Night Lights at Yamanashi - Juiceboxforyou

Thinking back, walking away from Meihan was a tough call. If we stayed at Meihan, it would have been a great show, but we felt that greatness was waiting at Yamanashi. Fuck it, why not be greedy and get two epic events on the same day. Something you could only do in Japan!

All these smaller tracks reminded us of Ireland. Compared to other places we visited on the trip, both Meihan and Yamanashi had tiny rural entrances. Cars parked everywhere upon the grass, rough roads are leading to the track, a typical scene at an Irish drift event.

So at first glance, you notice that Yamanashi is pretty run down. It seems like the place is on its last legs. Still, it added to the overall atmosphere of the event. It was tough to see cars essentially rotting away in the bushes like the Poor Pulsars you might have seen in the video.

Like many o tracks here, cruising through that tunnel into the main area always builds excitement. You could hear the music bouncing off of the dark walls as we made our way into the paddock area.

Once we walked in, we realized we had made the right choice. Yamanashi is a small track. It has a very personal atmosphere, tunes playing, people drinking beer, BBQs in the background, our kind of event.

We didn’t know what to expect, so we were delighted to see all the OG pros and their competition cars popping and out for a few laps.

What an event, exactly what I wanted to see. All the top guys from back in the day were here, Ueno from Vertex, Kazama, Yoichi Imamura, Yamashita from Run free, the list goes on.

The legend!

There were no strict rules. We didn’t see any marshalls, you could get as close as you wanted to the action, and there was free reign to float around and do as you please.

I took full advantage of this. We grabbed a few beers, and as the sun went down, we witnessed one of the most incredible drift events of our lives.

An ultra-relaxed atmosphere, getting a chance to appreciate a drift event at night set in the mountains of Yamanashi, is what it was all about. This is why we love drifting.

Battle after battle with neons lighting up the cars, cool tunes blaring in the paddock, it was exactly like something you’d see in a movie or a Japanese magazine, but we were finally getting a taste in real life.

The only other foreigner at it was Alexi. I’m sure you’ve seen his video from the event where a gigantic moth freaks us out.

I could have watched this stuff for hours, highly entertaining aggressive battles between all sorts of cars. It felt like a togue event on the streets with how raw and cool this track looked. Amazing.

Content face!

The size of these things!

What a treat to see Kazama in the S15.

We turned off the cameras and enjoyed the evening, heading up the mountains to meet our friend Andrew and Toby.

After the event, Alexi brought us for dinner and showed us the ropes on cheap, safe eating in Japan for foreigners. I thought that was a lovely gesture. Alexi is one of the most down to earth humble lads in real life, and it was a pleasure to hang out.

The lads offered to bring us up the touge, and it was the perfect way to finish off the night. Who gets to enjoy two world-class drift events and a bit of touge? This is probably the most jammy, action-packed drift day ever.

Alexi told us about tsunami warnings and all sorts of mad stuff that happened to him over the years. Funnily enough, the tsunami and earthquake warnings he told us about came back to haunt us the following day.

Andrew and his Verossa ripping a hole in the mountain calmness was something else! He gave us a few spins up and down the road for an hour, we stood about and had a chat for an hour or so in the lovely summer heat, and then eventually, we said our goodbyes.

Once again, it was too late for us to go anywhere, so we rolled down the hill a little until we found a space to pull in and got the van ready for another night in the hotel “Alfart”. Good times!

I hope you have been enjoying these photo-heavy posts. I’ve been trying to keep the words and story to a minimum as I’m strapped for time making these episodes. I figured most of you would be coming here after the videos so that you won’t mind.

More to come soon. As always, thanks for stopping by.

– Neil