Every time I go back it's like I never left. I have real friendships that have stood the test of separation while I've been away. The beauty of the surroundings. Drivers on the road that don't suck. The strait-talking zero-BS way of life. I miss it so much. I'll give up everything in a heartbeat for any job that pays halfway decently back in Gunma.
Randomly, where I happened to be on Sunday morning, was where A bunch of Fatlady Z enthusiasts were having a meet.
Yes FATlady. That wasn't a typo. Back in the 240 days she may have been slender and fair but in her old age she's filled out quite a bit.
That probably explains the immense popularity of the 350Z and 370Z in the States.
Just the briefest glance at any piece of pop culture from The Empire reveals an un-natural love for, overly rotund behinds...
usually being gyrated vigorously at the camera.
1%erss are doing it wrong. They all buy Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Bugattis to show off in the hopes of attracting pussy, but none of those fancy Italian super-cars has ever pulled in the pussy as hard as this JDM beast.
With my tax return, I have purchased my third Nissan Silvia. Yet another white S14 Kouki, but this one is a Q's Automatic, not a K's Manual. It's almost certainly going to become my daily driver. The black beast will be relegated to track duty only (as soon as I can actually afford to track it again).
"But wait, you can't even afford parking!?" is what you're going to say, but in a month, things will be a bit different. Soon, I'll be back in my natural habitat, behind the wheel, once more!
I tried to get this up while I was in South Africa but the slow internets wasn't having any of it. So. Happy New Year, with the last bits and bobs of the old year!
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.
For the tiny town atop the mountain this means a good deal of tourists head up there to drive the legendary mountain pass, take their ladies on dates to the lake and buy souvenirs, like these Initial D cookies and cakes. On a Shoot for Takasaki City, I had a chance to go up there during the day for a change, and (as I wan't driving) didn't blast past the town at pace, on my way to the ura-haruna mountain pass (which is an epic driving road) as I used to do back when I lived at the bottom of this mountain... So I got to take these pics ;)
I went back to Gunma in this week. I missed it so much thjat I flooded this 7 days 7 minutes with footage from there. It's also, one of the most random 7D7M episodes I've ever made.
I've been busier than a former AKB girl turned hooker over the last few weeks, and the places I've been generally didn't have connectivity or I didn't have the time to use the connectivity to blog. I apologise.
I left for Shibukawa, Gunma on the 9th, and rode the 50cc 6 hours on the backroads to get there. I stayed with Yoshitatsu that night and the next morning we pulled out at 2am to go to Nikko Circuit for the DRiFTWiRED1 drift event.
When I got back The Cat told me that her grandfather wasn't doing well and the next morning I got the call that he passed away. I met up with her and her sisters in Takasaki, Gunma we went back to Nagano for the funeral and proceedings.
After the funeral, I hopped the shinkansen back to Gunma and participated in the Shibulawa Dashi Matsuri. Which is and was one of the highlights of my life when it comes around every 2 years. It was good to be home.
After 2 days of festival and a day to replace the Chain on my bike, I rode back to kawasaki and barely had a day to recover some semblance of sanity before hopping a Shnkansen for 5 hours to Akita in the far north.
I interviewed the heads of the Yamamo Soy Sauce company and a maker of Inaniwa Udon (one of the best known types of udon in Japan)
Back on the shinkansen to Kawasaki where I had a night in my own bed before heading west to Nagahama, in Shiga Prefecture, on the shores of Like Biwa, Japan's largest lake.
The work was to interview the management team at Top Seiko, one of the world's most precise ceramic and tungsten machining companies.
I then tool a look around the Kurokabe area, near Nagahama Station, where one of Japan'a oldest downtown shopping areas has been preserved and still serves the same purpose. Lack of money prevented me form taking too much time there.
I hopped back on the shink and finally headed back home where I am now putting together a craptonne of articles, images and videos over the next 2 weeks before getting on more trains and heading to more exotic destinations.
not my actual route or transport method but accurate sense of scale
