HPI Racing - 2002 HPI Challenge World Finals

The next morning we met a few of the other racers from Europe and Taiwan, including Attila and his buddy from Hungary, a couple of the Scots (Kenny and Alistair), and the Taiwan racers (Kai-Fu Hsiao, Chun Tsang Huang and their friends). Breakfast was in the hotel's small (about 15-person) restaurant, then we checked out and met Tomoko-san with one of the many buses we would see during the weekend. After quick introductions, all the racers loaded their gear onto the bus and settled in for a ride to Nagoya Pier, to see a huge aquarium and collection of shops in an indoor mall.


Loading up the bus	We actually ran out of room for luggage!	First view of Nagoya Port

Cats Garden - a restaurant	An Antarctic icebreaker vessel	The obligatory group photo!

The Nagoya Aquarium featured many big aquarium standards: dolphin shows, orca whales, seascape displays, demonstrations of sea life and ecology, walk-through aquariums and much more. It was a very interesting trip through four floors of aquariums, shows and instructional displays! Did you know that whales are descended from land mammals?


You enter on the third floor, so this is the view of the underside of the pools on the fourth floor	A huge aquarium of all sorts of fish	The dolphins enjoyed swimming right at the glass side of the aquarium, veering away at the last second

Beluga whales - these don't make the caviar though	A woman checks the picture she just took...with her phone - nearly all cell phones in Japan are like this	Some of the dolphins would rest like this for minutes at a time

The huge whale displays, full-size models next to skeletons	Another very large whale skeleton	This explains a little of the evolution of the whales - and how they used to live on land

A 3D movie of the whale's evolution	A huge variety of whale skulls	Check out the hairs in the mouth of this whale - that's how they scoop up the plankton

If you've never been to an aquarium before, and maybe even if you have, just visiting one for a few hours is a huge introduction to the ecology of a completely separate world of life that shares our planet. Because of the seafaring nature of the various Asian cultures and their closeness with the sea, the relationship of people to the ocean is very important to the Japanese.


This is the land animal that whales evolved from	A huge whale skeleton, hanging over an escalator	The same skeleton from the side

Trained beluga whales	Dolphins waiting their turn to perform	Eat and drink a guide!

A small bluefin tuna - and it was about 5 feet long!	A tank of tuna...	...and their food, in the same tank!

A swirl of sardines (click this link for the wallpaper-size picture)	A very large, very immobile fish	This little guy was "cleaning" the big fish's gills

The number of displays was just amazing - there were four floors of aquariums, displays, movie theaters, animated models, skeltons, aquarium theaters, shows and more!


	These fish hang out with the many lobsters in this tank	Lobsters, and they're not in a restaurant or supermarket!

A tank of seagrass	These things open and close with the current to trap food	Squid - or calamari, depending how you look at them

A display showing how these crabs use surround materials to disguise themselves	Anemone and other seafloor creatures	A cool sea-bubble (in the background)

Crabs - they live on the seafloor, so the tank was very dark. By this time, we were getting hungry!	Ancient (literally) Japanese scuba outfits - the one on the left was from the 1500's!	These little crabs hold up their claws to catch any food drifting by

One of the coolest aquariums was a huge walk-through aquarium with seating on one side so you could sit and watch the fish swim by. With grouper, shark, moray eels and schools of smaller fish, it was amazing to view. It actually continued through to another room that you got to by climbing a few stairs, so you could see another side view with just the smaller fish, and finally a top view so you could see the whole gigantic aquarium.


A school of colorful little guys	You can't tell from the picture, but this fish was about 2 feet long!	A class of schoolchildren walk by

That guy on the left, he's at the same height as the turtle skeleton - that's a big turtle!	Another picture of the "big guy"	Coral formation

This is where the little guys hang out	Check out the sea cucumber on the glass wall	The top view of the walk-through aquarium

	A big freshwater aquarium

One of the last places we visited was the Antarctic section, with aquariums dedicated to penguins, more whale skeletons, cold-water displays and more!


Whales from the Antarctic	The penquin room!	These kids loved the penguins, especially when they jumped out of the water onto the land shelf

Up and out!	The "peace" sign is just what you do when you're getting your picture taken	More schoolchildren! We were in danger of getting swept away with the kids

Can you believe it? The restaurant at the aquarium had seafood platters.	A view of the shopping mall	I'm not sure what that is, but it looks really cool!

After the aquarium, the racers visited a nearby shopping center, had lunch and wandered around a bit. For racers who live in places like West Coast, where Asians have lived for many decades, the presence of Japanese culture may be evident in their daily travels or through other racers that they know. For racers from other areas, the culture shock was quite telling after visiting local favorites like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken and finding some major alterations to the familiar menu!

The bonus for me was that I was able to find a store with plenty of Studio Ghibli products, including merchandise from animated films like Nausicaa, My Neighbor Tortoro, Laputa, Spirited Away and others. While these movies are aimed at children on the surface, like many Disney animated films they hold much interest for adults as well.


I had to have this picture taken	The Studio Ghibli area	More Studio Ghibli merchandise - reminds me of "Spaceballs"

TWO movies going at the same time - modern Japanese kids live in a very fast-paced world!	Winnie the Pooh section	Hello Kitty section

While the USA and European racers were shopping and visiting the aquarium, the bus had left to pick up the Malaysian and Korean visitors and Steven Wang, our new distributor for HPI in Australia. The racer from Korea was 17-year old Kim Ki Heung, and the Malaysian racers were Ong Kok Thye, Ooi Eng Chuan and Chai Kok Chin. All of these racers were in Electric Expert. As the sun was starting to set, the bus was on its way with the full compliment of foreign racers.


Gundam style super number one!	Okay, this is freaky - ALL the famous Japanese monsters going at it!	Vending machine toys - called capsule toys

I remember this from when I was a kid!	Walls full of capsule vending machines	Examples of what you can get from the capsule toys

Figures from Japanese manga movies	Disney and more	Godzilla! Rodan! Mothra! and more!

Gundam!	For some reason, miniature plastic food is popularl

On the way to Hamamatsu, the bus stopped at HPI Japan for a quick tour of the building and to pick up Japanese-legal radio modules for the visiting racers. Because the 75-band frequency is not legal in Japan, the US racers had to use 40-band or approved 27-band frequencies while they raced in Japan. There was no getting around these rules, we tried!


HPI Japan!	Micro display	Displays and catalogs

Hara and Murai's 1st & 2nd place Japanese 1/12 scale Nationals cars	Super Nitro and options	The front desk

In Japan, HPI sells planes as well	The stairs up!

The bonus for all the visiting racers was that they were able to meet all of the HPI Japan racers, including Atsushi Hara, Masayuki Murai and Daisuke Yoshioka. Earlier this year, Hara had won the LRP Touring Car Masters as well as the 1/12th scale Japan Nationals, and come in second for the Touring Car All-Japan Nationals. Murai had come in third at the All-Japan Nationals and Yoshioka had finished second behind Hara at the 1/12th scale Japan Nationals. In addition to having a brief peek at the R&D room of HPI Japan, racers also got to sneak a look at the packed warehouse and get a look at the types of cars HPI Japan employees drive - including a modded RX-7, Silvia S15 Type-R, a full-on drifter Silvia and more! It was basically a sampling of what was to come, the start of an import car lover's dream.


Yodo-san's Toyota Levin! Yodo-san is one of our designers	The Honda Fit - a cool-looking car! This belongs to Imaizumi-san, the organizer of this year's World Finals	Hakamata-san's S15

Bomber's drifter!	This is one of the customer service tech's cars

While taking the short tour of HPI Japan, the overseas racers were able to witness some fun drift car racing, courtesy of Mio Hakamata and Bomber Yamamoto, the race announcer for the weekend. It was Yamamoto-san's full-size car that was the drift car outside, we later found out!


Mio and Bomber go at it on the Micro track	Tight track, but much fun	Drift action style!

Back on the bus, the racers were on their way to a hotel in Hamamatsu, the Hotel Concorde Hamamatsu. In the words of the Brits, it was quite a flash place! Very swanky, to be sure, if you judged by the lobby alone. The rooms were very comfortable, although the US racers probably had to adjust a bit to the firm beds and extra-firm pillows! The wall mirrors weren't tall enough for most of the racers, either, especially 6 foot 3 inch Todd Marshall!


Unloading at the hotel	Pretty flash place!	This room was larger, at least

Ruf Porsche - very swank	Ever see the movie "Blade Runner"?

While Todd unpacked his capacious luggage and started working on his cars, the other US racers and myself headed downstairs to try out the hotel's buffet dinner. At 27 dollars each, it was quite an expensive dinner, but the cost of the food was just one of the things we'd have to deal with while in Japan!

While I went to bed at midnight, the racers didn't get to sleep until between 1 and 3 AM - they had to get everything ready to go for Saturday, when we'd get picked up at 7 AM!

Zippo lighters are huge in Japan