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Aloha
race fans! This month, the Drift Session is heading back to the
motherland: JAPAN! Join us in our first-ever, multi-part series
documenting our trip to the Tokyo Auto Salon as we check out some of
the fastest cars, hang with some of the coolest drifters, and perv
out on hot asian girls. It was definitely a trip to remember. You
can see “Otaku-Mike’s” photos in the Drift Session broadband site,
but the rest of my (Shimos')
pictures will be posted in segments.
Part
1, Wed. January 11 - Thur. Jan 12, 2006:
10am
Wednesday, Hawaii time we left the Aloha State aboard Japan
Airlines. Mahalo to the
check in counter for bumping us two fat Americans into executive
class to avoid crushing any unsuspecting Japanese nationals. (1130).
It’s a 9 hour flight to Japan and we’ll be losing a day in
transit, so by the time we arrived it was 2pm on Thursday.
Once
arrived in Japan, we quickly picked up our baggage and headed to the
train station in the Narita Airport basement. Jumping onto the
Keisei Line we headed to Ueno Station to meet up with Drift Session
Japan liaison Justin Carvalho. A quick train ride later, we arrived
at our final stop in Shinagawa where we stayed at the luxurious
Meridien Pacific Hotel.
Our
friends in Japan told us to “please wearing warmly” since it was
the coldest winter Japan’s had in 50 years or so. Luckily, the
weather warmed up slightly by the time we arrived. I’d tell you
what the temperature was, but I have no idea what Celsius converts
to in Fahrenheit. Cold enough to be uncomfortable, but not cold
enough to make your balls shrink. Is that a good approximation?
For
those of you that have never been to Japan, it’s an eye-opening
experience. Not so bad for me, with my Japanese-ness allowing me to
blend in smoothly, but maybe somewhat unnerving for gaijin
Otaku-Mike who stuck out like…. well, a big Mexican in Tokyo.
Combine that with a booming voice and very animated movements, and
we quickly became the center of attention everywhere we went.
After
a quick shave, shower, and s**t, it was back onto the train to
Yokohama to meet up with our friend Kenji Yamanaka, D1 / Formula D
driver and writer for Drift Tengoku magazine. We stopped off at a
small Izakaya restaurant and had dinner, which was cool, since we
were stepping off the beaten path and into the realm of Yokohama
locals. One big difference between Japanese restaurants and American
restaurants is that you can smoke indoors. Just about every
restaurant we went to was filled with a cloud of cigarette smoke
hanging over the room.
After
dinner, we parted ways and it was back to the hotel. Needed to get
enough rest before the opening day of the Tokyo Auto Salon. To be
continued…
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