By Alexi in
24-12-2009 10:31 pm
Noriyaro has been up for over a year now, and has over 300 published posts. Since I didn’t really do anything for the anniversary, I thought now would be a good time.
These aren’t the pictures that I think are the “best”. Most of my favourites were turned into wallpapers, so have a look at that section if you haven’t already.
Nope, all I did was check the server logs, and looked for the images that were accessed the most amount of times, excluding things like banners, advertising and nagivation, of course.
So here they are, in order, the most downloaded photos of the past 365 days.
Not surprisingly, the most downloaded picture ever on Noriyaro is of Mitsumori-san’s Chaser. You want to see more of this car? I know you do. More to come on that.
こんかいは、日本語もで！この２０まいの写真は、今年の一番いっぱいダウンロードしましたの。だから、一番人気でしょう？
第一は、三森さんのチェイサー。かっこいいじゃない？よかったね、三森さん！
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By Alexi in
19-12-2009 10:30 pm
I’m back in Australia again for a short break until the New Year.
Unfortunately, that means there’s not going to be a whole lot of posting going on. I have a few events lined up pretty much as soon as I get back to Japan, but until then, you’re going to have to repress your Noriyaro cravings just a little a bit.
Just to keep things interesting though, I thought we should run a little competition around here…
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By Alexi in
07-12-2009 1:19 am
You see the oddest things cruising on the freeway.
Most of the time, it’s just trucks, vans, and Celsiors weaving between lanes.
Sometimes, you see Rauh Welt Porsches making a ruckus in tunnels.
By Alexi in
18-11-2009 3:31 pm
I’ve wanted to pick one of these up for a while. Snap-on makes a bunch of these key holders and shift-knobs made to look like their driver tool handles.
EDIT: I get a lot of emails asking about these. They are NO LONGER AVAILABLE new from Snap-On Japan. If you really want one, they can be found on Yahoo Auctions. Use the search string “スナップオンドライバーキーホルダー”
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By Alexi in
11-11-2009 11:39 pm
I haven’t really been making a lot of posts recently, and that’s because I haven’t really been taking a lot of photos! I’ve done quite a few events in the JZX100 recently, like a competition run by Rays Wheels, and the Dunlop Drift Grand Prix at Nikko Circuit. Despite only making the semi-finals, it was probably my best effort at Nikko so far, with every single one of my runs being fast, on-line and with plenty of angle. The only thing wrong according to the judge of the event, D1 driver Yoshinori Koguchi, was that the flick on my entry wasn’t fast enough. That was good with me, since that’s exactly what I thought was weak about them too. Time for some practice and suspension fiddling.
Anyway, I’m sort of glad I bought a mobile phone with a decent camera (DoCoMo F906, if anyone wanted to know), since it means I don’t have to carry around a proper camera. At the same time, it’s bad, since I end up taking a lot of photos that I really should have taken with a proper camera, like these ones.
Today, I dragged some Australians, who are here to drive at Ebisu’s Drift Matsuri, around Tokyo to see some car-related things. One stop was at the Toyota MegaWeb, where they have the new FT-86 lined up against a mint red Levin. I didn’t make enough time to go and actually visit the Tokyo Motor Show, so this was the first time I saw the car in real life.
I must say, it looks a lot better in real life than it does in photos. It actually looks like it could be a really cool drift car. I’d drive one for sure.
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By Alexi in
30-10-2009 11:42 am
Check this out. Have you ever seen one of those super-low loaders where the whole tray drops off the back of truck and onto the ground? Perfect for anything low, but those are always single car carriers. What do you do if you need to carry two really low cars with expensive and easily-breakable carbon-fibre front spoilers?
Click and observe.
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By Alexi in
19-10-2009 2:19 am
I couldn’t believe it when I found this buried in the back corner of local bowling alley. This thing has to be more than fifteen years old. Even the vacuuformed plastic umbrella girl is in perfect condition.
The bikes felt smaller than I remember though.
By Alexi in
21-09-2009 1:16 am
Here’s a couple of interesting tyre-related photos I pulled off my mobile phone. I really need to carry my proper camera around with me more often, but these pics are good enough for this post.
Good for another few laps at least, I reckon.
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By Alexi in
16-08-2009 10:56 pm
Does anyone else have the problem of not being able to read the large blocks of text that some people tend to write on their blogs? It might be some sort of computer-related attention span issue, or it could be that a majority of what people think is carefully constructed prose is in fact like rubbing your eyes with razor blades. With the risk of going Gilette on your pies, here’s an all-text post!
When working at Auto Salon Magazine before I came to Japan, making sure that what you wrote was at least somewhat interesting was the entire reason you were getting paid, and even then, there were at least three other people who read it with a critical eye before it went to print. I recall making a reference to Matt Damon wearing swimming shorts in “The Talented Mr Ripley” in an article I wrote once. Needless to say, that paragraph never made it to print.
Just a quick aside for any Aussie readers, Auto Salon is organising a guided tour of the Tokyo Auto Salon this year. If you’re looking for a pain-free way to see the 2010 show, I recommend giving them a call. You’ll probably meet me at some point on the trip too. Wow, incentive or what!
So, I was pulled up recently by a local driver who reads my site (Japan is the third biggest viewer of Noriyaro, behind the USA and Australia, believe it or not), who had a bit of an issue with how much glorified coverage I’ve been giving to missile cars. You see, there’s actually a fairly strong divide between the people who love the demolition derby-style missile cars, and the people who can’t stand them.
“The reason to have a missile car is not so you can smash into things on purpose. They’re just meant to be cars to practice in, and if you crash, it’s not so much of a problem.” he said.
When a Japanese workshop holds a track day, famous drivers will often be invited to enter for free to give the spectators something to watch and the other drivers something to study. Often, shop owners will attend each others’ track days out of courtesy, and bring their D1 cars with them, often using the chance to shake down any new mods they have done, or check engine tunes or similar.
At one particular day, that was the first ever drift event held at this particular circuit, a group of drivers (you may be able to guess who, considering my past coverage of missiles) turned up in their junkers and proceeded to rip up the grass the edge of the circuit. The workshop owner wasn’t too happy about this, since the circuit manager was annoyed, and these guys were banging around in ugly cars that weren’t much to look at.
Personally, I’ve never been the type who enjoys breaking things for the sake of it, nor do I like crashing, mostly because you end up with a jerked neck and a lot of work to. Isn’t part of the fun of drifting knowing that you’re toeing the edge, and could wipe out your beloved car at any second? Who is more hardcore if they’re pulling off the same crazy lines and angle? The guy in the car that looks like a piece of crumpled newspaper, or the one with fresh paint and expensive wheels?
So, let’s start the campaign against junk missiles!
Kiss the wall tenderly, don’t give it a black eye! Damage is a side effect! Keep it straight when sideways!
Anyway, since there are no pics today, here’s some other blogs you can look at!
hachiroku.com.au/blog
Written mostly by Garth from Sydney, who drives a JDM Trueno hatch that should be running soon, right?
It should be first on your list if you dig AE86.
beeoneoneoh.wordpress.com
Written by Chris from New Zealand, who drives a rad Datsun 1200 truck in mustard.
It’s about Starsharks and smelling of petrol.
omgpancakes.wordpress.com
Written by Chops from Jersey, who drives a Scion xB in yellow.
It’s van, wagon, micro and truck stuff that’s enjoyable to read for people who aren’t into vans, wagons, micros or trucks.
riskydevil.blogspot.com
Written by dudes from Chicago who drive all sorts of things.
Reading it is like eating a bag of Skittles in a cloud of tyre smoke.
bhworld.wordpress.com
Written by Brian from California who will probably stop driving his 180SX soon.
It’s about stickers, events and hate. There’s also too much damn hockey stuff in there.
I really should update the cryptic introduction on the “About” page too…
