Touge Grip Thrills in Fukushima
After a look about power vehicles, we decided not to take the piss as the lads wanted us out of there, and we made our way up to Nihonmatsu to meet Chogo.
What can we say? It was a little emotional to meet up with Chogo in the same town we met the guys three years previous. We had some of the best nights of our life that time and the guys from CSS aren’t active at all on social media, so it’s a miracle that we even met up with him. He had finished work, so he told us to meet him at a book store at Nihionmatsu in a couple of hours. He was heading home to get freshened up and have dinner first.
Reuben having fun with the insects.
He still had the red S15 from our first video, which was incredible. Since we left Japan, it has received a total makeover with a toned-down black paint job and some chrome dished 16-inch offroad style wheels.
I love how the language amongst car people is universal. Even though we didn’t fully understand each other, we managed to have somehow a conversation about his Silvia. The places and people we have met through the same love for the automobile genuinely fascinating. Here we were in the middle of nowhere in a town in central Japan, hanging out with a guy we met three years previous through a random lucky encounter. That’s pretty damn awesome.
I didn’t recall from our last trip, was all these giant insects floating around, I don’t recall seeing any, but this night was going to be filled with funky flying creatures.
We chatted for an hour as we waited for his friends to make a plan. This time, we wouldn’t be meeting the rest of the CSS guys. We learned a little bit later on in the night that the guys had a falling out sometime over the last couple of years, and the group has gone their separate ways. Chogo is now part of a group called Fukushima JDM, and he was taking us to meet some of the guys from that group who were doing grip tongue driving at a nearby mountain.
Chogos new crew, “Fukushima JDM.”
After about 45 minutes of driving, we made it to a car park in the pitch black. The only light was from a public restroom at the top of the car park. You could hear an s2000 roaring in the distance.
The bathroom was crawling with bugs. Best of luck if you needed to use the toilet! We went in for a quick look. Being the only light source on the hill, it drew attention to every bug in the area.
Chogo introduced us to his mates. One guy had a new shape Colt Version R, and another had a stripped s2000, both taking turns tearing up the hill. This night was shaping up to be quite the experience as we had never been n a grip session up the mountain. None of these guys would be drifting here tonight.
Interesting chats with the locals…
This mountain was a popular spot with grip driving Chogo informed us, he brought me for a quick test lap in the 15. I questioned his cambered setup, but he appeared to know the road quite well, and we had a blast.
Grip driving on these roads is a different experience, arguably more dangerous and exciting than drifting, as these lads carry high speed on narrow streets.
They would go in twos, to the top, trying to stick to each other’s bumpers, essentially like you see in the Ggunsai Touge videos. I was delighted that we were getting to experience the other side of touge driving in Japan. Chogo’s car was so low that his exhaust was catching on the middle of the road. It was crazy fun. Again I couldn’t keep the camera still!
The google translates are hilarious and kept us all entertained for the night; it did get fascinating though, one of the main reasons we were here this time was to see how the whole car scene is doing, especially with the younger generations.
The last time we were in Japan, we got the feeling it was shrinking rapidly, and many younger kids can’t afford to buy cars and get into the hobby as the rest of the world poaches these cars out of Japan.
Again this time, Chogo and his friends confirmed this. He told us many people he knows are in their early twenties, aren’t bothered with cars. He felt it was due to the prices going up and not too many cheaper, more affordable vehicles are available to the youth. It’s sad as this is what we had figured. Like in 2016, they said it’s rare for younger people to be out doing togue runs in this day and age, and there are not too many people doing it anymore.
A lot of the younger generation who would love to own these cars, which have been immortalized in the Japanese car world, can’t afford to buy them as prices have gone past the affordable rate and only gotten worse in the last two years since we shot this.
By us taking the cars out of Japan, we have a part to play in essentially killing off the culture over there, something we talked about in our previous movie, it’s the sad reality, burning the candle at both ends. It will be a sad day when the youth are completely out of cars in Japan, and I can see this happening in the next fifteen or so years.
Japan is making the push for electricity, and the sports cars and hot hatches of the 80s/90s/ and millennium are starting to dry up. There was a sense of sadness at the apparent future that lies ahead.
Other gangs of cars showed up to hit the mountain run throughout the night, and everything is very organized, no messing aside from the driving, the lads keep to themselves, the cops don’t bother them, it is great to see it all working like a well-oiled machine.
We all took turns with each of the drivers, the guy in the S2000 was the fastest. His car was insane.
These lads were out there, socializing, doing something positive for themselves away from civilization, doing what hundreds of people in Japan before them did and built this culture that we came over here to appreciate. It was a lovely moment.
After a few hours, we made our way down the mountain to hang around at a vending machine, have a chat and get heavily distracted by the insects. I love that cars have brought us to these places, meet these great people, and end up at vending machines in the middle of nowhere in Japan having fun.
Here we were, trying to chase the stuff we fantasized about for years, and in turn, we ended up making a good friend, connected through our love for cars, a magic moment for sure.
Sometime later, Chogo’s friend showed up, and the universal banter of having fun comes out, he chucks a massive bug on his mate, and the laughing gets out of control. He had an old Mira, which they told us was rare in japan these days. Those cars are so disposable there, so not too many of that era are still knocking about.
These machines were only supposed to stick around and serve their purpose for a brief amount of time. Until attachment grows and we feel the need to preserve them due to their charm and character, we end up on silly adventures in all sorts of places worldwide through these inanimate objects.
After an hour of laughing at insects and talking about the car scene shrinking in Japan because of export and pricing, we decided to call it a night and let Chogo drive back to Nihonmatusu. It was fantastic to meet up three years later and, even better, see he was still out there going and enjoying his car life. What a good night
Again, it was late, so another night in the Alphard for the boys was on the cards. We headed back up to the parking area and turned our trusty van into hotel “Alfart”.