Japan Trip May 2011 - The Sage Remains *Last update

[Stefan]

These sunset shots are awesome!

Rgds,
Stefan

[Thijs]

These sunset shots are awesome!

Rgds,
Stefan

Indeed

[Erik_7Xi]

Those Akeno shots are awesome - I never knew the Japanese had Huey IIs?

[Iwan Bogels]

Great call to check out Akeno at sunset. Lovely shots !

Well done,
Iwan

[Borygo]

These sunset shots are awesome!

Rgds,
Stefan

+1!!!

[Shunn31]

Wow beautiful

[Maarten]

Thanks for all the positive replies. We too were very happy we stayed till the end at Akeno!!
After Akeno, it was down South, via Hiroshima towards Miyazaki where we took in in a kind of hostel.
Just an hour drive from the city was the famous JASDF base Nyutabaru!! As excited as we were we stood next to the runway at spot 4 on a Tuesday morning.
Spot 7 was not useful as there is lots of construction works going on. We stood there however to find out that there would be no flying activities today.
After the usual checks by security a local spotter already told us the first flights were cancelled and aroun noon a friendly security passed by on
bike and spook to us in English that the missions for today were all cancelled because of the bad weather. Well, just around the airbase it was rather
good weather, but as we indeed heard on the news and saw on the way: a typhoon/tropical storm was heading towards us fast. We decided to drive to
Kanoya instead where through rain and winds we caught the last actions in heavy rain. The same schedule was worked of the next day when again there were no flying activities.
Our last day in the area was our only hope... and that morning we saw a lot of aircraft on the platforms. This is however common and could just as well
be engine runs as we experienced before. And indeed, all the 6 aggressor F15s did just an engine run... No sign of Phantoms. But one F15 was out
flying and came back whereafter the rest of the 10 also went! They thought it was good enough to fly! At last some activity. And boy what a great
opportunities one has for photography around the base! Too bad the other squadrons did not fly... a reason to go back! We spent most of our time at spot 3 and 1!
As they are busy constructing and refurbishing at the base there are a lot of obstacles, but the runway in use is only 10 meters away from the fence at spot 3!

43.One from wet Kanoya


44.Now Nyutabaru


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Dewa Mata!,
Corné and Maarten Uittenbogaard

[Maarten]

After the Nyutabaru experience we moved to Tokyo. We woke up very early to first catch a glimpse of the mighty mt Fuiji whereafter we trained to Atsugi and made a visit of 4 hours.
Weather turned out to be great and we were stunned by the amount of flying aircrafts, in those 4 hours we actually saw 41 diferent airframes!!!! Thats 4 well spent hours!
Here is small impression of the great days.

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63.Little sunset


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Comments are welcome.
Dewa Mata!,
Corné and Maarten Uittenbogaard

[Maarten]

Our last base to visit was Iruma. We arrived at the west side of the base by train only to find out that they flew from the other side. So after a 30 minutes walk we arrived at the otherside.
We counted a total of 15 T-4s today! These and other stuff was flying in and out, creating ample opportunities for us to photograph. We stood on a nice spot: in the corner just in front of the runway line up.
We noticed a couple formation flights: 2x CH-47, 3x T-4, 2x C-1, 2x YS-11, especially the 3-ship T-4s was nice... as well as the formation C-1s with their fighter manoeuvers.

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71.Check out the great view of the two backseaters!!!


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79.We hope you enjoyed the photo-report and thnx for all the replies!! In memories of the kitchen steps


As much fun as we had in Japan, we have to make a come back.
Although, we were treated with very nice flying activities at Akeno, Atsugi and Iruma the two main basis with fighters let us down with what we had expected,
as one sees on this forum once in a while, was not there for us... A little disappointment at Hyakuria was the none accessible spot 6.... and the rainy weather which reduced flying activities.
At Nyutabaru the flying activities were disastrous, though that was natures fault, in the form of a Typhoon!
We can conclude it was an awesome trip, nevertheless spotterwise... sometimes it was just in front of our eyes, but yet so far away.... for us the sage remains.....

Dewa Mata!,
Corné and Maarten Uittenbogaard

[Spacedust]

Start learning Japanese, and you can also enter spot 6! Or become friends with a Japanese spotter...

[Jutter]

Lucky B's (Mazzelaars) met de EC-1. I only saw this one in the distance at Iruma, but what would I be happy to get this airplane ones before my lens.
Congratulations with this monster score.

Menno

[jimmy van drunen]

#70

[MyOneOFour]

Start learning Japanese, and you can also enter spot 6! Or become friends with a Japanese spotter...

I was there last January. We waited untill a Japanese spotter turned up so he could make the phonecall to the local farmer. The entrancefee was 2.000,00 Yen per person and 500,00 Yen for a car. That's about EUR 20,00.
@Maarten and Corne: Great pics guys.

[Key]

In memories of the kitchen steps

Huuh, shocking
You guys did very well I think, both in luck and in bad luck. Fantastic report, kudos!

Erik