Juicebox in Japan: Crazy Street Style Take Two
We were exhausted but once again the recent activities had the adrenaline flowing and we fought off the tiredness. This may very well be the last time we see these places so we figured there was no point crashing and going asleep pure stubbornness.
We made our way down to a town called Nihonmatsu, it’s the last stop before Ebisu and just a touch outside the exclusion zone of the Fukushima disaster. It’s a quite enough town and id imagines its seen its fair share of foreigners who usually stay here whilst visiting Ebisu.
The town had an eerie feel to it also, lots of shops were closed down or abandoned, not sure if it was because of the 2011 disaster or just because the town was in decline. Either way, there was just something off about the place.
We decided to go for a stroll, yet again resisting the urge to go to bed for a few hours.
There was any amount of random cars floating around the town, parked in driveways and I couldn’t keep myself from being curious.
The town was so relaxed and peaceful too, I’ll neve forget how tranquil it was walking in the heat listening to crickets hearing the odd roar of a six cylinder with both of us turning our heads.
This place consistently surprises you with a steady trickle of interesting or unusual cars to enjoy.
Every corner had something lurking in a driveway, every alley had something else, you would glance into a car park and something always locks on with some kind of vehicle. The brain was mentally drained trying to absorb it all.
After an hour or so of walking the streets of this strange town, we decided to head up to our room. I fell asleep for what felt like less than an hour. Reuben was downstairs smoking and could hear the sound of a rumbling RB…
About five seconds later a well used looking 34 GT whizzed past, jammed on the brakes and reversed up to him. It was the Crazy street style crew packed into the Skyline! Earlier on in the day at Ebisu, we planned to grab some dinner with these guys and without fail that evening they showed up with their main man and some fresh tires.
Reuben had literally no sleep, I was laid out on the bed after catching a brief nap fully dressed in the clothes I had on for two days!He came upstairs and woke to inform me the CSS guys were downstairs loaded into a 34 drift machine ready to go. The guys wanted to bring us to get some local curry.
I’ll never forget the mental battle to get off of the bed, after being away for almost two days, you had to keep reminding yourself this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and moaning about sleep was quickly out of the question. Sleep could be done when we got home!
I quickly changed a t-shirt and ran down to greet the guys and their main man. He was a five-foot character and we were told he was the number one guy of team CSS. We all shook hands and strolled down the street to grab a bite to eat.
Again the language barrier seems to disappear as we just sat around joking and laughing about photos and other sorts… it’s a very cool feeling and not often something I get to experience.Once we finished up we headed back to the Skyline which was parked right at the seven eleven. There were five of us and only four seats, I was curious as to how this would go down.
Before we could suggest anything one of the guys offered to get in the boot! I still can’t stop laughing at the fact this guy was happy to get in the boot for an hour or two drive up the mountains so we could have the rear seats.
Not only was the guy in the rear but our new friend in his 34 has no issue drifting junctions in the city and driving the shit out of the Fukushima streets while his mate was in the rear screaming his head off being thrown around!
The rear seats were nowhere near free either, there were two wheels on the back seats and both myself and Reuben had to sit inside the rear dish with no seatbelts on or anything, surrounded by a sea of tools, hunched up on the back seat… what a fucking setup.
About an hour of the poor guy screaming in the rear we made it to the top of the mountain where our friends in the 14 and red 180 joined us for what would turn out to be another epic night of skids…
The CSS crew had repeatedly told us the night previous that the main man was their friend in the 34 and they wanted to ensure we saw the best man on the Touge… The guy in the red 180 wanted to prove himself from last night too and even the small guy in the NA S14 was eager for action
Same setup as last night, down to the bottom of the hill, everyone waits and then boom, three car train to the top of the mountain. The driver of the R34 was a complete legend, just a cool, calm silent but an incredibly talented driver. First lap up and the six cylinder screamed its way up the mountain with the skyline linking every bend to the top. Absolutely amazing stuff.
The other guys followed behind, the driver of the red 180 was on it that night also, I hopped in for a few laps with him and it was wild watching both cars tandem…. Nothing beats the exhilarating rush of mountain drifting.. this was fucking heaven.
Things just got more and more hilarious, they started hanging out of the car waving those little red wands and we shot some video and photos of the shenanigans into the late hours of the morning… nuts!
These guys are at this every few nights whether anyone takes notice or not, joking around and making the most of these insanely good roads.
Like a pit team, they were quick to jump out, shift tyres in Crocs and get the cars back out onto the hill. Such a cool sight to behold, super loyal friendships.
The nights ender was this lunatic hanging out the back of the white 14 waving the wand all the way to the top… I never laughed so much in my life, such a fucking wild time.
I’ve said it a few times on here but it’s astonishing the places cars can take you, the friendships you make, the shenanigans you get up to… here we were in the hills of Fukushima getting up to all sorts until the early hours of the morning…
Everyone was completely exhausted but had such an epic time, the guys seemed to really enjoy putting on a show.
We were all so tired we almost crashed on the way home and had to keep chatting with the windows down to keep everyone awake! One of the greatest nights of my life, I’ll forever be grateful to the guys of CSS for showing us such a good time and I can’t wait to release the footage of this madness…
Till next time, stay tuned!