By Alexi in
16-02-2011 4:22 am
Aussie photographer Casey Dhnaram has been getting the classy b&w thing going on at shirtstuckedin.com recently, and is slowly trickling out a series of pics from his last trip to Japan.
Click here for a direct link to this particular post, which includes a photo of me doing nothing apart from trying not to fall asleep. Come to think of it, Casey’s isn’t the only blog that I’ve appeared in doing nothing while sitting in the pits next to the car during a competition.
この写真は、オーストラリアのケイシーと言う人のブログからです。「シャツはタックイン」日本車の写真ブログ。名前の意味がよくわからないけど。いまどき人気のファッションかな？でも、「タックイン」って、ＦＦ車のアクセルオフじゃないですか？
By Alexi in
30-01-2011 6:05 am
Tokyo sure does look cool sometimes. I’ll need to go back again with my proper camera and a tripod.
東京の景色は素敵ですね。でも、この写真撮るのあと十秒、パトロールのハイエース乗っているお兄さんが私を追い出した！
お邪魔しました～！
By Alexi in
29-01-2011 4:44 am
While I may be a bit pale, with short black hair and glasses right now, here is the kind of photo of me I’d rather be seen on the internet. Silly JDM-posing overalls and bleached hair style.
If you haven’t already, head over to Speedhunters (or just click this link) if you want to see a picture of me hungover and holding a hotdog.
A life of glamour, this photography business.
I thought I could get a bit of peace and quiet in the press room, but it was not to be. I opened my eyes after hearing a shutter clicking only to see Aaron Mai from NZ Performace car pointing his lens in my direction. Shortly thereafter, I caught Dino doing the same thing, and then a few minutes later Linhbergh was doing it too! Never fall asleep in a room full of cameramen!
The story behind it is that on Saturday night, I was invited to go to a nomikai (which translates rather nicely as “drinking party”) near the Makukari Messe with the Drift Tengoku crew, as well as a large group of guys from “Gakudori”, which is a kind of an association of drifters who are in secondary education. Most of them are attending technical automotive colleges and the like. The dinner was a lot of fun and involved some displays of underwear at one point. There’s a pic on Drift Tengoku editor Kawasaki’s blog, so check that at your own peril.
Afterwards, I considered taking the last train home, but it takes more than an hour, and I’d just have to get up and come back in a few hours to cover Sunday anyway, so I made some phone calls. It turned out my housemate Shino was in a karaoke box right next to Kaihin Makuhari station with Asayan and Hitomi from Looking down in Osaka, as well as some other people I knew.
A long story short, several jugs and a borrowed hotel room later, I had to prop myself up against the wall in the press room until about midday before I felt well enough to head out into the crowds, with a large bottle of water on the table and a convenience store plastic bag rolled up in my pocket just in case. Luckily, a pleasant conversation with Linhbergh sped my recovery up a bit.
With that in mind, here’s some useful phrases for the next time you visit Japan.
Mou juubun (もう十分): I think I’ve had enough.
Futsukayoi (二日酔い): Hungover.
Nomisugita (飲みすぎた): Drank too much.
Ukon (ウコン): Tumeric, which comes in the form of tablets and drinks, and is meant to help a hangover.
Eiyou dorinku (栄養ドリンク): Energy drink.
Gero (げろ): Barf.
By Alexi in
20-11-2010 3:33 am
You can always count on the MSC guys to get some great pics of all the cars that attend their events. The report from the last round at Mobara Circuit went up yesterday, and here’s the official shot of my Mark II.
Here’s the shot of Nishi Tokorozawa Racing, the triple team I entered in with Shino and her boyfriend Yoshio in the Silvia. You can see the team stickers on the bottom-right of the windscreens.
Shino was driving her practice R32 Skyline, as it would have been a bit tricky to match an AE86 in with large turbo cars. AE86 fans needn’t worry though, as Shino hasn’t given up on them just yet. As I literally type this, she’s doing an expressway run down to Osaka to run in her new Expert OZ engine rebuild.
If you’re interested in seeing more, here’s the link to the Mobara round report on the MSC site.
By Alexi in
07-11-2010 1:52 am
What happens when you concentrate on driving instead of shooting? You go a week without any decent pics on the site! The only one I have worth putting up is this one by Casey Dhnaram (shirtstuckedin) who is over here with a Nigel Petrie (Engineered to Slide) and a bunch of other Aussies for the upcoming Ebisu Circuit Autumn Drift Matsuri, among other things. That particular pic was from the past Wednesday’s MSC round at Mobara Circuit.
Monday was also spent at a practice day at a Team Pegasus event, which ended early for me when the turbo coolant inlet line split and started leaking. Unfortunately, the banjo bolt is practically impossible to take off without removing the manifold or the turbo. I spent the next afternoon replacing both the coolant lines, which had perished from the heat, as well as doing a few other bits of maintainence.
The highlight of the event was participating in the triple class with Shino and Riichan in team “Nishi Tokorozawa Racing”! None of us did particularly well as far as results went, but the event itself was a lot of fun.
This upcoming week’s schedule includes the D1SL final at Tsukuba Circuit, an Ito Auto trackday, and the G1GP and Drift Matsuri.
By Alexi in
14-08-2010 12:50 am
One-make events are generally a lot of fun, and attending the recent AE86 day at Fuji Speedway was awesome, but since it was a car that I neither own, nor have owned in the past, I was missing out on that little extra edge that the event provided.
Since my own car is a JZX100, the event to attend is the annual 1JZ Meeting held at Fuji Speedway Drift Course by four-door pro shop, ST Garage. I thought I’d posted up all of the the pics from a previous 1JZ Meeting that I attended back in 2007, but I’ve only put up a few so far, like this one and this one and this one.
As you can see, there’s some interesting stuff going on there.
When I bought the Mark II last year, the event had already been sold out for a long time, which annoyed me a bit and I didn’t actually end up going, even to watch. This year, I decided that the car would be going out there on the track no matter what. The problem was that entries to the event always sell out within a few hours of opening.
To avoid any kind of mess-ups with faxing my entry through and bank deposits, I decided to drive down to ST Garage instead and enter directly.
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By Alexi in
02-07-2010 12:04 am
I was on another Honda-centric Hot Version video shoot this week. There was a lot of running around and moving cars here and there for various shots, which meant I was hopping in and out of interesting Hondas for most of the day.
This one was probably the most interesting. Keiichi Tsuchiya’s personal NSX-R. Of course, I had to get a picture.
By Alexi in
08-06-2010 10:28 pm
Remember this photo of the Skyline?
I was heading home from Fuji Speedway D1 on Sunday and stopped at the same spot. Too bad the weather wasn’t as good!
By Alexi in
17-05-2010 10:09 pm
Oh yeah! It’s time for Noriyaro in narcissism mode! Only pics of me at Spring Drift Matsuri from now on!
Of course, we have to start with some drift posing. I had just given the paint a bit of a buff the night before too, so the car was all nice and shiny. It might seem a bit pointless considering the front bumper, but you have to keep the car looking good where you can.
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By Alexi in
29-04-2010 3:29 am
Not a whole lot of updates recently eh?
Here’s what I’ll be attempting to do during this Golden Week public holiday period.
I’m heading up to Ebisu Circuit today, and I’ll probably be stopping off at Nikko Circuit on the way to have a look at the MSC competition being held there.
Friday is the G1 Grand Prix drift competition for foreigners only, this time being held on South Course at Ebisu Circuit. Here’s a link to the video from last Autumn’s event.
Saturday and Sunday is Drift Matsuri!
There may be something happening on Monday too, but we’ll see how things go.
Of course, I’ll be taking a camera along to all of this.
