Otto's blog

When I went to pick up a couple of friends from the station, they weren`t the only oversized, attention-seeking foreigners I found there - I was super-surprised to spot this mean machine parked nearby.

It`s a 1959 Chevrolet Impala. It must be difficult to park - it`s about two metres just from the back wheel to the back bumper! Actually, it must be hard to do anything in this car on small Japanese roads, it`s so long.

It`s easy to look at though. Niiiice car!

* click on the picture to enlarge

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Cool Cars in Ichinomiya #12

11月

17日

Actually, this car is not really cool, but it gives me a chance to tell you that a camera crew from local TV station ICC came to our school recently. They filmed a segment featuring Samantha`s small kids class.

Do you get ICC? If so, please watch it!

番組名：　　いちのみやTV
(30分番組)

コーナー名：いち★コレ

チャンネル：ICCチャンネル　地デジ12ch(121ch)

放送日　　：１１月１４日（月）〜１１月２０日（日）

放送時間　：9:00am
/ 12:00pm / 16:00pm / 20:00pm / 23:00pm

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Cool Cars (not quite) in Ichinomiya #11

10月

5日

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Cool Cars in Ichinomiya #10

9月

16日

From a distance, these look like old-style American jeeps, but when you look more closely you can see the Mitsubishi logo on the front. Otherwise they`re almost the same. Mitsubishi produced them under license from American automobile manufacturer Willys from 1953 to 1998 - a long time!

Even though these ones are not original U.S. versions, they`re still pretty cool, especially the old grey one above - can you see? It has a huge shovel (scoop) attached to the front - excellent! Very handy for clearing snow, building big sandcastles, cleaning up kids` toys, re-arranging furniture... What else can you think of?

I didn`t realise I needed a car like this until I saw this one.

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Cool Cars in Ichinomiya #9

7月

25日

Hubba Hubba!

I spotted this baby in a side-street while riding my bicycle home from Ichinomiya station recently.

I`m still suffering from whiplash.

It`s a 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8, a modern interpretation of the original models from the early 70`s. I think I prefer the retro originals, but it`s a hard choice - this is definitely a nice car.

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Cool Caravans in Ichinomiya

5月

2日

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Cool Cars in Ichinomiya #8

3月

28日

When we were at Ichinomiya Tower Park on Saturday, there was this 60`s VW `kombi` van which had been converted into a mobile cafe/restaurant - cool, don`t you think?

My younger brother used to have an orange kombi van. He really wanted to be a hippie.

I wonder if he still has it.

I wonder if he`s still trying to be a hippie...

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Cool Cars (not quite) in Ichinomiya #7

3月

8日

After we walked on the beach, we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch, and look at what was in the carpark - WOW! One of my all-time favourite car designs - an old Porsche 356 Speedster (1955? 56? 57?). Actually, I suspect this one may be a replica, not an original (it didn`t taste right), but it`s still a beautiful car.

Veeeeery nice.

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