@exodus gah that red Delta is great after months of deliberation I finally had a set of new wheels and tires decided on, a pretty blatant “homage” to those integrale wheels by Fifteen52, only to find out that they're no longer being made in sizes for my car
@tibiteku Holy cow, that Toyota Starlet is perfect. What a pretty orange.
uh is a point and shoot camera from 2005 old enough and bad quality in an interesting way enough to be cool and retro yet? (no)
The coolest part about Daikoku Futo to me has still got to be how you're just encircled by highway onramps:
https://youtu.be/intDb9aqyeQ
Weirdest thing at Daikoku that I saw personally were the tricked out minivans half full of sound systems that would play techno remixes of the Butt-Biting Bug song:
https://youtu.be/7A73pWpQG-s
Still gotta find the hard drive with the good pictures...
Edit: LOL the reason I couldn't find any good pictures is because there probably aren't any... ties in with my first comment about mostly using a 2005 vintage point and shoot camera that made it really hard to take pictures at night and they mostly turned out like this
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/X4MjOTx.jpeg]
I did find a shot of one of those sound system vans playing some playstation lowrider game looks like
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/1i6JD44.jpeg]
I'm about as unaligned with car talk as one can get and I thought that part of the episode was cool as heck… @tibiteku you sound sound like you are a rock solid hang. Also I am extremely glad you posted a pic of that car because the only thing I could think of while listening to you two talk about that car was that I could not for the life of me visualize it in my head!
This marks quite possibly the only insert credit episode my dad would enjoy. I mean, not that he's going to listen, just a guess.
This was a cool episode, and I had a nice time just hanging out and listening to it - even if we were not playfully being dismissed from each segment via a “well, bye forever!”.
I grabbed my Switch and played through a couple of Picross puzzles while listening to the cars chat and records chat, and the time kinda just flew by.
Really cool ep, appreciate you making it!!
when you mentioned the oakland catalytic converter situation my spine shuddered
@sabertoothalex we have issues with it here too 2000 miles away :(
Without wanting to sound like a “wacky Japan” tourist I once saw a guy in a tuxedo driving a forklift truck down the street like it was perfectly normal and to this day I'm 99% certain that I was witnessing a Yakuza sidequest.
@thebryanjzx90 Haha these are an awesome lookback! And yes I do love the way the entire junction encircles the parking area like a stadium, IMO probably one of the best examples of purely-utilitarian civil structures (that would normally be considered an eyesore) that ends up looking iconic & beautiful in its own right.
I've been super-interested in the history and lore surrounding Daikoku PA and how it continues today to be the prime spot for Tokyo street racers hanging out every weekend night, it's interesting to see how lively and loud it was with all the sound systems bumping tunes all uninterrupted -- especially when comparing it to now. I'm always at awe when watching how visitors back then took liberties to even set up picnic spots with BBQs on parking spaces, haha.
Even moreso how drift cars would exit out of the shutoko into the adjacent local Daikokufuto pier road next to the PA in front of clear view of the 2nd floor's outdoor gallery, and start drifting the nearby intersection in droves for people hanging out on the gallery balcony to see. It's basically the prototypical East Oakland intersection takeover sideshow, but at least done in a lone industrial road so that it doesn't bother the general public.
Daikoku PA today still does get quite rowdy at weekend nights in comparison to 90s Daikoku... even the aforementioned gallery drift shows still occasionally happen. But a good chunk of visitors nowadays seem to gravitate less from the BASS kicker vans, and more toward newly-desirable "JDM classic" cars owned by stationed US military soldiers (which you can easily tell with their "Y-number" license plates) -- sporting their R33/R34 Skyline GTRs & S15 Silvias that they managed to scoop up before prices went super-crazy upward (and are, of course, intent on bringing back to America once their tour of duties are over).
Also, the police's tolerance threshold as far as I can tell seems to be a lot lower, and end up kicking everyone out of the parking area on the weekends by 9PM. Or, worse yet, they start barricading the exits and force cars to go through a "無料車検" ("free shaken/inspection" as it's colloquially called, lol) and slapping fix-it citation stickers on cars that have suspensions stanced hella low or have loud exhausts -- which their drivers sometimes brag about their citation on social media like a badge of honor.
Interesting to hear of someone's changed experience after being away for a few years. Looking forward to part 2!
I had a stressful week at work and listening to this episode at the park watching geese graze while my son is at a class was absolutely the right move.
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/Pc5I9fc.jpeg]
Japanese soundscapes are relaxing to me because I’ve only been there on vacation for tourism. So train stations, their adjacent noises, cicadas, and ambient Japanese language is a pretty good vibe for me. This is contrasted by background Mandarin because I’ve only been there for work and it stresses me out.
Tangential: former ‘88 Prelude owner checking in. That was a super fun car. (And I now have a Prius but I still have the catalytic converter on it.)
https://www.instagram.com/california_historical_radio/
my homie visited here today and sent me lots of pics of the historic tubes and TVs they have. it‘s in alameda, so I feel like these old radio nerds are like the rival gang from across the bay to frank’s VG historical foundation. 
Continuing to listen to the podcast over the weekend. Something that I posit is that the reason that Kenan‘s comments about his company’s work environment “sound like an ad” is because it is such a meaningfully different environment than what the rest of the industry provides to its employees - especially its female employees. Feminine hygiene, bonding leave, private nursing or pumping rooms etc. all should be table stakes to support our fellow humans. The fact that these are considered “perks” by some companies and are totally unsupported by others is why pointing it out seems so alien.
We have been conditioned to think that supporting women is an extra cool bonus and we should be getting gold stars when the conjugate is true: we should be pointing out the disparity when it's not available.
as a Yokohama citizen who frequently is in Tokyo for various reasons, this episode was fun for me. it's always interesting to hear about this area from a fresh-and-knowledgable perspective. i especially liked the bit about being able to view the moon, because my family and i always make an effort to go outside and look up at the full moon whenever the skies are clear during that part of the lunar cycle. we usually have to walk about a block or two from where we live to get an unobscured view. i never thought about trying to do that from a capital-T Tokyo zone, or how difficult it would be.
i‘m not totally sure how to articulate this, but i’m deeply impressed by @exodus’s ability to be expert-level (or near enough for government work) on so many different topics. games of a certain era, cars of a certain era, records from a certain era and geographical region (and the films they may or may not be related to). that‘s pretty neat! maybe everyone on here is similarly well-versed (myself included?) in different and various topics (and maybe that’s why this forum is a consistently rewarding place to hang out), but it's still admirable and enjoyable to hear someone share their knowledge and enthusiasm in such a way as was happening on this episode of the podcast.
...any pics of the Silent Hill toilet corridor? lol
@whatsarobot thanks! I just like learning about things! I‘d also say what I have, rather than an encyclopedic knowledge of anything, is a passable level of knowledge of a wide variety of niches. I get super interested in the edges of things to the extent that the basics are often lost. I was driving with yumiko miyabe (I think next episode we talk about that) and we came upon something like… The highway to Ueno? Or something. And she’s like of course you must know the song, and I‘m like no idea. And she’s like how are you buying all these obscure records and knowing all about them and yet you don't know one of the most famous Japanese pop songs of all time?
So my knowledge is broad across subjects but very narrow in scope basically. I can talk about most subjects and like if you bring up Czech cinema I can talk about the new wave and animation and stuff but then when we get to anything popular or new I've just literally never heard of it.
And sometimes I know just enough to ask good questions or chime in when someone who knows more than me (like Chibitech) is takllking.
Also, my mind is also like a sieve because I'm always trying to learn new stuff, so sometimes stuff I once knew is just 100% gone.
I've got pics of the toilet but I appear to still be photo limited so we will have to wait for that. I'll try again soon!
This is absolutely the case, you just don't have a wide enough market of people to share your expertise with. This is why forums are fun.
Please do not threaten my personal brand on the forums.
…
more like flush it down the drain
…
I haven't listened to part 2 just yet, but wanted to say that I really enjoy these show-floor report episodes and I think this one may be what prompted me to cover my local Pride with some vox pop interviews this past weekend.
Having never been to Japan, I appreciated the look at less conventional parts of the culture in the country that the average travel report would focus on - like the street racing with Chibitech.
I just wrote this in the thread for part 2, but I'm a big fan of the road trip episodes. Honestly kinda feels like a journey.
2 anecdotes that came to mind while I was listening that took place in two different restaurants I've worked in, owned by the same people; one is all about vegetarianism, and the other is basically about entirely not vegetarian friendly food.
The first is that I ended up typing up my current job's instagram post about how we've started working with a new wild mushroom provider. Not normally part of my job, but my manager was struggling to find the words. I ended up having to stress what we have that's vegetarian and vegan friendly. I honestly felt a twinge of guilt to be playing up literally two versions of mushroom tacos as great vegetarian options. I guess my feeling is that even nice-ish places in the US aren't doing much for vegetarians.
The other anecdote is about a pizza with 3 types of salami/pepperoni on it. The chef had wanted to call it the Pig Destroyer Pizza, which is why I knew exactly the message Brandon was trying to convey. (It ended up being called the_Triple P Pizza, it was probably pretty good if that's your thing.)
Just started the episode but for anyone who is in to this (like me), make sure to check out Tim‘s travel-vlog he posted on youtube of his and the punk’s trip to Japan a couple years ago. He mentioned it in the Boku review. There is a lot of empty space in the vlog, but I find it really interesting to see a rough around the edges document of this place I've never been to by people who share similar interests.