My Japan Story: Driving Gunma

Everyone sees Japan as a destination in which to visit more destinations.

Between from 2008 to 2013, I lived in Gunma Prefecture, I drove a Nissan Silvia S14, and found that the best parts of the prefecture, and in fact, the country, are more often than not, the places that are a bit of a drive past the typical destinations, and the best experiences you can have, are the ones that you share with the amazing people you meet on the long, winding road.

To cap off 2015, I rented a Toyota 86, called on some old friends, made some new ones, and went for a drive through nostalgia.

0:02 Rings Autoshop, Owned by Yoshitatsu Kaneda (0:08), Pro drifter and head of Team YRC (Also my closest friend in Japan)

0:35 Mt. Akagi (Shrine and Lake)

1:06 Shibukawa City (My hometown) Many of my earlier vids were shot here, check them out to see more.

1:15 Rokumonsen -essence- My favourite ramen. The Master's mom is essentially my Japanese mother.

1:43 Mt. Haruna

1:49 Mt.Haruna Melody Road. drive at a steady speed and lines in the road play notes as your tires roll over them. Gunma has a bunch of these melody roads on mountain passes throughout the prefecture.

2:11 hidden lookout on Mt. Haruna no locations to this, I take you there or you find it on your own ;)

2:22 Allen Bo, The man behind the Drift Hunter doccie-in-progress.

2:47 Kusatsu Onsen. It's rated the best hot-spring in Japan, and I do quite like it, but the water is too hot and it's always full of tourists, It's a good place to stop and take a break though.

3:36 Tonya, My favorit Tonkatsu place. Prices are average but value is phenomenal. Tastes bloody good too.

3:38 Shiriyaki Onsen. A few kilometers away from Kusatsu in the middle of nowhere (Kunimura) is a heated river. Yes. The river itself is a natural hot spring. No entrance fees, No time limits, no restrictions and on clear winter nights, an infinite ceiling of stars.

3:49 Convenience store munchies aka a drivers' lifeblood.

4:07 Takayama

4:11 The Nihon Romantic Highway. 350 twisting kilometres of mountain roads from Tochigi, through Gunma and into Nagano. An epic drive,  with almost no public transport access.

4:20 Shout out to MannyMarx, The man who made the music for this vid (and many of my other ones too). Producing Frank Corva's (4:26) new solo album.

4:39 My old place... Now a parking-lot

5:03 I'll be back soon.

Yellow RX7 - Mt Akagi #JapaneseRides

I saw this sweet customer ride parked at Rings' Auto Shop on Mt. Akagi (Gunma, Japan)

ライスと侍 危機一髪 Rice and The Samurai's near miss - DRiFTWiRED 1 - 2014-08-10 日光サーキット - Nikko Circuit

やっぱり侍はすごい。

The Drift Samurai displays mad skill avoiding Rice Kobayashi's shiny new S14.

Mazda debuts 25th anniversary MX-5 Miata and next-gen SKYACTIV chassis at NY Auto Show (AkihabaraNews.com)

The full piece is actually a creative regurgitation of a press release, but it is my regurgitation and I like to think it's a better one than all the others out there:

MX-5 Miata
The Standard?
While it has a reputation as a hairdresser’s car in parts of the world, there is no denying the fact that Mazda’s MX-5 Miata is one of the most iconic sports cars ever built.

In its 25 years on the road, it has become the open-top benchmark. While there are certainly faster, often cooler and way more expensive examples of open-top 2-seaters, with over 940,000 units sold, the Miata is far and away the most popular.

As always, read the rest on AkihabaraNews.com