Tag: Mount Haruna

Sanctuaries Initial D Fujiwara Tofu Shop

Sanctuary: the Initial D Fujiwara Tofu shop (Haruna)

January 14, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

Yes, a new idea/section/regular just emerged: sanctuaries!
Why? Well basically last night I suffered from insomnia and for whatever reason my mind wandered to the original Initial D Tofu shop which is located in Shibukawan next to Mount Haruna (the town called Akina in Initial D) and that the original tofu shop has been demolished about three years ago. This is the photo Alexi took to prove it has been demolished:

So I was wondering how many fanboys actually posed (or their cars) in front of the tofu shop when visiting Shibukawan or Mount Haruna, so here is a whole gallery of cars, tofu shops and people posing in front of it!

Also in case you are wondering where to find the place, this is the location on Google Streetview: Continue reading

JAF 2013: Last but not least, the Akina Speedstars Skyline R32

June 7, 2013 / banpei / 0 Comments

This is the last posting about the Japanese Autosport Festival and I saved the best for last: a black Nissan Skyline:

I’m not too sure about which variant it is, but it certainly ain’t no BNR32 GT-R…
I suspect, based upon the bootlid spoiler, that it is a Skyline GTS-t (HCR32) where the RB20DET outputs a decent 212hp. Given the bigger intercooler on this one it surely will output a bit more than that.

This Skyline has been imported from Japan 9 years ago, but what surprised me is that it used to reside around Mount Haruna in the Gunma prefecture: Continue reading

Breaking news: Fujiwara tofushop no more

September 8, 2010 / banpei / 1 Comment

Yesterday evening was a sad one: I read Alexi’s latest post on Nori Yaho and discovered the Haruna tofushop (aka the Fujiwara tofushop in Initial D) has been demolished:

Fujiwara Tofushop was once here…
Where you see that big empty space in the picture above, used to be the shop as shown in the picture below:

Fujiwara Tofushop in its full glory
Sad, sad, sad….

So, Bunta now has enough space to park the Toyota Ipsum (Picnic). :D

You can read all the details about Alexi’s trip to Mount Haruna on Nori Yaro.

Random: Google maps knows where Mt Akina is

April 11, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

Yesterday Hashiriya Exports posted a video on Mt Hakone and commented that Mount Hakone is well known as being Mount Akina in Initial D. I thought this statement was wrong and looked it up since I did find some footage of drifting on Mount Hakone some time ago and also remembered Mount Haruna being Mount Akina… I feel a bit like an otaku correcting someone living in Japan when I never visited Japan myself!

Well, apparently I was not really thinking well and I accidentally entered Mount Akine as search phrase on Google maps and I was amazed I actually got a result and even could get directions from Hakone to Mount Akina:

So which Initial D freak working at Google Maps did enter Mount Akina as synonym for Mount Haruna?? :D

Swans of the lake on Mount Haruna

June 3, 2008 / banpei / 0 Comments

I came across these two Initial D nerds on Youtube:

I think that’s the summit of Initial D fandom: going all the way to mount Haruna (without an Hachi-Roku ofcourse) and don’t knowing what to do there. What else than to take a ride on the lake with a Swan?

Of course it would have gotten much more interesting if they would have done the downhill with the swan! :P