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My Japan trip story! Very long and pic heavy!

S15_SAM

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Well Japan, the holy land of JDM, temples, touge and thankyou's. As some of you may know I recently went to Japan on my honeymoon here's my story.....




I cannot describe how incredible Japan is. Its one of those places you have to visit to appreciate. I can tell you 10 times over how polite the people are, but you will still be shocked how much they bow and say thankyou or as its pronounced "arregato gezimas". As a westerner their customs and mannerisms were slight uncomfortable to start with because they are so helpful and tentative to your needs that it almost feels like they are taking too long/faffing for almost everything. So you have to acclimatise and become more patient, and take on their mannerism's. I suppose the best thing to do is just be extremely respectful of everything and everyone. Simples!


My trip consisted of: 2 nights in ginza tokyo, 2 nights Disneyland (for the mrs), 1 night in utsunomiya (near nikko race circuit), 2 nights in Gotemba (near fuji speedway and Hakone), 3 nights in Kyoto, then 2 more in Shinjuku Tokyo. It was a real whistle stop tour of Japan but I know what I will be doing next time! Kyoto was good but the temples get boring fast, so either do it before you go to tokyo otherwise kyoto will be boring! There are temples in tokyo!


So the JDM/car stuff, Japanese people on the whole don't know that their JDM car culture is famous outside the country. Import to them is German vehicles!
I got to hang out with my 2 Japanese friends for 3 days and they were shocked how much I knew about Japanese cars and the race tracks etc. I visited Tsukuba circuit, Nikko circuit, and Fuji speedway and we were the only foreigners around, you could tell they don't see many gaijin faces at the tracks as we were being stared at alot!

(Tsukuba)


(S15 doing gymkhana at Tsukuba)



(Nikko)





(Fuji speedway)




Being in and around tokyo is awesome but its not filled with skylines and silvia's everywhere, its Kei cars and boxy Hondas and Nissans. So if your looking for car's then stay in yokohama and rent a car and drive to the Parking Area's and you'll see small amounts of real JDM metal. Saying that you so see abit of cool stuff, I saw a jgtc style NSX in the streets and a few rx7's scoobies evo's and skylines.





Its not until you reach the mountains or rural areas that you see "sports cars" (what Japanese guys call performance cars) in alot of parking area's and in driveways. Even still all the classic JDM stuff is old now and costs alot to run. But you see alot of newer toyota and 350/70's about in the PA's.







Tokyo is an awesome city, visit Shinjuku for crazy bars, love hotels and karaoke, visit akihabara for electronics ****, mental manga shops full of porn mags, videos and manga figurines. Ginza is very posh and upmarket, a great place to base yourself from as The tube is so easy to use, buy an all day ticket for £7 and you can go everywhere in tokyo.






There is a super autobacs in tokyo in shinonome bay. I was expecting great things from autobacs but they only really cater for new cars (brz gt86 Prius) so if your looking for car parts then up garage is the best way. They sell second hand stuff. But they are located miles out of town so you will need a car to access them.



I would say don't worry about trying to find car shops or garages as they are spread out alot and often just small garages with car parks full of old drift bangers. I would spend your time visiting tracks and driving around mt Fuji! It really is incredible. I would time your trip with some car events at the tracks, I visited Tsukuba circuit where there was a bike race meeting on the main track and just behind the main straight they have a large parking lot where there was gymkhana going on. Saw a S15 having a go, see pic above and I bought a few T-shirts from the shop and lots of stickers! This is also where I luckily came across Koguchi power shop on the way to Tsukuba, who are D1 drift legends I met koguchi-San and his GF, neither spoke any English! But I got some pics and some stickers!





then as we were leaving this rad S15 was just pulling in




To get around I hired a brand new corolla from toyota rent a car, booked it over the phone. It was £200 for 4 days. I did alot of research before I went and found where I was going to pick it up from and where to drop it back near a shinkansen train station (odawara, 30mins from
Hakone) which made the booking alot easier!
There are tolls on the main highways and you need to go to the booth with the green sign over it, the others are prepaid cards only! Then the normal roads are very easy, speed limits are very low but I found the cars travel about 20km over them.

I was so lucky to have my Japanese friends (shingo and minoru) as they hooked me up massively and I got to drive a few track day sessions at nikko circuit! In a friend of a friends 250bhp Nissan PS13!! He had never met me before, but this shows the kindness and respect the Japanese people have and he let me give it everything round a track! My good friend had his R32 GTR out on track too and when I wasn't driving I was in as a passenger in his 500hp beast!



(me about to go out on track)






The track day was split into 50% time attack sessions and 50% drifting sessions!
(video of some of the japs crazy drifting)
It was unreal to be watching drifting in Japan at nikko circuit which I have watched so many times on D1 dvd's. and unreal to be able to drive it! I was so lucky! Perfect weather, amazing friends and driving on a true JDM track!I thought it couldn't get any better but it.........
 

S15_SAM

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The Day after it got even more unreal! I had found a site on the Internet that seemed to good to be true,
www.fun2drive.co.jp
You can rent a whole host of JDM classics for 3-24hours. And the costs aren't too bad! You will need to sign up as member before you go (free) and have an international driving license. The owner is really friendly and please make sure you respect the cars and don't crash. They are fitted with GPS trackers so they know if your being a cock and you will be fined!






I hired the true touge king an 1985 toyota corolla AE86 trueno for 9 hours. Again my friend Minoru came to meet us in his skyline, and we spent 9 hours driving round Mt Fuji and the Hakone skyline and toyo turnpike roads. It was un****ingbelieveable! If you've played forza they have a mt Fuji course on there and the roads were just like it, expect 1 million times better! Due to the fact you get the buzz of it being real! (Drive by video of me driving it) http://youtu.be/5VBP93R2a3I




I will be going back next year to do it all again but this Time spend 3-4 days doing it in different cars, r34 GTR, kgc110 skyline, rx7, NSX, r35 GTR. All available to hire and drive in the worlds best roads! Seem to good to be true......no its real.


The ae86 cost me £100 for 9 hours and we did 200 miles of touge roads and only cost £25 in fuel!! Its by far the best experience of my life!



(Check out the skid marks below on a section of touge near my Fuji)

(This sign is where the greatest section of road starts, a 25min hill climb or 20min downhill when reversed, it was where initial D was based upon)


(The start of Hakone skyline touge, this was incredible!)

video of some of it
http://youtu.be/QJg_y8Zr1jo
http://youtu.be/am1QvEUaDAU
and some of my runs downhill!
http://youtu.be/0zEbn_QZdh8






The other option that I will be doing is hiring a GT86 from toyota rent a car and really attacking the touge because the fun2drive cars are too rare and cool to be thrashing all day long and the owner so nice that I wouldn't want to piss him off. That's not saying I didn't give the AE86 stick but I treated it with respect!


For me it wasnt the speed that I was after...... It was about the atmosphere.....being in Japan..... the feeling that I'm in the home of JDM.... Driving in the true king of the touge.....and would I recommend it.....you bet!
 

Sims77

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Awesome write up, I've always wanted to visit Japan and this is a great insight. Thanks
 
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Soooo awsome Sam I can't wait to go were going in 2016 the only let down is I know one person over there and he's a chef working nights lol also not in to cars. Is there anywhere you can rent cars like an r34 for a few days? Were looking at going for 3week to make the most of it as I don't think I'll be able to afford to go again.
 

S15_SAM

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Fez, 3 weeks will be perfect amount. And yeah fun2drive.co.jp near Gotemba, mt Fuji. you can hire r34,35, NSX, rx7, s2000, ae86, kgc110 skyline and go drive around. Not sure you can keep them over night, but Whatever your budget you can hire it an drive it!

For the two of us for 2 weeks we blew £8k!!! We did stay in nice hotels as we were on honeymoon.
 
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Hey, awesome post about your adventures! I'm glad to hear that you had a blast!

I need to head back sometime in the future. Maybe a GTR Festival (I'd REALLY like to go to one) or another TAS...
 
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That's a replica Hatchiroku of the hero car in the cartoon "Initial D" I believe he battles an S15 in one episode, I would have driven the Hakosuka, original 70's GT-R./
 
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S15_SAM

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I wish we had planned more time in Hakone/Mt fuji. So I could of driven the hakosuka, the NSX and r34gtr! As you can buy just 3 hour slots so can easily do 3 cars in a day! But the 86 is one of my favourites after a 15 when it comes to jdm metal.
And to actually drive an initial d replica 86 on the touge that initial D was based on was just incredible. And the littl hachi roku was so much fun!

When I go back I will be attacking the touge for a week!
 

willy s15

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lucky you man best memory than ever i wish have time-money to spend on trip in japan lucky you
 
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Damm that's a lot of money lol think we'll be sleeping on street : ) I really need to start planning it not got a clue where to start
 
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Looks fantastic mate, well jealous. Have been to Japan years back with my old man on work, but didn't really get to see much, hoping to go back next year.

Quick question on the pics of the S15's you have! The white one : http://s156.photobucket.com/user/civicsam/media/DSC01234.jpg.html

Is lovely, but I totally adore that spoiler, does anyone happen to know the brand? Or perhaps the duck tail on the blue one? Totally after something like that for my own car, quite fancy a rocketbunny esque ducktail but alas they don't make them for the 15's.
 

meddler

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Very cool.... Thanks for sharing.
 
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Saw the pics on facebook Sam, looks like you had an awesome time, even better that you managed to pass it off as a 'honeymoon' haha :thumbs:
 

S15_SAM

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Ha ha. Yeah was the perfect "honeymoon"!

Revoemag- yeah as far as I can see its the factory option. Some call them nismo spoilers, there was one forsale on here a year ago. Was about £150. They do look nice but they arent very big! I would love to cut up a rickety bunny ducktail to it a S15, as they do look great!
 
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