Some cool shots showing off the Bidend Roders

As always…get at me if you want some!

We’ve got fun ‘n’ walls

Meihan…no place like it.

This past week I was fortunate enough to head down to Sydney for a conference on virtual world education to meet with the fellow teachers we work with on the Skoolaborate projects. It was only a quick 4 days but we had plenty of down time to enjoy the beautiful city along with working out details for new projects and such. For the full set of pics be sure to check out the Flickr album. It was a decently long 8 hour flight down to the Gold Coast and then a quick hour further down to Sydney:

The 1st thing I did was grab a proper breakfast…plates like this don’t happen in Japan:

I’m not a huge “see the sights” person but I really liked the downtown area and the view of the Opera House. Pictures do not do this place justice:

See, I’m working…so I’m serious……

And of course business meeting = beer…..at least for us it did. I really liked the VB on tap. I’m sure its just run of the mill down there but good beer is good beer:

We had a few drinks at Bondi Beach…you can see how clear the water is. I wanted to go grab a board and jump in, but no time….

More real breakfast:

and real burgers:

We were also lucky enough to be in Sydney for a nice little thing they call a dust storm…something I guess never happens?!

Anyway, I celebrated the occation by eating a kangaroo for dinner:

Though short, it was a great trip. I took way more pics that I really ever do, so check those out on Flickr if you like. I’d like to get back to Sydney and see it at a more leisurely pace, along with a few other cities.

Spent at the beach! After a LONG 1st week back to work it was time for some fun. Headed to the beach with Masa and co along with a flatbed full of jet ski’s:

I had never been to this beach before, but it was just a quick hour and a half or so drive from my place. Still in Kyoto prefecture, looking out onto the Japan Sea

Another full day of alcohol and motorized vehicles ensued. Good times were had; skin was burt; and waves proved to be hard on the body (so I felt the next day…). I took the chance as we were getting ready to leave to snap some cool shots of the 15 with a seldom seen backdrop:

And I dont know why, but I like this last shot…car just looks cool for some reason:

On a side note…this may be some of the last shots I ever take of this car…

This is so awesome…

Nice shot Alexi!

So still not caught up here..but anyways. The Sunday before I started back teaching I had some free time and ran up to a local shop called High Bridge 4×4.  For the full set of pics, check here! Along as a full service shop for all your off-road needs, they have a huge playground in back. So a few of my freinds with Suzuki Jimny’s came out and we all played for a bit.

It was actually the 1st time I ever tried driving anything offroad, and it is much more complicated and downright freaky than I thought. Being a car that is sitting at a 45 degree angle to the ground just didn’t feel right….

I managed not to roll…but a few rolled more than once. As you can tell by the looks of the trucks it doesn’t really matter when they do though. We would just push it back right side up and they would keep on going. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I had an awesome time.

I for sure found yet another thing I want to spend all my money on. Luckly these things are cheap to snag and are tough as nails. I need a daily anyway….

For the full set of pics I snapped, be here to check here!

After the trip to Miyazaki I had some work to do, but just before school started up again I had a day or two free. I decided to head back to Suzuka since I had a ton of tires left over from Ebisu. So I made the quick trek over to Suzuka Twin only to find I was going to be the only one on track!

I spent most of the day practicing mid drift upshifts and such, but overall it was good to just be able to relax and get a solid 3 hours of track time in at my own pace. The video is nothing special, but if you compare to my previous video from Twin you can see (I hope) that I am feeling a bit more comfortable in the car.

After a ton of car stuff, it was time for some time away. Mayu and I flew down to Miyazaki in Kyushu for nice 3 day trip. We decided not to carry boards since it would just be a pain, so we rented while there, and to lug them around we rented a nice Hiace:

And of course the hotel was as close to the beach as possible. We spent about 5-6 hours each day in the water. The waves were really easy for me to ride and there was almost nobody there so it made for a nice stress free surf. The view from the room:

As you can tell the area has a real tropical feel to it, and from time to time it really reminded me of Hawaii in certain aspects

Of course any trip of mine is complete with eating fine foods. Miyazaki is know for Chicken nanban, so I had to try that..twice.

And of course being close to the ocean means delish seafood, nice and fresh

Miyazaki is also known for it’s mangos. I though about buying a few…but at $70 each, I settled for this $15 mango parfait. Yea, the mango was amazing…

It was a really nice 3 days, and I got a ton of practice in on the longboard. I’m really looking forward to getting back out sometime soon before winter sneaks up on us..

But summer still wasn’t over….and I still had a ton of tires left to burn. More drifty next post!

So this end the coverage of the Kansai Allstar event. There is already talk of next years event so I know myself and many others are looking forward to it. To close, just wanted to toss up the small number of pics I took at the event. Click here to view the full set.

More updates soon…I’m still not up to date!

After watching the video in my last post, you may have seen Kawabata’s S15 getting crazy closeinto turn one. As a testament to his driving, he was able to get crazy close and not hit…regardless of who was in front of him. I’m told he didn’t know who was in front of him 1/2 the time but still stuck on their doors as practice. Here is his car a bit closer:

The car was a bit beat up from some fun from the previous day’s practice session….but after some runs with Nakamura the car was looking heaps more torn up:

After the open practice (in the previous post) Kawabata and Nakamua did some tandem runs and this was the result. Run after run they tapped the wall, or each other….Nakamura next to his masterpiece:

Kawabata thinking “Crap I gotta get home in this thing still”