Now that you've seen whats possible let me break down what is absolutely needed for your trip. It's going to be pretty simple :)
Website is on the bag, this saved out bacon many times over.
1. WiFi hotspot. Holy smokes, without this we would have been absolutely lost. Hands down the best money you can spend while there. Reasons? The GPS in our rental had US buttons, but all of the locations were in Japanese and most you had to search by phone number for... Meaning you needed to know where you were going. It was basically useless the whole time. Good thing our hotspot was chonging out signal the entire time, and we only had to charge it twice in 10 days. I went with pupuru, who had a pick up counter at the airport, and just drop in a mailbox when finished.
The WiFi hotspot gave us access to google maps all the time, plus facebook for communication with our Japanese friends. Since I have T-Mobile, I got lucky and could make phone calls, text and use data over WiFi for free. Bonus. Make sure to call your carrier before you go to see if you get that hookup.
The conversion is pretty easy, 1000 Yen is about 10 bucks, 10,000 Yen is about 100 bucks.
2. Get your money exchanged at the airport when you land. It has the best rates by far, and most places around Japan do not take cards at all. And when they did, it was a 50/50 shot if my card would even work or not. Side note be prepared to carry around 14 metric tons of change. The bonus to the change is helped by #5 down below.
Always go through the green gates!
3. Toll roads. You have to know right away if you need a rental or not. You can choose not take toll roads, but your drive time will triple or quadruple. And my god, the toll roads are real in Japan. We started to calculate distance by toll costs instead of time to drive. For instance, an hour and a half drive from Tokyo was Nikko Circuit, or 120 USD in tolls round trip. When we drove out to the west coast for Owara Circuit, it was a 6 hour drive back to Tokyo and was around 350 USD in tolls, but saved us from a 12 hour drive taking back roads. A side note to this is DO NOT GO THROUGH THE ETC GATES UNLESS YOU HAVE AN ETC PASS. Otherwise you sit there with the gate down and stop traffic and everyone is mad at you. Ask me how I know... Always use the green or "cash" gates.
Your other choice and the wise idea is to use the train and cabs. A weekly pass is around 250 bucks and will save you tons on toll fees. It lets you travel much faster to the large cities of Japan for sure, but getting to rural areas becomes more difficult.
711 was our staple food source for the entire trip. And it never got old.
Yes it still exists.
4. 7-11 is your best friend. Sometimes it is quite hard to find a decent place to eat when you just need sustenance. Just head into your local 7-11, get some tasty iced coffees or even a ZIMA and pick one of the 25 or so choices or meals they have available. 90% of which are amazing. Bring said choices to the counter and have them zap em in the microwave for a few and you have a tasty meal that will hold you over until you can make it back to another 7-11.
They even have corn dogs and or hot dogs on a stick (for non adventurous types) that are rather epic, and if you get one, make sure to get the ultra handy ketchup and mustard packs that squeeze out at the same time, making it a breeze to flavor things up.
Tasty adult beverages.
5. Vending machines in general, especially beers. Nuff said. Use this outstanding feature as often as possible to rid yourself of the gratuitous amounts of change you get from every purchase! Make sure to try the bitters and highball, its whiskey mixed with beer and quickly became my favorite. Also Calpis became my favorite non alcohol bev of the trip.
So many tolls, so little time.
6. Fly into Haneda Airport if you want to be close to Tokyo, Narita is about 45 minutes outside, or 45 USD in tolls round trip. See the last blog post for info on when to book.
7. Events. Try for a drift matsuri, or black mark day. Any of the bigger "fun" events will blow your mind. If you are watching only, hit as many as possible. If you are driving, remember, unless your car is registered, you cant drive it there. You will have to find a tow truck to get it to and from the track for about 200 bucks a weekend.
One of our air bnb rooms.
8. Use Air BnB for the cheapest of cheap rooms to stay at anywhere you go. Well worth a little planning ahead to save hundreds on a tiny little hotel room. Hotels can spike to over 150 a night for a basic 1 bed tiny room on the weekends.
9. Use google translate to communicate with locals. It has a feature that live translates what you are saying to it so you can have actual conversations (in broken japanese of course) that will usually get the point across. Either that or hook up with someone there that can translate and go along for your adventure.
We found the sickest metal bar just wandering around Shinjuku called Godz.
10. Explore as many places as you can. if you stay for 2 weekends, go be a tourist during the week while you are waiting between events. Hit up Super Autobacs, which is a pep boys on steroids, and of course there are many Up Garages sprinkled all over the Tokyo area. This section i'll leave up to you, as there is way too much to see to fit in this article alone. Plenty of online guides exist.
Thats it! See my first guide for what to do to prep for your trip. If you have even thought about going in the past, just make it happen for yourself. Even if you just go to hang out and watch, it is well worth the experience of seeing drifting in its most pure form. Enjoy!
If you drift and are anything like me you drool or get "mad jelly" every time you see another drifter post that they are heading to Japan to do cool shit. I asked Brandon Wicknick to do this on his last trip since he probably did it cheaper than anyone could have imagined, but he slacked so here I am. What is "Matsuri" you ask? It means festival in Japanese and there are tons of Matsuri events all over. I have no idea what this particular Matsuri is below but count me in.
Butts
In the U.S. drifting world, it seems as though the pinnacle to every drivers career, amateur to pro is to get to drive either drive in Japan at one event or another, or at the very least attend some events and or car meets there. Awesome cars, awesome tracks, awesome people, what more could you want? Since losing my FD license, I have nothing but time to plan stuff for this year, so plan I did, and share I will. If you ever wanted to take the plunge and make it happen, this is the guide for you.
Head on over and grab yourself some quality suspension stuff!
The idea came about when Greg Kruse from GKtech said, hey, let's go to Japan for Spring Matsuri 3-4 months ago. 3-4 months of that sitting in the back of your head with no action feels like an eternity. It all snapped into reality when planets and budgets aligned and I actually sat down and started planning this whole thing out. We will be slapping a bunch of GKTech parts on a car, throwing some STR Officer D 903 wheels on and seeing what we can do! Below I will try to fill you in on as much pre-planned info as I can shove out and update as needed. Keep in mind I haven't actually gone yet, but I will update as needed.
#1 Know your dates
If you want to Matsuri, you need to pick which one suits your needs (In our case we are heading to Spring). Of course there are other events at other tracks all the time, so look online for those dates.
Courtesy of Powervehicles.com
2016 Spring Matsuri -
April 30th - May 1st
2016 Summer Matsuri -
August 13th & 14th
2016 Autumn Matsuri -
November 12th & 13th
#2 Flights
I was fully expecting to pay north of a grand for a round trip ticket when going into this and either had a stroke of luck, or hit the perfect time to buy but I found round trip tickets for about $470 bucks each. THAT'S CHEAPER THAN ROUND TRIP TO FLORIDA. Just sayin. Best thing about international flights? Free booze. For that price, take a buddy or two. In this case I choose you JWOODMEDIA.COM (otherwise known as Jesse Wood), and plan to meet up with Greg and crew later on.
I booked the flights Sunday Feb 21st, and made them for the 22nd of April till March 2nd so maybe if you make your purchases remain at that distance from the flights for the best price. I used the website Skiplagged to book the flights. It basically chops connected flights up into parts and lets you get the cheapest rates by skipping the last leg of the flight.
My sweet az Charlie Manson / James Hetfield passport photo
#3 Other shit you don't think about that you need to before you leave, not after.
You will need to get a passport. Give yourself at least 2 months before so you get it in time. USPS can get you hooked up.
You need to get an international drivers permit or license as well, and that can be done here. It is only 15 bucks and it will save you a world of heartache when you go to get a rental / try and drive at the tracks.
Download a translation app. If you get stuck somewhere you are gonna need it. I use google translate. You can even hold the camera up snap a photo and it translates signs and stuff. FUTURE.
Get a rental. Most of the tracks are pretty rural, a van is a good idea if you plan on hauling luggage people and wheels and tires.
Travel insurance, not needed but a damn good idea.
Bring cash with you for the week to exchange at the airport. Most places won't accept cards.
Entertainment on the plane, books, chess board, twister, sleeping pills, crochet etc. If none of the above are brought, it will be a long 12 hour flight.
Chargers far any electronic devices, portable batteries should help since the tracks are pretty rural. Side note; Japan uses the same plugs as us here in the good ol
USA. BONUS
Reach out on FB, there are tons of folks who either live there or have been that will help.
Your phone. How do you navigate, translate or check twitter?? Luckily you have a few options.
You can use wifi by downloading an app called nttbp or searching for free hotspots.
Nismo Omori Factory in Yokohama and Toyota MegaWeb in Odaiba, both free, both awesome.
Robot restaurant
Nikko circuit
Meihan
Lots of delish Sushi, everywhere
VENDING MACHINE STREET BEERS
#5 A car (the important part)
You wanna drive like Team Burst right? Better get a car first...
There are a few ways to go about this. You can find a decent missile car for around 2-3 grand, and competition ready ones for 10k and up.
eBay Japan
Yahoo Auctions Japan
Powervehicles.com
A Japan hookup
You are lucky enough to drive for someone and they give you a car
You are gonna have to work on what ever car you get.
Anyway you spin it you will more than likely have to purchase blind, and get there a few days early to start working on it to make sure that its up to par. This also means finding a place to work on it before hand, or risking working on it at the track. It will probably rain and you will have a bad day.
Budget spent on one round of Formula D Pro 1, 8-10k, Pro 2, 6-8k
#6 Coinage
Scratch spent so far on needed things:
$470 for round trip ticket to japan from LA
$165 for round trip ticket to LA
Scratch spent on non 100% needed things:
$960 for rental Van
$4,000 for a 93 skyline (much cheaper to rent or find more of a missile)
Total so far: $5,595 or less than the low end of one round of Pro 2.
Coming up in part 2, everything you need to know about not knowing anything about where you are going.
My best Japanese impression. Photo by Winding Hiway Studios.
