JUICEBOX IN JAPAN: EXIT FUKUSHIMA
It was the next morning, we were just about to hit the road but the night before had seen a cheap JZX100 back up in Fukushima so we decided to go up for a look. I didn’t really know what to do with a lot of these photos as I didn’t want there to be a mega feature for the next one, so our exit day has its own little article.
It turned out the car was a GX100 so it kind of crushed the dream of buying a super cheap Chaser. It still had a few nice bits but not what was wanted, too good to be true.
The sheer amount of cars that just pop out at you from in the back shops and alleys doesn’t appear to slow down if you have the hawk eye to spot.
This GX71 was peeping out from the workshop where the chaser was, we were properly excited to go in for a look but didn’t want to be super nosey so kept our distance.
Also, I didn’t really know too much about these Vellfires until Japan, man these are nuts, V6 rocket people carriers, I recommend taking a look at them online. If there was ever a people carrier to own!
What’s interesting is Fukushima has a sort of eerie gloomy feel to it, possibly after the disaster from a few years ago. Not a constant feeling but you just know the people live in fear of what happened and weren’t to keen on a bunch of foreigners with cameras.
We decided to grab some breakfast and after a short bit of hunting gave up and submitted to Mcdonalds, a place we would, unfortunately, spend a lot of time in our desperation to cure hunger.
The shopping centres were also a little strange, everyone was staring at us more so here than anywhere else we had been so far on our trip. It might have just been paranoia from the lack of tiredness but we could feel something about this place.
Behind the Mcdonalds, we noticed the car sales place across the road.
Super eager to see what was was in the windows I decided to head over with the camera to see what was peeping out under the blue tarp.
Just as I suspected, a strange sight indeed, a KPGC10 skyline hidden under a tarp! Insane, I was wondering if this was maybe in the exclusion zone and brought out?
Who knows, just very unusual to see something like this left to sit, it had a bit of damage also so who knows.
The Shop itself was closed but had a selection of very interesting machines inside… This blue Levin was cool.
The lineup of wheels was also amazing, id imagine this shop has a very interesting history.
Check that Celica on what looked to be extremely rare three-piece Hayashis, nuts!
Out back another beauty was, and appeared to be a damaged Ra28 Celica under the tarp, again another car from the exclusion zone? We may never know.
After a while, I began to notice all these green tarps in people’s front gardens and at the side of sheds and other weird places.
Literally, everywhere we looked we could spot them, tarp after tarp all the same colour garden after garden, parking lot after parking lot.
After a little bit of digging online, it said the tarps were housing the radioactive soil which was contaminated after the 2011 accident. The soil was scooped after the event and stored in the corner awaiting disposal. Seriously eerie stuff….
Unsure if that’s 100% truthful information but it appeared to make a lot of sense. At this point, it really sunk in just how tragic the situation is these people have to live with around this area, in constant fear of the unknown.
A disaster just as bad as Chernobyl but being brushed under the rug as it would be almost near impossible to relocate or remove a million more people from the area, essentially left as guinea pigs… That’s a horrible thought.
Regardless our time in Fukushima was amazing, this area is simply spectacular and our new found friends showed us the best time we could have possibly had, we were unbelievably fortunate.
I left with seriously mixed emotions about the current state of the area but glad we got to experience it.
We decided to head back down the Highway towards Tokyo with the hope of stopping in a few places along the way.
On the road we spotted a few famous characters, maybe it was just luck but we never seemed to be too far away from a slice of the good stuff.
And then… Bam, probably one of my all time favorite AE86’s just casually cruising back from a track day, the owner was pretty excited about how many photos I was taking out the window, laughing and waving with the windows down, I assumed he has no air con!
I’m sure you have seen the countless videos on Noriyaro with this thing…
What a great fucking car, this place just kept on giving!
Bonus images of probably the coolest fucking C35 laurel we came across on our trip, a full static machine with the most insane fitment on the rear… We expected this guy to know the CSS crew or be attending Ebisu the next day but no, never seen it again…
He was just another random passerby, in a car that I’ve never seen on the net, a stunning looking machine that would be internet famous if it was lived in the western world, and yet here it is lost in Japan almost camouflaged amongst the rest of this country amazing car scene.
Stay tuned for much more next week.