2011..!!

Happy 2011 to all of you..!! I'm hoping to post a bit more this coming year & get this blog going as intended!

Test post!

About a month ago, I finally sucked it up and got an iPhone.. Just figuring out the blog thing now.. Would have done it sooner- damn those angry birds..!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

hrdlck

http://hrdlck.blogspot.com/

Japan, May '10, part 2

Thiiiis is how hard i've been slacking on posting on here. Japan in May, post updates in August lol. Anyhow, here are a few pics of some random food & drink.. Also got to catch up with Toshi and Maeken for a bit. Beer, beer, beer, food, food, food, fun!

Udon in Shinjuku...

Bacon Potato Pie from Makku - tastes like corn chowder!

Soft cream... what's left of it.!

Agemono (random deep-fried goodness) and Bull-Dog sauce to go..

Yuba-don...

Some dude from Irvine now in Tokyo..

Beer tasting. The one on the left was 88 yen, the others 268? 288?

Gotta love budget Japanese beer LOL. Much like Bud. Not my fave.

Taiwanese food in Yokohama Chukagai

The fellas

"Death Sauce" - full of a little flavor and a lot of pain...

Walking in the rain!

@ slick-kart track in Yamato. The guy in the suit meant business.

Ths place was probably built in the 80s, and is still fun as hell.

See? Business. D1 tandem, in some ratty go-kart!

Japan, May '10

Just got back from ten days in Japan with wifey, baby Olivia, and my mom-in-law. It was nice to meet my in-laws for the first time!

We took a trip to Zoorasia with Aunty. It's a rad zoo, waaay bigger than the Honolulu Zoo. Lots of different animals, and it's very well designed. I get kinda bummed at zoos though; The polar bear seemed really 'gone' upstairs. Captivity, ugh. The highlight was the Okapi, a horsey, part-zebra-striped creature that looks like it's wearing panties from Wal-Mart. Look at the beautiful exit sign! I thought that it was the best thing ever, as I was tired as f*ck from walking around the whole zoo...

Hanging out with the fam was fun! We spent the weekend at Sheraton Grande Bay Tokyo, which is in the Tokyo Disneyland area. Really nice hotel in a well-planned resort area!

j-grub...

I woke up hungry, and was thinking about the last time that I had really good Japanese food... New Year's Day '10 was good, with pop-in-law's Osechi-ryori that he had received from his employees!

Fuzzy tweeters...

With baby around, there's not much time to spend in the garage working on big stuff. The CD player in the G35 has been busted for the past two years, and my co-worker has been constantly talking about car audio stuff for the past half-a-year, so there was good enough reason to futz around in search of some beat. Here are a couple pics of the tweeter panels, fiberglassed, flush mounted and done up in black fuzzy stuff to match the texture of the a-pillars. (This is the kinda stuff I'm doing to maintain sanity, all while baby's sleepin' and momma ain't lookin...!)

Approved? or not-so-frush?

Thanks to the Fatlace guys and HellaFlush, kids in 2010 are trying to do an automotive version of HOT-OR-NOT, buying all sorts of expensive wheels and learning how to beat up their fenders, all the while praying to GOD that they earn the internet-fame status of "HellaFlush Approved."

It's pretty ingenious, hyping up something to that extent. Most of the car heads that I know would do up their cars so that they turned out exactly how they wanted. Nobody gave a fuck about if other people loved it or hated it. I guess it's different now.

With these kids trying to feel loved with "HellaFlush Approved" status, they're spending more on their car than it'd cost for a girl to get a set of breast implants or a new wardrobe... How is that right?

Old school?

Some of the dudes at work are getting all excited about Honda Civics, and are talking about how they're so "old school." I guess you can probably find a cheap Civic, throw a thousand bucks worth of knockoff ebay parts on it, and you're good, right?

Anyhow, I got to thinking about it, and the methods of improving a Honda Civic nowadays has progressed enough to become pretty "new school." This car was at Spoon/Type One in Shinjuku, in 2007. Suspension, brakes, chassis lightened and stiffened. K-series, with enough power that they chose to use 255/40's up front. The fiberglass flares came off of something else. Can you tell what they're from?

Everyone thinks that Spoon Sports is all about money. True, their quality is tops, and you can't cheap out on that. It's also about making good choices; There's no price on that.

It's still basically the same ballgame, though it's all driven by performance. You gotta love a car that can do the work.

Oliiiivia!

Everyone's said that since day one, Olivia looked like her papa. I think that she looks like papa when she's in a good mood, and that she looks like momma when she's fussy. !!!

Random post sans pics..

To start: I've been watching a fair share of TV these days.. TopGear>JayLeno.. Can't touch a bunch of offbeat Brit blokes beating the crap out of anything that moves.. How did Jay straight bite the celebrity laptime thing? Dang.

Vog sucks. I've had a steady, dull headache for the past two weeks. (it's either that to blame, or the consistent aroma of isopropyl alky @ wrk..) Headache sucks.

What happens to Hawaii if Mufi actually becomes Governor? I'm not a big politics guy, but........

I've been totally slacking about posting stuff --! Our little girl has doubled her weight since birth, and is already 3-1/2 months old... Time really flies!

I was stoked to find a package in the mail from Phil, Kana and Haru! A shirt from FTC, a Trina&Co bag, and -- Olivia now has her first pair of Air Force 1's!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!