicking means copying what someone else is doing. In driving, it means doing what another driver does to learn how to drive better.
Term
Sebastian Loeb
Sebastian Loeb is a famous race car driver who is really good at rally racing, which is a type of racing on different surfaces like dirt and gravel. He has won many championships.
Car
Porsche 911 GT3 RS
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS is a fast sports car made for racing. It's known for being lightweight and having special features that help it go really fast on a track.
Concept
girl go kart series
The girl go kart series is a racing event for girls, helping them learn how to race go-karts and have fun while doing it.
Concept
morning motors
Morning motors refers to a car gathering that happens in the morning. People bring their cars to show off and talk about them with other car lovers.
Concept
Japanese makes
Japanese makes are car brands that come from Japan. They are famous for making many types of cars, including reliable family cars and fast sports cars.
Car
Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
The Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 is a really fast sports car that is designed for people who love to drive. It's known for being very fun to handle on the road and has a powerful engine that makes it exciting to drive.
Term
daily driving
Daily driving means using a car for your everyday trips, like going to work or running errands. A good daily driver is comfortable and easy to use.
Car
Volkswagen Golf GTI
The Volkswagen GTI is a fun and sporty car that's great for everyday use. The Mk7 is the version made between 2013 and 2020, and it's known for being fast and easy to drive.
Car
Hyundai Satellite
The Hyundai Satellite is an older, small car that isn't very common today. People talk about it because it's part of Hyundai's history and shows how the brand has changed over time.
Car
Lamborghini Diablos
The Lamborghini Diablo is a very fast and stylish sports car made by Lamborghini. It was produced in the 1990s and is known for its powerful engine and unique looks.
Car
BMW E36
The BMW E36 is a model of the BMW 3 Series, which is a line of compact cars. This generation was made in the 1990s and is often used in racing due to its good handling.
Car
Mercedes-Benz SL
Car
Porsche 918 Spyder
The Porsche 918 Spyder is a high-performance sports car that uses both a gasoline engine and electric motors. It's known for being very fast and advanced in technology.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL is a classic car known for its unique doors that open upwards. It was made in the 1950s and is very popular among car collectors.
Car
Lamborghini Diablo Bt
The Lamborghini Diablo VT is a really fast and flashy sports car that many people dream of owning. It's famous for its cool looks and powerful engine.
Car
Mercedes-Benz C124
The C124 is a type of Mercedes-Benz car that was made between 1987 and 1996. It's recognized for being stylish and comfortable, especially in its convertible version.
Term
arena red turbo
Arena Red is a color that some Porsche cars can be painted in, and 'turbo' means the car has a turbocharger that makes it faster and more powerful.
Concept
Radwood
Radwood is a fun car event where people show off classic cars from the 1980s and 1990s. It's all about celebrating the cool styles and memories from that time period, and people often dress up in clothes from those decades too.
Car
Fiat Multipla
Car
Ferrari Testarossa
The Ferrari Testarossa is a famous sports car from the 1980s. It has a unique look and a very powerful engine, which makes it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
Car
BMW M4
The BMW M4 is a fast sports car made by BMW, designed for performance and driving excitement.
Car
Mazda Miata
The Mazda Miata is a small, light sports car that's fun to drive and great for racing on tracks.
Car
Porsche Cayman
The Porsche Cayman S is a sporty car made by Porsche that is fun to drive and performs well on the road and track.
Car
Buick Century
The Buick Century is a comfortable car that used to be very popular. It's known for being reliable and having a lot of space inside, making it a good choice for families.
Car
Rolls-Royce Cullinan
The Rolls Royce Cullinan is a very fancy SUV made by Rolls Royce. It's known for being very luxurious and comfortable, and it's one of the most expensive SUVs you can buy.
Car
Lexus Alphard
The Lexus Alphard is a fancy minivan that offers a lot of space and comfort, making it popular for families and businesses.
Car
Toyota Alphard
The Toyota Alphard is a big, fancy van that has a lot of room inside. It's great for families or people who need to transport others comfortably.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a type of truck that is strong and can carry heavy loads. People like it because it's good for both work and fun activities like camping or off-roading.
Car
Suzuki Bandit
The Suzuki Bandit is a type of motorcycle made by Suzuki. It's known for being versatile and good for different types of riding, which makes it popular in Japan.
Car
Lexus Lm
The Lexus LM 350H is a fancy minivan that uses a hybrid engine to save fuel while providing a lot of luxury features.
Car
Lexus LM 500H
The Lexus LM 500H is a more expensive version of the LM 350H, with a stronger hybrid engine and more luxury options.
Car
Toyota GT4
The Toyota GT4 is a sporty version of the Toyota Celica, designed for performance and rally racing. It's known for its powerful engine and all-wheel drive, which helps it handle well on different surfaces.
Car
Ford Flex
The Ford Flex is a large SUV that has a different, boxy shape. It's great for families because it has a lot of room for people and their stuff.
Car
Toyota Sienna
The Toyota Sienna is a type of minivan that's great for families because it has a lot of space and comfort. It's designed to be practical for everyday use, especially for those with kids.
Car
Honda Prelude
The Honda Prelude is a two-door car that Honda made for many years. It's known for being fun to drive and has a sporty look.
Car
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gas and electricity to help save on fuel. It's known for being very good on gas mileage, which means you can drive it a lot without spending too much money on fuel.
Car
Lexus Lc Lexus
The Lexus LC 500 is a fancy car that looks really nice and drives fast. It's known for being luxurious inside and out, making it a great choice for people who want a stylish and powerful vehicle.
Car
Tata Motors Sumo
The Tata Motors Sumo is a big vehicle that can carry a lot of people or things. It's popular in India because it's strong and not too expensive.
Car
Porsche 914
The Porsche 914 is a small sports car made by Porsche that was popular in the 1970s. It has a unique look and is known for being fun to drive.
Car
Bentley Azure
The Bentley Azure is a very fancy car that you can drive with the top down. It's known for being super luxurious and is made for people who want the best of the best.
Car
Porsche 944
The Porsche 944 is an older sports car that many people love because it drives really well and looks great. It's more affordable than some other Porsches, which makes it popular among car fans.
LIVE
The Driving While Awesome podcast is recorded live to SD card at the Beeline Motor Club in Santa Cruz, California.
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Welcome to Driving Well Awesome. My name is Warren. I am Lane and I am Art. We're back again reunited after many weeks. It feels like a long time, but I think we had thrown a holiday there, various trips and vacations and whatnot.
It's many moons ago, dude, but we were also, I want to say we were only all together for like one episode or two at the most after my trip to Japan, right? That's right. I think so, yeah.
And I had a stretch here, which was back to, so what was it? Big Sur, Austin, Japan were my three weekends in a row.
Oh, you had three? Oh, okay. Oh, that's a lot.
Also for the folks listening and local to the Santa Cruz region, December 20th. Morning Motors. Well, no, Drive Well Awesome is Seabright Motors.
Seabright Motors.
December 20th. Days Market on Seabright Avenue in Santa Cruz. This is going to be an afternoon show, correct Lane?
Correct. 12 to 4.
12 to 4 December 20th. You know, basically our Morning Motors vibe, but we're kind of taking over the area down at the end of that neighborhood.
And I think we could take over, you know, we're taking over the days parking lot and also the climbing gym parking lot area kind of.
And the Seabright social side. I mean, there's not anybody in there.
Exactly. But we could also like take over the, we could park on the street. Like we could take it all over basically.
And then we should go down by the, you know, Seabright deli and Betty burger and all that kind of stuff too.
Totally. We have a lot of room to kind of display some cars.
And you think it's like spread your wings and fly kind of dude. We're going to spread our links.
I was thinking more like down by the bay where the watermelons grow, you know, no watermelons grow down there.
Wait, wait. What song is that? You don't remember the bay where the watermelon grow.
I dare not go for if I do my mother will say you've ever seen a llama eating their pajamas.
Warren. Yeah, come on dude down by the bay. I think I'm I'm in the wrong podcast here.
That's pretty Rafi dude. By the way, Rafi Rafi to the cover and popularized it, right?
Man. Yeah. But oh, I don't know. But because I was like, I think I'm a pretty Rafi kid, right?
But I know that we all are. Yeah. We were singing that in school. Yeah.
Our Rafi really corner the market there for a minute. Yeah, totally.
Like nobody else knew how to do kids songs. Just have this one dude. Yeah, that's all you need.
It's like that one. Who's that girl right now? Who's that lady right now? That's all over everything.
Miss Rachel or something. Yeah, I my kids have never seen this Rachel stuff.
I don't I didn't know what that was until very recently. Actually, the best are those memes with Miss Rachel.
Like like it's like talking to car people. It's like, yeah, that's your car. Yeah.
Yeah. Those wheels go round and round. No, I have not seen that. Yeah.
But yeah, after after my time. I love it though. Yeah. So the different vibes after your time.
No, I'm talking about memes on Instagram more like right now current bro kids. No, it's it's going.
It's it's kind of like, you know, car guys talking to cars to their wife or whatever.
And it's Miss Rachel going. Yeah, it's a car. Yeah, I've never seen that.
I've never seen that. I don't know who Miss Rachel is. I'm sorry. Different algorithms.
Different algorithms. Yeah, you got you guys are you guys are what do you call young?
We have young children. Daughter dads or whatever girl that hashtag girl dad. Yeah.
Hashtag girl dad and a lot of like Porsche moments and other Disney stuff.
I don't know. I mean, I have I have Porsche moment it, but I've never girl dad it.
Oh, why not? I don't know. You're right in the demo, dude.
That's that's what they need from you. I've just never girl dad it. I know arts girl dad it.
Have a girl that probably have Kobe Bryant girl that girl dad it for sure. Yeah, he's girl.
Yeah, dude by the way, speaking of girl dad stuff. So I met someone here in town who has a couple cars at thermal
and he goes in place with his toys over there and his daughters who are the same age as my daughter,
my 10 year old soon to be 10 year old. One of them is apparently is like getting at a carting
and they have a few go carts on site at their house there and he's like, yeah, dude, let's plan a trip out.
And I'm like, that sounds awesome, but I need to put my daughter in a regular little K one go cart first.
Not even that. You need to go to like the flea market off place that has those little crappy bumper cars basically
and just see what she can do. Art shows up with no daughter. He's just him. He's like, no, I'm going to throw away
he's like, I'm way faster than my daughter. Dude, I'll throw my girl dad shirt on in a wig and I'm ready to roll.
My nails or whatever. I mean, dude. Yeah. So the cool thing about it though is that she's very interested in driving
and like where whenever I take her with me, she traces my she tracks my steering like my steering inputs on her own
and she started doing this like years ago entirely on her own. She tracks it. So like she watches. She steers
exactly. She follows what I do like as I'm driving with her hand with her hands like with two hands in an imaginary steering wheel
and and she does a really good job like she like just watching her how like smooth she is and like she follows it really closely
and mimics exactly the next Senna. I mean that's a more of a John Lezzi fan, but you know.
Sky yeah, maybe a Jill Paneet see perhaps on the tarmac. We don't know knows. Maybe a Sebastian Loeb
Brett Favre.
But yeah, I mean it's something that I definitely want to do, but I want to give her a little bit of exposure
because this dude was telling me that his daughter is like drifting his nine eleven GT three RS around the track
and she's ten. What and I'm like what like so I'm like I don't know are you sure he's like well
technically not at the track, but you know there's like an area and I'm like oh shit. Well yeah, your kid is way
advanced and has obviously been behind the wheel. Is she doing the like fat fat racing like girl go car series?
I don't know. I'll find out. You know they do that. You know Ferdy Porsche Porsche. Yeah, they have a girl go car.
Yeah, I didn't know it's like a whole series. It's like a feeder series that they created like oh
that's a whole new thing. All new series. Yeah. Yeah, I did hear about that. FAT Porsche, you know the old racing team.
Yeah, yeah logistics company, but they're doing it. That's it's headquartered at but the new but will all right.
Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. Where did I hear about that? Yeah, I kind of heard about that recently.
Probably a lot of places. Yeah, maybe during that, maybe during that, that big launch, the big button will
like party thing that went on. Yeah, maybe then, but I don't know if he is. I'll find out, but I just yeah.
I think it's it's one of those. It's probably the slipperiest of slopes though, like financially.
So it's like you're one of those things where like you can do a hobby one, but if like she's really good.
It's like shit. Like you want to support that and like it's like dude, you could do that or you could be on the soccer field,
like take your weekends, whatever you want to do. Dude. Yeah, I think you'd probably rather be at a track.
I'd rather be at a track. We're not being six figures a year for a competitive go cart.
Oh, you saw how Hamilton did it. He was pushing his cart with his dad. Dude, I guess I need a car.
I need a basically I just need two more jobs is what you're saying because Hamilton said at three jobs.
Yeah, you and you're looking right now. You're podcasting. You could be working. I could be I could be doing some yard work right now somewhere.
You know, trimming some heads. The thing they were talking about is each of those jobs were like five hours a week, but you know that's right.
Hey got to do them. Yeah, but I'm down for females and motorsport or whatever the hashtag is.
And that's all I've got. That motorsports. Exactly. Yeah, hashtag. Dude, we've done a lot of stuff recently.
I don't even know where to start. Dude, you get you whether it was morning motors warrant just got back from Japan.
I was doing all sorts of dad life girl that morning motors or Japan, which is more interesting.
But it's like where is it? Is it the zinger up front and are you draw people in or or is it morning?
At the end right for the morning. I was really and I don't think more than you didn't do that much car stuff when you were there.
I really didn't know, but I feel like it's like tangentially related to car stuff. Some because Japanese makes they make cars.
They do make cars. I think they even drive them. They make trains, all sorts of stuff. So morning motors, dude,
some cool nineties motorcycles there. That was cool. I saw that. I was going to say that the parking lot was.
It was like a really good mix of cars. We didn't get any overwhelming car club new stuff.
It was very, very eclectic mix and it was like perfectly full. It wasn't overly stuffed like some people after Thanksgiving.
Morning motors didn't follow that trend and it was a good hang. Most importantly, shout out to our buddy Phil Kroc,
as people know on the the Instagrams. It was his 75th birthday and he came out from Carmel and Monterrey,
wished us a happy morning motors. It was great to see him.
Did you reciprocate and then tell him happy birthday or was it just one way?
It was all happy birthdays. He was like a, it's like at a wedding, you know, reception line.
Yeah. He was a star.
By the way, I think he's known as Kroc GT4 on Instagram. Not just Kroc.
Sorry. Sorry. I'm so used to just the, I'm on the first Kroc name.
Yes. You guys are tight.
And he's looking pretty dope. He's all Mr. Cleaned out. Freshly shaved dome.
What did he do? Was he in the GT4?
No, no, it's long sold, but I thought he gets access to it like a, doesn't he, doesn't he keep it?
He was serving his, he was serving his GTI, his mark seven GTI,
which is like the perfect car for ripping around and daily driving and stuff. Nice little ride.
Saw a bunch of some other people I haven't seen for a while, but yeah, I don't know.
It was great. Good turnout. Really nice. We've been having amazing weather here.
It's 60 something degrees today and supposed to be like this for the rest of the week.
It's crispy. Yeah. Super crispy. Love it. It's good. It was nice, man.
But the sun starts going down at like one o'clock dude.
Dude, I was outside yesterday at two 30 and I'm like, oh gosh, I better get home.
It's getting dark. And I'm like, what the hell? Like these long shadows dude.
I hate it. I freaking hate it. It feels like the world is dying.
That's it. I just like all the leaves are falling. There's no light.
It's this weird like, yeah, the long shadows are super depressing.
But I mean, I don't know. I don't think it's depressing right now though.
I think it's pretty nice to because because it is so the skies are blue.
Oh yeah. No, that's right.
That afternoon feeling is like.
I feel like it's too early. It's too early, but I think it's pretty.
It's fall. It's like it's like the fall like it goes with all the fall foliage vibes,
the pumpkin spice latte worn, maybe because you hate the drink.
That's why you're not that's true. I do need some PSL my life, but the sun is weak.
Lips.
What the
guy. So anyways, I was I was I pick up my daughter at like 345 350 or something.
So we drive. We drive the coast home and the sun is like barely over the ocean
and pretty sweet, better, but it is kind of it is beautiful there because it is
beautiful lasting. The sun is blasting on the cliffs there and the light you know
it's that golden hour, bro. It's that's to my mind goes. Yeah, there was an epic
sunset last night. I'll give you all that, but the leaves are dying.
No, it's their beauty. You're beautiful in their death, man. You know,
that's the whole. It's there. It's poetic, bro. You know, I will say
this year of my life, the year of our Lord 2026 five probably have the yeah.
Well, it's the you know, 26th year or whatever, but we have been getting
really great fall colors this year between the rally and Japan and big sir.
Dude, but that's fucking horrible. All the leaves are dying is what you're
saying. It's like it's fucking well. It's like when they're falling,
it's like the whole time they're just going as they die to the ground.
It was really nice in Japan. We, I think we really nailed it timing wise.
I saw some reports, even satellite views were saying this was it peak fall
colors. So we got a little bit of the early fall when we were there,
but nothing like you got.
It was nice. Yeah. And then Art, you were at a cars and coffee.
Correct. I was. It was a Rancho Santa Fe cars and coffee.
It's something I've always wanted to go to, but just it's not
necessarily nearby. And like I've seen a lot of pictures of it.
It is really, really cool dude. It is.
Why do I feel like I've been to that? You might have been to it.
Dude, it is so cool. Like basically Rancho Santa Fe is like a very affluent
community that has this little downtown area and pretty much all of
the businesses are closed up either on the weekend or late into the
you know the day. So they start opening around 11 or 12 and it's
a photogenic space, you know, cool little architecture and all that stuff.
It's very like Carmel vibes. Like it feels like a Carmel kind of
downtown Carmel scene, but they because all of the businesses are closed
and also they're very tolerant of the whole car culture scene there.
The cars and coffee takes over the entire area.
So it's like at the four block radius and everywhere you go,
it's all of the little parking lots, like at the bank or the,
you know, whatever the jewelry store, all of the parking lots are
available for people to park in. So you just like as you cruise around,
like every little side street, every alley, all of the lots have cars in them.
And it's all people with pretty cool stuff for the most part.
Like I'd say that like 90% of the cars were really interesting and cool.
Like versus as we had talked about, right? Like there's variety there
versus like just, you know, your charger club or whatever.
Sorry to pick on your charges. But like it's a yeah, it was in a
lot of high-end stuff, like really high-end stuff too,
but a good mix of everything, like some race cars and
I don't know. It was, it was, it was so cool.
I thought it was really interesting and also it's photogenic
and the vibes are really awesome because you're basically doing a full takeover
of like just imagine like, I guess it's kind of like the carmel thing
that used to happen. Sounds like car week. What is the carmel thing,
the Tuesday? Well, that doesn't exist anymore.
But whatever that was called. It sounds like a car week in general.
Like driving around carmel, there's cars down the street.
It's basically like car weekend, but there's that specific event.
But not a lot of people. Cars on the avenue.
And it's a little bit out of the way too.
Going up the, it's like up this hill.
Kind of like the whole town is very like tiny and out of the way.
So it's not, I feel like you have to want to go there
and then it is very affluent, dude. Like when I went there,
they didn't have any, like it wasn't, it was pretty early on,
I imagine. So there wasn't like parking lots full of cars,
but it was all like, like career GTs and Diablos on the street and stuff.
It was like, yeah, yeah.
That's cool. There's a lot of, yeah, there's high end,
but also like just interesting stuff.
There were some like E 36 race cars and, you know, some JDM stuff
and some classic muscle and everything,
but definitely skewing more on the really high end.
So of course, 918 career GT, there was 300 SL going all the GT
three RS as you can shake a stick at.
And my favorite of the entire place didn't get a good photo
because I was walking with Tim on the move.
I meant to get back to it, but it was a maritime blue 964 RS
with color matched seats, which is the one that I would want.
And there was a 993 RS parked behind it in Miami or Mexico.
I can't remember which one's the lighter one of the two,
but it was the lighter one of the two or is it Riviera?
Maybe Riviera.
Can you even tell the it's yeah.
I know one of them is darker without one next to the other.
Can you tell?
No, no, but that's Joe a nice bright blue.
And yeah, it was rad.
I mean Lamborghini Diablo BT really, really clean.
Whatever is it?
What's the?
Is it a C 124?
Is that what the convertible coupe is?
I don't know what the chassis code is for that.
So just a good solid variety and also just like it's pretty chill
vibes.
There's two coffee shops with decent food and like people are
just cruising around.
I ran into Damiro and talked to him for a little while.
He was there with his new 993, but he wasn't standing in
front of his car when I saw him.
I didn't even know he had got one and turns out that he
finally found that arena red turbo he wanted, but he
wasn't standing in his car going and this is a 993.
Yeah, I mean it's just you know people like that.
They just get accosted everywhere.
Right.
So it's like I figured as soon as he stepped out of his car,
he wouldn't get to move, but like he actually he was
looking at a an integral type are sedan and we were
talking about that and then we ended up talking Radwood
and he's like a huge Radwood fan and really disappointed
there isn't one in San Diego.
So we talked about why and you know maybe there's
some angles around Orange County as a possibility,
but yeah, it's a it's an interesting scene down there.
I saw Nick's Fiat Multipla that was at a SoCal.
Is it a Multipla?
It is right?
The really ugly one?
Who?
The Fiat.
Nick who?
Nick who's one of the cars and bits guys.
He's got the he just sold his manual swap mercy
and he's got a it's a it's a Fiat Multipla.
Right.
The wagon thing that's really ugly.
Yeah, I don't know.
But yeah, so so yeah, so he took that to Radwood SoCal
and I parked him between a Testarosa and the toilets
because that was like the right appropriate place for him.
Sort of like the design evolution is yeah
and he was really stoked on it.
He thought it he was very he thought it was very appropriate.
Yeah, so that's what I did there.
Yeah, the good old Rancho Santa Fe I went with
our buddy Tim Buckland who's been on a few rallies.
I've known him for a long time and he rolled out
with his wife who was driving her M fork cab
and it turns out she's been tracking it a bunch.
And so we talked a lot about kind of the next evolution
of her track stuff and she had never driven a light car
on track and I'm like, wow, you're in a four forty one
hundred pound M four like wait till you jump into a Miata
or any thirty six or you know or name your Cayman S
or you know name your those are four thousand pounds.
Yeah, that's a cab.
It's I think it was forty one hundred pounds.
She said she is.
Yeah, but yeah, it's a good time.
Highly recommend that place if you guys are in region.
It's a thirty minute drive from where I was.
I was in Encinitas on a family Thanksgiving thing.
Nice, nice.
Well, yeah, I mean Japan.
I could talk about the whole podcast if we wanted,
but didn't do a bunch of car stuff since I was with family.
I couldn't really break away to like I would have just been down to
go check out cars like car spotting and watch stuff go by
in good neighborhoods, but that didn't really line up.
Very few sightings.
Unfortunately, even like fancy car, you know,
the centuries of the world, I only saw a few.
I did catch this century SUV at the end of the trip,
which was cool.
Last day in Ginza, which I'd wanted to see one of those
and it was great.
It was a baller.
I mean, they look like a Rolls Royce or something.
They're just like proportionally really.
They're not huge.
They're like small ish and are very stately and like just I
don't care what you think about me kind of vibe.
They're not trying to like get attention,
which I obviously I really like.
So smaller than a cullinan.
I'd say yeah, it's it's smaller than a cullinan and
it has softer lines.
So it just feels like less imposing.
It's also like better proportionally,
I think than a cullinan.
Yeah, that's a weird like big top section.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Well, totally definitely more imposing,
but my favorite thing that I saw,
which I had never seen one in person.
I don't even know where they sell these things,
but is the Lexus minivan?
It's the Alphard,
but they've taken it and gone complete like high-end Lexus with it.
I only saw them in this one neighborhood.
It's called Azabudai.
Oh, Azabujan?
Azabujudan?
Azabudai, as I said.
Azabujuban, I think it's called.
I need to look it up, but you look it up,
but that's where Team Labs was.
So we were already there and it's such a weird place.
Oh, Team Labs is in Odaiba.
That's on the island.
There's like four, and the one we were at was in Azabudai.
Oh, and whatever it's called.
Yeah.
Anyways, this is the type of place where you live in a tower.
You have like, we could see into the tower
where you would drive in as a resident,
and there were three valets standing perfectly
with white gloves on, just waiting for somebody to come.
It's just like, that's their whole scene.
But they had these minivans rolling around as just like,
I don't know, probably their version of a taxi,
but they're so cool-looking.
They're really fascinating to look at.
And to see one here in the States would be,
I think it would do really well.
You know, minivans are already expensive
and people, I think they would be like
an interesting proposition to have a really luxurious minivan.
And it's got kind of like sharp features and stuff.
I don't know, is this, is this cool to see?
Yeah, I think it's a different take on it.
And I feel like a lot of folks who own minivans in the US,
like it's because they have like a soccer mom or dad image
and it's like boring and lame and not luxurious.
It's comfortable and spacious and functional,
but where this carry status with it too, right?
With the new, with the, with the JDM ones.
So like it's basically your Ranger over S kind of thing
with all totally and like getting in and out of it
is so much less rigorous.
You know, it's so low and the big doors and stuff.
I don't know.
It just, it was a very cool looking thing.
I saw a lot of alfards, which were very common,
but the Lexus ones are, were still rare.
I'm sure there'll be a lot more around, but yeah.
And then you say it's the Cadillac of limousines.
I mean, of minivans.
See Cadillac should make, they should make like an escalate M
for minivan.
Do you guys remember get shorty?
That was the whole thing.
He had that. I forget what the minivan was.
It was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Remember, and he's like, I think it's like Danny DeVito
or something.
He's like, it's a Cadillac of minivans.
And he's pressed the button and the door opens up, you know.
That's it.
Yeah.
I got a ride in, in a couple alfards when I was there.
They're like really nice.
Yeah.
You know, full, like the fully loaded ones.
Yeah.
And then I think Gluckr or someone like that has been posting.
Maybe it's the Lexus one or something.
There's one in like SoCal rolling around.
Oh, shit.
And a bunch of people, it's like just over the last couple
of days.
It's like saw this and people are like, oh, I see.
Oh, maybe Dieter was like, oh, I see that all the time in
this neighborhood or something like that.
I can see if you had one, maybe or it's just like a
Lexus car that they brought over, you know, like Honda
does sometimes with like testing, but if you had one of
those that, you know, cars and coffee or whatever morning
motors, it's going to steal the show because it's so
weird.
We've had alfards at our shows and they're very strange
looking in person out of context when you're in Japan.
Yeah.
You used to them, right?
But the, that big old face, that, that helmet face.
It's horrible.
But you could like, I feel like that's just a, you
know, some design elements away from being fairly
okay, like give it a bumper, you know, and like an
air dam and stuff.
But yeah, the, there's so many weird cars in Japan,
like the, especially the K style, like vans and like
the weird delivery trucks and delivery vans that all
the time that you just get so numb to those
things.
Like when a little weird Suzuki, you know, bandit
comes by.
It's like all wheel drive and turbo and you've
never seen one before, but it's like, it also
looks like 90% of the other cars out there.
So it's just, everything's kind of weird.
It's like, it's hard to, I don't know how you feel
about this for you guys, like taking pictures of
cars like that where it's like, I know this
doesn't exist and it's forbidden fruit and all that,
but it's, there's so many of them.
You're like, I don't even know when something's
interesting.
Yeah.
I feel like you very quickly become like
acclimated to it.
Yeah.
And you're like, these are definitely not
special and I'm not taking a picture of this.
Like, you know, it's like within like five
minutes of being there, like, oh, this is
every car.
Yeah.
And then you'll see like an RS version that has
like red mirrors or something of like a
little car and you're like, oh, that's like the
kind of like hyped up version, but it's not
really hyped, you know, hopped up.
It's just kind of like a fake trim package
or whatever.
Yeah.
So I looked, I looked up the, it's a Lexus
LM, right?
That's the one you saw.
Oh, it's maybe.
Yeah.
I didn't actually look it up.
So there's like the Lexus LM 350H, which
is the base.
That's $160,000 and the high end
LM 500H is 220 grand.
Yeah.
So these are.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
They make a Lexus minivan that's over 200.
Lexus LM 500H.
You can option, depending on the package,
the top of the line one is 220 grand
and there's three, there's three.
Uh, yeah.
So there's a sport that's two wheel
drive.
That's 160 and then the 350H all wheel
drive is 165.
And then the top of the line model
fully optioned is 220.
And it only comes in one package.
It says it's like some extreme, you know,
premier, whatever the fuck you call it.
I think that's only for people that live in
as a boot.
Maybe it's the guy with the white gloves,
people waiting for him.
It has to be.
And honestly, that whole neighborhood is so funny
because it's, there's no like neighborhood.
It's just Chanel, uh, product.
Oh, that's like Ginza kind of.
It's like Ginza.
I talked to one person that are like, Oh,
that's the fanciest neighborhood in Tokyo right now.
Like if you want to be a baller, like that's where you live.
That's where you like, you are.
And that's, yeah, I could see it.
I wonder our buddy, uh, John Abismire,
who was on the last rally in his GT four.
He's like a Toyota dude.
And, uh, I know he lives in some tower somewhere
because he, he said I could, he's like, dude,
if you have time, like go borrow my Maritza
edition, whatever.
It's so cool.
And he's like, you just need like a code and it comes out,
like it'll like dispense for you or whatever.
Yeah.
It's one of those situations.
Yeah.
It's like a, like a, what do you call it?
Like a gumball machine.
Yeah.
Basically, like you just like put the code and the car
like comes out on the turntable for you or whatever.
Well, Clark was telling me that some of these residents
you drive like underground and then you end up in a garage
or condo, like, and it's like completely private.
You don't deal with anybody like through a tunnel or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then like Alfred comes and he gives you like a new
belt.
Alfred.
Not Alfred.
Um, dude, by the way, just wanted to let you know,
let you guys know that we're missing out.
Uh, the Alexis LM is sold in 60 countries,
but not Canada or the USA.
So I wonder if they sell them in Mexico.
Like this has got to be like one of their biggest
markets to be America.
But it's also super ultra.
It's like an ultra baller minivan is such a flex.
It's like the price point is tripping.
You have to be price.
Yeah.
It's a very interesting.
We've never seen minivans as cool.
They're just like a utilitarian like soccer.
By the way, I bet they never in China because in China
they love many bands and by default,
many bands have always been baller like that's
like a thing.
And so I think I told you guys a million times like
what when I was doing business there, like, I mean,
do you like minivans where like one of the most
baller thing you can have like Buick has a,
they carry a ton of like brand cachet there for some reason,
which is bizarre, but for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
No, that's definitely the move is the Chinese market.
But you think, I mean, Sienna's if you get into a new Sienna
today, like a top of the line Sienna, they are really nice.
They're not like a crappy.
They're only a hundred.
They're not a hundred.
They're not a hundred grand though.
No, they're like 70 though.
Yeah.
Sounds right.
Which is ridiculous.
So anyhow, you know, car spotting wise, I saw some,
some interesting stuff here and there.
It was definitely rare.
I did see though.
And man, I wish I could have gotten a picture of it.
It would have been epic.
But as I was coming back from Hakone, there's this cool
train that zigzags its way up the mountain and it's the,
they claim second steepest railway in the world.
But I saw some conflicting reports on that.
Well, yeah.
The most steepest street is more steep.
Thank you.
The most steepest train.
The straightest, the straightest.
So as we're going down and I have a video of this ride,
but I don't have a video of the car, but we're going down
and like I mentioned, fall colors, the train goes up
and it hits a dead end and then it zigzags up
the next way backwards and then it goes,
it does that a few times.
So it's very cool.
And it's the main way you'd get to Hakone,
which is like a hot springs town that's been there
and like a total touristy place that you would go for like
the weekend from Tokyo.
And then you can go to the lake and there's Mount Fuji views
and all that.
Is Hakone turnpike a thing or something?
Yeah.
That is a thing.
Yeah.
That was a thing.
And so on the road below the track,
I see a white brand new prelude and it looks awesome.
It's like the road is like, it just sprinkled that morning.
There's the fall colors, white prelude.
I get my camera out and then we never see it again.
It's like the road veers off.
But then as we were the train station at the bottom
of the mountain waiting for the main train,
there was another one.
It was like a grayish like silver.
They look so good.
That is interesting.
Okay.
That is like a perfectly designed car.
Yeah.
In person.
Okay.
I think they look horrible on photos.
Oh really?
Yeah.
No.
They're like, they nailed it.
They're all, they're not going to be a real performance car.
200 horsepower, like Prius basically.
Yeah.
And they're expensive for the R2.
Yeah.
All of the above is just not great.
If they made a, you know, a hot four cylinder manual,
like Miata competitor.
That's what they should have done there.
On the last podcast, we talked about them a bit
and our complaint about the styling was like,
like straight on the side,
like the shots they show on the website.
It's like very cab forward.
Yeah.
Kind of like awkward looking and then it looks a little tall
and like haunched, like haunched.
But I was saying like, I think in person,
maybe from standing up at like six feet, you know,
whatever, like looking not like on your knees,
looking at the car, it would look a lot better.
And that's funny.
You mentioned that both times I thought I was on like a
platform above the car as it drove by and it looked
amazing.
So, and you know, also I'm going to add into the,
you know, there's the fall lighting.
There's pumpkin spice.
Somewhere death lighting as we say the death trees trees
are all dying and I'm I'm emotional because of that.
Yeah.
So like I have tear, misty tears in my eyes and I'm
looking at the prairie.
It's like reviewing a movie on a plane, dude.
Oh, right.
Extra emotional.
Well, I mean, yeah, you're like it was the best movie
ever.
And it was at elevation on top of that.
But I think there was sulfur.
That's what I said.
I have yet to see one in person and I said,
I hope that it's good in person because I just the
way that it photographs, it's like, it's so weird.
Like the proportions look very awkward.
It's like it looks like a toad or something.
It's like very wide and flat and like a big face and
it looks awkward.
But just as you're saying, maybe in person and at our
50 millimeter focal length or whatever it is,
like it's it looks better and also just that
vantage point, right?
Like looking down around it.
It looked great.
And you know, there's not a lot of cars like
that in Japan.
A lot of them are very utilitarian boxes and
such.
So it's like, oh, dang, that thing looks and
apparently it's doing really well there with the
with like 50 plus demo.
Like they're they're selling really well to people
that are over 50 years old.
So again, tapping into the nostalgia and also
don't need space.
Like the utilitarian pieces are relevant.
They're either single or they have a one a spouse,
you know, or whatever and no children to deal
with.
But also like, yeah, the prelude cache.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm trying to think like realistically,
like how that carries that.
That big prelude.
I don't know.
That's what I'm wondering.
Like, you know, it was here because here it was
not like a major success, but maybe yeah,
it's a weird one.
And there I always thought it was a American
market car.
I never knew.
I didn't know it was a yeah, they were definitely
JDM and but it's it's yeah.
It's an interesting one there because the way
it's perceived, it's like it's a proper GT,
right?
Relative to like what the little right,
you know, right and one box is wherever
they recall.
Totally.
Yeah, absolutely.
It has presence and it's less expensive than an
LC Lexus, I guess.
But yeah, really quick.
The trip to Hakone is cool because you,
we stayed near Shinjuku station and there's
this train called the romance car.
It's all super romantic guys.
The train is red.
It's got some special seats and whatnot.
It's kind of a cross between a subway
and a Shinkansen or bullet train somewhere
in between.
But it's way nicer than a subway and they
basically tout themselves as this like great
views and vistas.
They have two observation cars you can select
as well at the end of the trains with big
windows and stuff.
Those tickets sell out immediately.
I don't even know how you get them.
But we knew that if you sit on the right
side, you can get some views of Fuji.
So we did that and it was an amazing day.
Super clear views of the mountain and that's
like an hour and a half, two hour drive.
And then you get to the last stop there
and you get on the zigzag train.
So that goes up the mountain back and forth.
It's way smaller and older.
Super cool tunnels.
It's been there over a hundred years.
Really neat experience doing that.
And it goes stops, then it backs up
and stops and backs up.
It's super cool.
And then you get to the end of that.
Then you're in Hakone proper.
And now you can get on a funicular.
Anyone?
Oh, yeah.
Funicula.
Yeah.
Lane, if you've been to the Shadowbrook,
you've been on a funicular.
Oh, no, sure.
I've been.
So it's a slanted train, but it's built
almost like stairs inside.
So you're sitting normally in the train,
but the train is on an incline.
And that's pulled by a cable.
They have two trains and you get basically counterbalanced.
And there's one big sprocket at the top of the mountain
and they just pull up or push down.
So two trains, one track.
And it's really neat to watch that work.
So that you get on that, you go to the top of the mountain
and then from there you get on a gondola.
Jesus Christ.
The ropeway.
And the ropeway is a tourist thing for sure.
You go over this extinct volcano,
which is still spewing out like sulfur clouds
and it's very dramatic looking.
And it also looks like it could erupt at any second,
but for some reason they've built this whole fricking.
You're on top of it.
Yeah.
Totally.
You're literally going over it.
And then you get to the station,
which is like a massive ski like gondola.
And for some reason out of the 50 cars,
the gondola cars, two of them have glass floors,
but it's totally random.
If you get them, you get them as they break.
Yeah.
You just, why don't you do that with all of them?
Anyways, it's a bit of a tourist trap up there.
There's tons of people.
You have to wait in line to get on the thing
and all that stuff, but whatever.
Then you go down the mountain on the other side on the gondola
and you go to another stop.
And then you get on the next one
and then you go down to Lake Ashi.
Then you row a boat across the lake.
You're supposed to do the zipline
all the way down to the lake.
Then that station at the bottom of the lake
glets you out into the pirate ship.
What the fuck?
No, it does not, dude.
Two massive pirate ships waiting.
What the hell?
We said no, didn't do the pirate ship
because it was such a tourist trap kind of thing.
And I think it's fine.
Like it's easy and whatever.
They just basically go down the lake and back.
It's like a 30, 40 minute round trip.
It's very like take pictures and all that stuff.
Fall colors, did I mention that?
Dude, so much stuff.
The pirate ship.
Dude, skulls.
Jolly Roger on the flags.
Scaliwags and whatnot.
And then we walk to lunch on the lake.
That's one thing I've said it before.
I'll say it again.
Japan doesn't know how to do like waterfront stuff well at all.
Like California is really good.
Italy is like best of the best.
But like they just don't get like a nice lake.
It's just shlubby old boats
and crap on the ground and like just, just not good.
They can make that.
They don't put the restaurants like on the like on docs or anything like that.
Like they were like on the on the lakefront.
But then like there's just a bunch of junk around the bottom of the restaurant.
And like, you know, rusty old stuff.
It's just like why this should be like your most beautiful part of this area.
And it almost seems like an afterthought anyways.
I digress.
But that was the one place we ate that required, you know,
crisscross applesauce under the table.
Oh, yeah.
No shoes and about, you know, six inches between the table and the floor.
That's your fault for having a short torso.
I don't know.
Are you flexible or flexible ish?
Oh, because so you did.
You mean sat on your feet, not under the table, like not feet under the table.
I mean, if you go feed under the table, you might as well be a Lego man.
Like your your legs are straight.
Well, well, no, six inches, dude, six inches.
There's a. Well, there's something called a kotatsu, a kotatsu,
which is like it's not the it's a heated.
You know what I'm talking about where you like you sit down on the tatami,
but your feet go down like a.
We did eat there. That conversation.
Those are awesome.
That's just a seat that like you drink over you and the heaters underneath
like it's amazing. Well, we don't. We didn't get off a blanket.
That's awesome. He's sitting on the floor dog. You're your floor and
you're eating on a coffee table. I'm chilling dude. I love that stuff.
You love that stuff. What's all good. Where do you go? I'm like
sideways like my leg behind the person next to me.
You look like you look like as we know where I was drawing you
like yeah. I'm like a fucking. I'm like mermaid stance at one point.
Yes. Yes. That's it. And so luckily we picked a table that had the wall
behind it. Oh, yes. At least that dude. I was hurt and yeah. Check
your shoes at the door. I will say really quick the the place
we stayed at and Hakone was very cool. It was like a high
end Ryokin spot that had on each balcony of the hotel room
that had its own hot spring. Nice bath, which is really cool.
And when you get to the hotel, check your shoes at the door
into a locker hell in the lobby. Wow. Oh yeah. We did that
actually at the one moment. Okay. And then the rest of the hotel
is heated to Tommy floors. So good. And it's it's shoes or
socks or barefoot. I want barefoot barefoot hotel guy
barefoot. That's a rare one, right? Yeah, about half the
people are allowed to do that dude. Half the people were
allowed to do it. Okay. In the restaurant, but they give you
but don't they give you little slippers to wear? That's usually
they don't want to wear. They give you slippers, but they're
like made of recycled paper. You know, they're not. I mean,
but at least you're covering up your little grippers, dude.
So but they also give you the full on robe and like the
jacket that goes over the robe. Yeah. Recycled robe. You
didn't wear any of that either. I wore that nude. He
was a sock. No, I went Sumo. Sumo diaper. Sumo diaper.
It's legit. Sumo diaper is pretty legit, but yeah. So did
the public bath and the private of course. That was great.
That was super fun and the food was amazing because there
was all inclusive and they were, you know, very good
Japanese hospitality and dimension the fall colors out the
window. I mean, it's very dirty leaves. Yeah. Yeah. And
then we went straight from there to Disney, which was an
experience. How different is it? I've never been in Tokyo
Disney. Tokyo Disney school. So they offer a five PM past.
It's open till nine. You can go at five PM for like 30 bucks.
So we did that the first day we got there was like, we'll
knock out Tokyo Disneyland first and next door is Disney
Sea, which is like their version of Disney World. But
so Disneyland is just like Anaheim, but it's everything's
like whiter and cleaner, not whiter, but like the roads. They
just had more space to build it, but it's like the same
layout, but like Main Street when you walk into Disney is
all indoors, like a huge metal roof and it's all decorated
for Christmas this time of year, which my wife loved and
it's the same like Western style architecture. Yeah.
Down same main street. They have like the river boat
Yeah, it's all that stuff, but you get Disney. You get to
say it's all Western style architecture. It's like
copying European streets and stuff sometimes, but yeah, it's
like that that like nineteen hundreds. Yeah, whatever
you want to call it like turn of the century, Americana
kind of feel, but what we didn't realize and I
should have thought about this, but all the preambles
announcements and like performances are all in Japanese.
So you you get to a ride like there's some rides in like
especially at the Disney Seaside where you go in like the
haunted mansion. There's a room you enter before you get
on the ride where it's like here's what's happening and
there's a curse and you're going to be you know in this
whole thing and they talk for a while and it's like part
of the experience. We're just like glazed over like
all right. So and then that's out and then on the ride
there's all these like announcements and things
happening and music and songs and it's all in Japanese. So
it's like funny to go through that, but at the same time
we're like, I don't know what that was all what was going
on back there so that we that was fun, but Disney
Sea is unbelievable. That place is like I mean the
amount of detail and like the work they put into the
world walking around is so crazy. I just yeah it's like
everywhere you go every land you walk through is just
like the most insane detail like they have a fake so the
whole thing is ocean slash water base so it's like
Venice and the gondoliers and then old New York with
a big steamship which is like like almost the full
size steamship in the water and then you go over
to this Cape Cod zone and it's like it looks exactly
like a miniature Cape Cod complete with vegetable
gardens and you know you can walk through all the
buildings and it's all like super clean of course, but
even to the point of you go to a regular amusement
park and they'll be like, I don't know someone
scratch their initials into the fucking tree right
like that's just stupid people in places that
happens not in Japan. There's none of that going
on. There's no like trash. There's no but I
feel like our Disney's like that too. It's so
I think our Disney is really good too but like
I'm a pop card and we turned around the guy was cleaning
it up. Totally. I think Disney's probably one of
the exceptions to the rule but just like everywhere
you go it's like that right like there's just no
like yeah just no yes perfect yeah it's kind of
perfect yeah the only thing I'll say though and
I think we kind of all all agreed as a family
is that the rides not great Oh at sea or the
Disney at sea at sea really long wait times very
short rides and a lot of them were those like
get in a boat go through a world and you're and
it's done it's like they kept talking about
like you gotta go in the frozen right it's the
only one in the world you gotta go in the
Rapunzel right it's the only one in the
world we're like alright so we you know get
the fast pass or whatever and go through the
thing and it's like yeah it's not much of a
ride was it no and so then the other thing is
there's not that many kids it's like mainly
20 something's mainly women who have gone
with their friends two or four people and
they coordinate their outfits completely
interesting and they are just there to see
and be seen yeah I don't even think they
care about the lines or the rides yeah
yeah here too but it is to the next level
like I Sarah and I try to get some pictures
of these people it's it's like crazy dude
crazy like they're dressed up as like
Dalmatians to the head to toe like with
just little chachis and then they're all
walking perfectly together and then they
like take pictures and get the food and
so you're not allowed to do that at our
Disneyland you're not allowed to dress up
like a character or anything what yeah
well as a character right like as a
because did you're not to dress it
allowed to dress up like a whatever
right you can wear normal clothes with
like snow white colors but that's what
people do but you can't dress up like
snow white I never dress up like a
Dalmatian you can't yeah did you get
banned for dressing up like snow white
yeah well yeah me and Joe Joe
De Patista went there and we both got
banned because we were dressed up like
snow whites well I won't say that
they were wearing no like I won't say
they were like wearing a perfect like
costume but it was like their whole
outfit or just like winter it was like
they would wear just like puffy jackets
all matching by the way
everything was like so curated and I
felt like they're you don't go there as
a kid you go there as like a young adult
well it's kind of like the Harajuku
like street fashion scene but Disney
specifically is that exactly so it's
like Disney inspired but it's all there
it's a cosplay once again which
Japan is like the best and it's just
cosplaying like a amusement park
attendee attendee and like I don't know
how to say it and it was Christmas so
everything's Christmas themed and you
know all the stuff it was cool that was
definitely cool and Andrea had fun it
just there weren't like a lot of the
best ride we went on was journey to
the center of the earth which is
really cool it's like Jules Verne
inspired and you go underground and
like you know how they do like you're
walking through his like laboratory you
know and you can just like look around at
stuff it was so detailed like I don't
even know how they did it just
different like little experiments going
on and lights and like the depth of
everything you you look at like the
ceiling and it's like rather than just
do like some popcorn style like
whatever it's like boards on top of
boards on top of boards with like
you know what I mean like yeah over
the top like great America would be like
a black ceiling and then it would have
like track lighting up there and the
boardwalk would be car cardboard with
exactly yeah and it would be like yeah a
harsh blue light this is like they've
taken everything into account like the
noises and it's just really cool to
see and very inexpensive that's the
other thing it's like I mean Japan is
you guys know it's just unbelievably
cheap the value is insane right now
food I tell everyone I'm like
dude just go over there it's like the
biggest hurdle is that it takes 11 hours
to get there yeah the flight sucks but
it's at a five year low yen to the
dollar wait is it really yeah wow and
we would buy stuff at Disneyland like
food was like eight bucks you know like I
just saw a thing came on Instagram a
large pepperoni pizza Disneyland is
eighty six dollars oh my god feeds
four yep yep so anyway I could talk
about it forever if anyone wants to
okay what's your favorite meal you had in
Japan that's a great one so two things
we did we did ramen and sushi really
well I tried the brothless ramen which
was awesome colder or warm that's like
warm and that's like the cool thing
these days but we were set up a few
places by a friend who just moved
back from Japan and he's a chef and so
he set us up with a restaurant called
shirubi and it's it was like out of a
movie it was like going to do it it was
like a movie dog movie it has a
center kitchen so it just felt lively
right off the bat like the kitchen's
in the middle of the restaurant open
and you can sit at bar stools around
it and then you've got the tables
like you were describing art where you
sit on the ground but you have a
recess for your feet or your legs so
you're all you're sitting on the ground
but you're in the floor I don't know
what I'm trying to say yeah
anyways it's a bit you said it's a bit
sitting in that pit check your shoes at
the door we had reservations the place
was popping it was Friday night it's
just like it couldn't be more popular
and it was all like kind of it almost
felt like entry-level salary type
workers with their boss so it's like
huge table with like boss at the head
of the table and then like 20 some
things all around like white shirts you
know even women they're like just
dressed very like professionally but
off of work and having a great time
sorry man there's were flying food
coming out everyone's having a great
time so we did that and we ordered
everything but one of the things was
a mackerel which I really like and
it was sliced and then blow torch
on the table so just one of those
like performative things you're like
this is great like there's we had you
see Yabisu beers going and so Warren
you described that environment and
restaurant is called an is a kayak
that's a yes you went to a
so is that just like a restaurant
bar it's like it's more like tapas
ask like where you have like little
dishes and it's all a la carte and
then also like the fact that you have
those groups like with with the boss
and all that like that's very traditional
like going with your employees or your
coworkers in big groups like that sort
of setting but yeah that sounds awesome
man and it was great that like the
places just so hop in the the staff
was like younger all the people there
were just yeah it was great and I'm
really glad like there's no way a we
would have found the place be we
wouldn't have had a reservation and
could never be in there you know it's
like all those stuff like we just
we would never have known where was
that one I have to look it up I think
it was not far from Shinjuku but
and then after that we did karaoke
which Andrew had never done oh yeah
really fun so private room karaoke
is so fun and he had a lot of fun
with that so that was like our best
like night out dinner but
yeah we ate really well and those
those we only did conveyor belt
sushi we didn't do anything fancy
which is like equal to the
decent restaurants here anyways and
quality dude I saw the stack
of place you guys dude I mean
we went unlimited every time it's
hard to not just like if you had the
one with the screens next to you right
where you just like and it all comes
to your table we went with we doing
three different styles and one with
Clark and Jen and family
the style that I like the best is
each person has their own tablet
and you're just at a bar and you
can just go crazy go crazy you have
your own tablet hit hit toro
nice yeah but they had
another one which was
everyone shares the tablet and that's
fine but it had your own conveyor
belt on the top which is what you ordered
but then just below it is a conveyor
belt with a little bubble
of whatever they've
made and you can open the bubble and
take it and that's that's fine
so like stuff will come across and be like
that looks amazing boom I want that
I didn't know that existed let me have
that and then you can on the side be like
toro salmon belly like let's do this
so yeah we went
pretty hard on the sushi on those
those days but it does feel like
they're basically paying you to eat it's
like a dollar fifty for a
freaking nigiri a pair of nigiris
which are here would be like I don't know
six you like walk out of those
places like family of four we'd walk
out and you'd be like oh man we spent
so you know or whatever and you pay
like it's like fifty dollars for
everyone honestly that dinner I was
going at the izakaya spot
was so we had
five drinks probably between us including
Andrew's drink he was hitting the shots
pretty hard but we
so
drinks all the food
everything it was fifty bucks
and it basically felt like we bought
the beers and drinks and the
food was free yeah like
that's what it would have been here and
you don't feel bad about this
but no tipping is a
fucking lie you love it
you just do a good job because it's your
job and you're
and you're kind of pissed if someone tips you
because it's like you're saying like what
that I'm you know other
people are doing a bad job and I did a better job
or what is it
but so tippings out there's that
there's no you know insane
prices for all this basic
stuff so yeah that was
crazy and
before all that we went to this
we went to another spot this
sake bar which is a whole other
story but again my friend
Callan set us up with this
place that it's a sake
distributor and like you could go there to buy
special sake that's all it is it's
like a liquor store back
streets but in the back of that
is a standing bar which I
guess was way more popular back in the day
this is like the oldest one in Tokyo
and it's only
old salarymen dudes
or retirees that are in there right and
we were there happy hour
and again we had a reservation they had
like a table reserve for us which is so cool
and we brought Andrew and he was
like a fucking god
oh really
I think to have a kid in there a
is like a celebrity dude yeah
to have a kid in there at all is like
what the hell's going on to
to have a white kid in there it was
like nine years old and just like wide-eyed
looking around like what is happening
it's so funny dude this guy came up to us
and talked to us for a while had pretty good English
gave us these killer
tamago like cold tamagos
that he got from
a Tsukiji
some hundred year old place that like
is like you have to have this like
you're going to be the leader of the
free world to Andrew
and then another dude comes over
and he goes here I got you something to drink
to Andrew and it's like an apple juice
or like a sprite he's like holding which one do you want
and Andrew's like I guess the juice
he's like you have both dude
no Andrew replied 6-7
6-7
that's all Andrew would say to him
at the end of the night we had
amazing sake and of course it's like
there's this one special sake that they have
that's only available tonight you guys pick the best night to come
and I'm like okay I'm sure you tell it to everybody
but at the end of the night I told Andrew
well go over to that table the guy that brought him the drinks
and there's like six guys drinking
and in their fifties
probably and Andrew went over and said
you know have a good night and
they're like you know like to walk them out
it was pretty cool
so yeah we had a great it was a great trip
can't recommend it highly enough
Japan I can't wait to get back
that's amazing don't you feel like
you're like I felt like every time we stay
at a wreck and you felt like a celebrity
to like you'd walk in the door they're like
oh welcome and they remember your name
and like it's like totally you know
totally yeah this one was like
really I mean it's
it's like
just like so different
that's what I love about Japan is everything's just a little different
like the fact you're
to go check into the hotel I got to take my shoes off
and go you know like
that right there you're just setting up this whole level
this is going to be an experience
and it was it was great
and that is the fun part about vacationing
and going to different places is like
well different kind of things
you do and having it that much
you know different
it's like such a new experience yeah well
there's the adventure but it's also everything
is excellent so it's like
you know the service the architecture
the food the cleanliness the safety like all of the
things are so they're so good and like
when you go to a place and you seek
adventure and you're in Egypt you're
probably going to get into some dicey situations
and it's going to be pretty or like history
and all that uncomfortable right but yeah
like uncomfortable at times right so it's fine
that's fun too and I mean you can't be
comfortable I can see because of the language barrier in Japan
especially for a lot of people right like that's a thing
and it's confusing and like just like
the subway system can be overwhelming if once
you get outside of the main stations
like there's nothing you know yeah I think it's
in English so it's like
Warren did you notice
that like the graphic design
is horrible there everywhere man
the websites couldn't be worse
also it's it's a geocity
stuff yeah
and Todd our buddy Todd
had mentioned this to me and I kind of
remembered it but man they are like
the 1990s websites and nothing really
works right
yeah there's a bunch of little things
that drive me crazy about Japan and
it's more like I just
am not as acclimated
you know I would just need time to like get used to it
like Ali had asked me on
Sundays like so are you moving to Japan
and I'm like no
because I can't speak Japanese like if
I could speak conversationally that's one thing
but I think in order to learn that and do it
well you have to live or go there a lot
so it's like cart before the horse stuff
like I would love to go more
if I knew the language better
but I won't know the language better
unless I go there more you know like that's
probably what it takes I mean are you could
speak to it better but that's that's basically
you have to immerse yourself yeah you have
immersion is the best way but also you want a foundation
right it's gonna take some studying
I mean like Clark's been there a long time and we
love Clark and he's a very intelligent person
he's not he doesn't dominate the language you know it's
like you because it's so different like you
have fundamentally different to the point
where you have to learn that you have to study
it and then you can apply the the
rest of it right like it's it's
it's just that's just the way it is you need
the foundation but no doubt of
you know living there I mean it's an absolutely
if you don't use it you lose that situation
that's why I talked to anybody that speaks
Japanese whenever I can because like you forget
shit all the time and like
and it's unfortunate that you know this
is one of those details in life that it's
just a fact and it's not not judging it
one way or the other but like the majority
of Japanese restaurants especially in
California are not Japanese owned so like
a lot of times it's Korean people or Korean
families or Chinese family so I don't
get to practice it when I go even to a
Japanese restaurant so there are some
instances where you get that opportunity but
it's very rare I I have a heart out in
like 20 minutes so I'm not going to
go into this too far but I went to a
the San Diego Safari Zoo
and I was waiting in line to get on the
tram or the whatever the tram and
there was a Japanese family to one side
of us and and I made a joke
about the candy that they were eating and
so I talked to them for like 10 minutes
in line and my my sister
in law was like laughing at me and she's like
she basically called me out she's like you will
take any opportunity to talk to a Japanese
person and I'm like yes because I need
to speak it you know so it's
important that's funny
yeah the other
thing I'll say about going to Japan
is that I wish
I was wealthier because I would just get
first class
every time oh yeah it's one of the plate
times that it's very very keen
it is that's a brutal
brutal flight I mean travel in general
sucks and we were on Japan Airlines
which is probably as good as it gets as far as like just a regular
economy ticket but
11 hours in a seat
that doesn't go down
you know I
man I really just was like
I want to lay down so bad yeah
up when I flew the first
time I went over I flew both ways
in business
nice which was
only I want to say it was only I got
$300 upgrade per way
okay and I felt
that was well like I
felt so good about that
that's it was like it was for sure
very comfortable
tons you know I could I could put my seat
way back and I had a big barrier
between me and the person next to me with
like a peasant blocker thing
yeah I love that
I mean I also was talking to somebody that
was able to you like bid
on an upgrade
seat like through Lufthansa
and it was like 300 bucks as well to go
like to first class because they have empty seats
and it's like if they can cover some costs
like great
but I think it was 3x
or something for our flight you know it would have been really
pretty bad
so that was brutal
jet lags brutal all that
and then
Japan doesn't do mornings
they're not into mornings
coffee doesn't open till like once
pancake restaurant opens at
10 Starbucks world that's all you got yeah
Starbucks and Lawson's
I mean even 711s weren't open early like
you can find some little coffee shops dude
but like I found some that
in general don't you agree but in general
it's 10 at the earliest
and a lot of coffee shops
still don't until one o'clock in the afternoon
they close at midnight but still
I know close at one in the morning
it feels like their breakfast stuff is like a dessert
thing or something they're doing later
because we were roaming around 8
839 nothing was open
I was up every morning like a fucking
zombie dude just like
you know I was like in this weird world
of me just like running around taking pictures
no one around dude I know
we were in coffee dude
so I hit up a machine has some sugary ass coffee
what's that what's that street in Harajuku
like Shinagawa
Shinagawa I don't know
anyways it's like though the main
drag I have a name maybe the main name
totally wrong anyways it's a yeah
the main drag we're like all the shops are and
it's a Takashita street
isn't it oh yeah yeah Takashita
do what you say
Takashita yeah so it that's a
Takashita Takashita
Ryokan
Los Gatos
anyways
that we walked through there early
we thought we were right on time but man
like is it desolate or not
it was just no not even one shop open
by the way killer crepes there on that
street that the Japanese style crepes
they're so we got those puffy
puffy pancakes the souffle pancakes are so good
really fluffy ones they had
a macadamia
like sauce that wasn't that sweet
it was so oh my god it sounds amazing
I don't know why those haven't caught on here
a lot of stuff like that but
yeah so flight over I would love
to like if you just baller then
you're you're good all in out of control and
then knowing the least you guys had a whole
row right yeah
but still it's like I mean at least
you have your side to side you don't have to worry
that's true nice that's true
I just do do a neck
pillows I yeah
I'll go in and out dude they
sometimes
like on a zipper they give you
the neck pillow when you like get
the meal plan or whatever dude
okay all right are you a neck pillow guy
not a neck pillow guy I'm a
fold the head rest into
I lean into that yeah
that doesn't do much I mean you know me
I'll sleep on a domestic two-hour
flight so I I know
I know because you can't see you don't get to sleep
at home this is true you take any
opportunity I'll sleep anywhere I
saw this lady she was all set up she had
a it was like this
contraption you you snap
on to the head rest
and then you connect that to
your neck pillow or
maybe even like their head just like
basically just strap their head to the
seat like they weren't able
to move which is
really funny yeah so
all good I mean
travel but you know we travel
something travel yeah it's not
yeah that's what I would love to go
though like for the rally or for some
other more like are you
know with us and be able to do the car
stuff because yeah we really
didn't capitalize on that I
went looking for watches and then we
went with Clark
Akahabara
that's with all the electronic
stores are video games and
Akihabara and he's like
oh we'll go to this model store
and so we walked in and it was all
like you know remote control
trains what do they call
the power trains I don't know whatever
little models and they have
every single model of
every subway that's ever existed in Japan
and all the bullet trains and all the little figurines
and stuff and it was like cool tiny little store
and he's like yeah but
it's this is just the first floor
yeah this whole building
this entire building
each floor is
more of this there was even a track you
could bring your own train to
and put it down
and dude dude
the one of the ones that I say he was that
but for cars Liberty
it's like Liberty floor I think and that's
it's seven stories of just
scale models I couldn't I didn't get
there I wanted to so bad and then
we he said that that wasn't even the only
train building like that in the
neighborhood for sure wow
which is just you know that is
a whole but yeah trains are a whole
level of spectrum there you're dealing
with a whole layer of nerd
that you have no idea like it's it's there
and it's like old guy it totally and talk
about the cosplay shit like these people live it
like they're like they've got the tire
they've got the whole thing going down yeah it's
like a whole lifestyle it's crazy
what's your heart out two forty two thirty
or two forty I'll get into trivia
we have questions but I think we just save
them so for the listeners
sorry but we will we'll get to him next
time promise promise
pinky sorry how do you like that
sounds good let me see what I can do here
so did you get to watch one or no
I did I
so I went to your recommendations are
awesome by the way and it was super fun
to walk through all those shops but they were
mainly pretty high end I mean they weren't
they weren't a lot of used
interesting one
that does
primary like Jack and Betty or whatever
is like super famous
and then there was another one that's all
like a lot of used Seiko
yeah I didn't
see so I was looking for like two very specific
watches I never found them
and then I was enticed
by like the new stuff like new omegas
and stuff but I ended up buying a Seiko
in Ginza which is just
very simple it's an automatic
like I can show you but very simple
watch that you could buy here except
the days are in
kanji so
I thought that would be kind of a cool moment
is like something that
I don't think you can buy here maybe can I'm sure on eBay
or was it the cool thing like
I was going to say when you go to like
big camera or what's the art
store loft like
they loft has a whole watch section
as well and they'll have like
citizens and Seiko's and it'll say like
Japan only model that's
cool which and there was
some pretty rad like citizens and
stuff that we never see here and
like and Seiko's as well
at those places even
Casio's and stuff like that too so
yeah that's I don't know if you went
to a loft or no I
never never made it that's what I'm saying is like there's
so much we were in Nakano
Broadway and then in Ginza
and their amount of watch shops
at least compared to America is
staggering you can't even believe
that they can all stay in business
in Nakano there was
I don't know 15
watch shops it within
a mile that all had similar
stuff you know I
mean you went to like the third floor right
or fourth floor with all those yeah yeah
and that one shop had like
every if you want to Rolex
go to Japan there are so
many Rolexes like anyone who
says they're hard to get like hard to get a Rolex
like no you're just not in the right spot
condition over there and stuff like incredible
yeah and I posted that like you know
they they had that attack
that was like hand-painted like
unbelievable movement and then
they had those like the rainbow
jeweled Rolexes just like whoa
was you were in Ginza for a while
it sounds like was there anything at the Nissan
storefront thing the showroom
that they have there no I didn't
see it usually have cool I was
that window I was by that Seiko building
and then we kind of loop back and had
our final conveyor belt sushi
which was fun but that's
where I saw the century SUV
and and bought my watch but
yeah so more work to be done
that's all I have to say about that
all right
do do do do do do do do do do do do
do do do do do do do do do
trivia
how
many paint to sample
colors
in blue
this Porsche offer for the 9 11
currently how many
how many blues
not like it matters but this isn't
including like the stock blues
no
these are the named
like they have their own names
we all know some of these but not
most of them
in just blue if you buy
a new 9 11 you say hey Porsche I want to
paint it 60 I don't know that's
just a number that
came to my six zero that's a
lot of a lot of special
cars
over 22
33
that's a good number 33
I have a post here I'm going to try
to go through it really quick I'll see if I can go fast
but there's 33
and we know some but
uh
Lugano 914 olympic
gulf blue
mice messin blue
etna eponima Riviera
Mexico south sea blue
metallic voodoo blue
arrow blue maritime
turquoise
nashi blue oslo blue
club blue negaro
golf blue like the sport azure blue
yachting blue metallic
manouse 944 cobalt blue
metallic aqua blue metallic
albert blue
bally blue bally hoot now just get
xanmarino blue metallic iris blue
metallic dark blue metallic dark sea
night blue x blue
dude did I even get through all of them
I want to look I want to look at eponima
I've never heard of that color before
dude nashi blue
dude nash touch
I think gave nashen is
inspired them
so yeah
that color as high as fuck
dude eponima blue is sick
it's like it's super it's like a pale
blue it's like a blue metallic with
like a bit of a jade in it like a
turquoise it's really cool
that's right I've never seen
it before
we all know that volkswagen
makes their own
sausage yeah there's a party
and all that curry bakwurst part
number and all but what other
food item do they make
beer for sure right
and drinking and driving
Germans yeah to drink and
and drive by the book over
there
bratwurst what other german
things are there
this this food
there's or something
that's a really good guess later
you're wrong it goes
it yeah
haribo it goes with
the
ketchup that's right
is that a curry catcher number curry
worst part number one nine nine three
nine eight five zero zero be
is the Volkswagen ketchup
nice so check it out
art wouldn't touch it dude
yeah
Kessling yeah
he's a Kensington man
so I can curry ketchup dude
they have curry ketchup that's the
one get on it
get on it hey
by the way you guys watch four in the
ones just going crazy guys I need
to catch up I'm dude I
mean it's going to the final
race max 12 points behind
Lando and Oscar
16 points behind Lando I hope max
max is my favorite driver ever
to I hope
he wins it'll be such a fuck
dude no no no no no
we're stopping wind please
why I don't want so good
dude it's fine he's he's
so comical he's this
art still open Leclerc makes it
clear he's coming back to this race everybody's
going to crash out and somehow the
there's going to be a point multiplier
and no dude you guys are dumb
dude it's Hamilton remember the doors
and stuff like walk through the windows
and the doors and it's a seventh
eighth title or something you're right
hang on dude
yeah this is an interesting one we'll
see how it goes all right
all right boys talk to you later
thanks for listening bye bye
bye
About this episode
Warren shares his recent trip to Japan, discussing the unique automotive culture and experiences he encountered. The hosts dive into various topics, including the eclectic mix of cars at local meets, the luxury of Japanese minivans, and the charm of izakayas. They also explore the differences in dining and entertainment in Japan, from karaoke to theme parks. With a blend of humor and personal anecdotes, the episode captures the essence of traveling in Japan and the automotive passion that connects it all.
arena red turbo
daily driving
girl go kart series
Japanese makes
mimics
morning motors
Radwood
Sebastian Loeb
steering inputs
Bentley Azure
BMW 3 Series
BMW M4
Buick Century
Ferrari Testarossa
Fiat Multipla
Ford Flex
Ford Ranger
Honda Prelude
Hyundai Santa Cruz
Hyundai Satellite
Lamborghini Diablo
Lexus LC
Lexus LM
Mazda MX-5 / Miata
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster (W198)
Mercedes-Benz SL
Porsche 911
Porsche 914
Porsche 918 Spyder
Porsche 944
Porsche Carrera GT
Porsche Cayman
Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Toyota Alphard
Toyota Prius
Toyota Sienna
Volkswagen Golf
Original notes
Warren is back from his trip to Japan, We held another DWA! Morning Motors, and Art went to the Rancho Santa Fe Cars and Coffee.
Driving While Awesome
Lane Skelton, Warren Madsen, Art Cervantes
0:00
76:40