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Concept
Drift Japan
Drift Japan is a company that helps people go drifting in Japan. They organize trips for those who want to learn how to drift and enjoy the experience in a fun and exciting way.
Term
drifting
Drifting is when a driver makes a car slide sideways while still controlling it. It's a popular and exciting way to drive, especially in races and shows.
Concept
drift tour
A drift tour is an event where people can drive cars that slide around corners, called drifting. It's a fun way to learn how to control a car while it's sliding and enjoy driving in beautiful places.
Car
Nissan GT-R
The Nissan GT-R is a fast sports car that many car enthusiasts love. It's known for being powerful and has a lot of technology that helps it perform well on the road and track.
Car
Nissan 180SX
The Nissan 180SX is a sporty car that many people like to modify and race. It's known for being fun to drive and is often used in drifting competitions.
Car
Nissan Silvia S13
The Nissan Silvia S13 is a type of sports car that many people modify to make it faster and better for racing. It's well-liked in the car community.
Car
Toyota AE86
The Toyota AE86 is a small, sporty car that is very popular among car enthusiasts for racing and drifting. It's known for being fun to drive.
Term
Z-tune
The Z-tune is a modified version of a Nissan sports car that has been upgraded for better performance. It's a rare and special car that many fans of Nissan love to talk about.
Concept
track day
A track day is when you can take your car to a racetrack to drive it fast and safely. It's a fun way to enjoy your car and learn how to drive better.
Term
brake parts
Brake parts are the pieces that help your car stop when you press the brake pedal. They include things like pads and discs that work together to slow down the car.
Term
wheel bearing
A wheel bearing helps your car's wheels spin easily. If it gets damaged, it can cause noise and make driving difficult.
Term
drifters
Drifters are people who drive their cars in a way that makes them slide sideways around corners. It's a fun and skillful way to drive, often seen in racing events.
Term
performance mechanic
A performance mechanic is someone who works on cars to make them go faster and handle better. They know how to improve a car's speed and performance for racing or driving fun.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is how we measure the power of an engine. The higher the horsepower, the faster and more powerful the car can be.
Term
semi tires
Semi tires are special tires used on big trucks and racing vehicles. They are built to handle a lot of weight and provide good grip on the road.
Term
clutch kicks
A clutch kick is a driving move where you press the clutch pedal and then quickly let it go to help the car slide around a corner. It's commonly used in drifting to keep the car stable while turning.
Car
Nissan 350Z
The Nissan 350Z is a sporty car that many people enjoy driving. It's known for being fun to drive and is often used in racing and drifting.
Car
Nissan S13
The Nissan S13 is a type of sports car that is lightweight and has rear-wheel drive, which makes it great for drifting and racing.
Term
chassis feel
Chassis feel is how a driver can sense how the car reacts when they turn the steering wheel or press the gas pedal, important for control and performance.
Term
fuel quality
Fuel quality is about how good the gasoline is that you put in your car. Better fuel can help your car run better and make more power.
Term
SR20DET
The SR20DET is a popular engine made by Nissan that many car enthusiasts like to modify for more power. It's known for being strong and easy to work with.
Term
OEM
OEM means parts that are made by the same company that built the car. These parts usually fit better and work well because they are designed specifically for that car.
Term
track surface
The track surface is what the cars drive on during a race. Different surfaces can make it easier or harder for cars to grip the road and handle turns.
Term
go-karting tracks
Go-karting tracks are smaller tracks where people race go-karts. They're usually more twisty and have less space than regular car racing tracks.
LIVE
Hello and welcome to episode 119 of Gutter2Gutter podcast.
In this episode I'm joined by Ben Cable and Ben Ogges who own and operate a company called
Drift Japan.
Drift Japan is a really cool organisation who will take you on a fully guided drift tour of Japan
but they tailor and experience the best suits you and your needs.
In this episode we get to go deep into the Drift Japan experience as a whole.
We cover off on everything from how best to contact Drift Japan
and show an expression of interest right through the whole experience from start to finish,
what is included in the package and how the whole experience has been put together
with years and years of combined experience while trying to keep it adaptable for you.
Things that included in the package are flights, transfers, accommodation,
food and drinks at the track, transport to and from the track, track time, cars, fuel,
tyres, mechanics, instructors as well as workshop tours and so much more.
As the boys have said in this episode it's actually easier to list what isn't included in this package.
It was really cool to sit and chat with these two gentlemen and hear how much is going into
putting this package together to make the whole experience unique to your needs
as well as taking into account so many little things that you just wouldn't think about until
you get caught out by it while you're over there. This episode is a little bit different to our
usual format and I absolutely do intend to get both Benkei and Ben Ogges on for their own episodes
to tell their individual stories in the future but I hope you enjoy this one.
I really do think it has a lot of information that you can take away even if you don't ever
get a spot in a future Drift Japan tour. So please enjoy this episode with Benkei Bruin
and Ben Ogges on episode 119 of Gutter2Gutter podcast.
Hello everyone welcome to another episode of Gutter2Gutter podcast I'm Static
and in this episode I'm joined by Benkei Bruin and Ben Ogges. Did I get names right?
Yeah so a lot of people say Benkei because of Luke and that but Benkei means toilet seat.
Is that right? Yeah it was Benkei or Benkei however you want to say it or Benkei is like the
Japanese pronunciation of the nickname. He's a historical monk very stubborn.
So gentlemen how are we? Very well thank you. Awesome thank you for joining me and thank you for
putting up with the delays and everything like that. It's always a fun time trying to get online
stuff happening interstate. That's all right we all have lives to live I guess. Just a bit of fun
on the side I guess. Absolutely so I guess we're here today to talk about Drift Japan.
So I guess give us a little bit of a rundown on what Drift Japan is.
So essentially it's a tour company built by Drifters that went through the hard work of
figuring out how to go drifting in Japan. So I started my journey with this back in 2018 with
Samit and Okucho and I got invited over to sort of experience their sort of side of Japan. While
I was there I made some really awesome connections and found a way to drift cost affordably and then
rather than sort of hold it to myself. So the first two trips I did right I spent nearly 60 grand
going to Japan renting cars or buying cars and then drifting and then figured out I could do it
heaps cheaper and I shouldn't keep it to myself and I could like build a business around it and
then tape my mates as staff and so we could all have a mad time and then also introduce people
to all the cool stuff that we discovered the hard way if that sort of makes sense. Like yeah
and then Ben came into the picture because Ben actually was a guest on my first proper tour
in 2019. Yeah right so is that when Drift Japan started in 2019? Yeah so Drift Japan
it originally was called something different but yeah basically it was called No Doubt Drift Tours.
Drift Japan birthed this year again because we lost it in COVID but the plan was yeah 2019
do a drift tour see if it would be sick based on the two previous trips I'd done
and then Oji and I I suppose cemented our friendship and yeah I don't know what do you
reckon Oji? Yeah so on that first tour obviously I was a paid guest. I'd also gone on the Sideways
X tour that same year so I had a bit of kind of knowledge about being a guest on the tour
and then obviously me and Ben he become good friends and as a business owner myself
could see the benefit of helping him make it better based on being a guest instead of being
a business owner and trying to offer something. My angle was more of like this is how I felt
this is what I think should be better but I'm going to help you implement those things
and we'll go forward together and make it an experience like as better and just build on it
better and better and then obviously COVID wrecked it and we're kind of back strong
this year rebranded and I've been involved heavily all this year.
Awesome so have you guys been able to run tours this year already or?
Yes we're on our third in November so we ran one in March that was our first year back
and then we did another one in June so we took six guests in March.
No we had it was seven. Seven including yeah yeah and then we had five.
Then we had five and now we have eight. Eight for November and then November one's going to be
super special because pretty much all of them by one are hanging around with us after the two
ends and we're going to Matsuri. Yeah right yeah that's really cool.
It's pretty exciting. Absolutely so I guess what was the initial idea behind it was just
yourself trying to trying to get people the drift experience in Japan is that right?
Well so how it sort of first happened for me is so I went over I was watching enough to get
in invite over and have like a car to be able to drive and a place to stay right? So I obviously
had a lot of time on my own and I wasn't driving when I was like adventuring and so I met some
really good friends of mine Josh and Kirk. We became friends on the first trip I went with Japan
with Santa in like 2018 and because we went and sort of figured out the hard way to do things
like we're like oh we'll just catch a train from Tokyo to Mount Fuji circuit and then we'll just
get an uber from Fuji town to the track and when we got to the track there's no ubers and so we're
like oh we've now got a walk like a four-hour walk on foot to get to the track and we were lucky enough
to sort of stumble into an auto shop run by a lovely lady who spoke a very small bit of English
and she was like oh I can tell you're into cars I know a really good person that speaks really
good English let me call him she called him he owns a local fruit shop it used to be a racer
he ended up coming down picking me and my mate up and driving us to the track right so we had this
amazing experience and Japan is a lot like that so in the reason I went back again like I literally
went back like a two weeks later so in the space of a month I was in Japan twice I was there for
basically a month and did all these insane adventures and found all these awesome people
and all these backyard shops and just everything sort of fell into place for me and then when I
got back even while I was there talking to the people that I met we were like we've got to turn
this into a couture company because I met Danny one of my old business partners or still a business
partner now and he had a company called IDR international drift rental and that's actually
how I first got rental cars in Japan and and figured out how to put all this together and
rather than keep it for myself I was like oh I can share this with my mates let's figure out a way to
turn this into a business and see what we can do with it and the first tour was sort of Ben and
the idea behind it was to try and keep it as much like the feeling of finding things on mistake
right but without actually having to find them on mistake because everything's planned for you
right that makes sense yeah absolutely yes that was my vision but then Ben obviously came on the
tour and the vision evolved right so when when did you which was that that was pre-covid is that
right that Ben that was 2019 um we had the things come with this too um a few drivers and a Kiwi
yeah it was a good experience and it kind of just left me wanting more from it and
something that I could help outside of my normal nine to five working on cars drifting there's this
avenue where I can help myself get to Japan and be selfish in that way but then also you know
as a father too like experience things with people that never experienced them before
and kind of show all the cool stuff that we've found and done and things that we enjoy we're able
to like take people and and show them exactly what we've done so it's just it's just a whole
lot of fun to be honest yeah it's nothing but fun yeah that's awesome so I guess from that first
experience Ben how has the experience like transformed or evolved like up until now
so um what I like to say between me and Ben is we're like yin and yang so we're like you know
if I'm the levelheaded then here's the opposite and I guess most people that know Ben he would
know that too and I think the those kind of opposites attracting is is good for business because
you know I've got like more of the calmness the you know this is what we need to do this is the
planning you know I've come in and just I do all the itinerary everything's down to the top yeah
and then then I can say all right thank you you've got like a couple hours do whatever the hell you
want you know and then it it keeps the experience quantifiable for the guests so you know what you're
getting you know where you're gonna go you don't feel like you're just waking up and going what the
hell is going on there's an itinerary there you can check it out and check it all the cool places
you can go that we're gonna go to but then you can also say I really want to see this I'm really
into this type of Japanese scene and then we can put it to the group if everyone wants to go
we all go if not we split the cars you know choose your own adventure but still have that structure
that you pay for I guess yeah so one of the biggest additions we made sure we put in when
Rogers came in was one more structure but two in planting like three days so where we have here
these are the planned items that we we can do but you can also we can just drop you somewhere you
can go to whatever the hell you want or damn we'll pick you up at the end and we recommend here here
you know and that's actually been quite good because when you've got a group of eight people
plus right because you've got our staff as well there and then we've got other friends and compatriots
that sometimes come along that translate or do this or do that you know what I mean with their
special linkages so not everyone wants to do the same thing and by being able to have this
good ying and yang between the two of us we're able to be a lot more flexible and split things
up then we also have our support mechanics so it's we've got a lot more structure now
that enables us to still provide that really good authentic what the hell's happening experience
oh we just stumbled across this but it's all planned if that makes sense absolutely
absolutely so I guess if we get into sort of the tour give us a bit of a run down like where
do we start and what where's best to contact you uh definitely the website which is driftpand.com.au
it's pretty simple or email which is driftpandtours at gmail.com
um they're the two best best friends or on instagram driftpandtours or facebook driftpandtours
yeah so it's it's simple enough to sort of if say i want to i'm thinking about it i've got a little
bit of money behind me thinking about it something i want to do i can contact you through either one
of those channels and we can get the ball rolling from that hundred percent that's usually we'll
direct you to the website to fill in a form um depending on how keen you are and then you can
register interest i constantly email out to the database as well because not everyone is ready
to go at a particular time um we've already got four spots set aside for march we're only taking
eight people in march next year so that means we've only got four sort of set aside and deposits
only opened a little bit ago so it's you've got to sort of get in quick uh the thing i've noticed
about it is the first tour basically went like hotcakes then the second one because it was a
time for people to sort of get active it was quite a bit and then went like hotcakes um and
the closer we sort of get to leaving the more emails we get of people being like oh can we
squeeze in on this one um but we're very selective in who we take on tour um i don't want you to come
if you're the kind of dude that wants to sit a car and let me in have a man climb blowing sets
it's not what we're there for i don't want you to come if you don't want to have anything to do with
experience that makes sense um and i definitely don't want you to come if you're going to cause
problems with other people on the tour so i try and chat with everybody um to make sure that we're
going to have like a good group and that all like-minded people are coming along if that makes sense
yep that's really cool it does it does kind of self-filter i guess like anyone that's keen to
spend money to go to japan to find out these cool tracks that we go to and to do the things that we
say that we're going to do in the itinerary it's kind of got a similar mindset so we found
the people that have come through the questions we've asked on the and like the initial application
have all been fantastic guests amazing every guest they're all our mates now yeah well that's
the other cool part about it is you type these people overseas and then you come back with new
friends and more people to drive with yeah well that's really cool yeah 10 days non-stop with
a group of people you get pretty close you get really close like andy andy who you know we
hadn't met i'd met andy a handful of times at archie before he came on tour with us
and for not a great deal of time just for small increments and we're like absolute best homies
now same with ben ben and andy go along really well and yeah matty and dav davley davley became
an integrated part of our society you know and same with all the boys like adrian adrian came in
in march he's been one of my students for like five years he comes along goes to japan first
come back wins yeah that was good to see that was another reason very dad moment that one so
i guess i guess with that like how much sort of track and seat time do you get on these tours
so we do three track days yep and it's a full day and we do maximum three people per car so it's
normally about two two and a half people per car per day and we're there for eight hours like the
track most of the time after lunch people are just kind of chilling out talking shit like
cars are just sitting there you got to kind of go around and be like what are you doing get in the
car and go for a drive yeah people don't realize like how big eight hour day on track is when it's
literally you and two other cars you know what i mean and maybe one or two other cars like we're
very fortunate with the connections that we have that we get access to these tracks privately and
then we get to bring special guests along and then people sort of think in their head when they look
at an austrian track day if you're at qr for eight hours right for matsuri you maybe got an hour
hour 20 track time with all the weights you're at eight hours at mehan and we've got a private booking
you could be on track for six of those hours if you could be on that for seven if you didn't
want to stop and eat food right you know what i mean yeah yeah definitely track time is not it's
not the issue yeah yeah we also have you know we have spare cars in case things happen that we've
worked into the the business model to try and alleviate some things from the first tour where
a car might get damaged or anything um so i bought my own car on the second tour um which has got
rego so it's a cool thing to get to get the guests that drive to the track you know you know boost
the down tunnels and big kids again and most of the boys actually in june were like like driving
the cars on track was sick but the coolest part was driving on just 14 but that was just a little
added thing that i wanted to bring to the tour but also selfishly i've got my own car there as well so
it's it goes hand in hand that as a business owner i've also got my own personal car there
um so it is a backup so like the chance of not getting enough track time is is
it's not an issue um the gaps we have so it's like track day free day tour day is normally the
schedule so you have a big day of the track you know you'll be all exhausted we have beers after
you know sleeping chill out reset next day go touring around go see some workshops
hit up some up garages go see some castles and boom back into another track day so it's just
feels like this you're always on the go um but if you do need more the last trip the boys booked
another day for that king is that right yeah yeah yeah yeah that was that king they they
just all chipped in we took another couple cars um back to Bioku and they ripped them again like
yeah you know why not but this trip will be going to Ebisu so there'll be plenty time for guests to
get their fill yeah um and kind of set the tone for the for the new ones in the next year that
that could be a possibility so people looking at like going for a longer trip seeing more drifting
that will we'll start tying those in together yeah but that is that is a bit of an option that
people have on the fly right to add an extra day here or there yeah come earlier stay later yeah um
bronson from the first trip he went up to the snow and ripped some some ski fields yeah so i just
moved the flight so we had lights around yeah the way we book them all particularly now because
i've got like a nice commercial setup with jetstar there's a little account now which is great i can
just switch them around so if anyone wants to go home earlier or if they want to stay longer
and the guys that have stayed longer have then ended up having a pretty
wild experience as well because then they get that oh i'm going on my own i've got to figure it out
on my own and we'll give them a couple of recommendations you don't go point them in the
right direction but um yeah it's a pretty dope time yeah that's really cool because then then
you do you get that real touristy sort of uh time to yourself where you're not guided or sort of
driven around by someone else yeah you've now got to make it on your own which is which is can
often be a really cool experience yeah yeah that's cool that's a good that's a good part of it but
it definitely doesn't feel like you're getting driven around trust me after a couple of days
hanging out it just feels like you hang with your voice yeah you know you're going to see some cool
stuff yeah it's definitely not like if you're thinking like our tour is like you know out the
left window yeah out the left window you'll see that's trust and next we have the premier fd garage
oh no it's not going to be like that it's the whole the whole crux of this right was like
when myself and kirk and josh and samet and we're all over there and we're all trying to
figure out things together and we're trying to roll around and doing stuff like it was
such a like mate's days that there was days we were up at six in the morning because we were keen
and then we didn't hit bed until seven a.m the next day and then we slept for like three hours
and then we're back in japan to do more crazy stuff you know and like we weren't drinking
nothing we were just in the moment of finding cool car stuff even to like you you're walking
through the middle of tokyo and you come around a corner and there's two gdrs sitting in a little
garage underneath a set of units and you're like what you know like yeah so we still try and have
a lot of that we will deliberately go somewhere and go we'll walk to this place
because we know there's going to be a high likelihood on that walk that we're going to come
across some some cool things yeah um but then we've also got like like pre-determined secrets
i suppose of cool things like ben's tall right so he's really good at finding things that i would
probably miss around about and there is quite a few little spots that he discovered where we found
what was that yard with all the abandoned cars yeah it was an abandoned car yard still full of
cars like 180s say if you came across this in brizzy the whole yard would be empty in a week
it was just a like a palette fence just a lot of people going in there just overgrown we just
zx's 86s 180s s 13 32 4 door yeah 32 4 door yeah 32 4 door rusting away all on mint rims too
like yeah yeah well they're the cool little perks to the the whole trip i mean most of the big stuff
we kind of expecting it to be big but all those little things are always so cool yeah absolutely
going to restaurants and where no one speaks english and you know having a few beers under your
belt and having a laugh is always the extra stuff towards the you know we go into a big workshop
yeah or a track day yeah like i think the coolest thing for me that we've sort of had on the tour
or a new edition is we go to some pretty wicked workshops um and one of them which i didn't
expect to be that amazing was like rockabunny like that was that was pretty cool very very unexpected
yeah you reckon yeah from the first tour we'd obviously met um the contact that then got us
into having a private tour so it's kind of like the more that we we go there the more that we
show our faces the more that things open up and what was just like a a garage in a street
you walk in it's now you know full of modified things that you would never be able to find before
yeah um so when we get to do that it's just like like i'm blown away myself like i can't
imagine what the guests are thinking when you know we take like this detour off to go see
something that someone recommended and someone called ahead and then all of a sudden it's like
whoa where the hell was this yeah right so especially nowadays because everything's so old
like the cars are 30 years old no one drives them on the streets to see one on the street is magic
yeah yeah let alone see people still modifying it's just like yeah let alone seeing shops that are
like still got z tunes and then they're modifying the z tune and you're like who in their right mind
is doing that but they are yeah that's the sort of things that i am really excited and the strength
of the partnership that ben and i have on that yin and yang has then led to relationships that
have been opened that i probably might not have secured myself because i probably am not that
way inclined for that person to see me valuable if that makes sense but because ben is flipped on
that other spectrum he brings the opposite side so we have more pathways opening now
and it's years and years and years of putting in effort while you're there to sort of build
those relationships and then because once you build trust with the japanese they're kind of like
treat like family so the more they're seeing our faces now we're not just some random guardian that
rocked up a few years ago you know what i mean like we're people now that are coming and contributing
on a regular basis yep so i guess people that are coming on this tour with you guys they're
they're now getting i guess like years and years of of your your experiences and connections sort of
build up and put into one package for them to experience yeah i mean for me the selling point
of the tour if i was looking to add some guest point of view is that all the time it would take
to go to all the different places and find out what's there and what's not there we've already
done so going to a shop that's you think it's big on the map and they don't want to talk to you
and they snub you but you spent three hours getting there and three hours getting back
so you've wasted a whole day if you're going to do it by yourself and the trip just takes that all
the way so you don't have to worry that you're going to go somewhere and there's nothing there
you don't want to see something cool or you go to the track and there's something else booked and
you can't go on the track and you've just trailed your car all the way to the track so for me the
appeal is like yeah it's all structured but that's the beauty of it you've you've got 10 days packed
with all the cool stuff that you could see where you could spend a whole year trying to see that
stuff if you weren't kind of helped guided into it hundred percent that's really even just figuring
out how to get you like forget the cultural stuff right just figuring out how to get a car and then
get the car from where you've got it to the track and back man that's hard to do it's very hard can't
just drive it there like a bit of the Ebisu thing is kind of wrecked that idea because you can just
go to Ebisu and you can hire a car and you can drive different tracks so then that kind of
most people think that you can do that all over Japan but it's it's it's not it's kind of like
the normal track down Australia but you can't speak the language so it's like going on the
QI website and reading a language you can't read and never knowing when a track day is going to be on
not just that how do you then get a truck to get your car to get it to the track you don't speak the
language to figure out if that's even an option and it is but it's quite expensive and it's only
if you know the know and you're already in the circle yeah then on top of that where are you
getting tyres where are you getting fuel where are you getting parts of your brake things like
what happens if you're driving let's say you're lucky enough to get a car that has reggae
then you're driving it to the track and I don't know a shaft brakes or a wheel bearing let's go
where are you getting the parts to fix that yeah you know so these are these are small things that
we've sort of really tried to look at from our personal experience like we've been so heavy
and drifting now for the last you know five six seven years and non-stop like we're constantly at
events you know we're constantly at Archie when Archie was open there's just all this sort of
experience around what can go wrong and then how to be prepared for that so that guests don't even
notice you know I mean when something goes wrong with the car we've got a solution to fix it and
we've got something backed up to keep the guests distracted not that we don't tell them we always
tell them but more that they just don't notice and then the car's back working and then off they
no downtime just get another car we'll fix this yeah you know I'm a mechanic obviously Benchance
a mechanic Benki was an apprentice mechanic you know like we're drifters for drifters we know what
what it means to get to a track day smoothly and when drifters come on they they're like oh my god
it's so cheap like for me to go to a track day and I've you know had to travel and get accommodation
get the car ready and how long that takes get the tires get it prepped get it sorted and I can
come overseas on a holiday wake up in the morning get in the car with the boys prank some beats get
to the track skid all day not lift a finger don't get dirty yeah go home that's the best day in the
world that sounds like a dream it's great and then the point I suppose the point behind that as well
is like we we have myself Ben and Benchan because so I myself Ben Tosh I'm an I'm an
I'm an apprentice mechanic I did like you know basically equivalent of third year as a performance
mechanic right back with Benchan and he has a very specific structured way of working on cars
so the people that taught me how to work on cars are these people that I'm exposed to so I also
have a very structured except if I've got tools everywhere I can be a bit rough like that but
I have a structure of the process right and so because of that we've really tried to take that
same focus we have with our personal drifting in our cars into the business and we've both got
all three of us actually have really well maintained cars that have showed up to events and
worked and worked and worked you know what I mean like so we try and have that same approach where
what we're putting into this business is going to be as robust as what we would want for ourselves
when we're competing you know if that makes sense yeah absolutely so I guess if we get into it
what um give us a rundown of what's included in a tour well I've made my booking um we're about
to get going what's what's included sort of top to bottom in that so step process is you would
basically go through the application process on the website uh myself or odd you will give you a call
um we then will have a chin wag with you about you know what you're experiencing drifting we can
handle anybody from no experience all the way up to like pro level drivers um if you want coaching or
don't want coaching we're there for you uh so obviously on the spectrum of experience if you
have no experience we're going to be coaching you but if you're a dude that's already got experience
once we verify that you can handle the car we just let you go on your own so there's a bit of a
verification process there then we figure out all right is this something where you want to pay a
deposit you're going to pay up front are you going to take a like a payment plan are you going to
go through one of our finance brokers that's then that then when you're paid then you're accepted
you go through and you have to do an onboarding form and an insurance waiver um and where I get
all of your details and we book all of your tickets send you out your confirmation of your tickets
and then essentially on the day of the event you rock up to the airport you fly we all meet
usually in cans if you're coming from any other state in Australia um some guys fly into
Brisbane and then come with us then from cans we go to cans up um there's also before we board
there's a group on facebook so we'll put everyone in groups we'll all introduce ourselves so we can
kind of you know break the ice a little bit before we all rock up the airport and go who was that
um just like a little introduction what do you drive you know show some photos you know and then
if you're in brisbane um we can do some sim training at my house on the tracks we're going
to go to if that's something people are into on the first trip we took Dave he was very green
and he did three sessions at my house um trying to get hold of sim before he even went so that's
just add to Benki's pre-departure um procedure come on i forgot about that that's like my
favorite part at all i'm not sim dude see because i cook a barbecue pardon because i cook with a
barbecue yeah well you cook a mad barbecue that's the other thing it's like if you come on the
tourist guest just skipping forward and backwards in this intro section if you can come here in
brisley and go to orgy's house with us and do the sim thing one you get the best feed ever
but then that beast chef comes on tour with us so when we're cooking mad cookups at the house
it's really good i try with what i've got over there i try it's pretty good yeah so we do that
then pretty much uh you'll get an itinerary in the um in like the facebook group um which will
be all customized to the dates that we're upset so you'll know exactly what's going on um what we're
doing on the day when we've got to get up in the morning what's happening the next day it's all
there even all the addresses so you can like pre-check it out if you're thinking that something
you want to see is close uh you can actually like pull the itinerary address be like oh we're so close
to this super sick thing that i'm into when a couple of the guys have done that um he's went to
like caves that scottie wanted to go to scottie you know like the tour is adaptable um we had like
a rain day we moved the track day last you know like it we're trying to make it the best experiences
we can because we're not just selling a product we we kind of are the product like experience is
the product we don't make a whole lot of money out of it it's about getting people over there
and sharing this awesome trip that we've cultivated yeah it's it's definitely like
there's very little money in it and it's enough to sort of keep the business going keep advertising
and stuff like that and the reason i sort of price it that way is getting back to that costing thing
from earlier there are times depending on what round you're going to particularly with like
hi-tech like i know there are dudes that can do a round of hi-tech and spend more on that round of
hi-tech than we're just asking for a whole week in japan do you know what i mean especially if you
look at the you know the boys that are coming from Tasmania the second they're on that boat that's
thousands of thousands of dollars and not just that any of those boys that are coming from
tazzy and they've got over 500 horsepower and they're using semis their tire bill is going to be
three four grand minimum for the weekend do you know what i mean and then on top of that fuel
like accommodation all your staff you know if you're running a proper team you're spending a
lot of money and so i wanted to make if i wanted to make money i would have charged 20 grand you
know what i mean per trip but i don't i want more people from australia and the rest of the world
when we get to it but more people from australia primarily as drifters i don't i do care about
people that have never drifted before wanting to come on the tour right but that's not my primary
focus my primary focus of this tour is for the awesome drifters that i know that have this dream
to get to japan and don't think they're ever going to be able to do it now can even if it takes 10
years and they save up 1500 bucks or 11125 bucks a year right they're gonna end up i think that was
accurate i probably messed that i think it's 1150 uh if they save 1150 a year uh they get
10 years boom they can come on a tour do you know what i mean and it's so different to having to
save 30 40 50 grand if you're gonna go buy your own car or you know go on your own or even if you
go rent your own and find things just tolls is enough to blow your japan trip out if you're not
paying attention right yeah one mistake going through tokyo city and it cost you nearly 100
bucks and tolls is that right that's if you don't make it not more badly that sounds like sydney
bro in 2018 i missed a wrong exit when i was driving with the boys on my own
four times it cost me $380 in tolls wow because i ended up having to go the whole way around
tokyo to get back to the exit that we needed to get so i went through like every toll yeah well
just a tkr that's probably the most expensive one to go to for a trap day that's 80 bucks yeah there
you go 80 bucks in tolls yep so more than the track day itself if you know just to get tolls there
so when you take your average we spend like 1600 to two grand on tolls when we go with the group
yeah and if you're just going to take a car yourself then you got to pay that two grams or
fifteen hundred dollars or a thousand dollars imagine eight of you imagine if eight of you
had your own car it's not going to be sick but all individual cars yeah lots of tolls yeah and
people don't think about that and they're not just tolls like fuel food accommodation when you're
at a track day more often than not there's no food there so you've got to get away what was that sorry
there's no one there but us no no one there but us there's no there's no track staff
no no no we're sweeping it at the end yeah that's a cool experience in itself absolutely
absolutely like you don't sweep a track off with bamboo brushes in Australia
so i guess once we've once we've we've got our flights we've we've now landed in japan
where do we where do we go from there what what else is included in this package and and sort of
what are we doing and so pretty much we the staff will arrive earlier usually a day or two before
so that we can get the higher cars and pick you up so that we're not wasting time because the
flight gets in quite late we're already there with the cars we're getting the cars we go get
dinner we orientate ourselves we go home in accommodations normally pretty late especially
if there's any delays which you've had before the next day is pretty chill just because of that
flight everyone's kind of bummed out um so we just kind of check out the local area where we're
staying obviously the cars are there where we're staying so we get to just kind of mingle go to
the shops pick up some food for the track day because food on the track day is all included
like benki said there's nowhere to get food on the track days um that first day is kind of like
getting used to each other um we talk about what we expect on the track days the etiquette how to
treat the cars um kind of just fill each other out um the next day is a tour day where we'll go
see some sites we'll go down to the workshop that we're partnered with um pro shop diversion
and that's where we get our ties where we change the ties so we get to check out that workshop
do some stuff locally there in the cove area get up some up growers castle plenty on that day
and then we're straight to mehan um the next day and then like i said it's free day track um
tour day track day and that goes for the 10 days and unfortunately we've got to come home
yeah so so i guess we're looking i guess i was what you'd call shuttles so we get like um
our transport around we got accommodation we got the track days track time all that sort of stuff
cars tires fuel cars tires fuel food on track days yep it's probably easy to say what's not
included that's yeah breakfast and dinners yeah basically what's not included is breakfast
lunch and dinner on any day that isn't a track day uh and costs for associated extra activities
so for instance uh if we like go to a castle or something and you got to pay an entry fee
we just cover the entry fee um it's basically outside of that everything else is pretty much
included flights accommodation tire fuel anything do the cars is all covered yeah um we have a
small buffer in each of the persons fair to cover incidental damages however if you go outside of
that incidental range um we can charge obviously the guest or anything that is broken uh in the
history of doing this uh we have only had one guest pay a fee and that's because they offered to
not because we forced them to um and we've had very minimal sort of damage
yeah as you would say we don't want to we don't want people to pay extra
bond before they even go on a trip like you're already trying to save up for the trip
you've already paid for the trip you're trying to save your spending money to then
to put like another five k aside for a bond i think kills the trip for most people so we
wanted to make it inclusive to get more people to come that we would use the the fair as bond
so it's a big risk on us that nothing happened so that we can actually get the money back that
we need to keep the show rolling um so that that first day and the track etiquette and
the screening at the start is all what helps us get the good group of people the people that
are there for the right reasons they want to have a good time you know they're respectful with
the cars and if an accident does happen like a bumper comes off and they're really trying to
you know do the right thing about it then we use the bond and recover it and it's all happy days
yep it's all about the attitude of the guests really provided that you know we're all drifters
we understand things happen we know accidents can happen we know you can get caught up in your head
at times and you can be a bit hot and you can send a bit beyond your level you know so we're
accommodating to a point like i i'm very chill and very like hello go lucky however i still have
a really serious side when it comes to safety of not just the guests but also our staff that
involve anybody that's volunteering at the track and then we're also gonna remember that our business
partner Joel with Kansai Dori like without him and his generosity and his willingness to work with us
this doesn't exist and so we like to make sure that we're still fun and free and having a good
time but the guests understand that we're there to respect the cars we're not there doing ninja
kick clutch kicks in second gear from a dead stock or you know rail or sliding the car or anything
like that because we need it to make it through three events but also these are somebody's
possessions that they've put a lot of time and effort into that we put a lot of time and effort into
building um yeah they're not 350s ease and and no one's to go to japan to drive 350s ease
everyone to drive s chassis and they're 30 30 year old cars so yeah we just the Japanese ways
respect and we try and like instill that from the start but it also helps you know what i mean
like when we do the track walk and you see that the drops off the back are just you ain't dropping
a wheel you know and i think that helps a lot too i think it makes you a better driver
oh it definitely makes you a better driver honestly an hour's track time on a Japanese track
is like a year of driving in Australia like the the level that even myself like we drive a little
bit as staff while we're there nothing in comparison to the people that are on tour and just from that
little tiny bit that we get our driving levels up every single time we come back wow that's cool
so i don't want you to name and shame it have you had people sort of not or failed the the
attitude the initial attitude test dude i say no to more people than i say yes to wow okay yeah um
and we've had over 1500 and 1723 inquiries right since we opened the doors again at the beginning
of this year and there's a lot of people that i just don't even ring i can literally tell by
the answers to the questions in the form i go to you're not you're going to be the type of person
that we want you to come along it's pretty yeah it's pretty sustained yeah um and then it doesn't
take me long to like jump on your instagram and see whether or not you're there popping skids and
door banging and doing silly stuff and you know i don't mind popping sets and i don't i've got nothing
against that but the place time you know level of respect that you have in those videos i'm a nice
person i like to do the right thing in life and so i want to hang around people that do the right
thing in life um so yeah it's like i said i'm a really happy good luck guy but i do have a bit
serious side to me yeah um and it sort of comes out in that process i want this company to work
for a long time i want to be here 20 years from now going look at all the dudes that we gave an
opportunity to come to japan and change their life beyond that i want to be able to influence
australian drifting with it as well like my plan is to be able to have cars set up there
and for me and ben and ben charm and joel to be your team and to be able to take you to d1
lights rounds or take you to you know jp2 or do that sort of stuff and make it cost affordable
and make it so that we can help grow this sport because i'm an idiot yeah unfortunately we don't
make anywhere near enough money to take those kind of people um like one big accident on the cars and
the businesses shut down you know like yeah you know there's there's nothing in it but the joy of
taking people to japan um which is hard to convey when when you see it on the outside as a guest
it's like oh it's a business you need to make money so but if we can make just enough to keep
going we will so the screening process is strict like that just to make sure that this idea and
this adventure that we've kind of put together continues and we can try and get to those heights
that benki wants to reach about you know if you want to be an international driver having a having
a team you know similar to side x i've been on their tour i love what they do i love all the boys
up there you know they've got evisu and you know we're doing it down in isaka so we're not competing
and we're not going to compete with them at evisu we're only going there to have fun um
but it would kind of be similar so like if you wanted to do like you know lights or all stars or
some of those you know mayhem tracks or you know there would be support there like what side x has
got at evisu but it's all in the future we're going to get there first i have this uh innate
ability to dream in way too big this is why i have someone like odges that i can throw these insane
ideas at and he can go that's not going to happen i can put that in the five to ten year plan yeah
it's it's good to have that level head oh man if we didn't i'd just be off dreaming everywhere
it's a butterfly go chase the guys dream
it's been hard enough not to pat my dog yeah um i guess what so we've got you said you've got a tour
coming up in november yep gives a bit of a rundown on on on that one so november's a bit of a
special one um because so the first when we first went in march um odges and i've been mates for a
really long time um and he's had my back in more ways than you can imagine so when we finished this
first awesome adventure in march of ours where we'd done this tour we'd already sort of planned to
stay for an extra week after everybody went home and we went and hung out with some friends of ours
that we haven't seen for ages in japan and my partner came and i took benny and i we went up to
abyssal and we hung out with falso and the cybers x boys and we rented cars and we went for a drive
and we enjoyed ourselves and so this time around benny now has his own car so i was like well if
we're gonna be heading in november like we have to go to matsuri um and i was gonna be planning to
have my own car there as well but a few things happened with another business that i run and i had to
spend money elsewhere so i'm not going to be driving my own car at matsuri but in the initial
phase it wasn't about that it was about odgy being able to send his street car at his dream tracks at
his dream event you know we drove the 350 there he's driven cars there before with cybers x but
now he's got his own car yeah we get to drive it there from osaka which is sick yeah and then
said so some of the special things of this tour obviously we're going to do everything that we
normally do in osaka the three track days that we go uh all the cool sites that we see um
but then obviously i think one of the guys is coming home but then everyone else is going
to follow us up and it's going to just be a big road trip all the way up because it's a fair bit
of a hike so i'm planning at the moment some accommodation to stay on the way all the up
that's in the middle between tokyo and osaka that no one really would would hit
we have to go through it so then getting into yokahama going like big bank carts or seeing
some cool cars up there then going up to obviously ebisu and hanging out with everyone in the world
pretty much everyone i talked to is like i'm going in november too so it's like a big one
and then then we can just fly straight out of tokyo and go home that's awesome and it's it's so cool
to see while you're explaining that how how the excitement on benkei's face the more the more
more you're explaining how i am excited his face was getting was unreal so i'm so excited man like
that's a charm to this i can't explain to you like without or just ben chan right so that's the
reason we're triple ben that's the reason why these guys are my number two amigos on this tour
right i've never had people support me the way they have in their life i've never had somebody
wholeheartedly back me in everything i do and call me on my bullshit you know what i mean and
keep me on a straight narrow and make me be more accountable and make me push for more in my life
yes i have a dreamer and i do crazy dreams but it's amazing having these two people that are
able to go hey this dream's awesome right but like remember this thing you're focusing on here
make that happen first so the reason i'm getting excited is because i finally have an opportunity
to pay this man back for all of the good that he's done for me by like it's us working together to
achieve a common goal with the business that we're like building and now he gets to go and live a
life dream and i get to sit in his paso seat and experience it with him like it's dope and then
i get to bring a bunch of people on and three of those people funnily enough like won their chance
to come on the tour they won their chance yeah i guess tell us about that long story short but
basically there was some giveaways that were done with a non-profit uh and they won and so rather
than make them wait they're going straight away awesome that's unreal yeah we can we can talk
about that another yeah absolutely we definitely will we've already discussed the fact that we're
come back and revisit and do a podcast with eight year guys um so that'll be really cool we can
revisit then that'll be unreal yeah um i guess is there anything else that you guys wanted to add
that you that you haven't been able to yet or i think most of it's covered but it's interesting
to hear other people's questions um i i i absolutely love talking about it like when i
been at high tech events they were like oh you ready for next round i'm like oh no i'm going
japan i'm so sorry i'm going japan and i what are you doing i was like oh don't you know like um
i co-owned this company where we take people to japan and like i'll spend like hours just talking
to them about how sweet it is like the same as what we're doing here yeah um so it's interesting to
kind of answer people's questions and kind of the same when you're on tour like people are just
so excited to know things and for me to be able to have the information to give them is exciting
yeah yeah that's definitely my favorite part for sure is that like we do what we're doing is awesome
and like i've had a lot of different businesses in my life and to have a business where i get to do
the most favorite thing i do in my entire life with other people that are also into that favorite
like it's man i wear the shirt all the time just for shits i'm pretty much wearing mine too
yeah i guess i guess a couple of questions car car wise uh you you hinted at shazzy so what have
you got over there so we have an s13 yep we have an s14 we have a 180 sx and then i'll just
the s13 is the least powerful yeah then the 180 we get we get this question a lot and it takes a
while for people to understand and kind of kind of me to be in japan understand how they tune cars
and how it's different to australia and that's a very good comparison when you're on tour is just
shooting shit about how different the culture is and what you need to be able to drive and
what style of driving um so you have how fast they how fast they but
they're all different cars so they're all unique and they drive slightly different but they still
have that as chassis feel like you can point them where you want them they'll go where you want them
such rewarding for you to learn in them because you can you don't have to like overcome the car
start with the car kind of will do what it needs to do and you can progress as a driver
but yeah like everyone loves an s chassis it's pretty hard to get get away and they're really
well set up like a 350 horsepower sr in japan because of the fuel quality the way they tune them
like the build of the car as well yeah the mess up power lightweight it's so different to a 350
horsepower sr here like you got a 350 horsepower sr here and it's got so much advanced timing and
it's got all this extra stuff in it that it doesn't need to make that power because the quality of
fuel is so poor but also because we have a very limited understanding in comparison to the japanese
tuners of how to make these cars work and then there's also even just the way they build them and
the simplicity of the oem style nature you know what i mean so that the millions of dollars of
engineering that went into building that car in the first place is used to its maximum so you're
talking these cars like the first time i got in the s13 and drove it it felt as easy to drive as a
600 horsepower ls car like that much power but it was long it was a little 350 you know you punch
in third and like it's a good time but then not you don't have to hammer them then every sr i've
ever driven in australia i've had to absolutely kick the bejesus out of to get it to do anything and
it's been quite a depressive experience it's also track so the track's different that is true as well
delivery for the track is different so yes whereas here in in in japan like i love sr i want sr so
bad now that's all i want is sr so i guess the difference in tracks is it is it track surface is
it um the way the tracks are built like it is both then they're much smaller then they're kind of
based off go-karting tracks instead of racing tracks so like to get into third gear is you know
you would be less in third gear compared to being in second gear on a Australian track you know like
your Australian tracks third and fourth you need the legs need the power to get the corners it's a
different style because of the the layout so then that promotes a different style of driving as well
where we kind of like not get rid of bad habits but kind of teach that kind of Japanese style like
less handbaked big flicks um you know weight transfer just giving you feet you know it's just
it's a different experience and that's why it's so good because you're not just going overseas and
doing the same thing you do at qr every weekend you know it's completely different and people like
wow this is amazing like i've just learned to do an entry without a handbrake or you know whatever
they're trying to achieve for their driving you can achieve it in japan yeah basically every single
group we've done all of the drivers no matter what their skill level even if they've already been
talented have grown learned more and been able to come back and be better drivers you know glenn
for instance is probably my favorite one i've been competing in hi-tech for a long time orges and
him went out for some sessions and ogie taught him how to do big proper faint flick entries for the
first time ever and by the end of the tour he was sending them harder than we even realized was
possible from him really like do you reckon that was probably my favorite part apart from Dave yeah
it's i don't want to stigmatize it with like teaching or coaching definitely we don't want it to
feel like we're telling you what to do like we'll set the boundaries we have the track meeting in
the morning we'll go over what safety or not to do if if you need help we'll sit in the car but we're
not going to say this is how you should drive we want you to develop your own style so we're kind
of just there to be like well done maybe next one i reckon if you went a bit further over that way
see what happens and kind of push you slowly yeah just to do what you want to achieve yep there's no
one really wants to be on holiday go don't do that no it's definitely not like that yeah definitely
like your mate being like oh that kickflip was sick but imagine if you did it a little bit like this
you know yep yeah that was more what was with me me and Glenn obviously Glenn's
probably a better driver than myself so you can't really go into a car and say
you should do this it's more like that was sick i wonder if we did it maybe if we changed him to
third here or maybe if we did more of a faint or more speed here what would happen and with a better
driver's you can and then with the less talented drivers you know the development is so fast obviously
Dave we had doing the the coaching on the sim at my house pretty much i think he drove my car once
five years ago he drove mine just before we went to Japan you know so we got him on tour and from
mehan at the start being fresh to like being by himself at the end of the day linking the track
was just mind-blowing to see and he was ecstatic you know so that was like one day
essentially from green from green to link in the track yep that is insane and he was linking
the track like by probably three quarters of the way through the day yeah it was quite good
but then on this flip side of it we have Phil who came along in June and Phil was
incredibly green but rode motorbikes and so had this cautious understanding of the you know dangers
of speed and and had car control and did do grip stuff and even he progressed phenomenally from
his first corner all the way through the end of the first day and by the end of the final track day
had figured out how to drift it was a little bingo but he figured out how to drift
well i was in the car it was my car and i was you know get on the gas get on the gas
yeah oji was uh oji was encouraging it was give a little bit of a h yeah that was on me that one
so yeah that's cool it's um it's um it's so important too that that experience you know what i mean
like um one one bad experience with an instructor can destroy like everything i remember i've i've
done a drift school i was having a great a great time it was only a short one i was having a great
time right up until the last instructor because you kind of jump in through cars and through
different instructors the last instructor just had the worst attitude and destroyed the whole day
yeah that can happen yeah i feel between the group we have obviously the three bends and then Joel
we can kind of mold how you learn based on all our differences we're all completely different
and the way we kind of guide people through the track days is different as well so the way i might
do it just doesn't click with someone's brainwave they just they can't get it but they can get in
someone else and all of a sudden the information's working with what they're giving and it's all
coming together and they're like oh thank you like that that's what i needed i just needed
something slightly different yeah just that's like slightly different delivery of the same
sort of message and yeah and there it is yeah well i better know i talk in exactly the same
language we're both saying exactly the same things because we both have the same fundamentals
that we talk about it all the time but we choose to use different language the different descriptors
and we have different personalities as well so how i might explain something it'd be very different
to how ben will and it does work exceptionally well and then the other really good part about it
for me what i really like is when you are teaching somebody something you become far more conscious
of how to actually do that thing and so you buy that teaching are then compounding better habits
for yourself as a driver and you're being more conscious of the things that you're doing when
you're demonstrating as well and so even though we're only getting a little tiny touch of track
time while we're there it's the most valuable thing in the world because it's like it is literally
night and day each time i have gone to japan i have come back a significantly better driver
and this year was no exception and every person that's ever come on tour with us regardless of
their school level has just blossomed and it's not it's probably 10 us it's 90 japan
yeah like 100 it's 90 japan the tracks the other drivers the it's like wouldn't you
instant progression you've got three track days within a week like and their whole track days
like a whole day like to try and tee that up in australia you'd be working on the car
flat out for two months after one track day to get ready for the next one yeah so like
you're losing that kind of muscle memory but in japan you're just like two days later you're back
into it it's why i'm so big on the sims it's like you can dial in the layout of the track before
you even get there and then you're already you're already pretty much ready to rock yep yeah awesome
guys um i guess we might wrap it up with there with that um is there any do you have any partners
over there that or or even or even here that you guys would like to sort of acknowledge and think and
give props to um for over there obviously kanzai dori joll's our host uh we hire the cars off him
he stores my car does everything for me he's a bloody legend um so i can't thank him enough obviously
he then uses satoshi san from pro shop diversion so like i bought his youth through him from my car
they organized all the tires so without those two it's probably hard for us to do these tours
we are looking to expand in the future into tokyo to do the tracks that aren't specifically ever sue
but you know we'll get to that when we get to that other partners here that help us with the
tours probably just ourselves really yeah just ourselves um oh you know we put a lot of effort
to help us behind the scenes just organizing it um we're always happy to talk to people that
want to try and come on board and promote their brands to us but at the end of the day we're
going to go we're going to take people we're going to have fun with others so yeah that's about it
really awesome i guess we'll we'll go we'll go back and reiterate where everybody can
sorry we've got to mention them we really thank upgrade studio they did wrap my car they're amazing
awesome boys without them no one would see drifter pan on our car so yes we love the boys
awesome awesome i guess yeah we'll go back and just reiterate where everybody can find you and
get in contact with you yep so instagram drifter pan tours facebook drifter pan tours website
drifterpan.com.au email drifterpan tours at gmo.com that's about it yeah
the easiest is just go on instagram and just look at all those videos of us having a good time
and if that doesn't if that doesn't want to make you go then you're probably not gonna get
i'm not gonna lie while i was doing a little bit of research to sort of to chat with you guys i
jumped on the website and just watching some of the videos you've got up on there i'm like man i'll
how do i make this happen yeah so yeah and like even even just people just contact us and just
have a chin wag we're always happy to talk about like i said i could talk for hours on it so if
anyone said oh you know what would you do like how do i get on this you know i'm happy to talk
and a massive shout out to you as well for having us on here so we have access you know
tell people about what this is like we're very grateful absolutely it's it's an awesome initiative
i guess we'll call it it's it's it's unreal it's an awesome experience for people to go and have
so thank you for joining me boys no it's been really cool any time awesome well that's it for
another episode don't forget to follow gata to gata podcast on facebook instagram and tiktok
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tony bishop to keep you up to date with everything going on in the ozzy drift scene as well as
exclusive driver interviews thank you so much for tuning into this episode and i look forward to
bringing you more shortening
About this episode
Ben Cable and Ben Ogges from Drift Japan share insights about their unique drift tours in Japan, designed for enthusiasts of all skill levels. The episode dives into the comprehensive package offered, which includes flights, accommodations, track time, and more, all tailored to create a memorable experience. They discuss the evolution of their business post-COVID, the importance of building connections in Japan, and how their tours foster camaraderie among participants. Listeners will appreciate the behind-the-scenes details and the passion these drifters have for sharing their love of Japanese drifting culture.
Original notes
In this episode I am joined by Benkei Bruin and Ben Odgers who own and operate a company called Drift Japan.
Drift Japan is a really cool organization who will take you on a fully guided drift tour of Japan, but they tailor an experience that best suits you and your needs.
We get to go deep into the Drift Japan experience as a whole.
We cover off on everything from how best to contact Drift Japan and show an expression of interest, right through the whole 10 day experience, what is included in the package and how the whole experience has been put together with years and years of combined experience while trying to keep it adaptable for you.
It was really cool to sit and chat with these two gentlemen and hear how much has gone into putting this package together to make the whole experience unique to your needs as well as taking into account so many little things that you just wouldn’t think about until you get caught out by it.
This episode is a little different to our usual format and I absolutely do intend to get both Benkei and Ben Odgers on for their own episodes to tell their individual stories in the future, but I hope you all enjoy this one. I really do think it has a lot of information that you can take away even if you don’t ever get a spot on a future Drift Japan tour.
So please enjoy this episode with Benkei Bruin and Ben Odgers on episode 119 of Gutter 2 Gutter podcast.
Website: https://www.driftjapan.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DriftJapan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drift_japan_tours/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@driftjapantours
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AJ Hoad
Lonely Drivers Driving Club
Shifting Through The Gears
Gutter 2 Gutter
Heath "Static" Killeen
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