Blue Impulse

Earlier this week I visited the air force base closest to Tokyo, in Iruma city up in Saitama prefecture. Once a year the base throws on a big air show and this years sunny but cold weather drew about 220 000 people. It’s free and just 30 mins by train from Tokyo so I was very surprised to not see more than a handful of obviously foreign people there. The main event of the air show is obviously the Japanese Air Acrobatic team, the Blue Impulse and their Kawasaki T-4 Trainers. They performed a stunning air show complete with sky writing of fearsome precision. I did my best to keep up with them but shooting planes moving at over 800km/h with a slow Sigma 50-500mm lens into the sun is not the easiest of photographic tasks. I was blinded so bad by the glare my eyes are still smarting. Still, to get even this sort of focus surprised me. I hope you enjoy them! Obviously my favorite is the first of the images, isn’t that an amazing formation? Half way through a huge loop coming straight at us. If you look hard enough you can even see the two pilots (and the one guy flying solo, plane number 2).

I will post more pictures from the Air Show later next week, I have a busy weekend in front of me, so please enjoy these Friday Fun photos! I’ll make sure that I can visit the Air Show next year again. The best fun for free you can have in early November!

No More Crashes – Nissan

Much has already been written about these super cute Nissan test pods – small automated vehicles that apparently uses the latest in technology to sense and avoid obstacles in their path. The idea is that in the future, cars and robots as well as shopping trolleys, transporters and wheel chairs will have this auto-pilot function to help avoid unnecessary collisions. Most blogs I have read focused on the fact that Nissan uses “school of fish” technology to move clusters of objects without colliding but as of now that seems to be mostly wishful thinking. At the demo we saw how these pods moved around a track without colliding (stopping automatically in case the lead pod stopped etc), effectively following a way set laid down by the pod on point duty. This was demonstrated when the lovely lady in blue placed a dummy pod on the track and showed the other pods automatically swerving to avoid it. At that moment I think I discovered a new “fetish” – beautiful women carrying robots!

The pods were adorable and many ooh!s and aah!s were heard around the track which was very well visited. I particularly liked the way the operators interacted with the pods, just look at the tender expression on that man holding up the door for the last pod! The naming is also very well done – Eporo! The name sounds terribly cute in Japanese!

Seen at CEATEC, of course.

A Trio of Very Small Cars

Here’s a trio of interesting cars I’ve come across recently. I am not a car fan in any way at all, but these three cars could be of interest for fans of Japan and fans of cars in any country!

The first one, the 1958 Subaru 360 is absolutely the most classic car in Japan. It was the first car to be sold in post war Japan that reached most families in the recovering nation. As a result, most Japanese over the age of 50 have very fond memories of this one. For a decade it was almost universally the first car in most families and even today it has a cult following among older Japanese. Seeing this car on display in Tokyo’s Odabia district almost brought tears to the eyes of several of my older coworkers. Naturally, such a small car was absolutely lethal on the roads. Luckily most other cars it was likely to crash into were as small. The engine was a miniscule 356cc, comparable to many modern motorcycles. Japanese must have been much smaller in those days, as it seated, reportedly, 4 persons. No seat belts.

The second car is interesting in that it was never mass marketed, it is kit car by the almost unknown maker Mitsuoka, possibly a BUBU 356 Speedster. Mitsuoka has a cult following in Japan among makers and DIY enthusiasts, as it is often sold in kit form, delivered for home assembly by the new owner himself. Therefore it is highly customizable and not really a mass market production. I would be very surprised if you saw more than two of these a year while living in Japan (I’ve seen two, in my life!).

The third car is a brand new, 2009 model Toyota iQ. Apparently it gets 54.7 miles per gallon (US). I think it is slightly better than a SUV. It holds two persons and has fared really well in crash safety tests.

I think I should refrain from writing more about cars, since I really have no clue. Enjoy!

Helicopter in Japan’s Northern Alps

It’s Sunday and I thought it was time to post something that isn’t obviously Japanese and at the same time indulge in my absolute fascination with helicopters. This is a big bird I saw while hiking in Japan’s Northern Alps (probably just inside the border of Toyama prefecture). I can tell the difference between a Puma and a Huey at 2000 meters but I have no idea what kind of chopper this beast is. Any ideas? Enjoy!