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Arigato Gozaimasu! - EP.102
Arigato Gozaimasu! - EP.102
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About this episode
Bobby shares his upcoming trip to Japan, focusing on the excitement surrounding the annual GTR meeting at Fuji Speedway. He discusses plans to explore various automotive sites, including the Nissan Heritage Collection and a unique car meet. The conversation highlights the vibrant GTR culture in Japan and the camaraderie among enthusiasts. Bobby also reflects on the importance of experiencing local culture while balancing car-related activities, making this trip a blend of passion and exploration.
Topics:
gtr culture
fuji speedway
nissan heritage collection
car meets
exploring japan
automotive tourism
In this episode we discuss the upcoming trip to Japan, R's Meeting 2024, and Japan in general. Bobby is headed to the motherland for 8 days. Listen along and get inspired to make the trip yourself! Hit us up for any Japan questions. We love to help people achieve their Japanese dreams.
Arigato Gozaimasu!
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Hey, and welcome back to the next episode of the right hand drive guys podcast the podcast for guys who like right and drivesWear your hosts. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Yeah, and this is episode 102 and we appreciate you being here with us
What is episode 102 gonna be about? I don't know where where you going?
Where you going dude? Yeah, I'm off to I'm having had it back to Japan motherfucker
YeahSo I love that for you. Yeah
Unfortunately the homie can't come along this timeIt's okay. He's not one of those types that secretly hates me for it or is he? No, I thought you were gonna say
I'm not one of those types that has a GTR so yeah, oh no, noYeah, I mean, you know that that's part of this thing right like I bought a you knowDecember of 2034 GTR a while back if you've been listening you know all about it right yeah and soPart of that I made a commitment to myself that if I'm doing this and I'm going to pay top rank to register this carIf I'm going to you know have them maintain it if I'm if I'm going to do these things I need to commit to
Going over there and continuing to create memories right yeahTrust me. It's not easy my wife's like you're a friggin idiot and I'm just like yeah, no dude
I know but like IPromises to myself when I bought the car right yeah because otherwise it's just sitting theresoOur meetings coming upOur meetings coming up man. This is the time last year you didn't get to come again
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahBut I get what you're doing like you're not a GTR guy. You're like yes screw those like pompous jerks
Yeah, and I'm just like yeah, I mean I get itYou know, but like yeah, it is it is a cool thing it is at Fuji speedway every year if you don't know about itLook it up. It is a meeting of the GTR cars
There is in the center of the track. There's a big concourse and you know all of the vendors are set up there
You know, there's a ton of like of the shop cars and Nismo cars and you know built by legends cars and and all these differentYou know kind of aftermarket people that create of course there's show carsSo that's cool and then there's like a track likeI don't know experience going on. It's not like a timed thing. It's nothing like that
You just get the opportunity to take your car around the track nice. They're also just so happens to be during ours meeting a
trailer truck showOn the outside of like the track the concourse on the outside of the trailer truck. Yeah, so it's like sick
They bring like all the like the Deccatoria trucks like the big crazy. Yep all the lights
Yeah, so they'll have a section of those they'll have a section of brand new trucksThey have a section of specialty trucks. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty wild. So that is sick. Yeah, and then a bum now
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I figured that's why I didn't mention it last year, you knowBut yeah, I mean there's there's a lot going on there and then not to mention dude the parking lot is likeThe parking lots almost just as dope is in the center of the track becauseThere's only the gallery so to speak of GTRs like personal people's cars isNot that many I think it's a hundred or fifty but out in the parking lots there'sThousands of GTRs and stuff so like my car ends up out in the parking lot. There's like thousands out there
So you can literally spend more time in the parking lot for sureAnd I remember last yearWatch in a bunch of like you know the youtubers videos from over there andThey showed the parking lot and I was like mind blown because I mean there will be like the dudes at parkWith each other with the same color and like all the same like I know it's just crazy how they organizeThemselves within the lot too. Yeah, it's it is it's cool
And there's like 15 parking lots. Yeah, it's not like there's just two
So you could just hit parking lots all day. Yeah, yeah, you could pay the entrance fee to Fuji Speedway
Which is 3000 yen in C-mad GTRs without ever going into ours meeting. Yeah, so
Yeah, and so you know like I said I got this car over there ours meetingThis is definitely the last year. I'll be able to do it. I plan that my car
Like early to mid-October next year will get on the boatYeah, and it should land you know December one December two andSo I won't get to do this again unless I just want to go which I wouldn't and I won't be able to doTokyo Auto salon again, so you know these things areYou know, I'm not to say I won't go back to Japan again. Hopefully
Business between us would bring us there that would be ideal and pay for us to go there instead of us like you knowBreaking the bank to like go to JapanHopefully like we can do it to get paid you know whatever right, but as far as like myLike more I guessNon-business trips this these will be the end of it. So
What else am I gonna do? I'm like what else do I do? Well, I don't know what would you do? What's something you do?
I don't know probably go to donkey HoteOkay, hey listen listen. He has stayed at multiple times. He's a simple man if you just like let it be
He's a simple man. It's a Pachinko. Yeah, okay. All right
Yeah, I meanMy wife is coming out for she's not staying the whole timeBut she's coming for like four or five days. So that's cool. She'll get to experience ours meeting
The next day after ours meeting ours meetings this Sunday Monday is the following day there is aAn experience through the hotel actually that I didn't realize I never realized thisYeah, they have an experience every MondayWhere if you sign up and pay you get to run parade laps around Fuji Speedway, you know in just experience itThat is pretty cool. Yeah, so
Kenden who if you listen, you know, he's just on a few episodes ago. Yeah, he hooked me up and was like
Hey sign up for this dude because he's gonna bring us 300 ZX so we willBe able to participate and be on the track and do these. It's not like top rank, right?
You know like he said on the episode is not like top rank, but it is the opportunity toExperience Fuji. Yes, obviously. I've gotten to do the full thing and blow my MFD and like mess up my
Alternator and whatever else right I got to do the real thing. Yeah, I'm excited to kind of take it easy and just like, you know
Kind of learn the lines and like, you know kind of figure that out as a side as opposed to being pressured because you have a$700,000 built by Legends car like ramming up your ass on the straightaway. Yeah, so this will be nice
Yeah, so I'm excited to do that. That's really cool
Another thing that we're supposed to be doing is the Heritage Collection as Zama. That is
Well, you know more about it than 90. What is it? It's pretty much where they keep all of their like retired race cars and
I don't know it's just their collection like that. You know, they'll have like all these stock models
There's well. Yeah, it's like I guess makes sense the Heritage Collection all this stuff that they're kind of saving, protecting
Things that are worth something to Nissan right and I believe we have an we have an American version too, right?
Yes, it's not I would not the same but like it's but right there's one down and I believe it's in Tennessee now. Yeah, it was in California for a while
But now it's that's cool. So yeah
Friend of mine from Colorado is hooking that up. He has the connects to be able to get that private tour
So that'll be really nice excited to kind of see some of these thingsI'm gonna make sure I wear two pairs of underwear. So if I blow the first first pair. Oh, yeah, you're gonna
Yeah, exactly so I'll have to on butI'm excited for that because that's not something I've had the opportunity to doI plan on doing a lot moreSelf-exploring, you know, I got this crew of Colorado dudes I'm gonna spend you know four or five days with but otherwise I plan on doing just a lot ofSelf-exploring, you know, stars going to a particular areaAnd then on foot just exploring and just taking it in and listening. Just around take you over
Yeah, I mean for the most partI'd like toGet to know that city and it's different little communities a little better. Yeah, you know
So I just plan on just walking just taking off, you know and seeing what's up and wherever I end up for food or you know checking things outI'm excited for that because on our previous trips whether I was with you or you know any any other timeIt's been kind of likeBoom boom boom boom, you know like we're likeIt's planned right like we're spending all this money to go to Japan. We need to be
Making progress and we have every trip soThis trip I'm really excited to slow it down a little bit during those times and just be present, you know where I'm at soNo, we're in particular. I'm trying not to plan it. Yeah, that's cool
So you know like I said my wife is going yeah, you know and any good husband or significant other knowsYou got it least you know out of a you know for her six day tripYou at least got to let her do what she wants for like 45 minutes to an hour. Yeah, at least right? Yeah
Like period the whole time. Yeah, she gets 45 minutes an hour otherwise we're doing car shit
No, I'm just kidding, but she wants to go to Disney seeI've been there with my daughter. It's something that we don't have in America if she
Like's the way that Disney style stuff. So I'm like all right. So we can do that for your 45 minutes hour
You know whateverBut another thing she want to do which I thought was a great idea is Shibuya skyAnd that's something newer and it's like a overlook of Shibuya. Yeah, and there's and I feel like we were kind of close to it
When we went in that Starbucks at time. Yeah, yeah, but like now they've changed it all up and you have tickets and you can actually go
Yeah, I think I've seen some of the on a real or some yeah, yeah exactly. So they have an observation deck with windows
Or you can be on the actual roof looking down over at Shibuya. So yeah, it's a ticketed thing like I said and there's time slots and
We were lucky enough to get a time slotSo yeah, I mean it's just a cool view. I haven't been back there since we went so that'll be nice
and I think that's where theconveyor bellParking was oh, yeah, yeah, so that would be cool to you know say by to the car againBut yeah, I mean so that's that's gonna be one of the days and then of course while I'm atFuji Speedway for ours meetingI am gonna go ahead and stay at Fuji Speedway hotel. I made sure to book it this year
Last year Ken and really saved my butt by giving me his but you know this yearI'm like dude. I have to get it. So I booked it as soon as I possibly could yeah
So I'm gonna be good for Fuji Speedway hotel and you got you got to go right? Yeah
So yeah, as you know, that's like a reallyReally cool hotel. It's still so nice, but like the amenities are awesome the museum is sweet like if you ever
You know no no event required if you just have the opportunity if you're traveling through on your way toYou know out west whatever it may be stop at Fuji Speedway hotel because it really is like an awesome spotAnd dude even if you're not like even if you're not trying to do something car relatedDo you get the Fuji mountain side room? Yeah, and it's like yeah, yeah, it's crazy
You yeah, you wake up to Fuji. Yeah, it's so insane
And they also have these like I don't know what they were calledBut they were like paddock rooms or something and you can get like your own little houseYeah, yeah, yeah, so I mean there's optionsSo you know, there's a bunch of little stuff that I'm doing especially with the Colorado guysumYou know, we're gonna we're gonna hit a pit of course, you know, we're gonna hit it hockey a barYou know probably take some pictures just like we did with Jesse and JayYeah
We're gonna go to Nissan crossing in Gienza and so have you been there before? I haven't gotten to and I know the LM was there
Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure if it still is but hopefully because I've not gotten to see an LMum, we are going todie cocoo of course, yeah, I gotta go there but something I haven't doneuh the Saturday morning. I'm actually gonna hit die cocoo cars and coffee
Whoa, they actually have a car's and coffee it is on Saturday morningsAnd we're hitting it nice to hitting that vending machine too. Yes. Oh dude
Please dude, I'm gonna yeah, I'm hitting vending machines every time I can yeah, I'm so excited. I'm sorry
I appreciate you participating regardless, but uh also gonna go ahead let's hit um, you knowOmari factory. We're gonna hit Omari factory. I want to see if any of that 40th stuff
I know it's probably not released, but I want to see if they have any marketing for it anything like that any extra littleYou know that old logo stuff that maybe they're not putting out there that's Omari specific right. I'm hoping for some of that
umAlso going toDenise on engine museumWhoa, yep, I don't know where that isBut Kenden Kenden knows all about it and so we're headed over there. We're gonna hit the engine museum. That should be nice
um, and so we're gonnaUh, we're gonna take Haconi turnpike over toFuji Speedway and then you as you rememberHaconi Skyline. Yeah, we're going up through there, you know, so that same thing that we do with albo pretty much
prettyPretty excited about that gonna get that milk ice cream again. Yeah, yeah, you got to you know
It's weird man like when I'm in Japan. I can literally eat like a dog dude
And I don't feel like crap or like slowed down. I know like I don't ever get that like
Lather G, you know, just like your shoulders drop and you're like just bam. I'm screwed. Yeah, for sure
Yeah, I'm the same way. I mean I can put stuff back either way, but in Japan. I don't know what it is dude, but
Anything and everything I want. I can't stop eating and I don't feel bad about it. Yeah, it's weird
I just keep going to keep it moving and you didn't even really spend that much money on itEither that's what's really cool. It is really cool
So, you knowThese are some of the basis of what we're doing. You know, we have some other stuff. We're doing moon eyes yellow hat
You know, we're gonna go to Nissan HQ in Yokohama. So we would we will go through you know between the engine museum the heritage collection
Nissan HQ the crossingLike we're gonna be in good shape as far as Nissan stuff goesYeah, I would say so that you can tell that all my Colorado buddies are Nissan guys because there's not a single other thing on hereBut yeah, I meanI'm pretty excited about that. We also have booked which isn't my thing by said I would go along
The Gotemba distillery tour that's a Kenden thing. Yeah, but I was like yeah dude. I'll
I'll come along like why not it's Sunday afternoon, you know after ours meeting. Let's do it. Yeah
That's pretty cool. That's and that's a cool experience. Yeah, maybe you can hey
I mean, maybe you can range as much in Japan and not feel slumped over about it too, right? Like
So half a shot because that's about all I drink here. So yeah, exactly
Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm sure it'll be cool. I am
Totally cool with learning new things even if I don't participate. Yeah, just seeing that you know and how much he hyped it up
I mean yeah, I'm sure he's he's a good guy tooAnd so yeah, I mean otherwise likeOne thing that is different. I know you experienced it is I've never flown into Haneda
And I'm flying into Haneda. So
I'm a little nervous because I know like in Nareeta. I know where I'm coming off the gate. I know where the money
Exchange machine is, you know, I know I have a routine because I've gone there multiple times nowHaneda makes me a little nervous because I just don't know it. Yeah, you know, just like anything
But one good I was gonna say Haneda. I mean
That's the one. I mean, it's floating on the water, right? Yeah, it's
I don't know. It's kind of a strange airport whenever you see like you're coming out of the sky coming into it
You're just like that's water like what is going on doing? But yeah, I mean even after you land dude. It seemed like
Dude you taxied forever like 10 15 minutes or something like that you get to the gate you get out and dudeIt's another hike like oh really a while. It's a long walk. I don't know if it was just on the side of the airport
I was on butThere was a lot of walking and a lot of theMoving platform. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then you get into customs and all that right right right
But yeah, it's it's a it's a big place. Yeah, and so it's like holy
Anytime, you know, I or whatever anytime I'm getting off these planesIt's always a mad rush because I need to get to pdiOh, right right right because my car is waiting for me with empty tankYeah, so I need to get there because you know even though they're so cool and they always wait for meI do not like I do not abuse the JapaneseSocieties kindness, you know like I stress out about it because I just don't want to be another American
That's just it's on my time right, so I will need to pretty much get off that planeAnd motivate until I can get to whatever you knowTaxi that I can take however good thing is is Haneda is actually closer than NareedaI thought for sure to to really know that yeah, I thought thatNareeda would be closer to noda, but it's not because of the back roads and stuff you've got to takeThe Haneda's like more of a direct shot. So it was actually 20 minutes closer. So I was like dude that sweet
I'm only gonna be passing out in this cab for like 15 minutes inside of an hour and 10 minutesYou know, did the cab ride is always a struggle. It feels like it's like so long right and then yeah
I got to get the car and immediately you know get go to the traditional fuel stationYeah, yeah, just like fuel it up, but I mean it's exciting. It's cool like I definitely
Feel very fortunate to be able to do itum, and again, I'm there for like seven daysI'm gonna try to meet as many people as I can that potentially we can have on the showum, I'm going to try to learn as much as I can to bring back and share with everybodyI have pretty much exactly seven days uh, that I'm thereUm, that includes like the two half days that I leave and I get there, you know, but um
Yeah, no super far travel no shankansen noNothing like that this time just a lot of pretty much just Tokyo, Yokohama Fuji, and that's it umBut I'm okay with that because I think that it's going to allow me to getAcquainted with Tokyo even better right which I'm really trying to focus on this time becauseI want to be able to go there and know where I'm going for the most part of course like it's huge you can't but like
Know the areas, you know understand where they're located compared to where I am, you know kind of be less of a geysineRight, yeah, like just uh kind of hard not to yeah exact it is but I want to get a little better with it umSo yeah, I meanI don't know I'm excited man that that's I reallyI don't want to overdo it. I know we've had a lot of these Japan episodes
But I just wanted to let everybody in on exactly what yeah what I'm doingWhere I'm going and hopefully I have as good of a time as I'm anticipating yeahI had a question uh so yeah with wow with like going last year you said there was literallyparking lots and just rows and rows and rows of skylines and GTRsDoes that give you like hope for the longevity of these cars and like the
The passion that people have for them to care for them and carry them on for the decades and decades to comeDoes that make sense like yeah uh in Japan in JapanYeah, I thinkYeah, for sure like it again last yearI didn't even get to go through 15 lots of them right I went through three and I was like oh my gosh, you knowand so yeah, I mean like the skyline and the GTR culture is still very alive and well in Japan but
People tend to sell out when big money gets flash in their face right and how long can you hold out? How long is this car worth it?
You know how longHow long do you wait before you give in toTo the money, you know because that's all it is is likeAs less of as you know, there's less of a pool over there and things get more expensive and people start goingNot to say door to door, but you know going to private residences and wanting to buy yourM spec or your base model whatever it isHow long until that price is enough for that person to justify why might as well just do it right?
You know like and then they're afraid that this time is going to laps and they will have passed up on an amazing opportunityRight. I don't know, you know, I mean there's definitely still plenty of skylines in Japan right like you wouldn't think so driving around normally
You know like just like we were like dude. This is crazy. We're in Japan. Where's all the cars?
Those skylines, but they're just being taken care of because the guys who like don't appreciate themDon't have them anymore. They sold them, you know, so now it's a lot of the guys that appreciate them right right?
So I think it's that and a lot of them, you know might not be in the citiesRight for sure the cities is usually where people make more moneySo if you make a more money, you're not gonna keep the 30 year old car. You're gonna unless you get the passion
Right unless you have the passion, but yeah as far as just a regular right seeing the normal stock cars around like yeahThere's way more benzes and like all these other kind of moreUpper-level cars in the cities, you know for surelogistics yeah crown majesticYeah, whatever you're saying. I don't know what you're saying right now
So I want more last last question from meCan you think of anything or anyvehicle specific meets in America thatPull the same type of crowd like of one specific carLike it doesn't Japan likeI mean I could think of maybe a couple but I am absolutely sure there is some domestic make that you knowLS fest and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, but that's probably on a more grand scale even because of
How broad that isRLS Fest is anyone with an LS and that's god damn near everyoneLike literally dude likeSo but like yeah, I mean I think and I'm sureYou know even um, you know Steve and Kirby to my buddies. I met last year that some older guys
They got their start with Ford Taurus S.H.O.s
I know I know whatever I don't care. Whatever makes it happy. Yeah, yeah, so
But they would have that you know like there they would have this hugeFord Taurus H.O. Me where all the S.H.O.s from around the country come and they meet at the Ford factory and it's like this big thing
That's pretty cool. So like I'm sure that there is it's just way too niche. Yes exactly
You wouldn't even know what's happening because you're not invited dude, you know like in that type of thingSo yeah, let's see what you mean, you know, I'm sure there's more. I mean for this though ours meeting and like you know
Nizmo festival, right these type of things aresuper closeTo what we've been interested in for so long, right? So obviously it's gonna be the face. Yes exactly
And then also you know ours meeting in Nizmo festival and stuff theyRepresent cars that have fans that have never even seen one in real life. Yeah, that's not a lot of cars
Not a lot of cars that like are that exclusiveBeyond exotics and hyper cars have that type of followingThat people that have never even seen one besides on in the movie theater are huge fans of themSo yeah, I think it I think it's special. I definitely feel blessed to be a part of it
I'm excited this year because I know a lot more people so like I will be able to converse a lot more without beingLike an awkward American, you know, I should be able toKind of meet up with quite a few people that already know and and of course that makes it easier in a foreign country to meet up with peopleYou already know so yeah, I'm pumped. I'll definitely fill everybody in
Make sure that you watch the Instagram because while I'm over there, of courseI'll be pumping out the content as it's happening andprobably regurgitate a bunch bunch for like six months whatever, right? But
You know, even when you go to Japan and you have these experiences, it's so easy to want to share them over and over again, you know, sodefinitely follow us at our HD to UIS andYeah, I guess I'll see you when I get back from Japan. Hell yeah, man. I'm excited for you. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. Peace
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