Steven Le | Doing my own thing since 1988

February Photo A Day: Days 8-14

2012-02-16T12:37:00.000+11:00

8. sun

9. front door

10. self portrait

11. makes you happy

12. inside your closet

13. blue

14. heart

Car Craft Boon/Osaka JDM

2012-02-09T16:09:00.001+11:00

I posted this up on 7Tune a few weeks ago but I forgot to share it here just in case anyone missed it. Head over to 7Tune.com to read the full article on how I got to see one of my hero cars.

The Osaka JDM EF7 CR-X.

February Photo a Day: Days 1-7

2012-02-08T15:14:00.000+11:00

So I've decided to give this a go after thinking about doing something similar for a while. I'll be doing it week by week so I'll have a set of 7 photos every week (hopefully) because I'm too lazy to do it daily. There will be no captions for my photos, so if you don't get it - bad luck.

1. your view today

2. words

3. hands

4. a stranger

5. 10am

6. dinner

7. button

Osaka Round 1

2012-01-25T02:42:00.001+11:00

So I've finally gotten around to getting some photos up online so here are the highlights from our first stint in Osaka.

The flight over didn't feel that long and it wasn't a full plane either. I'm quite impressed with Jetstar since it was my first international flight with them.

After finding our way to the hotel we were greeted by this fluffy rabbit.

After unpacking and realising how I've forgotten a bit of my Japanese we headed straight to Namba for a feed.

If you've read my previous posts about Japan then you don't need an explanation for this. For everyone else, these are the famous egg tarts of Japan that Kim and I fell in love with when she came to visit me in Japan in 2010. They were really satisfying to say the least.

Then we were off to get some real food, we stopped by this outdoor ramen shop which filled us up for the night. Free kim chi to add to your ramen too, how could you go wrong for 600 yen?

It's only tradition that we head to the arcades after dinner and when we're in Japan, it's got to be darts! I was a bit rusty but still managed to hit a couple of bullseyes and surprisingly so did Kim.

We then decided to crash for the night to save some energy for the next day.

The view from our hotel room, it's nothing special but it sure beats the view from my room at home.

Strolling the streets since Coco Ichi didn't open until 11am.

We stumbled upon a Vietnamese restaurant too, so rare in Japan.

My lovely girlfriend in her Yakuza shades.

BOOM! 11am and I was a very happy camper that day. Chicken katsu curry!

Kim and her Tonkatsu Curry (I ordered the wrong one for her) looking happy, but not as happy as me haha.

We found this tree where people would write their Christmas wish and hang it up.

Here's ours, guess what mine says haha.

Bumped into Lewis Hamilton too at a sports store. He was too busy with his Reboks.

Every morning I'd get a warm Boss Coffee from the vending machines and let Kim keep her hands warm for a bit before I drank it. Win-win situation!

More egg tarts after breakfast, or was it for breakfast?

Spotted an Aussie restaurant in one of the alley ways around Osaka, I think it's even more rare than finding a Vietnamese restaurant.

Gotta love Japanese manners.

Some crazy looking iPhone cases, check out the one with the hand. Freaky!

Some shots of us.

Then I hit the jackpot, LEGO!

I haven't seen LEGO Technic in so long.

These vending machines are everywhere and I love it, so easy to just grab a drink when you want one.

Taking facebook photos in a sushi train in Japan, we're definitely tourists! Too bad the food wasn't as nice as we thought it would be but we still managed to fill up our bellies!

Like I said, it's tradition to hit the arcades after dinner but this time it was basketball. I forgot who one but it was a close one!

Another fave at the arcades in Japan is this one, it's called 'The Bishibashi' and it's just fun, weird, quirky games. The closest thing I can compare the type of games to is Point Blank but using those buttons. Try and youtube it if you want to see what it's all about.

Afterwards it was crepe time! We didn't have as many as we'd like but this one was definitely the best out of the whole trip.

Again with the egg tarts, yes they're that good.

Some swag, Kim's new watch for $25!

Our matcha floats at cafe down the corner from our hotel. They were delicious!

Our last meal in Osaka before we headed off to Hiroshima, they tasted a lot better than we expected.

That's pretty much it for our stay in Osaka for now, it was just lots of eating and just having a good time. It was really nice to be back in Japan even though it never really 'hit me' that I was back, I think living there for so long makes it feel like my home away from home. Even though this trip made me broke, til now as well, it was definitely worth every single dollar/yen. After this we headed to Hiroshima, a place where Kim and I haven't been before so keep an eye out for that.

The rest of the photos from this set can be found on my flickr.

Coming soon: Osaka round 1

2012-01-24T01:20:00.000+11:00

The wait is nearly over

2012-01-18T00:54:00.000+11:00

The photos have started making their way onto my Mac from my camera. Not long until I get some photos from my trip to Japan up. In the mean time I hope you all had a happy and memorable Christmas and New Year, I know I did!

Japanese Sports Car Poster

2011-12-07T10:28:00.000+11:00

Scored this off Joel, a member on JDMST, it's an awesome poster that I've already stuck up on my wall. The CRX made it on the list so I had to have it, got 2 of them and I'm keeping the other one to maybe get framed so I can put it in my garage or something but it's in safe keeping for now. I also fixed a tiny error in the Japanese translation which I'm pretty proud of too.

Zen Garage + illest Swag

2011-12-07T01:10:00.001+11:00

I dropped by Zen Garage today with Hieu to drop off a present for the guys at Zen Garage and decided to pick up a few presents for myself while I was there. Had to get myself a Zen Garage t-shirt before they're sold out and so I could rock this bad boy when I'm in Japan later since I'm due for some new shirts anyway. I was also the first to pick up the illest key ring, I beat John to it since he wanted to be the first too - next time John haha. Justin also had a pair of purple Kei Office Racing Gloves too - the last pair in Australia - and I was itching to buy it since I've been searching for them for a long time now but I resisted, for the time being.

Zen Garage are having their grand opening this Saturday too so be sure to head down and check them out, first 30 people get a special prize too which I tried to find out from Justin today but was promptly denied by Rob then I was told I had to wait til Saturday to find out. I was so close on getting the inside scoop!

It's all over

2011-11-17T23:42:00.001+11:00

Holy shit it's been a while hasn't it?!

Uni has been killing my life and spare time but it's all come to an end as I finished my last exam earlier today. I have a lot of things riding on my results this semester but I'm just going to take it as it comes. There's no point worrying so much about the future, I'd rather just enjoy things that are happening now. In saying that though I need to save for my trip to Japan next month. It's so bad that I've had to sell my track wheels which I haven't even had a chance to try out yet, I'm so devo but it's all part of the game. It just means I can hunt for a new set of wheels when I get back or even when I'm over in Japan.

I've been getting into my tumblr a lot too and I've found quite a lot of cool shit on there, not just tits and ass either. It has a lot of cool content on there and I've started posting NSFW content too so click at your own risk.

Other than that I've been fortunate enough to score some invites to some pretty cool events like the Forza 4 night at Zen Garage thanks to 7Tune. I'm enjoying what I do and it's great to be able to share it with so many other people. I look forward to posting more content and attending more events since I'm on holidays now.

I'm on a really long break now and I'm not sure what's going to happen but hopefully I get out more and do interesting shit that I can post here.

The day I met Penny

2011-10-27T16:00:00.000+11:00

After spending a week on the Gold Coast for uni games I got obsessed with Penny Skateboards and wanted one when I got back to Sydney. After all the searching online I managed to find a place that sold Penny Skateboards and went to pick one up, originally I wanted the purple one but ended up with the blue one, I was hoping they would let me swap the wheels for oranges ones but they didn't so I'm stuck with the red wheels for now. It doesn't matter really as it's been so fun to ride regardless of what colour board you choose, too bad the weather's been shit lately so I haven't been riding it much. My girlfriend said to me that I better ride the board and not be a poser and carry it around, so when I got it, I went to a little area near uni to practice riding it and I picked it up pretty quickly and the next thing you know, I was riding the fuck out of it. From UTS all the way past Star City and back.

Since forever.

Darling Harbour

Pyrmont Bridge, where I also had my first stack.

The Star, formerly known as Star City.

Nice sea breeze.

Japan Round 2

2011-10-27T13:16:00.000+11:00

Thanks to the Jetstar sales I'm going to Japan again over Christmas and New Years! I'm so excited! I can't wait, it's going to be so fun. Planning on going for three weeks from the 19th of December, I can't to see my friends again, eat all the amazing food and drink all the cheap alcohol.

Fukuda Sensei's Welcome Dinner

2011-09-13T23:47:00.000+10:00

(Excuse the shitty iPhone photo)

A few weeks back I was informed about Fukuda Sensei coming to visit Australia for a few weeks. So to welcome Fukuda Sensei Jayson organised a dinner earlier tonight so we could get together with Fukuda Sensei and have a meet and greet of sorts.

For those that don't know, Fukuda Sensei is a 7th Dan sensei from Japan and is also very well recognised in Australia. Jayson is also his student so UTS Kendo Club hopes to build on this relationship with Fukuda Sensei and make UTS Kendo Club feel like his own.

Earlier tonight we had dinner at O Bal Tan in the city and I headed straight there with the other beginners who were at training beforehand. When we arrived I was amazed at how popular Fukuda Sensei was, he was sitting with all the big names in NSW kendo and he is definitely very charismatic. The beginners and I on the other hand had our own table, sort of like the kiddy table but it was fine, the main table was too intimidating for us anyway.

Dinner was very nice and so was the beer, you can see in the photo that it came out in like a 3L cylinder with a self serve tap at the bottom. This was too cool so we got 2 of them for our table haha. We all enjoyed it very much and it's always fun having a laugh over some beer and food after training, this time we just had some extra special guests with us.

We all got to briefly meet Fukuda Sensei and he is quite a character and a very outgoing person that is very fun to hang out with. In saying this though, he is a 7th Dan sensei so things might be different when we're training together. Thursday night training is when he will be visiting UTS Kendo Club so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks to Jayson for organising everything and I'm sure everyone had a good time, I know I did. I feel really honored and proud of myself that I was able to translate for Fukuda Sensei when he came to our table and introduced himself.

Time In Transit

2011-09-07T02:29:00.000+10:00

Life has been pretty busy for me lately and it seems as though I've complained about it a lot but over the last few weeks it truly has been crazy busy.

Mainly uni has taken up a lot of my time since I think I'm actually putting some time and effort into it now (it's taken me 5 years to do so). I enrolled into photography 1 and even though it's an elective it's actually quite a bit time consuming as well as money consuming. I've got mid-semester exams coming up too so there goes my free time.

Since becoming the club captain for UTS Kendo Club I've stepped up and I've been taking role more serious to set an example for the new members of the club so 3 times a week I'll be training kendo at UTS. This also has to do with uni games coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm going for that gold medal again.

Last weekend my friend Hazuki, who I met while I was in Japan last year came to visit. She's currently doing a summer program at Griffith University in Queensland but she managed to take some time off to come visit Sydney for the weekend. So I took her out to explore Sydney, I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

So what I'm getting at is that I don't have much free time anymore. The only time I usually get 'me' time is probably on the train, where I'm usually reading a magazine or just listening to my iPod or even napping. It takes just under an hour each way so I usually just sit and enjoy the train ride as I reflect and just chill.

Tonight is different though, I've been inspired by the discovery of some great blogs out there especially after reading the post on Zen Garage by Herman Phung which lead me onto his tumblr and personal blog. I've heard of him through the old Autosalon crew but only met him briefly at WTAC not long ago. But from reading his post and blog it made me want to write and write something as amazing as he did. They say practice makes perfect so here I am, trying to get back into the swing of things and into the rhythm of posting on a regular basis again, during my time in transit.

A quick catch up.

2011-08-16T14:56:00.000+10:00

Hello stranger, I know it's been a while since I've updated my blog but I am happy to inform you that I've been enjoying my holidays and I've been spending a lot more time away from my computer hence the lack of posting and updates even on my twitter. So let's see what I've been up to since my last post.

I've been training kendo a lot, participated in a couple of competitions and also passed my grading and am now 4th Kyu. Through the 3 or 4 years that I've been doing kendo I've only graded twice haha.

It's been great fun though, I've made a lot of new friends, not only from UTS Kendo Club but from many other clubs too. I also take Tuesday's training sessions now and it feels good to be able to set a good example for the newer members who attend our Tuesday training session.

I would like to say I've performed fairly well at the competitions I've competed in and that I have high expectations for future competitions to come. In saying that I've also been appointed Club Captain as I won the internal competition held last Thursday night. Next is winning Uni Games which is being held on the Gold Coast in QLD at the end of September.

The usual partying during the holidays, this was for Oscar's birthday where he had a photo booth set up and we had a blast trying to capture some funny photos from the night.

I did a couple of trips to Thredbo, the first one being just a small weekend trip and the other I went with my family and a much larger group of friends and we got a house right at the bottom of Friday Flats too. It was great fun hanging and snowboarding with everyone and having my mum cook for us was amazing. Having pho for dinner after a long day out snowboarding is the best! I bumped into Oscar too and he ended up hanging with us for quite a bit during our time at Thredbo.

The first week of August was crazy for me too with so much happening and it was a hectic weekend for me with the WTAC being held at Eastern Creek and also Founder's Cup, a kendo competition, was held at Macquarie University and I had to be at both. It wasn't easy and there were quite some highs and lows throughout the weekend but I ended on a high so that's all that matters.

Here's a little bit of something from that weekend, my article and photos published on www.7tune.com click here to read it. I have a lot more photos which I'll save for a separate post.

Semester 2 of uni started a couple of weeks ago too and due to some certain circumstances I have to study a lot harder than I did last semester, so there might not be as many posts coming up in the next couple of months while I work on passing all my subjects this semester. Speaking of which I have a prac on now which I have to get to, I'll try my best to get the WTAC photos up soon.

Excuses

2011-07-12T02:30:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last two months, at first I was busy with end of semester exams and after that I've been too busy enjoying my holidays. I haven't had much time in front of my laptop, or even at home. Weekends I'm usually out drinking as I did last weekend for my good friends, Stephen and Lisa's birthday party which was great even though my memory is a bit hazy of what went on that night. All I know is that we all had a blast catching up since I hadn't seen them since my going away party before leaving for Japan. I'll try and get more posts happening but I'm not promising anything as I've been getting stuck into F1 2010 and it's very addicting.

Gab's DC2R Integra by HENS Performace

2011-07-12T02:20:00.000+10:00

Going fast at a track near you.

Melbourne Invasion Pt. 3

2011-06-08T00:34:00.001+10:00

Here's the final installment of my trip to Melbourne.

My girlfriend's dinner on the first night, I forgot what the place was called but it was recommended to us by none other than Mr. Andy Wana.

Another recommended place we went to was this Japanese joint, again I totally forgot the names of the places we went to eat.

But I'll never forget the feeling I got when I tasted this Japanese Curry. All these emotions and memories rushed back of when I was eating curry in Japan, as you can tell I love Japanese Curry and I've been on the search for the best one in Sydney since coming home from Japan. This has got to be the best so far and I've tried about 5 different places already.

Our shopping from the trip, it filled up the whole car and also most of our luggage too. I love the shopping in Melbourne, it's so much cheaper than in Sydney, I think I might hold out every year and just head to Melbourne to do my shopping.

Being a true ninja!

Having some fun at the arcade near Crown Casino, as you can see I sweated most of my cold out after that night.

Also what would a trip to Melbourne be if we didn't check out one of the many graffiti filled lanes? Some amazing work here and it sucks that we don't have anything close to this here in Sydney.

Melbourne Invasion Pt. 2 + JDMST Melbourne EOMM

2011-06-07T02:38:00.000+10:00

On the second day of Melbourne I somehow managed to catch a cold, so a lot more time was spent chilling in the hotel room than I would have liked.

Luckily for me I managed to stay warm with all the new clothes I just got and stayed positive and still had a good time and enjoyed the rest of my Melbourne trip.

On our last night we headed to JDMST's EOMM and there was a bit of a turn out for it. Too bad it took us forever to get there, one reason was due to Khoa wanting to lead the way, which was total FAIL!

The meet wasn't as good as I expected with everyone seeming a bit too stand-off'ish for my liking. We got stared at like we were aliens when we first got there.

So my girlfriend, Hieu and I went to grab some pizza and this place had some awesome old school arcade machines that kept us busy while we waited for our pizzas.

When we got back there were some more cars that came including this cool little Micra.

This clean AW11 MR-2, as you can see I have a thing for older cars and this car was so period correct it was my favourite car at the meet.

It was even rocking the original head unit and also old school RECARO seats. I love it!

I did manage to meet a few ninjas so it wasn't all a lost cause and it was great to finally meet them in person, even though it was only for a brief chat before everyone bolted because some people started acting silly when leaving.

Melbourne Invasion Pt. 1

2011-06-06T01:49:00.001+10:00

Over the Easter long weekend a couple of close friends, my girlfriend and I headed to Melbourne to get away from Sydney for the weekend. My friend Khoa decided to drive down with his Mirage so the three of us jumped on a plane instead. Here's us, Hieu and I were a bit buzzed after downing a glass of wine with some oysters. Yes that's how we roll, like a boss!

We flew with QANTAS and thanks to my Dad's frequent flyer points we got a free trip to Melbourne.

I was so into watching The Last Samurai while waiting for everyone to pee when we landed.

Straight from Sydney, we were in search of Khoa since he was picking us up. This is the first time I've been to Melbourne in a very long time, more than 10 years I think. I didn't remember much so this felt like my first time to Melbourne.

The shopping Melbourne was definitely better than Sydney, as you can tell. My girlfriend and I spent quite a bit on shopping but it was totally worth it. I scored quite a bit of new gear, a lot more than what my girlfriend got haha.

We also found some very cool looking change rooms too. I think this was the one at a Frat House store?

This taxi themed one was definitely cool.

Street performers were a great form of entertainment, especially when my girlfriend did her shopping. There was this other guy playing the digeridoo to hardstyle and it was crazy! I didn't get a photo but my friends did get some good video footage. I wanted to get a CD but when I went back the next day he wasn't there anymore.

Me hanging with Derrick Rose in the Adidas store.

UTS Kendo Club Re-Launch

2011-05-31T11:00:00.005+10:00

UTS Kendo Club (UTSKC) has been around for a few years now but it has never really established itself as a proper club due to not having a proper training facility until the new Multi-Purpose Sports Hall (MPSH) opened up at UTS recently. With the new hall opening up it meant that we new have our own dojo (dance studio) in the MPSH which is very good since it's on campus as well.

I'm also one of the senior members so I was encouraged to be on the executive committee and I chose to be the Media Officer, I let some of the more enthusiastic younger members fill up the other rolls. This is the website I whipped up for UTSKC and it's still in it's early stages, a friend and I will be working on an official logo for the club so keep an eye out for that too.

Personal Best

2011-05-30T21:55:00.000+10:00

Just over a month ago some close friends and I headed out to Wakefield Park for 2 fun days of circuit racing. It was a great 2 days, I met some new people and it was just good fun being able to hang with my close friends and girlfriend and just do what we love and that is to go fast.

It's the little things like this that I missed the most when I was in Japan, and it felt so good to be able to get 2 full days of just taking my car to its limits on the track. We didn't have timing as it was an open day but we had our trusty iPhones which took a bit of mucking around with to get right, it said I managed a mid 1:15 on day one which I knew was wrong. But on day 2 we managed to get all the settings right and the times were getting more accurate, with the help of video clarifying the lap we had just done too.

My new personal best is a 1:16.07 (previous PB was 1:17.9) and I could not have been happier with that time, not bad for a D series on street tyres at all. Now I'm itching to go back and go even faster with some adjustments to my car. I've been thinking about it a lot and I'm aiming to get into the 1:14s with a set of semi slicks and less petrol in the car. I've promised myself that I won't touch the engine until I get into the 1:14s, that and I don't have enough money to do so anyway.

EVO Nationals + JDMST EOMM

2011-05-30T02:05:00.001+10:00

Last weekend was JDMST's meet held in conjunction with the EVO Nationals meet at Eastern Creek and it was a great day with a bit of everything for everyone. There were EVOs out all day on the track putting down some very fast lap times, then there were more EVOs on the skid pan providing some very good entertainment, then there was the Show 'n Shine with some very great cars on show.

I had a great day out at Eastern Creek, I finally dusted off my camera and took it out for the first time in a while and I was sharing it with a friend all day so I can't take credit for all the shots but I can for this one. I'm quite happy I can still pull off some half decent action shots like this one.

For most of the day I was enjoying the quality of cars that were at the show 'n shine and just socialising with everyone.

As usual Bab's Hakosuka always draws the attention of spectators, and so it should because it took out the winner for best overall car at the event. Congratulations Babs!

I decided to enter my car too (to get a good parking spot), and I don't think it has looked this good in a while even though we got the lip on the night before. I know I wasn't going to win but it was definitely not a bad feeling seeing people stare at my car and checking it out when I had it parked on display.

It also gave me a chance to pull out my BMX and cruise it around the different parts of Eastern Creek and it was a good idea because I would have dreaded walking the long walks to the different points of the track.

There were some very high quality cars that showed up too like this S15 front S14 Silvia. All I can say is that this thing is built with one purpose in mind and that is to go fast.

My good friend's new R33 GTR was immaculate, being an ex Targa Tasmania car it was definitely of high quality too.

Some rare cars popped up too including this Cyborg Mirage, for those that don't know this is like the Type R of Mirages and it definitely looked good and for those who knew what it was it definitely made them drool a little.

This has got to be my favourite car at the meet, the EVO Wagon. I kept coming back to this car throughout the day because it was so damn hot! I've been having a things for wagons especially seeing all the nicely done ones in Japan and even though I've spotted a couple of these in Japan this was the first time I got to see one up close and my oh my it was impressive. My girlfriend agreed that this would be the ultimate family car.

I did learn something on the day though and that is that I want one of these now.

More photos from me can be seen here.

My LEGO hunt

2011-05-24T17:45:00.001+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I watched AFOL A Blogumentary which stands for Adult Fans Of LEGO and that's what it was pretty much about. Just people who are into LEGO now as an adult as much as they were when they were a kid and it inspired me to go look for my stash of LEGO. I only managed to find about half of my stash, my goal is to try and build a go kart by myself without using any kits using the LEGO I have.

LEGO Minifigs series 5 has been released too so I'm on the hunt to get them. I've now decided to get the only the ones I want and not collect all of them because it would be too expensive and some of them seem to be repeats of the same theme. I'll get some photos of my current collection up soon.

Go Kart Crazy.

2011-05-24T17:36:00.000+10:00

With so many cheap go kart passes being sold on spreets lately my friends and I have been going quite often and I've fallen in love with it. I've had a few late nights where I was up just doing research on getting my own one and I managed to talk to a friend who has one to give me the details on what's involved in owning a go kart.

I have to admit it turned out to be more expensive than I thought but it is still the cheapest form of motorsport. I'm now trying to save (keyword: trying) so I can hopefully get one by the end of the year, I'm even thinking of getting in touch with the guy I sold my old clubman to a few years back so I can buy it off him. Yes, I did have a go kart but I was young and wasn't really into it at the time so it was sold. Only years later would I realise how much fun I could have had with that go kart.

EXPEDIT'ed

2011-05-07T02:42:00.000+10:00

Even before coming home my girlfriend and I spent quite a bit of time talking about rearranging my room when I got back, so not long after I got back my old TV was moved to the garage along with it's old stand which even had a CD rack built into it, and I got something new.

This is the famous EXPEDIT from IKEA, I was going to get the 2x4 but this seemed enough for now and it worked out nicely with the 2x2. Things do look a lot cleaner in my room and I have a little game area set up now and it's also good for watching things that I download. The only downside is that I don't have a TV, it's actually just a 22" computer monitor I use but I hardly watch any TV anyway so it's fine for now although I'd might save for a bigger screen that has HDMI a bit later down the track.

Procrastination Post #150

2011-05-03T00:42:00.000+10:00

What better time to write a blog post than when I'm supposed to get started on my report.

Well it's been a while hasn't it? (it feels like I've written that line quite a few times on this blog). But it has been a while, the last time I blogged it didn't really work for me, it felt awkward and unnatural at times but this time around I think I'm starting to find the groove again and I think I know why. It's thanks to the two week mid semester break that just finished, during which I got to relax from uni work and also get away from it all and it was a well deserved break considering I got thrown straight back into things after coming back from Japan.

Things seem to be getting a lot better for me, I just remembered about my domain and just registered it then. Hopefully I can get the URL to keep directing it to this site, a friend will also help me with hosting so hopefully I can spice things up a bit in the not so distant future. I also managed to squeeze in a couple of track days and a trip to Melbourne over the mid-sem break and it was really nice to just get away from things, especially at the track days.

Some friends and I got some cheap Wakefield tickets as did a lot of other people as well when the sale was on so we decided to head down to Wakefield Park in Goulburn for two fun filled days at the track. It felt so nice to hit the track again after so long, hearing my car at full throttle made all the bad thoughts go away. It was quite an eventful two days with some ups and downs but overall it was the best track day(s) I've been to. It was a very calm experience for me going out on the track, not like how it used to be where I would be really nervous but this time it just felt so right and so it should because I managed to clock in a new PB of 1:16.07 with Harry's Lap Timer on the iPhone. This was done with partly worn street tyres and a full tank of petrol, I'm hoping to go back with fresh street tyres and half a tank of petrol and try and break into the 15s with just a D16A8/ZC engine. Then throw on some semi slicks and aim for high 1:14s and only then will I start considering swapping engines or start looking for more power as I want to get the max out of my car and take my driving abilities further so I can take my car to its limits before I start putting more money into it.

Next up was my trip to Melbourne, unfortunately I didn't take many photos but I did have a good time even though I got sick the 2nd day we were there. I still had a good time and even though I was on there for three days I managed to fit in a lot of things like clubbing, casino, shopping (lots of it), JDMST EOMM meet and even a small bike ride. It definitely wasn't enough time though and I would love to head back soon and meet even more of the Melbourne peeps! I have a feeling that early next year I'll be back for an even bigger trip and this time with my CR-X with me instead of flying down.

Other than that, it's been alright, I haven't been as down as I used to be and things just seem to be falling into place again and I've managed to type up this long ass post without any troubles at all. Hopefully I get my rhythm back, especially with my camera so I have some more visual appeal rather than just boring text. I think the solution is to stop taking photos with my iPhone like I did above. It's just too damn convenient to take photos with it but the results aren't that good when compared to my G11 or 400D.

Well that's it for me for now, let's hope I keep this up and that things pick up from here. It's still early since it's only been day 1 back at uni but I guess time will tell.

-Steven

Home (Bitter)Sweet Home

2011-04-12T21:59:00.001+10:00

So it's been a while hasn't it? There are no excuses, I just haven't been motivated to update it. I'm still settling in at home, catching up with friends, spending a lot of time in my garage and trying to keep up with uni work so my mind has been in a jumble lately.

It's just been over a year since I left for Japan and nearly 2 months since coming back and it's been a crazy ride. I'm finally home, with friends and family but at the same time I still find it hard to settle in. There have been more than a few occasions where I'm pretty sure I was hit with reverse culture shock, but that's all part of the game I guess. Don't get me wrong, I love being at home and being with my family and friends but Japan was just so much fun and I guess it's hard to let go of that part of my life and move on.

I'm even finding it hard to write this post, with lots of backspacing going on and trying to find the flow I had when writing posts in Japan but it's just not the same. I don't know what it is, but I just feel there's nothing interesting to blog anymore. My domain (blog.stevenle.net) got lost somewhere while trying to renew my hosting, so now I'm waiting for it to be released back into the domain tool so I can get it again. My camera has pretty much been collecting dust since Japan so that doesn't really help either. Things are in such a routine here, I find it hard to find anything interesting to blog about anymore.

Hopefully things will change as I've got a nice trip to Melbourne over the long weekend and a small car shoot lined up this weekend as well so hopefully I get my motivation back. I've also applied for a media pass for this year's World Time Attack at Eastern Creek too so hopefully that will push me to get my camera out and shoot more.

That's it from me for now, hopefully you guys will hear from me more soon. I'll try and find shit to post up to keep things rolling, maybe my Peugeot road bike build, I don't know but we'll see. No more emo-ness from me.

Much love.

Two weeks too late

2011-03-03T00:19:00.001+11:00

Yes I know I never got around to writing my farewell post in Japan, but the way I see it is that it's not really a farewell even though it may seem like it at the time. Sure I'll be gone for a long time but I'll definitely be back and I'll definitely be visiting most of my friends from all over the world in the future. So it's more of a see you later type of thing.

The last couple of days in Japan were just crazy for me, from cleaning my room, organising shit to get sent home, giving things away and even catching my plane was an adventure in itself. But I wouldn't have been able to do it without my good friends who will be my friends for the rest of my life, you guys and girls know who you are. They all came with me to the airport and had an awesome adventure as well (more on that later) but most of all Fyrenz for helping me so much during my last night in Japan.

Not only did she help clean my room (not help, she actually did it all I think) but she was also there taking care of me as I was hugging the toilet after drinking one too many bottle of wine that night (I think I downed 3 and a half bottles before emptying it all down the toilet afterwards haha). I am in debt to her for the rest of my life for all the things she has done for me over the past year. She also made a little scrap book for me and I put off reading it for so long but last weekend I did and yes I have to admit it did make me cry because it made me miss her and Japan so much more.

Thanks to all the Queensland peeps who I also had awesome times with drinking and just making a mess of things together. I've already made plans to see them again in September when I head to QLD again for Uni Games, hopefully I can claim the title back for UTS this year.

I guess this is where I'm meant to move on, go back to reality, but it's easier said than done. Living in Japan became my reality and when I finally settled in properly (I called it "home" a couple of times too) it all got taken away from me. It wasn't hard settling back in when I arrived in Sydney but it was hard letting go of Japan, I would have to say that it is the best thing I've done in my life and I thank those that supported me throughout the whole time I was in Japan. Especially my girlfriend, Kim, who without her I don't know how it would have went down, we belong to the small percentage of couples that remained together after a year of being a part and giving the whole long distance relationship thing a go. Sure we had our ups and downs but we came out on top and we're going stronger than ever. Much love sweety!

Since I'm back home, I'll probably still be posting a lot of random things I have from Japan since there's just so much, I also have to finish off all the posts from my summer holidays too. But I'll try and find random things in my "normal" life to blog about but for now I'll be using my tumblr a lot more to post so check that out, and also my twitter feed has been going crazy since I don't get charged an arm and a leg for data anymore. Take that Softbank! So hang around if you're still interested in what I get up to, if not I hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as I have and we'll see each other sometime again soon.

To Japan and all of the amazing people I've met in the past year, from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank you all for an amazing year, the best year I've had in my life. Without you guys and girls it wouldn't have been the same, cliche I know but it's true. I miss you all very much and I hope I get to see all of you again in the future, you are also always welcome to come hang at my place in Australia so be sure to hit me up if and when you come to Australia. Until we meet again, take care of yourselves and goodnight.

With much love,
Steven Le

T minus three days

2011-02-17T01:49:00.000+11:00

This looks to be one of the last few posts from Japan. This time in 3 days I'll be sitting on the plane on my way home. I'm still full of mixed emotions even though it's so close to the end of my stay here, I thought I would be ready to go home but it's still hard letting go of everything here. I've said my first good bye to my friend Uka from China since she left to head home at 5am this morning, I woke up to see her off and it was the first of many goodbyes to come.

I've sent off my final package today, it was rather large and I managed to save a bit of money getting it sent home thanks to my friend Daniel who runs jdmparts.rupewrecht. I've also handed down a lot of things and given away a lot more, so my room is slowly clearing out and my luggage is more than 50% packed at this stage so it's certainly hitting home that I'm heading home soon.

With only 3 days left I've been trying to spend as much time out with the cool peeps here as possible and I've still got a few things I have to do before coming back home. So it's not all fun and games but by 4pm Friday it has to be since that's when I'm officially checking out of my room from the kaikan (dormitory). My room is still a mess but that's fine since I think I'll be spending most of Friday cleaning it up and clearing everything out.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit my good friends; Duy and Bonnie who decided to come to Japan for a holiday and to also train kendo at some dojos here in Japan. So tomorrow looks like to be my final time in Osaka where I'll be meeting them.

In regards to my last trip, I took my very last big trip last weekend to Takayama. This for me marked the end of my journey here in Japan since Takayama was the first place I visited when I first got to Japan so it feels nice to complete the circle. Not only that I got to experience Takayama in two very different climates since last time it was Spring and this time it was Winter so it was nice to see things covered in snow. I also managed to get some more Hida Beef Burgers and also managed to find another small restaurant that was very impressive as well. More on this once I get home since I have a lot of photos from the weekend but the internet is cut in my room and I'm using the shared internet where flickr is blocked and also most of my camera gear is packed already.

Something big also happened on Valentine's day which will affect me for the rest of my life but I'm happy that it happened since it will always remind me of the good times I've had here in Japan. I'm still not 100% ready to share this with everyone yet but when I am I'll definitely share it here.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this since I don't want it to be the goodbye post because I'm not ready to do so yet even though I'm accepting more and more everyday that it's time for me to go home. So I guess I'll end it here for now and I'll probably be writing up my final post in Japan on Friday afternoon after checking out of my room which I've called home for the past 11 months or so.

Another thing I'm going to miss

2011-02-10T00:56:00.000+11:00

The days when I wake up and it's white outside. Sure it was cold but it definitely beats the heat in my books and it looked so nice seeing things being covered in snow.

Like this tree here just outside my room.

Here it is again covered in even more snow. I love it!

Coming Home: the good and the bad

2011-02-08T13:47:00.000+11:00

With it being so close to home time I've been filled with mixed emotions lately, a lot of times I'm happy to go home and there are also times where I'm really sad that I'm leaving Japan and all these cool people which have become more than just friends in such a short period of time.

I've talked about this with a lot of friends here and I guess the main thing making me sad about leaving is that I will never get a chance like this ever again. Not with the same people at least and I think that's the main thing right now, I'm going to miss my friends so so so much and we're never all going to be in the same place at the same time ever again (well at least I don't think so). I think it's even harder than when leaving home since I know that after a year in Japan I'll be coming back to my friends and family again, but once I leave here I can never come back and see the same faces again.

I know I'm just being emo right now but I guess I have to look on the brighter side of things. Now I have so many more places I want to go because I can meet all my friends again, sure they might not all be in the same place but now I have so many more reasons to travel to so many other places in the world and I will have at least one familiar face there to hang out with, which I think is totally awesome. I also hope they come to Australia as well because I would definitely be the best tour guide ever!

The beginning of the end

2011-02-08T13:23:00.002+11:00

So with not much time left in Japan, I think it's a good time to look back at what I've done and what I haven't. Within the last say 10 months or so there have been some amazing things I've managed to get up to in Japan, from the top of my head and in not any order:

- Attended Tokyo Auto Salon
- Snowboarded in Japanese powder
- Trained kendo in Japan
- Drive on some really nice touge roads in Japan
- Scored some car parts for really cheap
- Eat horse sashimi! (I've got fugu and whale next, hopefully I can still do it)
- Improve my Japanese by billions since I hardly knew any before coming here
- Travelled to a lot of places in Japan; Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and a couple of other places too
- Watched the F1 at Suzuka Circuit as well as the Super GT
- Met famous drivers (Sebastian Vettel, Nomuken and a couple more)
- Learnt how to cook!
- Ate a lot of food from all over the world thanks to all the good international student cooks.
- I learnt how to do Tea Ceremony
- I made some awesome friends during my time here which I will miss very much

I'm sure there's more but that's all I got right now. There are still a lot of things I want to do as well but I guess it just gives me more reason to come back here, which I definitely want to do in the next couple of years.

Two weeks left

2011-02-08T01:22:00.000+11:00

I know my blog has been quite quiet recently and I apologise for the lack of posts but honestly I just haven't really had the time to sit in front of my laptop, process some photos, upload them and write something about it. Instead I've been using my tumblr a lot more since it's just posting up single pictures that doesn't require much else and even that doesn't get updated as much as I would like.

With less than two weeks left in Japan I've been spending a lot of time out with friends here which I will miss dearly when I come back home, I also had my 5000 word research project due not too long ago that took up a few nights. I still have Japanese classes here as well so not much time for blogging and with less than two weeks left I think it's a good thing I'm enjoying the rest of my time here and not sitting in front of my laptop.

I've still been taking photos of things here and there but I just haven't had the time to go through them all, instead I've been packing things to send home. I've gotten most of the stuff gone except for one last box which I'm still waiting for things to arrive from yahoo auctions before sending it home. I've pretty much organised what is going in my luggage so the rest will just go in that box which will go home via a container. So hopefully by Friday or the latest next Monday I'll be living on bare essentials and most of my things will be on it's way home.

Besides getting ready to go home I've been hanging out with friends a lot, having dinner together, we had our last big night in Nagoya a couple of weekends ago, lots of drinking especially over the recent weekend. I've also got one last trip to Takayama this weekend coming up, which is great because Takayama was the first place I travelled to when I first got here, so it's nice to see the circle finally completed. I have some friends coming to Japan so I'll be going to see them in Osaka a couple of days before I leave too, so busy busy busy!

Collaboration with THE-LOWDOWN

2011-01-24T16:45:00.001+11:00

Just over a week ago I attended Tokyo Auto Salon and not long after I was asked by a my friend Jason from The-Lowdown.com if I wanted to work with them and so I happily agreed and got the photos processed and a few days later it was up on The-Lowdown with a nice little write up.

Check it out here.

All of my photos are up there and also I'll be writing up a small entry for myself on here later on as well about my experience being at Tokyo Auto Salon 2011 so keep an eye out for that.

Busy Busy

2011-01-23T05:32:00.000+11:00

Just a quick update on what's been happening since I haven't been blogging. In exactly four weeks I'll be sitting on a plane on my way back home to Australia (it's been so quick), so I've been busy trying to make the most of my time here in Japan. I have a lot of things to blog about but I've just been too busy spending time away from my computer and spending time with friends for the last few weeks.

I've managed to hit up a pretty big snow trip with quite a few friends last weekend, managed to make it to Tokyo Auto Salon the day after the trip and I've just been hanging with all the cool people here in Japan, both international students and Japanese. So I really haven't had the chance to sit in front of my computer to create a decent post.

I have a couple of photos from the ski trip which I'll share later on as well as a whole bunch of photos from Tokyo Auto Salon which was amazing. I have a whole heap of other things which I have to share with you all but for now I think most of my time will be taken up by me organising to get things sent home and randomly updating my tumblr which seems a bit more simple to update than the long blog posts here.

I also have a lot of things to do before I leave, including 2 reports due by the end of this month, a night out in Nagoya, a trip to Takayama, another ski trip and then a couple of farewell parties. So I'm definitely going to be busy before I leave. But I don't mind because looking back on my time here in Japan I can happily say that I've made the most of my time here in Japan which I'll write about soon.

Donate to the flood relief appeal

2011-01-13T00:45:00.000+11:00

Source

This goes out to everyone that reads this, if you may not know Queensland is currently suffering from some really bad flooding and I've seen and read some really terrible stories in the news.

It's in these times of need that we need to stick together and dig deep for those in need, so I encourage you all to donate as much as you can so that we can help those who have been victims of the floods.

http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

My girlfriend and I have already donated and I hope you all can as well.

My thoughts go out to all those who are affected by the floods.

Some LEGO fun

2011-01-11T19:01:00.001+11:00

So for the past couple of days I've had this urge to go out and buy some LEGO and yesterday I did. I was planning on buying some Star Wars LEGO but they were overpriced so instead I took the 2010 catalogue and had a read over lunch. It was in the catalogue that I found out the Minifigures, which I first saw over at Andy's blog, were actually sold in those vending machines/capsule stations in Japan. I ended up finding it after some searching around and 1,200 Yen ($15 AUD) later I came home with four of them.

The cool thing is that they are totally random which put some fun and surprise into it. I ended up going home with these four fellas, my friend John predicted which ones I would get and I was pretty happy with what I went home with. The capsule station I found only had 8/16 of Series 2 Minifigures and that meant it was impossible for me to get the Spartan, which I really wanted. I also realised there was a Series 1 with some really cool ones as well including a clown, a Mexican wrestler and also a ninja one! So now I'm on the hunt for more LEGO Minifigures.

In order of what I got, I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I was opening them on the spot. Here is the Mariachi which was on my "Must Have" list.

Next was the Mime, which is my favourite out of the four that I have. He also comes with 2 extra faces which is awesome.

I then got the Weight Lifter, which was a meh for me since I John called either the Karate Master or Weight Lifter and out of the two I was hoping for the Karate Master. But it's OK because this guy came in handy (you'll find out later on why).

Finally I got the Ring Master, again John called this one and I was pretty happy with him, but not as happy as the first two though.

Now I get to have my own little adventures with these guys, I'm not going to have a blog just dedicated to these but I do plan on taking a few photos of them since I'm a big fan of a LEGO a day. Mine is just going to be random photos but nothing as good as that guy's blog.

I'll also be posting them up on my tumblr where I've been posting random photos of mine which I've decided to keep separate from this blog. So keep an eye out on there since you never know when one of these guys might pop up.

Into the woods

2011-01-11T02:14:00.002+11:00

Thanks to Axel a couple of days ago I woke up before 12pm for the first time in about 2 weeks. I was woken by him calling to wish me a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year since he was back home over the holiday period. He also gave me news that he was going to be coming to Gifu for the day and that he would like to hang out, maybe climb a mountain or two so I said why not.

After getting up and doing my morning routine of forums, facebook and blog reading I got ready to meet Axel. I managed to get some other friends to come along as well and the next thing you know we were off on our bikes heading for one the mountain that Axel and I climbed at the beginning of last year.

Of course we stopped by the ostrich again as usual so the new students could check it out.

We are always amused when we visit the ostrich.

What would a hiking trip be without some Asahi Super Dry.

We hit up the same mountain as last time and the view was just as awesome as I remembered.

You know you're at the top when you get to this electrical tower.

We spent a bit of time at the top just chatting, drinking and eating cheese and pocky. It was good fun being able to do this again with some new friends and it was nice being the one leading the way this time since last time I was the "new student". A lot of other guys wanted to come as well but all had homework to do so we will be climbing this mountain again in the not so distant future.

It felt nice to get up early and get out and away from the kaikan (university dorms) and to go hiking was good fun as well. I had a great time catching up with Axel and just hanging out with everyone else too.

Here's my post from the first time I climbed this mountain.

I conquered a mountain.

Something new for 2011

2011-01-08T01:47:00.001+11:00

What you're looking at is my tumblr, something I created a while ago but never got around to making it mine. I only started adding content last night/earlier today and it's coming together nicely. Right now it's just me posting random shit I find interesting and sharing it with everyone, I'll be doing a lot of single shots and posting it up there and keeping this blog more personal.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea but I thought I'd give it a try and see how it goes. I was going to migrate this blog over but I think it will be a better idea to keep it separate, well at least for now.

Be sure to check it out and let me know.

http://thatimposter.tumblr.com/

My first taste of Japanese snow.

2011-01-07T18:31:00.000+11:00

A days before Christmas a few friends and I went on a mini road trip to Dynaland, a ski field about an hours drive from here. I was pretty excited and I even got up 30 minutes earlier than I was supposed to, (I read the message wrong). After a bit of complications which included the driver leaving his phone in his car so he didn't wake up, which meant we had to walk to his apartment to wake him up. Luckily the walk wasn't too far.

So after sitting in the car for about an hour and seeing it gradually get more and more white I was greeted with this. I was expecting it to be more covered in snow but my friend told me the season hasn't full started here yet.

This place was pretty big but too bad only 2 lifts were open that day. One that went to the top and one that went half way. I started off with a coupe of runs down the smaller lift which at the bottom had some nice small boxes which I failed on, but I did hit a couple of the smaller jumps without too much hassles.

This has got to be the coolest thing from the day, these were our lift passes. Not like the shitty print out ones that we have to zip tie to our jackets like back home.

Here are the entrances to the lift, they had these machines where you just scan your card and it let you in through the gates like when you enter a carnival or something similar. I found this to be so much more convenient than the whole lift pass checking that I have to go through back home.

Here's what it looked like just before we headed off at about 5pm.

My friends who were kind enough to invite me along. Yuka's in the pink and Mai is in the red.

Here's me all excited after a fun day out snowboarding, my annual snowboard trip was delayed because the seasons are opposite to back home so I was really happy I finally got to snowboard.

On the way back I mostly slept then when I woke up we were at some famous ramen place. I was so out of it since I just woke up that I didn't really ask why it was famous but I managed to order this and it tasted pretty good.

This was the view after getting off the higher of the two lifts. All in all it was a really fun day with some great friends. I would have been happy if I had my board and boots with me, especially my boots since the ones I rented were complete shit and made my feet sore half way through the day. But I still had an awesome time and this was just the warm up session for the bigger ski trip I've got planned next weekend.

PS. All photos are courtesy of my iPhone 4, I'm pretty surprised with how well they turned out.

Welcome to 20 Eleven

2011-01-05T06:47:00.000+11:00

Welcome to the New Year everyone, I hope you all had fun New Year celebrations because I know I did. No new photos from me today but let's take a look back at the memorable moments in 2010 and hope that 2011 would be an even better year.

Let's see, in 2010 I noticed that I picked up a lot of new interests some I'm still into today and some I have lost interest in. Here are just the things I got into throughout 2010.

I started getting into Street Fighter A LOT! I've wasted a large amount of money learning and playing the game at arcades. I'm still learning the game today trying to master some of the combos but I'm pretty happy with how far I've gotten in about a year of playing.

There was a period where I would be playing Monopoly nearly every weekend at good friend's place or even at home with my girlfriend. This was going on for nearly I month if I remember correctly but after a while it grew old and we all moved on. I still play every now and then on my iPhone though and I still lose, I've never won a proper game of Monopoly before either.

During the early months of 2010 my rego was due for my car and I was saving up for my stay in Japan so I didn't have enough money to pay for it on time. So I found myself in my garage late at night, pulling apart my old Haro BMX and bringing it back to life on a budget rebuild and I'm still yet to finish it completely. This is how it sits right now, there's still a couple of small things I need to do before I deem it finished. So keep an eye out for this when I get home in a couple of months.

Some more memorable moments in 2010 included my trip away with some friends to Terrigal before I left for Japan. I still reminisce about it every now and then since I had such fun times eating, fishing, swimming and just having a ball with some great company.

The next thing you know I was in Japan! It all happened so quickly and here I am 2 months before I leave here to come home. This has got to be one of the best things that I've done in my life, if not the best. The experiences I've gained so far and will continue gaining over the next couple of months will be priceless.

Being in Japan and surrounded by Japanese cars has also kept my interest of cars alive, I've also subscribed to a whole lot of online car blogs from Roadster_life to Speedhunters and I'm still quite active on a few car forums as well.

I managed to catch the 106th Kendo Taikai in Kyoto. This was a very memorable day, I was standing in the same room with some of the best Kendo Senseis in Japan and I still get goosebumps thinking about it today. Believe me some of them had this aura to them that could be felt from the other side of the room. Although I continued training kendo in Japan I must admit I've been really lazy and I didn't train as much as I would have liked but it was still good fun being able to train with the Gifu Daigaku Kendo Club.

I cooked for the first time in Japan, which didn't end to well the next day since I ended up in bed instead of class. But I've managed to improve and also add more recipes to what I can cook now, I think the count is at 5 dishes?

I got into sketching a bit and decided to design my own tattoo, which I'm still thinking about since it's a big commitment getting something that's permanent for the rest of your life. I pretty much stopped after designing my girlfriend's lotus flower as well but I still doodle a lot in class, which reminds me I have to get a few photos of that too.

One of the best times in 2010 was when my girlfriend and our two friends came to visit and we travelled around Japan for nearly a whole month. It was awesome being the tour guide and running a much wherever we went in Japan. Good times that I'll never forget.

During this time I managed to catch a Super GT race at Suzuka Circuit as well, it was so hot but so worth it.

My surprise trip back home was great fun! I still remember seeing my friends' faces as I sat down at their table during yum cha. In this period my uncle from Good Performance Centre let me take his NSX for a drive, boy did it feel good to drive my dream car. Although mine would be white, manual and look a whole lot better haha.

I also made sure I was at Defqon 1 for their second year in Australia. Not as good as 2009 I think but I still had loads of fun. Some friends even thought I came back from Japan just for Defqon too, they were right to a certain degree.

I watched the Suzuka F1 live! I also managed to get through to the paddock area after the race and it was like being in heaven. My friend Carlos and I met quite a few famous faces like the 2010 World Champion, Sebastian Vettel. I'm going to frame this photo when I get home.

Speaking of famous people, I also got to meet Suzuki San of Car Produce ACT. He might not be as famous as Vettel but he is sure known very well among the Skyline owners here in Japan. An awesome, down to Earth guy that I was fortunate enough to sit down with and have a chat over some BOSS Coffee and chocolate. I have to thank Chris for taking me to visit Suzuki San.

For those that love Honda as much as I do will know how much this means to me. I managed to track down the full set of centre caps for my Mugen MR5 wheels, these are rare are hell! This was a big day for not only me but my car and my dad, who was on my back telling me to find stalk Yahoo Auctions for them. Much love to the old man for being as much of an enthusiasts as I am.

I celebrated my 22nd birthday without my family but it was my first birthday in Japan. I think it might be the only one I'll ever celebrate in Japan but you never know.

The next thing you know it was Christmas celebrations and a few days later it was New Year's Eve.

It has been a great year which I'll look back on fondly with great memories of both happiness and sadness but overall it's been one of the best years in my life with me living and studying in Japan after all. I'm also very glad I kept this blog going with frequent (more than the previous years) updates so that I could look back on the things I've accomplished and what I still have left to do in life.

Looking back over the year I think it's fair to say I've grown up a bit and my priorities have changed for 2011 which means some New Year's resolutions. They extend to all parts of my life and are in no particular order, so here they are:

- Apply myself properly to my studies and not fail any more subjects.
- Get a decent part time job, I'm aiming at working somewhere in the lower ranks at Honda Australia. I know it's going to be hard but I like a good challenge.
- Save up for a snowboarding trip to New Zealand in the winter months.
- Get the CR-X reliable and try to stop modifying it. Keyword there is "try".
- Finish off the BMX project and start on my road bike project, more on that later.
- If I save up enough I would like to get into go karting since it's the cheapest form of motorsport.
- Keep this blog going with some better photography.
- Save up enough for a working holiday in Canada at the end of the year.
- Win the Kendo Championship again at this year's Uni Games.

It's a big list, I know, but I'm a big dreamer. So there it is, hopefully by this time next year I will be checking off most of the list if not all of it and I'll be making another list for 2012. That's it from me for now, thank you to all those that have been reading my blog. It feels good to know other people are interested in what I'm up to even though it's meant to be more of a personal thing.

- Steven Le

Happy New Years!

2010-12-31T20:46:00.000+11:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope you all party hard into 2011. 2010 has been a year to remember but bring on 2011! I'll probably be out of action for a few days after tonight but I'll be back after with hopefully some cool updates for 2011.

Have a safe and Happy New Years.

Much love,
Steven

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T14:51:00.000+11:00

This was my first Christmas away from my family but it was still a good day spending it with my friends in Japan. Unfortunately it wasn't a white Christmas but we still had fun playing games, drinking and gambling. Here is my 2010 Christmas in photos.

Some of the New Faces

2010-12-24T18:30:00.002+11:00

Since coming back to the Kaikan after my visit back home more than half the people I knew living here in the kaikan (student dorms) had already returned home to their countries so I was greeted with a whole bunch of new faces. I've gotten to know them a lot better of the last 2 months so I'd like you to meet some of the international students. Above is John, one of the many new Americans.

Bud

and Randolph another 2 new Americans here in the kaian.

There's another American on the right, Robert and Juan a Guatemalan on the left.

These are just some of the new faces around here that I've become really good friends with and it sucks just thinking that I'm going to be leaving these guys in less than 2 months then some new Australians are coming to replace me.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-24T18:22:00.001+11:00

My winter holidays officially started at 10:20am this morning but since I didn't go to class it pretty much started at 12:00pm on Monday since I haven't been to class since. So I've now got time to put my feet up and kick back for a couple of weeks, well really just 1 week until the New Years is over then I have to get started on my 1200 Character Japanese report and a 5000 word Research Project for UTS. But until then I'm going to try and enjoy my time in Japan as much as I can since I have less than 2 months left here, can you guys believe it's gone by so quick?! There's still so much I want to do over here in Japan but it just means I have all the more reason to come back here later on.

I also wanted to wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas. I'm sure it's double demerits back home so drive safe.

PS. Everyone pray that I get my first White Christmas, at this point it's looking promising because it's freezing right now and all the weather forecasts predicts snow tonight.

My Diet

2010-12-24T18:16:00.001+11:00

One of the easiest things to cook while here in Japan is spaghetti, and because it's so easy and I don't really know how to cook anything else I've been eating a lot of spaghetti and foods which mainly consists of just meat.

But a couple of months back I had a compulsory health check at the university and my blood test's results came back all good except for my higher than normal Uric acid level. Which means I wasn't eating enough vegetables and I was drinking too much alcohol.

I think I had it coming because I was eating a lot of meals that looked like this. This was one of my "breakfast for dinner" nights before I got my blood test's results back.

I've also had to cut down on soft drinks as well which is a bummer because I love coke. Especially from McDonalds, I can never get enough of their coke. So now I settle for a medium coke instead of a large, or sometimes supersized coke.

So lately I've been trying my best to eat healthier so it's a banana a day and also trying to eat a lot more vegetables and salads in general.

Another solution I've found is to ask these beautiful Thai girls nicely to cook for you, that's Fyrenz on the left and Luknam on the right.If you ask nicely enough I'm sure they will, luckily for me I did ask nicely enough and I had lunch with them and a couple of Chinese girls as well who coincidentally cooked me lunch on the same day.

After helping the girls set the table and waiting a bit the food was ready.

The Thai girls also had their own version of the Vietnamese Summer Rolls! I was so excited when I saw these, it made me miss home food so much more.

It was actually pretty nice, it's kind of the same but different at the same time. One of the most noticeable difference is that they used half cooked prawns.

I didn't come empty handed though as I brought along a packet of Tim Tams and the girls loved them, and so did I.

Here's Chen Chen, one of the Chinese girls, calling dibs on the Tim Tams.

But when it comes time too cook for myself I've added a few more vegetables into my recipes and also added a salad to most of my meals. I've actually started to enjoy eating salads now as well and it seems to have helped because my skin seems less oily than it did before and hopefully the uric acid levels are decreasing as well. I'll get started on drinking less later though.

A different approach to the road saftey message.

2010-12-20T17:18:00.001+11:00

A great video I just watched in regards to hooning and the whole illegal street racing scene. I think it's a great idea and is more effective than our stupid NSW RTA's "pinky" ad.

Source here.

Belated birthday cake from Bud.

2010-12-13T18:33:00.000+11:00

Bud, one of the new American international students, was kind enough to get me a small cake for my birthday. It was really nice of him because we didn't know each other that much at the time yet he got me cake! Who said Americans were a bunch of jerks?

Japanese packaging at its best.

Just right before digging into this awesome chocolate cake.

Not only did I get a chocolate cake but he gave me a s'more as well. (I had to google the spelling)

Thanks again Bud. :)

Time flies...

2010-12-13T18:23:00.001+11:00

Time flies when you're having fun and I can't agree more. With just over 2 months left here in Japan it's really starting to sink in that it won't be long before I'm standing in line waiting to board my plane back home.

It's been an amazing 8 or so months here in Japan, I've met some great friends who I will cherish for the rest of my life and the experiences I've gained can not be put into words. I've travelled quite a bit all over Japan but at the same time it feels like there are still so many places that I want to visit.

I'm not going to let this turn into a farewell post, since that will come later, but more of how fast time can past without you even knowing it. To a certain extent it's a bit scary knowing that it's nearly time to go home, there were things on my "To Do List" that have been checked off but there are also a lot that haven't been checked off and even though 11 months may seem like a long enough time to get things done but in reality it wasn't, well at least not for me. But it just means I have even more reasons to come back to Japan now.

I have mixed feelings about going home, sure I get to go home to my friends and family, I get to drive my car, play with my dog and spend time with my girlfriend, but then again all the people I've met over here in Japan have pretty much become my family as well. So either way there are I'm going to be missing a lot of people.

All I can say is that I'm going to be making the most of my time left here in Japan which is pretty much just getting drunk and having a good time as much as I can before I go home and I suggest everyone else staying here with me do the same.

New Headphones

2010-12-09T01:19:00.000+11:00

So for some reason my 2nd of pair of Skull Candy headphones have decided to stop working properly and thanks to my friend Khoa he has hooked me up with these new Sony ones.

Not as much bass as my old Skull Candy ones but it get's the job done and it comes in a nice little case that is very "Sony" like, it reminds me of the hold wind-up cases back in the day.

Either than that there's not much else to say but as long as I have headphones for my hardstyle addiction then I'm more than happy. Thanks again Khoa.

$2

2010-12-06T23:32:00.000+11:00

There's been a lot of times where I feel like this $2 coin.

Much Love

2010-12-06T02:24:00.000+11:00

What more can I say...

Christmas Came Early

2010-11-29T23:41:00.002+11:00

So I've been scouring Yahoo Auctions Japan every now and then recently something special came up and I snapped them up straight away as an early Christmas Present for myself.

This is what I've been searching for for a very long time. Never in my life would I see the original packaging for this.

Inside contained the original lug nuts, nut adapter, and genuine Mugen allen key for my Mugen MR5 wheels.

I've managed to also hunt down all the centre caps and lug nut caps for my wheels as well now too. For those that don't know, getting your hands on all the caps is not an easy task especially the lug nut caps because the wheels are really old and they don't make them any more. Here's the catch though.

They weren't sold separately but with a set of wheels instead. So now I have an extra set of Mugen MR5 wheels, if you're interested in buying a set of Mugen MR5 wheels with tyres hit me up.

There's more! This wasn't just a present for myself but for my car as well. This here is another OEM rear bumper for my CR-X but also it comes with a genuine OEM rear lip, another hard to come by optional part for my CR-X. You could also see now I have hardly any space left in my room but it's totally worth it. Hopefully I save up some more because I've got my eyes on a few more things on Yahoo Auctions so wish me luck and hopefully you'll see more things taking space in my room.

PS. For those that might be asking, Gorilla Industries is helping me ship these items back home. If anyone is after parts or anything from Japan be sure to hit up Shane from Gorilla Industries because he'll take care of you. Here is his email; gorillaindustries@gmail.com

Car Produce ACT

2010-11-29T21:37:00.000+11:00

A couple of weekends ago I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Car Produce ACT, a GTR tuning house located in Aichi-Ken, Japan. A long story short I met Chris from jdmstyletuning.com and he picked me up and took me here so I could take a few snaps and hang with him for the day.

Chris drives this amazingly beautiful R34 Skyline sedan and I was taken around in this car all day and it was my first time in an R34 Skyline of any kind and I was really impressed.

I was also very lucky to be able to hang and chat with Suzuki San, the owner of Car Produce ACT and the man behind all the amazing GTRs parked out the front of his garage. It's times like these that I really appreciate that I am able to speak Japanese to a certain level so that I could converse with Suzuki San and not just about cars but just anything and everything. Suzuki San was a very easy going guy and not shy at all like most other Japanese that I have met and he was kind enough to treat Chris and I to can coffee, Coffee BOSS to be exact and some snacks while we were there visiting him.

This car had to be my favourite of the day, a very clean and simple looking R32 GTR rolling on a nice set of Regamaster EVOs.

It looked nice and tamed on the outside but you lift up the bonnet and it's packing a serious punch under there with a massive T88 turbo and I was told that his Skyline puts out a whopping 900hp. I would have loved to be taken for a drive in this car.

It was a great day out and something different than what I would normally do on a weekend here in Gifu so I would like to thank Chris and Suzuki San again for such a great day out.

There's also another little write up on JDMST here and the rest of my photos from the day here.

Noodle Cups: More than meets the eye.

2010-11-17T23:16:00.000+11:00

By looking at this photo could you tell the difference between the two besides size and flavour?

Neither did I until I opened it up and realised it was a game.

This was a birthday present from my friend Yikyung. The whole point of the game is that you have 3 minutes to put the puzzle back together with all the toppings on otherwise it pops and you have plastic noodle flying everywhere. This seems to be a very good drinking game, I might pop it out next time we drink.

New profile photo

2010-11-14T06:24:00.000+11:00

Check out my new profile photo which replaced the photo of my car on my About page.

I was inspired by Carey's tumblr; onepointeight and Daniel's self portraits so I decided to give it a go myself. I also wanted something new and fresh and for my profile picture, so I hit them up for some advice and after a few hits and misses that is what I ended up with.

I also don't have a tripod with me so I actually hung the camera from the hook on my door that's used for hanging clothes/bags, chucked the flash on at 1/4 power then hit the timer button and got in position for the photo. I'm quite happy with the end result so now it's my default profile picture for the majority of my online accounts (facebook, twitter, this blog etc.).

Let me know what you guys think, also I know it's 4:20 am here in Japan, my sleeping pattern is really screwed but it's times like these where I'm not distracted by anything so it let's me give some attention to my blog.

Miniature Dachs

2010-11-13T21:17:00.000+11:00

This guy here is a Miniature Dachs or more commonly known as a sausage dog. They're all over here in Japan and they're pretty expensive too. I spotted this guy at Gidaisai last weekend and had to snap up this photo, he's so cute!

The last week and a bit in photos

2010-11-12T20:23:00.001+11:00

OK, where do I start?

I've been cooking more often lately since I'm trying to save money for the coming snow season here in Japan and I'm running low on money already. This is my beef stir fry courtesy of youtube.

When I'm lazy I have my supple of instant noodle and mi goreng.

I scored cotton candy at the uni's festival; Gidai Sai.

Wore a Kimono at Gidai Sai as well.

Chilled with the Ryugaku Love Club (International Students club).

Enrolled into classes for next year, I decided to continue learning Japanese for my electives.

I've also been eating a lot of curry, I now get takeaway since I don't want to stay out in the cold, I just get my curry, come home and eat it. I might go get some now actually.

Flashback: Super GT

2010-11-03T02:40:00.002+11:00

While reminiscing about the holidays it reminded me that I have never gotten around to writing up my whole experience of the Super GT when I first went to the famous Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture.

I remember that weekend very well, it was when my girlfriend came to visit and that weekend we were about to make our 7 hour trip to Ebisu Circuit for the Drift Matsuri but my friend at the last minute gave me a heads up on the Super GT 700km endurance race and due to the shortage of both time and funds at the time we headed off to Suzuka Circuit instead.

The day started off with a good breakfast since it was an endurance race, we knew it was going to be a long day for us and the summer heat at that time wasn't going to help either.

One of the stations we had to change trains at, and for those that don't know, Suzuka Circuit is in the middle of nowhere in Mie Prefecture.

I was already feeling good during the walk from the station to the circuit as the car parks were just filled with amazing cars. This Jazz/Fit with full racing livery caught my eye.

This clean EK9 Civic Type-R was also very nice and yes I'm a Honda fanboy.

When we arrived at the circuit Carlos handed my girlfriend and I our tickets and we had a giant smile on our faces, well at least I know I did. After spending years of racing on this circuit on Gran Turismo and Forza it was surreal to be standing at the gates of what I would only see in video games.

We got there a bit early before the race started so we had time to walk around and check out some of the stalls they had up.

Look how happy my baby is!

There were also cars on display and this CR-Z was easily my favourite with it's roots tracing back to the CRX

Even the standard one with Mugen goodies looked very nice, I sure as hell wouldn't mind one of these for a daily.

My friend Carlos took interest in the 370Z they had on display instead.

The race was about to start so we headed to our seats, unfortunately it wasn't in the VIP suite. Instead our seats were right towards the end of the pit exit and the main straight and just hearing the cars start up for their formation lap gave me goosebumps and just thinking about it now it's still giving me goosebumps. The downside to where we sat was that we had a massive fence in front of us so I couldn't get some clear photos.

But it wasn't too bad, also the cars had a rolling start which none of us expected so we were caught off guard when the race started.

Not knowing much about the Super GT's cars or drivers it was nice just to enjoy and take in the whole experience of being at Suzuka Circuit watching cars go screaming past.

Later on in the day we moved around a bit to try and find some better places to watch the race and it was just so raw being able to hear all the different engine notes of all the different types of cars out on the track. The difference between the GT500 and GT300 class was quick a big gap with the GT500 cars overtaking and lapping the GT300 cars with ease.

As it got darker it made it interesting to take a decent photo, so after a while of trying with some very low shutter speeds and my lack of skills I decided to put down the camera and just watch the race finish. It was also nice that it was cooling down as well so we weren't burning in the sun but it was still humid as hell!

The final results for the GT500 Class were:
1st Place

Arta Honda HSV-010

2nd Place

Motul Autech Nissan R35 GTR

3rd Place

Raybrig Honda HSV-010

Final thoughts, well it was a great day, one that I won't be forgetting any time soon and having my girlfriend there with me made it that much more special. I was really impressed with the Honda's out on the track ever since the HSV-010 replaced the NSX I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm really looking forward to see the Honda's go head to head with the Lexus LF-A next season. I also managed to tick off Suzuka Circuit from my "Must go before I die" list, next up is Tsukuba!

I have a whole bunch of more photos here as well so be sure to check them out.

I miss travelling

2010-11-01T14:11:00.001+11:00

Ever since coming back to Japan after my trip back home one of the things I've really missed is when I went travelling around Japan with my girlfriend and our friends during the summer holidays. This is a little reminder of how fun it was, the Tokyo subway route map, it's a bit torn here and there and probably soaked with my sweat since it was really hot when we travelled but that's what makes it real and full of memories of the good times we had together.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T01:13:00.000+11:00

After a big night out to celebrate my birthday with some friends in Nagoya, it happened to be a big Halloween event on as well, this is what I woke up to.

My room is a giant mess right now.

Luckily I got some washing done the day before too which means I don't have to do that much tomorrow.

Overall it was a great night out, I haven't been clubbing in Nagoya for a while now so it felt nice to let loose every once in a while. The only shit thing was coming home at 6 in the morning, these cheap wafers didn't help block out the sun either but what do you expect from a cheap pair of sunnies.

The last 2 weeks in photos

2010-11-01T01:00:00.000+11:00

A lot of studying has been going on, well not a lot but more than usual since being in B class requires a lot of self study.

I've been spending a lot of time chilling to Kevin Smith's podcasts.

I started spending a lot of time playing Dawn of War, the Warhammer 40K PC Game.

Adding to the Warhammer addiction, my friend Robert lent me this Warhammer 40K book which I'm quite enjoying as well since the only book I read is Lord of the Rings so it's something different.

About a week ago now my laptop charger died and I've been borrowing my friends' chargers so I haven't been able to have a lot of time in front of the laptop. Hopefully I get one within the next week so I don't have to keep borrowing my friends' chargers.

I also got bored a while back and created a blog for my friend Henry, just a quick and simple template for now, still a work in progress since we still have to fix up a lot of it since I just copied and pasted a lot from his old site but he's been adding a couple of posts about customer's cars which is good. Check it out at Hensperformance.com

Must Watch

2010-10-14T22:55:00.001+11:00

A friend posted this video up in a forum and after watching it brought a tear to my eye and it's a must watch for everyone!

My view of the Japanese GP

2010-10-13T23:31:00.000+11:00

This is pretty much my view of the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, this was taken from the top of the stands though my seat was lower towards the front so I was a lot closer to the cars and the sound was orgasmic. Every now and then when I think about it I still get goosebumps.

Ferrari Wallpaper

2010-10-12T16:14:00.000+11:00

This is my current wallpaper, it's currently uploaded in full resolution so feel free to use it for your wallpaper too if you like.

Also more photos to come from Sunday later on tonight.

Disappointed: Day 2 @ Japanese GP

2010-10-10T02:52:00.001+11:00

Last night after day 1 at the Japanese Grand Prix my friend Carlos and I were planning our trip for today and I had the opportunity to sleep in and miss P3 but come for qualifying only but I refused because I wanted to go and see all 3 days in full.

But was I disappointed when I woke up to cloudy skies, then when I got to Suzuka Circuit station it was sprinkling, as we started walking to the Circuit it got heavier and heavier and by the time we got to our seats it was coming down pretty full on. It was cold and wet, very wet, my jeans, shoes and socks got completely drenched and it wasn't fun, especially because there were only the 2 Torro Rosso cars on the track.

Lunch came and by this time it was pouring down by the bucket load but I stayed positive and hoped to enjoy the rest of my day by watching the qualifying rounds. Again I was let down because it got delayed twice for 30 minutes each time and I was freezing and by 3pm my friend Carlos and I just couldn't take it anymore and left. Luckily we didn't wait because it got cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow morning which means I have to wake up even earlier now.

To make up for it though I went through all of my photos from yesterday's first and second practice sessions so here they are.

I think these were 2 of the most photogenic cars on the day for some reason.

The driver I'm hoping to win the race and championship; Mark Webber.

Giancarlo Fisichella on stage being interviewed.

A couple of fellow Aussie fans, the didn't seem very enthusiastic when I yelled out "GO MARK WEBBER!"

A true Ferrari fan, this girl was wearing a Kimono which had the Ferrari emblem stitched onto her Kimono and as you can see a picture of the Ferrari F1 car on the back.

A Ferrari fan in the making?

More Aussie support!

You can click here to view the rest of the set on my Flickr. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more photos tomorrow since the weather should be clearing up.

2010 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX: Practice 1 & 2

2010-10-09T00:25:00.005+11:00

Today is the day I crossed off something on my "Do before I die" list and that was to attend a Formula 1 race, and who would have thought it would be at Suzuka Circuit here in Japan since the most likely place would have been at Albert Park in Melbourne.

It started off with not much sleep at all, and a very early start to the day I met up with my good friend Carlos from Guatemala, who is a bigger F1 fan than I am. We got there just in time after a bit of a hiccup but we made it and caught the first cars leaving the pit for the first session of practice and it was amazing, I instantly had the biggest smile on my face and goosebumps all over. It was truly one of the best moments in my life.

To keep things short, it was a great day and the top 3 from both practice sessions are:

Sebastian Vettel who topped both practice sessions with a best time of 1:31.465 in the second session of practice.

Mark Webber, who came in a close second only 0.048 seconds behind his teammate Vettel. I'm hoping Mark will get the win and that he ends up winning the championship, I'll also be buying a Webber shirt tomorrow to show my support.

Third was Robert Kubica, a great driver who I always enjoy watching. Although at times the Renault sounded a bit "strange", especially under braking it seems as though reality wasn't an issue today for Kubica. Let's hope the Renault engines hold up for both Red Bull and the Renault team.

The Red Bulls are again looking to be the team to beat and the forecast for tomorrow is rain, which is good and bad since it will mix everything up for P3 and Qualifying but I'll be in the rain with a raincoat and I doubt I'll be able to take any photos.

Well it's been a killer of a day, but I'm tired as hell right now and even though it's totally worth it, I'll have to put going through the rest of the photos for another day. I hope you keep checking in as I'll be putting up some more small posts about each day of the Grand Prix.

Procrastination at its best

2010-10-06T20:53:00.002+11:00

It started off last night after I got a pretty good start on my assignment while enjoying a few beers. Then when I finished the beers my motivation to complete the essay was also finished. It was then decided that I would finish it today.

The day started off with some brunch, Kellogg's Frosties were on the menu even though I was craving for corn flakes. Check out the free baseball card I got too, I'm a total sucker for marketing.

I then spent most of the day cleaning up and giving my blog a new look, it looks pretty good doesn't it?

Snacking throughout the day, I forgot to take photos since I was too busy eating them. A banana to offset the unhealthy Yan Yan chocolate.

Then I remembered I picked up my results for the first semester and I passed! I also managed to pass the mock test for the JLPT level 3 which is great news. Although the comments said my Japanese at times was very good and at other times it was also very bad hahaha I guess I just have to keep practicing.

The next thing you know it was dinner time! So I went to do the dishes from yesterday.

Now my rice just finished cooking and it's time to make dinner, after that it's game time lol.

my cave

2010-10-06T02:34:00.003+11:00

This is my room in it's current state.

When I was home

2010-10-05T02:24:00.000+11:00

This is a quick run down of some of the things I got up to while I was home for nearly a month, they're not in any particular order. Also all the photos were taken with my iPhone 4 as well and I'm impressed.

Spent time at home playing with this Polaroid app on my iPhone. Generally just spending time at home felt so good.

Hung out with some hairdressers and catching up with friends.

Spent a lot of time with my dog; Lewis which was on top of my TO-DO list.

Of course I attended Defqon, not as good as last year but it was great to party hard after not attending any raves in Japan.

Work on my car and fix up some issues I had with it, my hands haven't gotten dirty in so long and it felt good to be doing something hands on.

Put the TUFFS on my BMX, I reckon they look so much better than before I just need some purple pedals from Odyssey to finish it off.

New Toys!

2010-10-03T21:42:00.002+11:00

Some new toys I picked up while I was back home; an iPhone 4 and a Hoya Circular Polarizer thanks to my friend Khoa who works at Harvey Norman. Check out my mini review of the iPhone 4 after the jump.

The iPhone 4 is my first smartphone and it's great, it's like a whole new world has been opened to me with email and internet on my phone, which I sort of had on my phone in Japan but this was so much better quality wise with a larger, better screen and qwerty touch keyboard as well. Although the only department that it let me down in was the speed, I was so used to the fast internet speeds on my phone in Japan that the connection speed at home didn't seem that fast if I wasn't connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Another con about the iPhone is the battery life, but then again my girlfriend was playing Veggie Samurai quite a bit and I was always on my iPhone the first few days so I was charging it daily. But I've managed to use it for nearly 2 and a half days a few times. But either than that the phone is really great, like I said it's my first smart phone so I really don't have anything to compare it to.

I decided not to jail break it and paid a few dollars for some pretty good apps, including Tapatalk which is great for reading forums and when I was drunk I also managed to download I am T-Pain but we had so much fun that night playing with that app. I think it's the most expensive app I've ever bought and will ever buy, another app I purchased was Veggie Samurai for my girlfriend and all the rest of the apps were free apps which were 90% games.

The camera on it is great too, and it comes with a flash and has zooming capabilities as well unlike the previous iPhone models which is a great addition. I've taken some photos that I'll post up later and you can see for yourself that the camera is pretty decent. Actually the photo in my last post was actually taken with my iPhone 4, not bad for a phone camera.

Another feature I really like is the speakers, I've never really had anything that could play music loud and it's been great when I was fixing up my car I just had Jay and Silent Bob's podcast playing in the background and I didn't need to have headphones on and wires everywhere.

The phone is with me now in Japan and hopefully I can change my current sim to a micro sim so I can use my iPhone here in Japan, I'm going to head to Softbank (my carrier) tomorrow to see what they can do for me.

As for the circular polarizer, I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but hopefully it should help me produce some better looking photos, especially at the grand prix coming up next weekend.

Back in the land of the rising sun

2010-10-03T01:55:00.000+10:00

So I'm back in Japan after my short trip back home, I landed a couple of days ago and pretty much have been unpacking and catching up with some friends and meeting quite a few new international students who also arrived on the same day I got back. It was great being back home and spending time with family and friends although I still have unfinished business left with Japan.

I know I owe this blog quite a fair amount of content but hopefully I'll be able to do so in the coming days I have before class starts.

Some include:
- The rest of my trip around Japan with my girlfriend and our friends.
- Super GT @ Suzuka Circuit
- What I've been up to the last month in Australia
- New toys that I have
- Updates on my BMX

In addition to those next weekend is the Japanese F1 Grand Prix! It's finally here so keep an eye out for that, hopefully I'll be able to add some live coverage via my twitter which you can see to the right. Also in the coming months it will be getting into winter which means one thing, snow season!

I also have to start organising my photos a bit better, dates are a stupid way of doing it, hopefully with Lightroom it should be easier to keep things tidy.

PS. In regards to my previous post and the photo I posted of me driving the NSX, unfortunately it isn't mine but I'll tell you know, I will own one one day. But for now the car actually belongs to my uncle and he let me take it for a short spin around the area when I went to visit when I first got back. More on that later too!

Surprise!

2010-09-15T23:41:00.002+10:00

As some of you may or may not know I am currently back home in Australia and boy does it feel good to be home I kept this a secret for quite a while and managed to surprised most of my friends which was great fun, and hence the lack of posts lately while I've been busy catching up with family and friends.

I still have a lot of photos still to post up about my summer holidays which I'll get around to real soon but I'm not here for long so most of my time will be out with friends and family so I won't get much time behind the computer. So here's another surprise for you all to make up for the lack of posts.

Photo courtesy of my good friend Oscar.

Kyoto: Day 2

2010-09-03T20:46:00.002+10:00

Continuing on from where we left off last time, we left Osaka and headed for our hostel in Kyoto where we just rested for the night.

The next day we rented some bikes and headed to the shopping area around Kyoto, this was my single speed for the day and those bullhorn handlebars are on the wrong way too. But it was pretty fun to ride, the girls all got the standard issue bikes you see everywhere around Japan. It started off with us trying to find something to eat as we cycled our way from the hostel to the shopping district.

We found this great little sushi restaurant that was doing lunch set specials, Tits had this katsudon + udon set.

While the rest of us went for the sushi + udon set, all for a great price too. I think it was 800YEN for each set which was really cheap compared to some others starting at 1200YEN.

We got to the shopping district after finishing our meals which meant we had to find somewhere to park our bikes and even though there were bikes parked all along the main street, we didn't want to risk it (since it's illegal) so we decided to find somewhere else to park the bikes.

Along the way we found Tit's very own cafe. We ended up just parking the bikes at some apartment's bike park area, still kind of illegal but more safe than leaving our bikes on the main road.

We found a great alley way market/shopping area just before the department stores called Teramachi and ended up spending most of our time here. Which was a great decisions since we found this thanks to Kim's desire to eat all the time. It's called Andrew's Original Eggtart which is a part of Lord Stow's Bakery. At first we thought it was just normal eggtarts like back home at yum cha but boy these were on a level of their own. We ended up eating like 3 each in one go, they even had a chocolate one too and we were hooked! Be sure to check this place out if you're ever in Kyoto.

Afterwards it was just more shopping, nothing really special and then it got dark when we headed back, it was great fun since Tit's got a new luggage since her one broke and she had a luggage on the back of her bike, tied down by bag straps and strings from someone's pants? It was a great fun riding home after a long day out and we didn't have to walk. The night ended with some drinks in our room and the us fighting over who was next on some Fruit Ninja game on the ipod.

Suzuka Circuit: Turn 1

2010-09-03T12:00:00.004+10:00

Another panoramic shot from Suzuka, after spending about an hour at the main straight we moved over to the first corner and this is where the good photos came out.
You'll see what I mean once I post up the photos from that day, I've just been putting it off while my mind is thinking of ways to put what I experienced that day into words.

My new toy

2010-09-03T02:47:00.009+10:00

The latest addition to my camera gear, the Canon Powershot G11. This was a shared purchase between my girlfriend and myself since she was in need of a new camera after her one went for a swim accidentally and I just wanted something new to play with.

I'm not one for writing reviews on a product so I'll just tell you what I like about it. It's a lot smaller than my DSLR, the 400D, so that's a big plus from having to carry that around in my backpack but instead I can wear this around my shoulder and not have any problems with it. So size was a main issue even though this isn't your typical point and shoot which fits in your pocket but I quite like the size and it feels good to hold in your hand while taking photos and not just a toy.

Next would be the manual capabilities, allowing for full flexibility for when I want to take a photo of something, with long exposures and all that business and it also features a manual zoom. Where a zoomed in box pops up on the LCD so you can correctly focus on the subject.

The rotating LCD screen, at first seemed like a bit of a nuisance but after getting used to rotating it the right way, anti clockwise? I think it was, then it's a pretty nifty idea for protecting the LCD screen and for taking photos of yourself. Which I only did once with my girlfriend when we were taking tourist type shots in Osaka, it definitely wasn't for Facebook profile pictures.

Another great feature is the ability to attach an external flash which is great since I can just chuck on my 430EX and use it like I would on the DLSR but this again is more compact although the larger flash does dwarf the G11 a bit however I have only used the flash once on the G11.

Finally the price we were offered for the camera was ridiculously low and even though it was a display model it is in as new condition as could be since it was displayed in a glass cabinet. If it wasn't for the price I think I would have gotten a Panasonic LX3 or even wait for the new LX5 to come out because I hear that's going to be a killer of a camera but the price was just too good to pass up and my girlfriend really needed/wanted a camera.

The downside, I'm short a few bucks in my bank account but hey, I have this cool new camera to play with. Also check out the this shot I managed from the Super GT.

It turned out better than it did on my DLSR at the time because it started getting dark. In short; this is a great camera and I'm more than happy with it.

Suzuka Circuit Main Straight

2010-09-02T02:03:00.000+10:00

I just whipped this up and couldn't wait to share it with you guys. This was where we first sat for the beginning of the Super GT race, we were hoping for a off the line start but it was a straight start right after the formation lap similar to go kart racing.

Kyoto and Universal Studios, Japan

2010-09-01T22:55:00.002+10:00

After a good night's sleep out plan was to jump on a train for Kyoto, check in to our hostel then jump on another train back to Osaka and head for Universal Studios Japan. This ended up taking a bit longer than expected as the place we were staying at, Kyoto Guest House, was a bit hard to find hidden away in a small residential area but it was totally worth it, the owners were really friendly, spoke really good English and the place was great for what it was. If you ever head to Kyoto be sure to check them out here.

Kyoto station is only about 30 minutes away from Osaka so it wasn't too bad.

The famous Kyoto Tower Hotel right across the road from the station. This is the tallest building in Kyoto as theirs rules or laws against building sky scrapers or tall buildings in Kyoto because they want to preserve the city or so that is what I've been told.

The City Walk from the station to Universal Studios.

Here we all are at the front, at first I approached this girl to take a photo for us but she was so shy she just totally ignored me and ran around me as though I was trying to do bad things to her or something. My friends just laughed so then I just asked one of the staff members walking around to take it for us and she was more than helpful. I think she has had a lot of experience as this photo turned out so good hahaha.

A lot of people were still entering although it was late in the after noon, about 4 or 5pm and it was still pretty crowded.

Everywhere you go in Japan there is Hello Kitty merchandise.

Cool plush toys from Sesame Street, I didn't get to play any games though as we spent most of our time going through all the rides and attractions.

We were going to wait for the 3D Terminator feature but found out it wasn't a ride so we headed for the Spiderman ride and it was awesome, we didn't wait that long either.

While waiting in line we were taken through what seems to be the office for "The Daily Bugle" and it was a great addition as it made the wait in line so much more interactive.

This is us and our super cool 3D glasses, too bad we were told we weren't allowed to take photos during the ride because it was awesome! One of the best rides there I reckon even though it was one of those 3D adventure type things and I couldn't really understand what they were saying but I really enjoyed the ride. I also picked up my first addition to my Bear Brick collection, a Spiderman one.

Next up was the Jurassic Park ride, I think we waited the longest for this one, about 30 minutes or more.

Also managed to sneak in this shot before the ride got interesting. This was a great ride as I loved the Jurassic Park movies and the ride itself was very entertaining with a giant drop at the end which not all of us expected, luckily we managed to score on of those roller coaster photos from this ride. A very funny photo that's for sure, I'll probably post it up later when I get my hands on a scanner.

Outside they had this on display.

They even had those big Jurassic Park gates which were a nice addition and also the souvenir store and some restaurants were in the shape of the huts in the movies, I didn't get a good photo of them though.

We then hit up the Snoopy section of USJ and here I am giving some advice to my girlfriend.

Then it was the girl's turn for some advice.

I don't know what she was sighing about.

When we got out it was getting dark and it was nearly closing time so we all headed for the Holly Wood Dream roller coaster which looked very daunting at first but it wasn't a bad ride, my girlfriend was freaking out though but she survived it. We then had time for one last ride which was the Jaws one, it was really fun especially because it was dark and we couldn't really see what was coming for us from the water. Again another really great ride, it was about closing time so we just went around getting all of the gifts and souvenirs we wanted to buy and the next thing you know we managed to get front row seats to the parade.

This was my favourite, the Arabian Nights elephant.

This was also very cool.

Thanks to my girlfriend for being my tripod when I took this shot, it turned out well.

Us hanging with Peanuts.

Then it was Snoopy and Woodstock's turn.

We then proceeded to try and find something to eat but everything close by was closing so we decided to just head back to Kyoto for some dinner closer to where we were staying. Sukiya was opened 24hrs and was only a 10 minute walk so it wasn't too bad considering they had unagi.

That was it from us in Osaka, next is Kyoto so watch this space.

Osaka: continued

2010-09-01T12:00:00.002+10:00

The next morning we were off to Osaka Aquarium, I absolutely love aquariums and I'm so intrigued with anything that has to do with the ocean and things underwater.

The aquarium was pretty big and housed 2 whale sharks.

Saw this cool guys inside just chilling, my girlfriend said it looked like a giant hamster and it really does.

Some octopus hiding at the bottom.

Giant spider crabs! these guys looked surreal, they were so big.

and there were a whole bunch of them.

That was pretty much it from inside the aquarium as the camera wasn't too good in low light conditions.

Me and the mouth of a really big shark.

The touch pools they had were so much better than back home, I got to touch sharks and sting rays and not just coral and star fishes.

It was nice to be able to pet these animals, little kids were loving it too and I convinced my girlfriend to finally touch them too and she didn't really like it but I was having a ball. I felt kind of bad as it seemed the sharks and sting rays were dumbed down a bit as they weren't really reacting to us touching them.

A great quote on the wall as we were leaving.

Some great Engrish at the restaurant we went to for dinner inside the shopping centre just outside of the aquarium.

Our friend Kim found this cool all you can eat restaurant where you cook your own battered food.

A very cool idea indeed and we had a great time there, too bad there wasn't much in variety and I pretty much just at the prawns all night.

More food, we ate so much until we got sick of it, then we just headed back to our hotel to get some rest in for our big day to Universal Studios.

Stay tuned as I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and I should be writing up my Cultural Report today for UTS but you know how much I love to procrastinate so I think I'll be contributing quite a lot more my blog.

Retracing my steps: Osaka, Kobe

2010-09-01T03:51:00.001+10:00

It's been a long time since I've had some time to sit and not have to worry about what time it is before I have to leave or do something important as it's been a hectic month of travelling around Japan. Ever since my girlfriend and her two friends came at the beginning of the month we've been spending everyday out and about exploring Japan and just having a blast. We had quite a big list of what we wanted to do but some we just didn't get a chance to such as climbing Mt Fuji and Hiroshima, instead we did get to do a lot more. We did manage to go to Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya and of course my home away from home; Gifu.

It took some time going through all of our photos and I'm still not done with all of them yet either as I have photos from three different cameras on my computer so some might not all be in the right order. Most of my photos from my DSLR will come later as I didn't bring it for the first week during Osaka and Kyoto, instead I had my girlfriend's point and shoot Canon IXUS 90 IS. My memory is also a bit sketchy so things might not be in chronological order so bare with me.

First off, myself Axel and Jesus (international students from Sweden and America respectively) headed off from Gifu to head for Osaka to check in to our hotel then Jesus and I headed off to the airport to pick up my girlfriend and our friends. Due to unforeseen events we ended up being an hour late, I felt so bad but no one was to blame as the train we were on split off at one station and we didn't know we were on the wrong carriage as the first 4 went to the airport and the back for in a totally opposite direction. But all was good when we finally got there though, it felt so good to see my girlfriend again after such a long time.

Afterward we just headed back to the hotel to off load their luggage then it was off to find somewhere to eat and drink. Axel knew of a very good okonomiyaki place but as it was late on a Thursday night it was already closed so instead we hit up this little ramen joint in Dotonbori. We then wanted to find somewhere to drink, preferably an izakaya but none were to be found, instead we just got some beer and wine and the girl's got their drinks and we just headed back to the hotel to drink and get some rest for the next day.

We headed to Kobe, none of us did any research so instead we just walked around hoping to find somewhere we could get some Kobe beef but again we were let down as they were all open for dinner only. Which wasn't good for Axel and Jesus as they had to head back to Gifu later that day since they had some other things going on.

Some funny looking signs.

My girlfriend had carbonara for brunch that day and she said it was really nice. I tried a bit and it was meh for me.

A temple we stumbled upon not far from the station.

It was so nice being able to wash my hands here as the water was so cold and refreshing. A nice change from the high 30 degree days, I was sweating everywhere, even my legs!

The girls, Tuyet and Kim with Mr. Axel himself looking very suave as usual.

We took a break at a close by convenient store and then got directions to go see a Japanese styled garden named Sorakuen garden. The attendant said it was walking distance but HE LIED! it took us at least 20 minutes walking in the blistering heat and when we finally found it people weren't too happy since it was hot and really far.

Here I am arriving at the front and finding out we had to pay 300YEN for entry, at this point Axel and Jesus decided to part us and head back while the girls and I headed in. The people there were nice enough to lend us some fans too.

Some info about the place, just something along the lines of a traditional Japanese garden in the heart of the city. It was too hot to read all of it so we rushed off to find some shade.

At first we thought we got ripped off as we didn't see anything interesting but then we discovered the walking track which lead to the rest of the garden which I thought was really impressive as I really liked the traditional styling of the garden.

Group photo time!

These turtles and koi fishes all started gathering around us as we approached the pond, this kept us entertained for a while.

Very nice looking house.

That's it from Kobe, a bit disappointing overall as I didn't get a chance to get some Kobe beef in my stomach I had planned but it was still nice being able to get to see the temple and Japanese styled garden.

At night it was off to Dotonbori to find some places to eat and drink.

No we didn't eat here but it we had to take a photo of the creative name of the restaurant.

Quite a few restaurants had a faux food display out the front which looked a lot like the real thing and in some cases it was as my girlfriend and her friend found out when they went to touch it.

My and my beautiful girlfriend; Kim. (different to the one ealier, there were 2 Kims on this trip)

The other Kim and Tuyet (Tits) on the right.

We ate at the okonomiyaki place Axel showed us the night before.

Then it was off to explore the place and we found this really cool multi-story store which had everything from imported food to Louis Vuitton bags and some crazy things in between like this pillow which hugs you.

Smirnoff Vodka going for a very low price compared to back home, this would have been about $13.

If you look closely that's a 1.75L bottle of Jack Daniels for about $45.

It started raining so we just headed to a bar, we returned to one we saw earlier which I was keen on going to since it had darts which I really like doing when I drink now (more on that later). Here are our long island ice teas, which would go on to become one of the drinks we would regret having later on.

That place got boring as a poker game took up most of the bar. So we found an izakaya instead, but it wasn't all you can drink so BOO!

More drinks.

Gyoza!

Our food for the night.

We then went searching for place we could get our drink on and we stumbled upon an Irish pub with a couple of foreigners so we decided this was it and we stayed.

Leaving a little something behind with a coaster stuck on the wall in memory of us being there.

More drinks and another long island ice tea.

After this it was just a really fun time that I have trouble remembering some parts of hahaha but it was a great night, I met some great people and we ended up taking over the bar as we started pumping hardstyles which could be heard from the streets since he had speakers outside too. The bartender's name was Shinji and he was a cool guy, I kind of promised I would come back the next day but we didn't want to even go near alcohol again the next night. But it's a place I'll definitely go back to when I'm back in Osaka.

That's it for day 1, check back in tomorrow for day 2 of my tour of Japan.

Teaser: Super GT

2010-08-24T14:33:00.000+10:00

Since I've got a lot of photos to go through and there's so much I want to show you guys but this is one thing I just couldn't wait for. So here's a quick shot from the Super GT 700km endurance race last Sunday at Suzuka Circuit.

This is the winning Honda HSV-010GT backed by Autobacs. I didn't really know much about the HSV-010GT but this thing blew me away and I'm in love with this car now, the sound was amazing listening to thing gave me goosebumps and keeping with Honda's reputation it was the best sounding car of the day.

Hopefully I can get through all of my photos soon so I can show you guys what I've been up to the last few weeks.

Quick Update!

2010-08-22T03:06:00.003+10:00

Things have been pretty crazy lately with a lot of travelling being done all around Japan with lots of photos and interesting things happening which will be updated soon.

But for now just a quick photo of me on a simulator at Toyota Megaweb in Tokyo, tomorrow I'm off to watch the Super GT at Suzuka instead of the Drift Matsuri. Also for those that don't know I made a twitter so I can keep you all up to date and entertained (hopefully) while I'm running around Japan.

Random Photo: JDM Taxi

2010-08-05T13:00:00.001+10:00

Just a quick snap of a taxi during my outing to Nagoya over the weekend. Trying to keep my panning skills sharp, and getting in some practice for the upcoming Drift Matsuri at Ebisu, I can't wait!

Nagoya: World Cosplay Summit

2010-08-05T02:56:00.001+10:00

Last weekend was the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) in Nagoya, where contestants from all over the world came together to battle it out for supremacy in the world of Cosplay. It wasn't as good as it sounded though.

Waking up around midday aiming to get to Nagoya by 2:30pm to meet with some friends then head to the WCS to check out the action. Leaving my place it seemed like it was going to rain and there was a cool breeze which was a big change from the really hot 30+ degree days. So I decided to chuck on a pair of jeans and a t shirt, oh boy was that a bad idea by the time I got to Nagoya. The whole way there I was on the train so it was nice and cool but by the time I got to the streets of Nagoya I was sweating everywhere!

I got to Nagoya around 2:30pm as planned (I was on time for a change) and my friends were still sight seeing and stuff and it was still early before the WCS started at 4pm, so naturally I headed straight towards the arcades to get in some games of Street Fighter. It was about a 5min walk and I was so happy they had really strong air conditioning at the game centre. I played some games, lost some won some the usual then it was time so I headed to the WCS to meet my friends.

Approaching the venue I was a bit surprised and shocked that the whole thing was held outdoors, OUTDOORS?! It was easily at 35 degree day and the large number of people there didn't help either. This was it, Oasis 21 a large bus depot in Nagoya which was the venue for this years WCS.

I've never been to a cosplay event before so I had no idea what to expect except girls dressed in some skimpy outfits that were meant to be the same as some anime characters. But how wrong I was, there were guys walking around dressed up as girls, some of the costumes were just ridiculous and the majority of the girls looked like they were so young I felt bad looking at some of them.

Although I did manage to find some cute looking girls and what do you know, they were Evangelion characters too. What a coincidence.

There were some decent looking costumes(girls) but to be honest, it wasn't worth walking around in that heat and humidity. I also think these were the amateur cosplayers as the main show was on stage and there was a fee to get in and watch but most people didn't bother.

Some of the costumes were pretty elaborate and I couldn't believe they could put up with wearing the costume for so long especially in that heat.

I have no idea what this is meant to be, I know it's a Nintendo DS but why is there some anime girl in it? It must be a Japanese thing. If someone has any idea what this is please let me know.

This was one killer of a costume (no pun intended) because it seemed the guy in the costume was going to pass out at times, he kept getting his friends to fan him and give him water as it must have been so hot underneath that costume. It looked as though he just got out of the pool as he was drenched!

But kudos to him for putting on a brave face (even though no one can see it) and posing for all the people that wanted to take photos of him and his friend. I for one wouldn't even have been there in the first place let alone put on a elaborate costume such as that. By the way, I have no idea what half the people were dressing up as either.

My friends and I decided it was too hot so found a getaway in a Starbucks store and chilled out in their air conditioned cafe for a bit then it was starting to get dark. We were going to have dinner but most of them weren't hungry so they decided to head back whereas I stayed back in Nagoya to keep exploring.

I just ended up back at the arcades playing Street Fighter since it was still so hot outside even though it was getting dark, sure it was cooler than during the day but it was still unbearable for me, especially since I was wearing jeans. I played for an hour or so with only 200YEN since I kept winning which was a change, then I grabbed some KFC across the road then headed home. The KFC was SHIT! the burger itself wasn't too bad the but coleslaw was such a let down, now I'm craving proper coleslaw more than ever.

PS. My girlfriend comes tomorrow and I'll be starting my travels of Japan so for the next month therefore I'll hardly be home, let alone in front of a computer. So there won't be much updates, I only have one small post lined up but that's it for about a month. Instead I signed up to twitter so you can keep track of where I am and what I'm doing while I'm travelling Japan, that's if I remember to post there.

I've also quickly whipped up something on carbonmade as well so head to

http://folio.stevenle.net/

to check it out and let me know what you think, there's no real purpose to it yet just some random photos and stuff I chucked up there and having a play with some ideas.

Until next time, stay safe and hopefully I'll have lots to show when I get back.

Peace out.
Steven

CRX Australia's August Feature

2010-08-04T14:42:00.001+10:00

Recently CRX Australia has gone through a complete overhaul of their forum and site and that included a new Feature CRX for their site and I was chosen for the feature. I was actually notified a while back but the forum took a while for all the changes to be made so it was only a few days ago now that the new site was up and running so it was great to see my car on their home page.

These photos were taken by my friend Oscar and I completed it by doing the post processing work, Oscar and I have shot a few cars together now and we work well together. A previous shoot we did was for our friend Henry and his Mitsubishi Mirage for the groundupgarage.com.

This just makes me miss my car that much more and I am also very proud to have a CRX that is worthy to be featured on CRX Australia. It just goes to show that you don't need a lot of money poured into your car but instead some good sense and direction of where you want your car to go and it's all the little things that sets it apart from all the other cars.

Anyways I think that's all from me, I don't want to bore you so to check out the rest of the feature's photos and Q&A at CRX Australia just click here.

Another CRX

2010-08-04T01:27:00.003+10:00

Last weekend I decided to head to Nagoya to check out the World Cosplay Summit (WCS) which I'll have all the details for in the next post, but for now I would like to present to you the Tomica Limited Vintage Neo '85 CRX.

I scored this while waiting for some friends at Oasis 21 which is a large bus depot in Nagoya which also has quite a few shops around and it is also where the WCS was held. I was doing the usual rounds to all the stores which included the Tomica store and I've been holding out on buying something from there since nothing has really interested me.

Then to my surprise looking at the Limited Edition cabinet I saw that they had the CRX available. I was hoping they would have the '88 model so the same as my CRX but they only had the '85 model. It also had only been released a few days before I got to the store as well. They had two options available; white or grey and I chose the grey one and I'll be back to pick up the white one soon.

I think I'll be returning with a lot of CRX toys and a lot of toys for my CRX, although I have yet to do the latter. Hopefully that will change when I hit up Autobacs in Tokyo or find some wrecking yards to find some rare CRX parts. If anyone can help with this please let me know, I need to find locations of good wrecking yards and/or get in with the local car scene which seems pretty hard living in Gifu.

Work Space

2010-08-03T12:05:00.000+10:00

Here's another photo of my work space over the last couple of weeks. I got my LOTR book for some reading, coke, a pile of spare change I have and my laptop with MSN opened and Logitec speakers. Also a lot of random items that somehow makes it way onto my table from other places.

Got to have faith!

2010-08-02T13:30:00.000+10:00

Since coming to Japan I've started praying again every night before I go to sleep. I used to do this as a kid but as I got older I started to stray (bad word choice) as I got older and I pretty much stopped when I started hitting my teens. But being alone in Japan kind of changed my perspective on a few things and the next thing you know I started praying every night. I also promised my mum that I would do this but it became more voluntary and not as forced as you might say.

This rosary was given to me on my first communion when I was in primary school by my grandmother and I've kept it with me since. Every major event in my life I've carried this rosary with me, also all my exams that I have I bring this with me as well maybe hoping for some better marks since I don't study enough but I guess it all comes down in having faith. Whether it be in yourself or in someone else, having faith to me has become a lot more important the last couple of months and I'm sure that will make my mum a lot more happy with me too.

A class: Completed!

2010-08-01T23:42:00.004+10:00

So I haven't really been posting much but it's because it was the final weeks of the semester and I was jam packed with a number of exams and a presentation, which all were done in Japanese. But as of Friday I was free, my summer holidays have started and what better way to celebrate it than to get drunk and so I did hence the 2 day delay in posting this.

It feels good to finally be on holidays, I wish I could have been going to Kendo training since I'm free but the Kendo club is also on holidays as well so I've got a lot of spare time until Thursday when my girlfriend and our two friends come to visit and that's when the real partying begins. So I guess I won't be updating as often but I'll try my best, I'll line up a few small posts while I'm gone to keep everyone entertained.

Quote of the day.

2010-07-27T00:49:00.000+10:00

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

-Leon J. Suenes

Time...

2010-07-24T14:35:00.000+10:00

Sometimes it goes really slow and sometimes it goes really fast, a bit too fast. Looking back I've been in Japan for nearly 4 months, that's 1 month shy of the halfway point of my time here in Japan. The next thing you know I'll be packing my bags and I'll be saying farewell to what is my home away from home.

It also got me thinking the other day, I have so many hobbies and interests that I like to pursue but not enough time or money. Compared to other people I know who focus all their time and efforts into their one passion and/or hobby and they progress really far in whatever their passion is. I on the other hand have way too many hobbies such as cars, kendo, snowboarding, photography and my BMX. All of which take up a lot of time and money, I guess that's just life and I have to learn how to prioritize.

Lord of the Rings + F1.8 =

2010-07-23T14:26:00.000+10:00

So I borrowed a friend's nifty fifty the other day and I am having so much fun with it, I'm definitely going to pick one up here before I start travelling since it's much cheaper, too bad my 400D isn't a full frame camera. It will also be my first lens I purchase since so far I've only been using the kit lenses.

Also I started getting around to reading LOTR again, which I am a big fan of and I have to say I saw the movies before I read the book but I still enjoy both very much since the book just gives so much more details and the movie helps me create an image in my head of what is happening in the book. During my last year of high school I also got into playing LOTR: Strategy Battle Game as well which is like Warhammer but a LOTR version. Yes I'm a big nerd but I don't care I had such great fun collecting and building up my army. Only if I had time now I would still be collecting them.

Touge!

2010-07-22T13:30:00.001+10:00

Driving on this road was like a dream, now to find a car more suited to these kind of roads.

PS. Sorry I haven't replied to some of your comments, I just realised that a lot of comments have been post and I have totally missed. From now on though I've made sure I get an email alert every time a comment is posted so don't feel as though I've ignored your comments, I really enjoy reading them so keep posting em up!

Good Times

2010-07-22T01:51:00.002+10:00

How could I forget the good times, an open day at Wakefield with some of my closest friends, my beautiful girlfriend riding my BMX around the pits which I shared with Warren White.

This is what happens when the days are long and hot, I usually just spend most of my time in my room going through old photos and waiting for the summer holidays to start already. Just over a week until I finish and exactly 2 weeks until my girlfriend comes to visit, we're going to run a muck. I just hope we don't end up in jail.

Must Watch!

2010-07-19T21:43:00.001+10:00

A must watch video about the car I will one day own, make sure you watch it in HD as well.

HONDA NSX (EXTENDED VERSION) BY FORMAT67.NET from FORMAT67.NET on Vimeo.

Takayama Day 2

2010-07-15T23:15:00.002+10:00

Day 2 of my Takayama Trip, for the first part of my trip click here and here for part 2.

Day 2 started not long after we got back from the onsen, we decided to grab some alcohol, some snacks then head back to the hostel, we stayed at JHoppers which is a great and very cheap hostel. A very good option for anyone wanting to travel around Japan but make sure to book early because during the holidays they get booked out pretty fast.

We all just chilled in our room drinking $6 bottles of wine and talking to Carlos giving him relationship advice, let me say it was a night to remember. I'm sure he did because I'm sure he made progress after the trip.

Later on in the night, or should I say day as the sun was starting to come out already we all decided to head to bed, also because we ran out of alcohol. This was my bed for the night and I found it more comfortable than the one in my room back at the dorms.

This is the gang getting ready for a big day of action ahead.

We all headed to the post office right across the road from the hotel to withdraw some money, I also had an issue with my bank account and some missing money but that is all resolved now but I was so paranoid I didn't really spend much during the trip, which maybe is a good thing.

This was our choice for breakfast, a really nice small cafe with some decent food for a decent price. They were also playing some very chilled out music, reggae remixes of a lot of well known songs.

Check it out, they have Engrish menu too.

Afterward we jumped on a bus and headed for the Folk Village about 10 minutes away by bus.

Saw this crazy looking temple/shrine on the way, I still don't know what it is but it did look pretty cool.

When we arrived we were greeted by some very nice scenery, this is the Folk Village. Some preserved houses and so forth and there was a lot to go through, but we took the shortest route possible and didn't get to see all of it because we were short on time. But I'll definitely be heading back here for the whole thing during the summer break.

First thing we did, well I did was buy this bread stick for 30YEN I think and then fed it to the Koi fish.

There were so many and all in different sizes and colours.

I really like the white ones, this one was my favourite looking one. White with red on the head with a bit of black as well. I might go with this colour for my tattoo too.

We all then headed off to see the rest of the village and check out old Japanese people's houses.

Some of them looked really cool like this one here.

No surprise that they required you to take off your shoes just like every other house in Japan.

I started getting tired of taking off and putting on my shoes all the time so for this one I opted not to and became the photographer for this group shot.

Just some more random photos of places here and there within the village.

There were also a lot of little activities and things to do here too, it would have been really nice to do them if we had time but unfortunately we didn't. All the more reason to come back here when my girlfriend comes in the holidays.

At this place you could paint your own lucky charm cat, I always thought this was a Chinese thing as I always saw them back home in Chinese shops and restaurants. But it's also used here in Japan as well and there are different types as well.

Luckily it was all explained in English.

That pretty much sums up my 2nd day of my Takayama trip, we spent all of the day at the Folk Village then when we headed back to the station to book out bus tickets back they were all sold out, so we either had to wait til 7pm for a bus, which was pretty late since we wanted to catch the bus around 5pm. Instead we decided to catch the train back, not the best train ride I've had since we were all very tired and I found it really hard to get comfortable on the train. I seriously don't know how the Japanese manage to sleep on the trains all the time, they just slouch over and drop their heads and they manage to sleep. I on the other hand struggled to find a way to get comfortable and fall asleep.

yawn

2010-07-13T03:08:00.002+10:00

Since the World Cup is over (Congratulations to Spain), I'm slowly trying to get my sleeping patterns back in order since it was really messed up from staying up til 6:30am every weekend watching the games.

But now it's slowing becoming normal again, from 3:30am to 2:30 am, I'm going to try and head to bed at 2am tonight then maybe 1:30 tomorrow. Also I only have like 2 weeks left of class with 2 exams and one presentation so I'm going to be busy. Luckily I finished watching all of Big Bang Theory and Top Gear and Entourage are coming out weekly so it's not too bad.

Sunset at Wakefield Park

2010-07-12T13:30:00.000+10:00

A quick panoramic whipped up in photoshop, this was taken on my last time to Wakefield Park before I left for Japan. We stayed back a bit late since a friend had some issues with his car and we were waiting for the tow to come, not a great end to the day but this nice sunset made up for it a little bit. It was also when I got to put my new BC Racing coilovers through it's paces, a great day with me breaking into the high 1:17's. What good memories.

RAWR!

2010-07-11T20:56:00.002+10:00

Another random one found whilst going through old photos on my external HDD. This was during an open day at USYD if I remembered correctly. Just having some fun and my girlfriend being my girlfriend.

Good old CRX

2010-07-10T21:52:00.003+10:00

Just going through some old photos of mine and saw this photo of my CRX with it's original bumper on before I changed it over to the face lift version. I was out with my friend Ivan and we were testing out the location for a future shoot but due to my noobness I forgot to charge the battery on my camera, so it died not long after this shot was taken. Never again would I leave my house without a full battery before a shoot.