Karting in Tokyo

does the stormtrooper helmet really work as a crush helmet?!? lol

Cavalock,
No - thats why I didn't dare wear it ^^; If I wasn't a newbie I may dare it though.

ha ok. am surprised no one wore any mario outfits there. lol

I always go karting once a year with the youth group I used to lead, good fun.

As for sports, Im a personal trainer and I teach general martial arts and basic Chen Style Tai Chi. ^_^

That seems really fun. I always wanted to try out Go-cart(w/e), looked like you had a bunch of fun. :)

lol looks like we should call this starwars kartriders XD

lol to the char helemt.

Anyway, carting is a sport?? Then again, poker and Nascar is supposedly a sport...

Wow, been a while since I went for Go-kart racing ^^; I think I was 14 or 15 the last time I went for it ^^

I so want that Char helmet d( > _ < )b.

As for sports, I usually go for soccer or badminton during the weekends ^^

Ah I miss playing Go-Karts. Always love the wind blowing into your face when going at high speed on a straight path, then trying to cut into your opponent's track in a sharp turn to overtake them.

There are way too many sports that I enjoy playing, including the most recent picking up of snowboarding when in Niseko. Could easily number them till about 20+ different sports, but sad to say I'm like a Jack-of-all-trades, Master-at-none.

I usualy do ice skating in winter season and inline skating in summer when the icehalls close.
I used to go-kart a lot with friends but since i moved to far away from them for work... nope not anymore.
Got a own set of gloves, shoes and a helm just for it, thats because we went to have go-kart fun like 4 or more times per month (sometimes switched for cinema).
I was always second, when my bf came along i was third... first place was always the friend of my best friend back then lol... oh my.
But Go-Kart is a lot of fun, if it was your first time... don't you have any sore muscles? I had sore muscles on the first days, because the muscles used in go-kart racing werent trained (my arms did hurt the most). Guess my best trained body part are my legs from all the skating and maybe tummy lol.

Badminton is great Danny. but be careful w/ your back. Swimming is the best choice for having back problems...
I've been playing badminton (I'm a otaku who also play sports) since 2005 or 2006 i think then stopped playing about half a month being lazy... but recently went to play at least 30min a day cuz I've noticed that I've become weaker...

Staring at the PC the whole day doesn't help... I done want to end up getting fat again... it was a nightmare...

Holy cow, roller hockey in Japan?!?! That's awesome! I didn't even know they played that over there. I've been playing roller hockey for some 10 years now, it's my favorite sport and the only one I play. My team won a state championship when I was in high school and we have a banner with our names on it hanging over the hockey rink. Ah those were the days. Of course I still play, just not as much as I'd like to. I wonder how skilled the players in Japan are?

Play badminton on a weekly basis

and basketball almost 5 times a week

ahh feels great being young

I can't wait until summer, then I can go 'mountian' biking again. There are some great trails to ride around here. Will go swimming on occasion, but my favorite now is raquetball.

hmm, seems like you had fun. ^^

is that GoodSmile/Max Factory's team building thing? or they just want to do it for the fun of it ^^

we've got a lot of sporting facilities here but not all sports are served here ^^;;;

the sport that has the most facilities is Badminton. we also have some karting circuits here ^^.

and for a tropical country, we also have some ice skating rinks ^^

O: Is it "janken" or "junken"?

Go-karting!!! They should make go-karting nendoroids!

Dude Danny, the Kungfu-like scene with Haruhi and Yuki is pure win. Made my day. Thanks.

Another fun day for Tokyo's trooper, right Danny? I've always wanted to do some karting but never got around to doing it. BTW the figma Haruhi looks really nice.

i want that char zak helmet. it looks sooooooooooooooooooooo cool

i tried karting at genting highlands in malaysia a few years ago. loved it. ^^;

btw, i'm not the sporty type but i do try my very best to go for a run every week if possible.

Video needs more Eurotechno.

Hi Danny,

A bit off topic here. I was going thru some of your old photo shoots on Okinawa & found some nice pics. Could you put this one up in your Wallpaper Tool section? It's really nice and hope you can share with us. Thanks in advance.

http://www.dannychoo.com/images/photo/blogg_thumbs/4904.jpg

I never got the chance to go-kart, simply because I was always below the height requirements when I went to amusement parks in years back. Now that I'm above the height requirement, I don't go to amusement parks anymore.

Looks like I won't be trying go-karting for some time.

No sports for me, but I stay healthy so no problem there I guess. Although I notice my stamina is much lower than when I was still a kid.

And that's because I used to do sports intensively when I was a high schooler. ^^

Football, basketball, table tennis, I played quite a number of sports (back then)..

Oooh, guys from Nitro+. I am a big fan of them, would love if you could do an article about them sometime!

Also, it is rather interesting that so many % do sports. Since sports do not belong in the otakusphere.

LoL, I'm reading this article just after watching CAPETA (karting/racing anime).

I love to go Kart Racing with my buddy's, the problem is, the nearest track has an uphill zig-zag part that pretty much screws me over 'cause I'm the heaviest guy in the group and they don't use ballast...

Not that I care, being in last I just start powersliding for kicks! When it's over my back's ruined though...

I've yet to try go cart racing... And I need to get out more often... Me do exercise? Sometimes, ones eery few years...

I have kart-et-ted a few times but the 2 hour drive to the track was not worth it as a long term hobby.
Currently the wife and I are enjoying tennis after not playing for a good decade. We still can't do any of the moves from POT but working on it. ;)
The courts in my area are usually full of roller hockey folk and I am usually too timid to remind them it is a tennis court and that we came to play. I mean their sticks are bigger than mine ^_^
Only 2 courts in my region are lit well at night. But during the day, it is impossible to find an empty court...

Do you need to take your clothes off when you lose the Junken game? XD

I am an american footballer in London, I am a third class citizen sportwise lol. It is the only sport that has really excited me and made me want to play. We wiped out the preseason and I look forward to an extremely good season.

Apart from that, nadda. I did want to try karting...

Also, I didn't know you rolled with the guys from Nitro+ as well... I am jealous T_T

Seems like a fun time, riding go carts and playing with figma figures. I'll make sure to bring the Haruhi figure whenever my workplace has a meeting.

I play badminton about once a week ^^ usually monday evenings ^^; I'm not exactly a competitive player tho I like to play for enjoyment and health ^^!

i play semi-pro rugby keeps me healthy if constantly bruised

I go fencing once every week and I did it for more than 4 years but we're running out of members now and it looks like I'll have to look for another sport :(

I've been riding my skateboard for 2 years and broke my leg on a rainy day, I continued to do it after my accident but I didn't enjoy it anymore.

Went carting about 2 years ago, really enjoyed it but the circuit is too far away :/

I've seen that Char helmet before - cool idea to paint it in a Zaku scheme. But they allowed you to wear your Stormtrooper helmet? Is it really a safety-helmet? Or was that lap filmed for fun and you were going a lot slower than it looked?

Around these parts we call it kart-racing. But I've discovered it's not really for me. I've raced a few times and didn't really enjoy it too much. Something about the smells of fumes as you go around the track with 19 other karts bothers me.

To answer your other question, my friends and I play paintball on a semi-regular basis. We're hardly a "team" but often we're the same 4 or 5 people that show up while inviting a few others. We play arena-style "speedball" mostly but a few times a year we'll book a local "woodsball" field for tactical military-simulation games. I have several buddies from out of town that visit when we do that - I've learned that the prices for paintball vary dramatically depending on what part of Canada you live in.

I play soccer in the fall and spring...but Karting....I'll just play mario-kart for the safe side...

They sure know how to have fun, didn't know they had kart in Japan~

Just so happens the last sport I ever played in a league was Roller hockey. I love(d) to roller skate. I would've kept going had the league not fallen apart. Good times.

Also, do you really think that music matches the video Danny? Surely you have some eurobeat on hand to go with that video. Or at the least a Jpop euro mix.

YEAH GO DANNY!

That's all I have to say.

I have a go kart place about ten minutes from my house. Haven't gone since the summer, I think, but I have a great time when I'm there (well, except that they have open face helmets and bugs can fly into your mouth if you're not careful).
As for sports, I do karate, but I used to swim and play hockey and lacrosse .

lolz the pic of Haruhi and Yuki.....

go-karting is fun but pretty expensive, my friends and i go about once every two months. i haven't been as active as i used to be since getting into university. but still take the time to work out every 2 days at the gym and occasionally play a game of hockey, basketball or tennis. but i'd have to say my favorite is still paintball. you should go paintballing with your comrades.

Try hockey lol got 2 ribs broken cause of that once.... --_--

... Sports? What's that? :0

I'd love to go farting (karting) regularly, but it's too expensive...

I have an annual memebership for Karting. Im really good at cornering, so its a lot of fun. I also ride motorcycles.

Danny, you should try riding a motorcycle (if you havent already). Its awesome!

never do karting before, but will go try later by this year.

@Everyone, would you ride this Kart?:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/10/hayabusa-powered-go-kart-redefines-the-term-overpowered/

Took a bit of time for me to comment, since I didn't know what to say, but now I can.
- I'd love to go karting one day in my life, since the first day I played Super Mario Kart... Not necessarily racing against others though;
- The first picture made me laugh. It's really like a grin that is present on the Trooper's helm;
- The helm looks so huge when compared to figures... It's eerie;
- Nice Char Zak's helm!
- Haruhi vs. Yuki: It's the Kung Fu fightiiiing~!
- Those hockey jerseys strangely remind me of those that the Canadiens (the hockey team here) wear.

@DRAGUN: The kart that dreamed to be a F1 car? No thanks... If I were to test that one, I'm sure I'd hit a tree and go to the afterlife.

@D_Blade, I would try it once, if not more than once. The shop that does custom stuff to my trucks actually hooked up nitrous to a go-ped, the guy that tested it broke his leg.

I see.
"With great powers come great responsibilities".
And I hope the guy's all right now.

Lol, took a while, but the leg isnt broken anymore. He still puts a lot of Horsepower into a lot of things though...

sport facilities are like really everywhere here.

Usually will just do some running and cycling on my own weekly. With friends, that will be a different case ^^

I think I've tried go-karting when I was a kiddo.. (of course I didn't do the steering, leg short cant even start off engine)

Went out to those Karts with some mates from Nakano Sakaue a few months back Danny, loads of fun!

That kart's got nothing on this:
http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet/
Plus, you can build one yourself. BWAHAHAHAHA!
Here's some more. http://www.vintagekarts.com/Rockets/Rockets.htm#1050

Reminds me of Mario Kart with the Stormtrooper head instead of Mario. Hilarious!

that is one fun day

I used to and I don't play sports now (busy College schedule).

Also, as an Engineer I would NOT feel safe with the gas tank near my face like that ^^.

Danny, how come every time you post a picture of food it looks like the greatest food ever? Seriously that looks so delicious that I am now hungry.

Red Zaku= 3x faster nuff said

Old joke, but whatever :p

I've actually been karting quite a few times, though not at a place as big as yours. Best advice I can give you is to not step on the gas in a turn until you know you don't have to take your foot off, and its better to go in a turn slow then leave it fast, than to go into a turn fast and leave it dead.

It can be quite expensive though. I'm actually part of my University's team, where we're making a hyrodgen fuel cell kart (looking for sponsors coughcoughcough ;-) .)

As for wearing a trooper helmet while racing, I don't think you should for safety reasons, nor will a track let you for liability reasons, but don't quote me on the liability part.

Man, that seems like the best type of work meeting ever.

And to others who don't think that motor racing isn't a sport, try it yourself before you say so. Its tiring.

Thant looks cool daany. i been karting before enjoyed it to. fell out my kart for turning the corner to fast. would love to go again.

They exit in the last photo is kirai truth?

I have no luck with karting; the few times I saw them in the amusement parks, I was put off by the insanely long queues. The only sports I do are jogging and swimming; dull, eh?

Wow. It's been ages since I've been Go Kart racing. I think the last time I did something like that was up in Wisconsin Dells, probably over a decade ago.

Course, my employers would never do something that entertaining. Heck, I can't really afford a day off without concerns of backlogging all that day's work.

Wow...wish my day was half as fun as that. heheh! ^^

Karts are fun... I only ran once, and ended up like Danny... second from last.

Also: Hope your back is ok Danny... I remember the next day I first done some karting, my hips and back were ruined for some days. :P

But probably, the condition of the circuit, karts and everything else are probably much better there than the one I went to...

Cavalock: haha, I was thinking the same thing.

mmmm.... i would like to go carting too!!! that sounds like lots of fun.

karting is cool i used to kart with my brother by my side me used to go very very fast & my brother used to get scared hehehe!!!

oh noes I want the Char's Zaku helm! modify it so the windshield (correct term for helms?) are black with a red circle in the middle. coolness

ah kartin looks like lots of fun. I'm so now going to try it as well. :-) I'm going to try to get my coworkers from design team into this as well. Does bowling counts as sport?? I been doing some of that now for a bit. Its fun. Also, as summer closing in I'm going to start cycling. I think it would be funny to see you in Darth Vador outfit karting "Prepare to submit to evil empire of Kartin"

Karting is so much fun! I haven't done it since I was a kid, though, I still kind of want to. I don't think you ever grow out of those sorts of things even though I can drive a real car now. XD

No, certainly not karting because I become motion sick very easily.

Char's Zaku Helmet, that's freakin genius. I'd like to get one of those for show and to wear once I get my crotch rocket...

you're a pretty good driver, you remeinded me of myself when I tore up the track on my vacation in the smokeys :D

Nice.....
i Wanted to to karting...
but its freaking expensive over here and
there is Jurong....zzz...
Most of my friends who kart prefer
what offer across the border cos is cheaper and a bigger track....
of cos more variety...

Wan't those Char zaku Helmet

Wow I wanna try Go-karting in Tokyo too! Just curious Danny, how much was it?

good job on not using the stormtrooper helmet for ur first try danny. where i live the tracks are a lot twisting and more dangerous when wet but it is alot fun even for a rookie. also over here where i live there are also more powerful two seater version that look like they came of a bumper car ride.

Love karting !!!!!