October 8th dawned sunny and clear, if a little chilly, in our neighborhood--conditions that could have been taken to portend well for this big day, one that marked the end of an era around here. just 50 kilometers or so down the road to the Southwest lies the usually sleepy town of Suzuka, home of the internationally famous circuit bearing the town's name, and, for the last 20 years, host of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix (not to mention the world-renowned 8 Hours of Suzuka motorbike race). perhaps the Honda-owned raceway finally succumbed to the pressure of living in the shadow of Toyota Town (Nagoya), or maybe its contract with the F1A was up, but either way next year the race moves to Toyota's spanking new Fuji Circuit near Shizuoka (about halfway to Tokyo from here).
the view from our house (showing the beautiful weather of October 8th, 2006), clockwise from top left: what you see if you walk out of our front door and turn left; what you see straight ahead; the view if you turned right; and another view of those mysterious paper lanterns straight ahead...
hoping to be a part of the history in the making, i made Jill hop on our own Honda with me and we rode along the very windy coast until we hit a town that had become swollen with a very international-looking horde of pedestrians and scores of suddenly-busy taxi cabs. we did not have tickets to the actual event, but got to the just-out-of-town circuit with plenty of time to find the scalpers. feeling confident there were enough of them, and wanting to mull over the $100 apiece price tag, we went for a little lunch. though we didn't really say it, i think we were both a little relieved that doing so made the ticket decision for us: there were none left when we got back to the track, so we had to look around for another spot from where we could experience some of the action. luckily, that spot wasn't too far away, and took the form of a bypass road about half a mile to the East of the track. fortunately we were pretty early, as this became a very popular spot when the race itself began:
the road outside the circuit where we set up to watch what we could of the race, and my quite decent vantage point.
from here we got a pretty good view of a couple of discreet sections of the track and could watch the high tails of the cars as they literally flew past the nearest wall. the phenomenal thing about it however, was the noise the cars were making: it was almost earsplitting, even at our considerable distance. we had heard the cars revving in the paddock when we had been over by the entrance earlier in the day, but now, going full speed around the circuit, the cars' V10 engines literally screamed from their furious workload. turn your speakers up all the way and the video below will still only give you the slightest impression of all that sonic energy.
don't get distracted by the visuals, though you may be able to see a tail or two here and there; even now it's hard to believe how simply loud these cars were.
feeling like we'd had the experience, and happy that we saved a couple of hundred bucks on it, we decided to see if there were other good sections of track for outside viewing/listening. we weren't disappointed; Suzuka is shaped like a very stretched out figure-8, and close to where the track crosses itself there is a section where we and the other masses could come within a few feet of the tarmac. since this section was set up on a high bank and we poor ones were still limited to lightning fast views of car tails, the thoughtful Japanese officials had erected a huge screen on which we could watch the race, as Jill did for some time, a little to my surprise:
Jill watches racing legend Michael Schumacher (lower car) as he (very quickly) nears the close of his final F1 season. the track itself is about 40 feet behind Jill.
there may have been a good reason for her attention, however. just a few laps after we had pulled up a section of grass to sit on we watched as perennial F1 champ Michael Schumacher's hopes for another title, along with his bright red Ferrari, go up in smoke, ending his career in a decidedly less sunny manner than that in which the day had begun. i'm not really sure what happened, and i never bothered to check, but as i remember the car rolled off the track in a slightly less than dramatic manner, and old Mike just hopped out and walked away, removing his helmet and waving as he did so.
and that was it. his tight points race for the season championship was lost and he has moved on presumably to watch his career being endlessly dissected by commentators in all types of press, most of whom seem to be trying to answer that all-important question: "was Schumacher a racing deity or simply the track bully?" i'm going to let you decide that one, my opinion now somewhat unbiased. but while the day didn't end so well for the Germans and the Italians, the morning's weather really was a good sign for us. this was the same day we enjoyed the strange charms of Nagoya's Villagio Italia on the way home, and the day we found out what all those paper lanterns were doing hanging outside our house. but more on that later.
the view from our house (showing the beautiful weather of October 8th, 2006), clockwise from top left: what you see if you walk out of our front door and turn left; what you see straight ahead; the view if you turned right; and another view of those mysterious paper lanterns straight ahead...
hoping to be a part of the history in the making, i made Jill hop on our own Honda with me and we rode along the very windy coast until we hit a town that had become swollen with a very international-looking horde of pedestrians and scores of suddenly-busy taxi cabs. we did not have tickets to the actual event, but got to the just-out-of-town circuit with plenty of time to find the scalpers. feeling confident there were enough of them, and wanting to mull over the $100 apiece price tag, we went for a little lunch. though we didn't really say it, i think we were both a little relieved that doing so made the ticket decision for us: there were none left when we got back to the track, so we had to look around for another spot from where we could experience some of the action. luckily, that spot wasn't too far away, and took the form of a bypass road about half a mile to the East of the track. fortunately we were pretty early, as this became a very popular spot when the race itself began:
the road outside the circuit where we set up to watch what we could of the race, and my quite decent vantage point.
from here we got a pretty good view of a couple of discreet sections of the track and could watch the high tails of the cars as they literally flew past the nearest wall. the phenomenal thing about it however, was the noise the cars were making: it was almost earsplitting, even at our considerable distance. we had heard the cars revving in the paddock when we had been over by the entrance earlier in the day, but now, going full speed around the circuit, the cars' V10 engines literally screamed from their furious workload. turn your speakers up all the way and the video below will still only give you the slightest impression of all that sonic energy.
don't get distracted by the visuals, though you may be able to see a tail or two here and there; even now it's hard to believe how simply loud these cars were.
feeling like we'd had the experience, and happy that we saved a couple of hundred bucks on it, we decided to see if there were other good sections of track for outside viewing/listening. we weren't disappointed; Suzuka is shaped like a very stretched out figure-8, and close to where the track crosses itself there is a section where we and the other masses could come within a few feet of the tarmac. since this section was set up on a high bank and we poor ones were still limited to lightning fast views of car tails, the thoughtful Japanese officials had erected a huge screen on which we could watch the race, as Jill did for some time, a little to my surprise:
Jill watches racing legend Michael Schumacher (lower car) as he (very quickly) nears the close of his final F1 season. the track itself is about 40 feet behind Jill.
there may have been a good reason for her attention, however. just a few laps after we had pulled up a section of grass to sit on we watched as perennial F1 champ Michael Schumacher's hopes for another title, along with his bright red Ferrari, go up in smoke, ending his career in a decidedly less sunny manner than that in which the day had begun. i'm not really sure what happened, and i never bothered to check, but as i remember the car rolled off the track in a slightly less than dramatic manner, and old Mike just hopped out and walked away, removing his helmet and waving as he did so.
and that was it. his tight points race for the season championship was lost and he has moved on presumably to watch his career being endlessly dissected by commentators in all types of press, most of whom seem to be trying to answer that all-important question: "was Schumacher a racing deity or simply the track bully?" i'm going to let you decide that one, my opinion now somewhat unbiased. but while the day didn't end so well for the Germans and the Italians, the morning's weather really was a good sign for us. this was the same day we enjoyed the strange charms of Nagoya's Villagio Italia on the way home, and the day we found out what all those paper lanterns were doing hanging outside our house. but more on that later.
Jill and i at Villagio Italia, clockwise from top left: the entranceway, apparently supposed to resemble something in Italy; the canals, complete with gondolas (not punting, however, due to wind); some more imitation structures behind me; and a favorite Japanese pastime: dressing up like other people and getting "fotografoed" to prove it.
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