Monday, December 8, 2008

G Speed Corp & Technosquare

I went to G Speed Corp. in Hawthorne today to drop off
some goods. This is the place where we buy most of the
JDM front clips, engines, and transmissions.
Also I bought my JZX90 Mark II here !
Ask for Kenji if you need any help from G Speed regarding
JDM cars and parts !!!
Then I headed to Technosquare to drop off my car
for roll cage fabrication. This is where one of our fellow
team member Yoshie works.
You can check out more about Technosquare on our website:
www.driftpro.com and click on "Team Driftpro's Favorite Shops" section.

hiro

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Golf, Fish, and Chips !!!

As I mentioned yesterday, today I went to play golf
with Yosshi~ Toshiking and Miho chan.
One more celebrity drifter was supposed to join us,
but he got away on a plane to chillax at his private island.
Since it was Sunday, I thought it would be super crowded,
but it was pretty open throughout the day.
Must be bad economy even for weekend golfers !! (;_;)
I had a bad start and ended up with +7 for the first half,
but got my act together and came out even par for the
back nine, so I'm pretty happy with good ending !
Afterwards, Yosshi~ and me got together with our homies
and had a dinner at this place at the Block in Orange.
I had Fish&Chips and it was very good !
This picture was at the front door with the menu display.
Pretty damn scary looking !!!

hiro

Edo's B-Party and . . .

Yesterday was the Edo Ichikawa's birthday party
at the Boso House in Lawndale !
There was lots of people and the jacuzzi was just getting
warmed up.
But I managed to escape before things got too crazy !!
I'll be playing golf with Yosshi~ Toshiking tomorrow.
So I'm here at the range doing a little practice...

hiro

Saturday, December 6, 2008

a new car build starting again. . . .

I'm starting to build a new competition car again !
As you know, we gotta begin with getting rid of unnecessary
stuff that makes a regular car quiet and heavy !!!
Icy COLD !!!
After lots of hammering and scraping...
Gotta be patient !
Taking apart the dash and all the stuff underneith it !
Finally the engine is also out for further mods !!
I think the car is now ready to head to Technosquare in
Torrace for a roll cage fabriation (^0^)/
hiro

Thursday, December 4, 2008

A night in Pasadena with four dudes.

Last night I went out to Pasadena to have a dinner with
my drifter friends Dai, Yoshi~, and Toshi.
Since I got there a little too early, I had a coffee at this Coffee Bean.
Good thing I broughtmy jacket because it was pretty cold !
On the way to the restaurant, I saw this.
It looks good, but at the same time,
doesn't some of them look like dog poop ?!
(with some chocolate sprinkles. . . . )
The restaurant we went to was La Luna Negra, a place
recommended by Yoshi~.
And one dish he also recommended was super good !!
It was a thick puffed pie with salmon inside.
After dinner, we went to Pink Berry and they had lots of
interesting object for sale on their display.
Then since we couldn't decide on whether to go home
or not, we stopped by this bar/cafe where Yoshi~ has
been to before. I had a cafe mocha with whip cream and
it was huge !!
Just a pic I took on the way back from the bar/cafe place.
I really like Pasadena and wish it was a little closer
to me (^ ^;)

hiro

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

TG dinner and track days at Willow Springs !

Last week, we had out annual Thanksgiving turkey dinner
at our Driftpro Team manager Koji's house.
Koji cooked this huge turkey for us !! It was sooo good !!!
And as always, the turkey cutter is Dr. Taka with his masterful
chiropractic skills !!
Koji's wife, Mako's friend brought their two children too.
The house was very exciting with three little childrens !
Team photo at the living room.
Baby Koki seems to like the camera flash a lot, so
we always used a flash to take photos with him !!
On the weekend, we had a track day at the Willow Springs
International Raceway in Rosamond, CA hosted by Drift Association,
R&D Factory, Slick Auto, Subaru group.
And we had a AE86 (4AG) Time Attack session on Sunday.
Alex had a really fast time with his 4AG Turbo equipped
Super Seven. Taka also had a great time with his own personal
turbo AE86. Yoshie drove the Drift 102 white AE86 with 20V
and was working on getting some rust off her grip driving (^ ^)/
I drove that gray Toyota Cressida sedan with 1JZGTE.
Although it was only pushing 5psi boost and weak brakes
for such a heavy car, the car did pretty well.
This was like a dream weekend for me because there was
the grip event going on at the Streets of Willow and at the
same time, there was the All Star Bash drift event hosted
by Just Drift at the Balcony and the Horse Thief Mile.
I was able to go back and forth to have fun doing both grip
and drift on the same day with my Cressida !!!
Thank god my car survived such an eventful weekend !!
Yoshie was not so lucky this weekend as she went off the track
and bent the rear lateral rod on the white AE86.
She is crying because the car is not able to be driven back home
and it has to get on the tow truck to go back.
Overall, the weekend was lots of fun with the great
weather and lots of seat time.
Thank you very much to Naoki from Drift Association's
Drift Day and Charlie from Just Drift !!!

hiro

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

more yakiniku and golf and jdm cake shop !

My mom came to visit me along with my brother
who lives in SF. And since my bother wanted to eat
yakiniku because there's no good jdm yakiniku place
in SF, we decided to go to Manpuku in Costa Mesa.
(Although this was 2days in a row yakiniku dinner for me...)
But it was goooooood regardless (^0^)/
Then the next day, we played golf at the Costa Mesa GC.
I haven't played for a long time, but that's sometimes
when you play surprizingly good. And that's what exactly
happened....... I shot 70. My record by far !!!
Maybe I can beat Tanner now! (He's a good golfer too!)
And right before their flight back to SF, we stopped
by a small cute JDM cake shop called Bonjour in Torrance.
This cake I had is called Mont-Blanc and it's made of
a sponge cake, cream, and the chestnut cream.
This is my favorite at Bonjour !
hiro