I've been in Japan for awhile now and seen a great deal of awesome cars but never really got the chance to indulge myself in any trips to the track. Japan has many famous tracks that I've been watching for years in various JDM car DVDs and I felt it was time to capitalize on my time here and head out to one. In the beginning of the year, some good friends of mine from my drift club Freemode in California came to Japan to visit and tour Japan. It was really awesome to see some friends from home; even more so since they are car friends of mine. I remember sitting in barbeques back in America with these guys watching drifting videos for hours and eating moderately cooked chicken. To have the chance to hang out with my car club friends and enjoy our favorite hobby that came from Japan, in Japan, was an awesome opportunity.


As soon as they arrived I tried to show them the best that I'd seen thus far. First night here I took them to touge (winding mountain roads) and let them hop into the driver seat of my Skyline. Second day we were off to famous car shops and popular shopping districts throughout Tokyo. Before long we even made it out to the largest aftermarket Japanese car show in world, Tokyo Auto Salon. It was Japanese car nirvana. Near the end of their trip though, one item remained on the list to show them, a track day.





We headed out to the nearest convenience store (btw they call them combini, and hence forth will be referred to as such) and picked up our favorite magazine, Drift Tengoku. Translated, the magazine reads Drift Heaven, and is fittingly titled I'd say. Inside you can catch all the latest in the Japanese drift culture. In the back of the magazine, there is even a long list of all the tracks in Japan with their drift event calendars, prices, and detailed information.


Our favorite DVD series about Japanese car culture is of course JDM Insider and in one of their earlier DVDs, they visit a drift track by the name of Mobara Twin Circuit. Mobara is located in Chiba east of Tokyo (roughly 3 hours from my house) and was having an event the last weekend before my friends were leaving. So we packed up friday night and left at an unpleasant 3 A.M. and headed to Chiba to live what we'd watched in our favorite DVD.


I actually made a video to illustrate our trip, so please take a look!:









We arrived in Mobara at about 6 A.M. with no idea where to find the track. We wandered to a combini and noticed two drift-ish style cars hanging out. We snuck in behind them and followed them as they left. We were hoping they were going to the track but were prepared to follow them to their houses just to be sure.


Luckily they were heading to the track and we ran into a long line of 50 or so drift cars waiting to be let into Mobara Circuit. We waited for a short while and were let in to park and get situated.





My car fit in nicely and I began to feel my loins quiver with joy and anticipation for the coming day. You can see my friend Drew also preparing himself for exciting car fun.





One thing I wasn't too excited about though was the extremely cold temperatures. Most of the day the weather hung around a crippling 30 degrees. I had to wrap my face like a ninja just to avoid from ice forming upon my lung tissue.





The view from where I parked my car. The area you're looking at is where all the cars running for the day work on their cars and relax. As we mosied around more and more zesty cars approached and found their places in this area.





For example, this very sexy S13 Silvia in white relaxing waiting for his buddies. I remember going to track days in America and seeing cars like this and remembering that they were the top grade that you were going to see that day. Here, a car of this calibur is as common as dirt, and priced similar as well.





As time draws closer to the beginning of the first run, the parking lot fills up. I'd like you to specifically note the blue Toyota Soarer on the right of the above picture. The driver of this car is actually a girl. In fact, many of the drivers this day were girls, and all drift better than you. This Soarer especially is interesting though. The driver is literally crippled... like paralyzed from the waist down crippled. She rigged her car up to be completey controlled with her hands and came out to run. She was wrecking men left and right with half the body members. I was beyond impressed to say the least!





Just before the first run they had a driver's meeting where they explained the track, what was allowed, what was not, and the time schedule for the day.





Let me tell you a bit about the facilities at Mobara. First off, they're beyond impressive and blows all the tracks I've been to in America out of the water. In the above picture behind the cars is an actual full service restaurant with a delicious selection of foods for lunch. To the left there is a parts shop. To the right of the restaurant there is an actual set of shower rooms for drivers to clean up before going home. They also have a building with 4 stories and a roof from which you can watch the track. Of course they have countless garages, a second track for go-karts, and the list goes on.





Ah this picture is nostalgic. It's surprising how drifter in Japan are almost the same as their American counterparts in both demeanor and practice. The only thing different from this picture if I had taken it back home is the steering wheel being on the wrong side.





I don't think I need to explain this picture. Hot Skyline, enough said.





This picture does though. If you have a multi-colored unpainted car in America, fret not young drifter, they have ricers in Japan too. The difference is, despite his 13 or 14 various color options all in one package, he drifts so manly that I'm surprised the weight of his testicles didn't throw off his slide.





Please take notice of the car on the far right. This is a fully done-up R34 Skyline GT-T. The car was beautiful (minus the decals) yet the driver couldn't seem to turn all that money into skill. Just goes to show being rich doesn't make you a good driver. It does get you women though, don't be mistaken about that. Ghetto cars doesn't attract the ladies (refer to 13-color-car 2 pictures up).





Best. Sign. Ever. This sign is warning all spectators to be aware of flying tire rubber that may assault your facial region after being released from passing drift cars.





What the hell? Are you serious? Yea a hellipad, you know, just in case.





Check out this S14 Sivlia showing how it's done. It took these people almost no time at all to finish warming up and make me feel real inadequate about my skill level.





Don't let this picture fool you, he spun out 2 seconds after this photo was taken. Man this guy sucked so bad at life.





Oops. This guy is a true soldier though, he had his car taped/ziptied back up within an hour and back out on the track.





Here's a good shot to give you an idea the size and shape of the track.





There was actually a ton of Toyota MR2s that came out to this event. I think they were a team or something...





Cars doing their thing. I enjoyed the very bright R32 Skyline on the right. To tell you the truth I am growing increasingly depressed about my Skyline. I thought it was super exciting, new, and rare to get one in America and a second one here in Japan...but, recently I see 10 or 20 a day on the street and it just seems too boring now. Don't get me wrong, it's a blast to drive, but not a bazillion dollars blast. Maybe it's just because I'm poor and don't own a GT-R and just own a GTST.





Luckily my comrades were able to detach the woefully skill-less owner from his car. It gave me a chance to molest it with my camera and get some photos of the awesome engine and exterior.





This was the biggest crash of the day. The Skyline slid to a stop and then the white car slid right into him at roughly 30 or 40mph. Before you get too upset though, don't distress, the car was lame and held some disturbing secrets. After inspecting the car later I found it was an automatic and belonged to a drift team who were trying to propagate the lie that automatics are a good life choice. It was also a 4-door, which in my opinion, no Skyline ever should be. You can't have a pure-bred sports car AND have a car to go to the grocery store and pickup the kids from daycare in. You can have just one or the other. Or maybe you can have both, just not both at the same time.











The crash is a good segway to this next photo. Our team enjoyed some delicious lunch around 1 P.M. at the fantastically convenient restaurant. Drew was especially excited about the hot food.





After lunch we head into the main building and walked up to the roof to get a bird's eye view on the area. I'm still amazed at how awesome this track is put together.





I know, we look sexy. Believe me, it's rough. Speaking of, I'd like to mention our team of four was the only non-Japanese wandering about that day at the event. Just a note to the Japanese, staring is rude. It's not like you've never seen a white person before, you have movies and I'm sure we've popped up in a photo or two on the internet. You'd swear like they think we were going to eat their children.





Hot. Sexy. Erotic? a little yeah.





I don't understand why they have to man-up so hard all the time. It's like they just don't care about dying with how fast they enter some of these turns sideways.





They even man-up enough for me to excuse certain paint color choices.





The whole event was put on by TK Club, a company that rents out tracks around Japan and puts on drift meets. They were some really friendly people and had no problem with us poking around with our interest and our cameras. I give them an e-Highfive for how well they plan and execute these events.


The event wound up to a close at around 6 P.M. and we packed up and took the long drive home. I had a lot of fun and was really happy my friends could come to Japan and enjoy it with me. When I'm a little less poor, I intend to take my car out there and give it a go!

If you reach back deeep in to your memory in the past, you may be able to pull up some small memories of your summer camp or a school camping function. If you think fondly back on these camping adventures, you undoubtedly remember the famed camp couselors. In Otcober our school received a request from a high school in Kanagawa asking for help with an English camp held in the mountains of Gunma prefacture. The school then contacted 10-20 of the students they felt they could trust (that would include me and my ragtag team of course) and asked them for their help. We accepted and took the opportunity to really enjoy some time out of Tokyo and to talk with some genuine high school students.


Some of our main responsibilities would be to asisst the students with their English, run different games, eat with them while having conversations in English, and help them with different camp exercises over the 3 days. To begin the long weekend, we met at a station near the school where 5 or so large chartered buses were waiting to pick us up. Gunma is far to the north of Tokyo so it's a long 6 hour drive through freeways and mountain roads.





Enterting the freeway in far far West Tokyo. I guess the price changes depending on your size of vehicle. This bus's toll for driving to Gunma was about $100. Be really really happy that in America you don't have tolls, or if you do, they're really cheap.





Yukari joined our team for this trip. Her hometown is in Gunma so she decided to come along to help. During the ride I repeatedly asked her questions such as, "do you know here? .... how about here? no?" Turns out she doesn't know Gunma as well as she should.





They put the counselors at the front of the bus far away from the students, obviously for our safety. Sitting in the bus wasn't too bad but reports from my teammates in other buses were much worse. Aparently, even for 6 hours straight, high schoolgirls never shutup with the high-pitch screaming over really stupid road games.





After the first 2 hours we took a pit stop at a large parking area somewhere in Saitama north of Tokyo and ran across these guys. I always love an opportunity to run into Lambos and Ferraris. I really want to know what these people do for a living so I can get into it.





It feels great to get out of Tokyo. I'm sure you're all thinking it'd be great to come to Japan and it'd be crazy to hate a town as advanced as Tokyo...but..Tokyo is very condensed, all the time. It gets to you after awhile and you forget what it's like to be in a big open skied area. Feels great let me tell you.





Man we were so surprised to find such delicious spicy hot dogs out here in the middle of nowhere. I mean, just look at how happy Ryan looks on the right.





Back on the road. If you read real close, you can see this is the exit for Mt.Myogi, which is your a nerd and watch Initial D, means something. In January sometime I will come back to Gunma in my own car to tour different famous touges, such as Myogi.





Outside of Tokyo, the landscapes are amazingly beautiful. I was really impressed with the nature and the natural beauty of just middle of nowhere places throughout our drive.





Also very pretty, passing a small town.





Here we are at the 2nd pit stop deeper in Gunma after 4 hours. Aparently these guys having nothing better to do but drive their super expensive supercars around the freeways.





I thought this sign was rather dumb. I could only imagine someone driving past it and thinking "Oh dang it! I'm going the wrong direction, what have I been doing all this time! How did I not see the hundreds of large signs before this telling me what towns this road went to?!"





Again, just amazingly beautiful. The mountains in Japan jolt up much more violently then mountains in California.





This signs reads "be cautious of animals" and depicts a monkey. That means that sometime in the past, they've experienced problems with people running their cars into wild monkies.





Here we are in the very last leg of the trip working our way through mountain roads near north Gunma. We're so far out, most of our phones aren't even working.





Finally we made it. This is the view from our room. The view went on for miles and miles, or kilometers, whatever, the metric system is stupid and only retards use it. To the right, there is a volcano just hanging out doing nothing. With the amount of volcanos, earthquakes, and typhoons Japan has, I'm beginning to wonder why people don't just move.





In the reception area of the large dormitory building (oh yea did I mention Japanese don't know what camping is) I found this log mascot. I appreciated the fact that he was formally dressed for our arrival.





Here we are hanging out in our room. They told us to go to bed around a certain hour but we weren't having it. We decided to go outside to look around and wander through the middle-of-nowhere Gunma and see some nature. Also, on a sidednote: In our room was me, Ryan, Josh, and the unsuspecting Chris. Poor Chris didn't see it coming but, between us three, the weekend was a long gay joke of trying to get the other to see your junk and/or ass when they weren't expecting it. Unfortunately for him, he now knows what most of our genitals look like in detail.





This sign, literally says, "BEWARE OF BEARS". Are you serious? I guess bears wander the woods looking to eat people.





To refer back to the above comment about the long gay joke. This picture fits in that category. Ryan was utilizing the lavatory when me and Josh ran in to take pictures, hopefully to get him to mess up and urinate on himself. It just so happend our timing was perfect as for our flashes to go off at the exact same time, giving the effect of Ryan getting blasted from behind.





Since noone really lives out here in the far reaches of the mountains, we were able to lie down in the middle of the road to take in some night skies. Living in Tokyo, the only thing you see in the sky at night is the moon and maaaybe mars/venus, so the clear skies was a nice change of scenery.





This is the dormitory from the steps leading up to it. At night, it looked more like a locale for a good ol' serial murdering.





Josh checking to see if he has any service.





Ah the fresh morning and our whole team ready for a day full of teaching and molding the youth of Japan.





Downstairs in the lobby, some students work on a project. I walked in on the middle so I have no idea why one of them is a dead person and the other is an elephant, but they seem to be enjoying it so far be it for me to rain on their parade.





In the main assembly hall, Josh and my activity area was set up. Here is a group of students working on an activity in the same area with some other counselors from our school.





The system worked where they broke up the hundreds of students into smaller groups of 20 or 30 which then rotated throughout the large dormitory to different 2-person teams of counselors who would teach them for about a half hour. Here Josh and I are sitting waiting for our next group.





And here we are teaching away. Our activity was to make two teams where one person from each team would leave the group and we'd give the remaining members a word in English. The students then had to give the person who left the group 1-word clues to what the word is until they guessed it. It wasn't very hard to do and rather fun.





Here is another group being taught by some comrades of ours.





After lunch, we moved to a new activity where each counselor was then put in a group of 4 or 5 students. The students had to work on a 5 minute presentation in English advertising a made-up product. The next day they would compete in front of judges to win prizes. Unfortunately my team was very lazy and didn't do what they were supposed to so they horribly failed like a bunch of losers.





Hey, it's true, they are.





Here we are in the dining room. We were spread out and put in tables with Japanese students. Boy let me tell you, that was reallllly not fun. I found out many of the students were made to go to camp so it was a hit or miss whether they wanted to talk to you or not. Some students would even ignore simple small talk. To make it worse, we were forbidden from speaking Japanese, so if a student didn't have adequate English skills, it was alot of akward silence.





Here is Chris. After the mornings "festivities" in our room, he hasn't been able to shake this look from his face. No matter what door he opened or walked in/out of, he likely got mooned.





Here is the administrative staff of the high school. I thanked them for the opportunity to come and the delicious free meals. There was this one guy though.... he really loved the microphone and would yell at the students for the entire time we were eating.





Near the end of the night we headed down to the lobby for some social contact with others. You'd really be surprised the freaks immigration lets into this country. Also, for the guy who couldn't stop trying to hit on the high school girls and wearing fake Bape products, I hope you get hit by a bus. Oh, and take a shower.





This is one of the teams preparing for their presentation the next morning. I thought they should've won, and they almost did (like 2nd or 3rd place out of the whole school). They advertised a video game that was half Zelda half Mario. They actually dressed up and sword fought.





This is my team...losing. They advertised a pillow you put a CD in that'd give you good dreams. laaaaaame.





Near the end of the day and the end of the camp, they got all the students together to present the awards for the best teams. They also took all the counselors and put them in front and gave us an appreciation certificate. Very thoughtful.





After another night of shenanigans and mentally scarring Chris with our unexpected nudity (google "the helicopter" to learn how to cause blindness in your friends), we gathered in the front to return back to Tokyo in our buses.





We were all pretty tired at the end of the trip. It was way longer coming back then going there it seemed. I had alot of fun and look forward to doing it again next year! My only complaint would be that some of the counselors should have been restricted from being put in close proximity with underage girls, or even better, refused entry into the country. Immigration needs to do a better job on keeping the creepy foreigners out of here.


Everything else was awesome! Gunma is a great place, a good getaway from the busy Tokyo life. Alot more happened then what I could touch in this post though so I made a gallery for over 400 pictures of the fun we had. Check it out here. Thanks for reading!

So let's say you've been studying hard, attended many levels of Japanese language courses, and have poured your heart and soul into the effort to achieve that "bilingual" mark. But through your studying experience, you frequently doubt yourself or find trouble seeing how your hard work will pay off. Sure, no longer needing subtitles to play your imported Japanese video games, or to watch your internet pirated anime is cool, but what does it all mean? When and how can you officially say you are "fluent" or "proficient" to a specific degree in the language?


I'm sure you are all aware of English as a second language tests that exist, such as TOEFL or TOEIC. Well, on the flipside, Japan has the same thing. Awhile back a system was put together to be able to gauge a foreigner's ability in the Japanese language, supplying them, or potential employers, with a defined benchmark of proficiency. This test goes by the name of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, or JLPT for short. After passing a specific level of the JLPT, you then acquire a certified "degree" of sorts, that is recognized country-wide as assuring and stating your level of proficiency in the Japanese language.


Here's how the test breaks down. The JLPT has four levels of proficiency, 1 being the highest level, and 4 being the lowest. The JLPT tests on three sections, reading comprehension, listening, and grammar (over-simplified explanation of the sections but you get the general idea). Inside the first section, grammar, you are tested on various grammatical structures, kanji recognition, etc. For this section you are given 45 minutes, with 65 questions, valued at a total of 100pts. The second section, listening, tests you on listening comprehension, takes 45 minutes, has something like 13 bigger questions, and counts for another 100pts. The final, and most difficult section, reading comprehension, takes 90 minutes, has you read compositions and answer tricky questions about the content, and is worth 200pts total. Reading comprehension is especially difficult due to the amount of kanji combonations you are required to know (words made of kanji, the frilly chinese characters people usually tattoo on themselves in America).


So what does each level mean? Level 4 is the easiest and is said to require 150 total hours of study, requiring knowledge of 103 kanji, and a relatively beginner level of grammar. Level 3 jumps to about 300 hours of total study, 285 total kanji, and a beginner to intermediate level of grammar. Level 2, a huuuuge jump, required 600+ hours of total study, requires knowledge of roughly 1050 kanji, 6000 words, and an intermediate to lower advanced level of grammar. The level 1, which is rarely reached by western foreigners from my understanding, places you at about the same fleuncy level in the language as a Japanese high school graduate. You are at 900+ hours of total study, over 2000kanji, and closer to 12,000 word vocabulary with a highly advanced level of grammar. With a level 2 or level 1 (refered to as Ni-Kyuu and Ii-kyuu), you begin having the ability to work in real Japanese society and be able to read write and speak closer to a native Japanese person. Don't be confused though, even with 1kyuu, you are ways away from translator status. To pass these tests, 4-2kyuu require a 60% and the 1kyuu requires a 70% score.


Ok great, sounds not too bad right? Wrong, the test is only given once a year on December 2nd in only a few select locations. You also have to go through a long process of application almost 6 months in advance. This year I decided to brave it and go for 2kyuu. Here is how I went about applying and getting set up to take the test.





First thigns first, got to get all sexied up for a nice professional photo to put on your official application form.





Next things to do it go to your nearest large chain bookstore, such as Kinokuniya in Shinjuku and pick up the JLPT application packet for 500 yen (about $4). You need a place to open it up and read through it so next stop is...





McDonalds. One thing I really want to point out here. I am so effing tired of people asking me this super old misconception of Japan, so I'll set it straight now. "Durrr so like uh, in Japan everything is hella expensive right? My cousin's friend's mom's cowoker's pet groomer said he went to Japan and a Bic Mac meal was like $20 and he never lies. Super reliable source. How do you afford it?" NO, for fudge's sake, McDonalds is either the same price or cheaper then the states. A big mac meal is like 550yen-ish right now which is $4.78. Things that're expensive in Tokyo are just what is expensive in big cities, same as how certain things are expensive in Manhattan or downtown San Francisco(i.e. apartments).


With that cleared up, I realized I needed to get a special sized picture of myself for my application. At practically every station in tokyo there are these little picture booths that serve just this purpose. For many applications (work, visa, etc.), people require these uniformed sized pictures of about 3mmX4mm. At these booths for about 500 yen you can get a sheet of these proof pictures.





On the back of the packet, the JLPT people utilize descriptive cartoons to explain what happens when you fail to turn in your application on time.





Here are the 3 things you need. The instruction booklet, the payment form, and the application form.





And here I am with my jovial expression.





On one side of the application form, you pick and circle from which location you will take the test (I picked Kanto Region since that's where Tokyo is). You then fill out basic information like name, birthdate, nationality, and these codes that represent your reason for taking the test, how many hours you've studied, and your native language. Oh, also you have to circle which level you are attempting at the top of the paper (notice the bold cirlce around the "2"...yeaaa).








On the opposite side you paste your picture, fill in your address, and the institution you belong to, etc. After that process, you've finished the main piece of paperwork.





Next is to move onto the payment for the test. The test fee is (if I remember correctly), 5,000yen ($45). Most of the time with bills in Japan, you pay either at the post office or at the Combini. For the JLPT, you are required to do a certified payment at the post office. So with this blue inked piece of paper, fill out all the same info and take everything with you to the next stop.





The post office! Right across from the street from Temple University there is a small post office location stuck in a hole in the wall.





This is the last stop for today. Here you pay the lady and send off your application. After 2 months after you turn in your application, you receive a piece of paper telling you the address of the testing location and when to exactly be there. Also included is your testing number and various administrative pieces of information.


From there you study everyday...alot...a whole lot. This last month or two before the test I'll put every waking free moment into studying (close to 5 hours a day if possible) in hopes of being able to pass that 60% mark.





Once you are finished studying for months on end and take the test. In mid Februrary you receive either your failure notice or your certification paper of passing. With that, you then get lots of money and buy Ferraris, such as the one above frequently found in Shibuya and Harajuku.





Don't forget to celebrate hard studying with your friends!