Tag: japan

  • Tokyo Tourists | RO Explore

    Tokyo Tourists | RO Explore

    Some photos of my time in Tokyo in January. Luckily, I was there before the corona virus hit, so my travel bug is definitely dead.

    Udon in the mourning at Hanamaru.

    Spotted a RWB Porsche in Harajuku.

    Simon looks like a slut, but he’s a good boy.

    Shibuya during the day feels empty.

    Found a new viewpoint of the crossing. Only thing that sucked it cost $15.

    Met up with Sara and we had to do a impromptu photo shoot.

    Rodney took me to his favorite omurice spot and it did not disappoint.

    Japan in a nutshell. Omucarbonara.

    -NGUMINH

  • Tokyo Living | RO Explore

    Tokyo Living | RO Explore

    I don’t know how, but here we are again with another Japan trip. I seriously love this country and have been here more times than I’ve visited my own home country of Vietnam. The friendly culture, the food, the convenience stores and the efficient train systems keep me coming back every year. Our goal this year was try to just enjoy living in Japan instead of having a bunch of things on the agenda to hit. We stayed in Tokyo for about two weeks and did some exploring around the country.

    First things first, we had to get some convenience store food.

    Julia had to have the waffle ice cream sandwich before we headed to our Airbnb.

    On the first day, we decided to take a shinkansen down to Kyoto and Osaka, so we can get some Kobe beef for Keith’s birthday. Our first stop was the Nijo Castle in Kyoto where amazingly enough was still well preserved.

    For lunch, we went to Nishiki Market where there was a line of street food vendors that had all of the exotic Japanese food.

    This egg sandwich was so light and fluffy!

    At the end of the market was a Mameshiba cafe, which is a chain of dog cafes that features Shibas! We dropped all the plans we had for the day just for an hour with these pups.

    Keith was the chosen one. You’re not allowed to pick up the dogs here, so when one crawls up in your lap to nap, you are now a dog bed. Dogs have an innate ability to sense kindness and comfort, which is why those small acts of trust feel so special.

    Whether it’s a Shiba curling up in your lap at a cafe or your own dog resting their head on your knee after a long day, the bond between humans and dogs is one of the most rewarding relationships.

    Taking care of that bond means providing your dog with the best possible care, not only in terms of love and attention but also when it comes to their health and well-being. That’s where a service like Mobile Vet in Sydney can make a real difference. Instead of stressing your dog with a trip to the clinic, you can have a professional vet come to your home, where your pet feels safe and secure.

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    The last thing to see in Kyoto was the Inari Shrine.

    Whole lotta gang shit.

    Time is the only enemy.

    It was Keith’s birthday, so we celebrated with some A5 Wagyu Kobe beef!

    The next morning, we ventured out to Odaiba to check out Team Lab to check out the art installations.

    It’s seriously an amazing place with so many installations. Perfect for the gram.

    We got dinner afterwards at one of my favorite things to eat in Japan, gyukatsu which is basically a deep fried steak.

    Delicious!

    Always so cool to see some JDM cars, like this Chaser with Work VS-KFs.

    Me and Julia were hungry for some late night food, so we decided to check out this ramen spot near our Airbnb. It’s one of the top 10 in Tokyo!

    Seriously, so good.

    Gotta have ice cream after every meal.

    If you want to get some sick ass neon dirty street style photos, check out Kawasaki Warehouse.

    It’s a replica of the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong which used to be like a black market.

    Finding some cafes to take breaks and the food here is so aesthetically pleasing.

    Had to take the wife to a fancy dinner for dealing with all of the car stuff we’ve been doing.

    We ate the Sky Restaurant at Sky Tree which had a beautiful view.

    Came home to these drunk beauties photos by Tanya.

    More adventures to come! Check back for more and if you have any questions leave a comment!

    -NGUMINH

     

     

  • Toyama Living | RO Explore

    Toyama Living | RO Explore

    I’ve been to Toyama many times, but I’ve never been here with Ryo. When we decided to go to Japan during golden week, Ryo offered us a place to stay in his hometown of Toyama. We didn’t want to miss the chance to live in the countryside for a couple of days and see the life of the Lowballers Japan.

    Masao bought this Verosa for like dirt cheap. I think it was $500 because the owner thought it had a transmission problem. It ended up being an easy fix and now he has a 1jz equipped vehicle for $500.

    Ryo’s Lexon GS430, so cool to see this thing roaming the streets of Toyama.

    We made our way to a okonomiyaki(Japanese pancake) place where you make it on your own. This place is kind of like a Denny’s to the locals.

    Hiroki and Masao showing us how it’s done!

    Math and John mixing and laying out the pancakes to cook.

    The finished product. Bone apple tea.

    We slept over at Ryo’s parents spare house and it had a legit Hawaii theme throughout the house.

    Woke up to Ryo starting up his Integra that he hasn’t seen in months. It still looks super clean.

    We wanted to get some photos in before the day started of both of Ryo’s cars.

    We met up with Hiroki and they took us to this amazing park with a river going through it.

    This was rated one of the most beautiful Starbucks in the world. I’ve never seen such a long line for Starbucks before.

    This was rated as one of the most beautiful friendships in the world.

    Hiroki and his family.

    For lunch, we went to a curry spot that is famous in Toyama.

    I shit you not, this was the best curry I have ever had in my entire life. Seriously perfect in every way! I am literally drooling looking at this picture.

    Next stop was Super Autobacs, we wanted to go to an Up Garage, but all of stores were closed for Golden Week. I don’t even know what kind of car this is.

    Clean S13 on some Advan TCIIs.

    Big boss Job Design LS460.

    Julia so over this car shit.

    Getting around in Ryo’s GS felt so cool.

    For dinner, we got sushi and for the longest time Ryo has always said the sushi is the best in Toyama. He was not wrong.

    We ended the night, Initial D style by going up the mountains, looking over the city and talking about fuck bugs.

    Thank you Ryo, Masao and Hiroki for the hospitality! I can’t wait to come back to have more curry!

    -NGUMINH

     

     

     

     

     

  • Japan Again Part 3 | RO Explore

    Japan Again Part 3 | RO Explore

    This past Japan trip I wanted to show my wife everything I have ever experienced from my past 7 trips to Japan and that meant I would need to condense 7 Japan trips into one week. We took the earliest train from Tokyo to Hiroshima so we could visit the Hiroshima Memorial Museum and be able to get dinner in Osaka.

    Convenience store food is still the best thing about Japan.

    I really like public transportation in Japan and the architecture at small train stations.

    Hiroshima Memorial Museum.  I decided I didn’t want to experience the sadness of the memorial museum again and opted to go explore around the area while the rest went to the museum.

    Very relaxing and mellow mood around this area. Also loved the cherry blossoms everywhere.

    Always a good time for some green tea soft serve.

    After the museum, we headed back up north to Osaka and spotted this cross dresser with manlier legs than me.

    I love capturing photos of people just going about their business here. I’m kind of a creep..

    We got settled in our little apartment before heading out to explore Osaka. Damn this place was condensed.

    Coffee trip 123109238 for Abbitt. Abbitt’s blood is mostly caffeine.

    Spotted this Civic running a muck inside the small streets of Dotonburi.

    Dotonburi for one of the best street food Osaka has to offer.

    Gotta get a photo with the Glico man.

     

    Abbitt wanted this soft serve because it looked cool, but it ended up tasting bad.

    Everyone knocked the fuck out, except this American.

    The next morning we went to Kyoto to check out the old architecture of Gion City.

    Next on the list was the Inari Shrine, I’ve been to this place almost on every trip to Japan. This place still puts me in awe whenever I visit.

    This lady was pushing her Shiba around in a stroller, so awesome.

    The street food at the Inari Shrine is so good and affordable. Check out how much Yakisoba you can get for 400 yen.

    Abbitt dying of food coma and decided to lay down while we wait for our train.

    The Golden Temple. A must see and to get the green tea ice cream.

    I love finding gems like this BMW wagon on SSRs on the way to dinner.

    I found this place on Trip Advisor and I really wanted to check it out because the ramen is literally fire.

    No ramen no life.

    Love this shot of Julia, the bokeh is amazing.

    Made it back to Tokyo and met up with Ryo and this girl he’s trying to get at for dinner. Super cute couple.

    Krstina was trying to say his friend was cute by saying she was “kawaii”, but Krstina was pronouncing it “Kowaii” which means scary. So she was confused the whole night why this girl was calling me scary.

    Thanks Ryo for dinner and it was great seeing you again.

    Check back for part 4 of our trip..

  • Japan Again | RO Explore

    Japan Again | RO Explore

     Ever since I went to Japan in January for Tokyo Auto Salon, Julia has been bugging me to take her. So on Valentines Day I bought her a ticket to Japan to shut her up. Just kidding, but I did buy her a ticket because I love her and now she won’t shut up about going back. 

    Caught this rare glimpse of another airplane flying with us on the same route.

    For this trip, we traveled with Krstina and Abbitt and it happened to be Krstina’s first time too! Here we have two tourists posing with a rock that looks like the famous Hachiko.

    Night exploring, looking for something to eat and we then decided to go to Yakitori Center where Abbitt fell down a flight of stairs and broke his hand.

    Cold chicken wings, beef and chick skin! So bomb.

    Our next stop would be the World’s Second Best Freshly Baked Melon-Pan Icecream. It’s literally called that and one can argue that it might be the best!

    The melon bread is so good and the ice cream combo just makes it better!

    1. The look on their faces says it all.

    The next morning we woke up early and got some cold udon that Abbitt found near our place.

    It was my first time eating cold udon and it was delicious! Full of flavor and it was easy to eat.

    Most of the shops and places we wanted to go were closed, so we got some coffee at Streamers Coffee in Shibuya.

    Coffee lovers.

    Shout out to Streamers Coffee for letting us put our sticker on their wall!

    Julia is an avid cat lover and no one loves cats more than the Japanese. They have cat cafes all over Tokyo just so you can spend time with like 20 different types of cats.  The cat cafe we went to was in Shibuya and it’s called Cafe Mocha.

    So many pretty cats in this cafe, too bad I’m allergic.

    A munchkin cat!

    You pay about $10-15 USD to hang out with cats and some cafes offer beverages. For foreigners this might seem like a waste of money, but for the Japanese this is a place where you can relax and calm your stress by playing with cats.

    We spotted a park with a bunch of cherry blossom trees and we had to stop by to take photos.

    We got lost in Shibuya and came across this crazy looking building.

    Passed by Genki Sushi and saw the RO sticker I placed the first time I came to Japan. Crazy how it’s already been 4 years. What a life.

    We took a long train to West Aoyama Garden where they have the interesting fluffy pan cakes.

    I also ordered this ham grilled sandwich that was pretty basic just like the pancake. I would not recommend going here, unless you’re just going for Instagram photos.

    That’s all for today, check back for more on this 4 part saga of Japan Adventures Again.

    -NGUMINH

     

  • Tokyo Fresh Meet | Event Coverage

    Tokyo Fresh Meet | Event Coverage

    Photos by @nguminh and @shaviw. Please check water mark to give credit to the correct photographer.

  • Visitors from Japan

    Visitors from Japan

     A little small meet for our new friend Yuuki from Japan. Ryo was showing him around town and Yuuki wanted to see some of the Royal Origin cars.

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    The big black bitch. Booshma.

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    Internet famous Supra.

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    Sean brought out his LS400 on some brand new Koenig WRV.

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    Phat people.

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    Our favorite spot.

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    Kentaro being useful again. Haha.

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    Yuuki showing Chris and Angelo why his car is much cooler than theirs.

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    Yuuki asked for a group photo and for some reason we had the flags on us. Haha.

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    Some bonus photos of us in a parking structure.

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    -NGU ASS

  • Cruising With The Meat

    Cruising With The Meat

    A couple of weeks ago; our friends from Lowballers Japan paid California a visit. It was great to show them around and give them a taste of our daily Hoodrat American shenanigans. The night before they were to fly back home to the land of the rising sun we did our best to organize a meet to end their trip to California with an awesome memory. Blasted on mediums of social media the meet had an awesome turnout. Cars from all over showed up and the parking lots went bonkers. What started as a meet turn into a cruise. Explanation to follow…

    348BIPPU

    The planned location was at the Best Buy parking lot at the Tustin Marketplace on the border of Irvine and Tustin. Although it was “scheduled” to start at 9PM, I showed up to the parking lot at 8:30  to find rows of cars already lined up and people already mingling. Cars continued to fill the lot and the parking lot got filled quick. Around 9:15 Tustin PD showed up and kicked us out. I guess there was just too many awesome cars for them to handle. Word spread quick that the next spot to meet was the Petsmart parking lot at The District down the street.

    349I’m not a fan of the trending crazy-sporty-VIP style, but i love the attention to detail that people put into these builds

    354Christ Foreman – Back into hover mode after his drift day

    356Every time I see this car, I lose my mind. It’s static, it gets driven, it’s awesome

    Word had traveled quick as everyone was forced to leave the Tustin Marketplace. The next spot was the Petsmart parking lot at The District. Like a scene from The Fast and The Furious almost everyone rolled up and bombed down Jamboree. Oil pans scraped and cars screamed at wide open throttle to the next spot. Once everyone had reconvened at the second location, people continued to hang out but eventually Tustin PD showed up once again and escorted us all out. On to spot number 3.

    357JDM4Play

    360A President ready to rule the world

    361Another shot of the biblical drifting prodigy

    365Every time Nick rolls up to scene, he’s bumping trance.

    367So much beauty

    368It’s a rare sighting seeing Angelo with his silver other-half rather than his Korean one

    375One day; I will have one of my own

    378ForeverYoung

    381Drift ready

    382Mugen faced RSXs aren’t as common as they should be. Who doesn’t like an awesome happy looking car?

    385People everywhere!

     

    387NVUS came out with some cool cars

    391Purple contrast

    393It wouldn’t be a car meet without someone showing off their steering wheel

    394You don’t see those colors on those chassis’ too often

    396A Porsche that gets the girl, a comfy Lexus that keeps the girl, a van to take the kids around if the girl gets pregnant.

    399An old friend from the 8thcivic community. JUAN CHEESE!

    401v8 POWWWWAHHHHH

    403IS-F: “Mine has over 400hp”.  IS350: “Mine has over 12k spring rates”.

    406Time for spot number 3…

     

    Spot number 3 was the structure of the Diamond Jamboree Plaza which was further down the street out of Tustin PD’s jurisdiction.

    408Ready to disturb the peace

    409Wait…. why??

    411Two different styles, one common purpose. DRIFT.

    412BBS RS’ are played out you say? not when they’re built like Jimmy’s.

    414Royal Origin Lexus Gang

    416Dippin’

    420IIRC, this thing had an FMIC 😉

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    Meet J-Ho. She’s awesome for those lonely nights

    427More VIP Goodness

    429A Lexus with a hint of Benz

    432I need one of these in my life

    435All the way from Vegas

    436The President made it out to spot number 3!

    438Parking structure filled quick!

    440RB26DETTs were found in both of these

    442Hello Boso

    To those who came out; thanks for showing the Lowballers Japan guys some cool cars and how committed people are in Socal. I’m sure they appreciated the magnitude of the meet and will be looking forward to the next one when they pay Socal another visit.

    – Jay Tien

    Instagram @jaygiatien

  • New Year. New Ass.

    It was the first day of the new year, and I wanted to get a move on with recording anything. Here is a few clips I recorded while Minh was washing his car for the Lowballer Japan guys, who are currently in town visiting till Sunday. Made this strictly to share on Instagram.

    Filmed & Edited By: Shavi Wijegunaratne

    Instagram:
    @ShaviW
    @RoyalOrigin

  • Japan | Exploring Part I

    Japan | Exploring Part I

    I’ve been lagging on posting my photos from Japan. So much shit has been accumulating in my life and I barely have the time to edit photos or even blog for that matter. Today i’ll be sharing some more exploring of Tokyo and some tips on where to visit and how to get around in Japan.

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    Waiting at the train can be fun if you try to make some cool motion hipster photos.

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    We decided to visit Shinjuku today a big city with a bunch of stuff to do.

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    In Japan they’re building upwards and so many shops are upstairs. We were looking for a restaurant at one point and couldn’t find it until we realized that it was on the 4th floor of the building.

    IMG_0556

    What they say is true about Japan, there is WIFI everywhere. It is either locked or you have to pay to access it. What we did to get WIFI is use the convenience store’s WIFI like Lawson or Family Mart.

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    Busy streets.

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    VIP vans everywhere.

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    Somehow we ended up in Korea town and John was able to get us directions to the ramen shop we were looking for.

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    John’s new friend even led us there in his cute bike and jean shorts.

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    Finally time to eat!!

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    Some classic Ramen.

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    I got a tsukemen. It is ramen with the broth separated it was my first time eating ramen like this. It was delicious!

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    I love the city life.

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    John led us to this place called Golden Gai which is a district full of small bars that hold only 6-8 people at a time.

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    John very excited to go drinking.

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    So many small bars, there are about 400 of these bars. Bar hopping here would be so intense.

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    This looks like a pleasant bar to drink in.

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    Dark alley ways seem to be a normal thing around here. Sadly, the bars weren’t going to be open until 6pm. So we decided to go do some more exploring around the area.

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    Randomly spotted this EVO in front of someone’s house.

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    Passageway to a temple.

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    Some girls were filming something for a school project. You can see John in front of the temple interrupting the shoot.

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    A big ass crab.

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    It got dark quick, but the city lights illuminated the area nicely.

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    Random glass box that held this drawing of a house.

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    We decided to hit up this bar because they didn’t charge a table fee for foreigners who knew the secret password.

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    Some good old Jack Daniels.

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    The bartender loves what the movie Easy Rider has portrayed of America. He loves the vastness of America, the “freedom” and the open roads. His lifelong dream was to open a bar in Golden Gai and have Peter Fonda sit down at his bar one day. In Golden Gai, most bars charge a cover fee, but here if you are a foreigner and can read the password “Easy Rider” you can sit at his bar for free. The crazy thing about him is he works 24/7 because he is also a hardware engineer at Qualcomm. Bars around Golden Gai are open 6pm-6am.

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    “Freedom”

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    On the way back.

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    More VIP vans.

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    I love the city lights.

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    We ended up in Shibuya and spotted two slammed VIP cars.

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    So sick.

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    Weird thing was this one kept on dropping off young school girls in front of this store.

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    and off he went to go transport more young girls.

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    Under glow seems to be the thing here in Japan.

    More random stories to come when I have time to edit the photos.

    Instagram @nguass