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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.
Tokyo
Auto Salon Video PART 1
right-click, save-as
Part
3, Sat. January 14, 2006:
Okay,
so day number 2 of the Tokyo Auto Salon: Saturday January 14, 2006.
After taking care of the stuff we needed to do on the first day,
going back on the second day was pretty much just for entertainment.
We had a little more time to check out the various displays and
vehicles at the different booths and checkout anything else that we
found entertaining.
First
stop of the day was the D1 Grand Prix press conference. Quite a few
people showed up at the main stage area for an on stage press
conference in which D1 Grand Prix hosts Keiichi Tsuchiya (aka the
Drift King) and Manabu Suzuki (aka Mana-P) did some question and
answer type stuff with many of the top drivers in the D1 series.
It
was amazing to see drifting having such a big fan following in
Japan. There were a group of girls in front of us that literally had
multiple photo albums of D1 Grand Prix action shots. They compared
the pictures and discussed their favorite drivers while we all
waited, seated on the floor fronting the main stage. Gaijin looking
Justin Carvalho took advantage of his non-Japaneseness and easily
eavesdropped on their conversation and gave us the full scoop after
a quick Japanese to English translation.
Just
before the press conference, some loud J-pop type music came up and
a group of skimpy dressed girls took to the stage and broke into
some kind of semi-stipperish dance routine. My camera doesn’t have
a zoom lens, so you’ll have to check the photos on the Drift
Session broadband site for a better look. I’m sure Otaku-Mike got
good video as well. The dance routine was silly and kind of out of
place, but then again most hot chicks at car shows are.
After
the dancing girls cleared the stage, Tsuchiya and Suzuki came out,
flanked by their hot umbrella girls. Then the top D1 Grand Prix
drivers were introduced one at a time and brought out onto the
stage. Amongst the featured drivers were 2 of the guys that visited
the Drift Session in 2005: Katsuhiro Ueo (Car Boutique / Sift AE86)
and Tetsuya Hibino (Sunrize AE86).
Tsuchiya
and Suzuki began talking and questioning various drivers that they
had on stage, asking them about their vehicles, their performance in
the past season, and what they anticipate for 2006. One crowd
favorite, Youichi Imamura, seemed to dominate the conversation,
taking the microphone several times to go off on tangents and pepper
the conversation with ridiculous comments. Before long, the
microphone slowly made its way around the pack to Ueo and Hibino,
both immediately handing off the mic to other drivers and not
wanting to talk. Ueo was finally cornered with the mic and briefly
talked about his experiences in the D1.
After
the press conference ended, it was back to walking around the show
and perving out on the various promo girls in attendance. The show
was much more crowded today since it was open to the general public,
and walking through the show was a challenge in itself for the three
of us. Luckily, we remembered to bring the Drift Session
pack-and-roll box with us. The pack-and-roll is a small, portable
container that can be folded up when not in use, or opened up to
about the size of a milk crate to carry belongings. The wheels and
extendable handle allow the pack-and-roll to be easily toted along
at the show. These boxes are must-haves for car show-goers to carry
the various pamphlets and brochures that you receive at the show.
However,
the Drift Session pack-and-roll box served a dual purpose for us at
the Tokyo Auto Salon. Not only did it carry our jackets and camera
equipment while indoors, but it also acted as a crowd-parting device
allowing us to smoothly cut a swath through the thousands of people
in attendance.
Many
a shin of a passerby met with the edge of our pack-and-roll box.
Most times the casualty was delayed, the victim hitting the box with
their shin, mumbling “Sumimasen,” and then taking about 5 more
steps before shouting out “Itaiiii!” and going down for the
count. Before long, the sea of Japanese people learned to part when
they saw us coming. Thank you pack-and-roll!
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