Japan Adventures Pt. 1: Gunma Prefecture, Initial D, and a rental Miata (sort of) #blogpost

Let’s start with a quick backstory to this adventure. This past summer I was working in Japan as an English instructor for Japanese high school students. During this time (about 7 weeks) I made it a point to experience as much as possible of the many petrolhead joys that Japan has to offer. I had the opportunity to do some incredible things, and I want to share some of my more exciting experiences with my fellow CTzens. For this “installment” I’d like to share my experience with a Miata, from renting it with my very limited Japanese, trying to figure out the Japanese only GPS system, driving on the wrong side (for us Americans) and most importantly living out my dream of pretending to be Takumi Fujiwara on the mountain roads of Gunma Prefecture.

My girlfriend, while I was working in Japan, was doing an internship in Spain. She ended up finding an amazing deal on a round trip ticket from Spain to Japan, so she decided to visit me for a few days. I’m glad that she had the opportunity to come along and be a part of what I can easily say is one of the coolest things I’ve had the opportunity to do.

I’ll start at the beginning, with the actual rental process. Just a heads up for any Americans planning on going to Japan, if you want to rent a car, you need to have an “International Driving Permit” that can be obtained from any AAA location. But back to the important stuff. Renting the Miata was interesting, to say the least. I showed up at a “Times 24hr Rent a Car” in Tokyo with the hope that my very limited Japanese would be sufficient for renting the car I wanted. Fortunately, the manager on duty spoke a slight amount of English, but we ran into some difficulties. I kept asking to rent the red Mazda Miata, but the guy looked at me like I was crazy. Eventually, I came to the realization that there’s no such thing as a Miata in Japan. In Japan, what we call the Miata is actually called the Mazda Roadster. So I finally managed to get my point across, and I paid the daily rental rate as they pulled the car up and gave it a quick polish before handing me the keys to my ride for the day. I was all set to pull off on my way to Gunma Prefecture to live out my Initial D dream when I realized that I couldn’t switch the GPS to English. I used my terrible Japanese to ask for help in the hopes that the worker would be able to switch it to English for me. Unfortunately, the GPS system in the Roadster was a Japanese only system. After about 25 minutes of fooling around with basically every setting on the GPS I finally figured out how to punch in “Mount Haruna” in hiragana (はるなさん) and we were off.

I have driven RHD cars many times in the past (I import vehicles from Japan to the U.S.) so driving while sitting on the right of the car was not a challenge for me. The issue was that I had never driven a RHD vehicle on the left side of the road. It was a little weird at first, but after about 10 minutes I became comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road. We had a pretty long drive ahead of us, about 4.5 hours to be exact. If there’s anything that I learned during this drive, it’s that Japan’s toll roads are annoyingly expensive, but the rest stops along the way are awesome. We actually stopped at one on the way for lunch, and it was quite an experience. It was absolutely spotless, just like everything else in Japan, and the selection of food, drink, and other items was incredible. It completely blew away any rest stop that I’ve ever been to in the U.S. We had our fill of pork sandwiches and ramune (Japanese soda), then loaded up on drinks and snacks for the journey that lay ahead of us.

So off we went (again) back onto the toll road on our way to Gunma. After about 3 hours of driving the GPS diverted us off the toll road and onto a series of beautiful countryside backroads that were an absolute joy to drive in the Roadster. Being that it was the base model and an automatic I was expecting it to be a bit of a bore to drive, especially considering that my usual form of transportation is my ‘73 240z modified for autocross use. I happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the Roadster. The automatic had a “manual” mode that allowed for the use of steering wheel mounted paddle shifters that were surprisingly responsive for an automatic, and the engine was very lively and willing to rev. Furthermore, there was little noticeable body roll through the turns, though I was obviously not pushing the car too hard on the narrow country roads. Eventually, after the spirited driving ceased and we entered a small town, I spotted something in the distance. To my surprise the sign read “D’z Garage Racing Cafe.” I couldn’t believe it.

We had finally arrived in Gunma Prefecture, and we were at the base of Mount Haruna by the start of the majestic winding roads that inspired the writing of the Initial D manga and anime. As excited as I was to drive the roads that inspired Initial D, I couldn’t resist spending some time at the cafe. It was an awesome place, run by individuals who clearly love Initial D (almost) as much as I do. Inside the cafe, there was a lot of interesting Initial D memorabilia. There was a collection of all 48 volumes of the Initial D manga, posters, models of the popular cars from the manga/anime, and my favorite, tofu pudding served in glass containers with the same writing seen on Takumi’s AE86 (藤原とうふ店) on the side. There was a small section in the corner of the cafe that had used performance parts such as turbos, wheels, suspension components, etc. for sale, and the Initial D anime was playing on a giant projector screen in the middle of the cafe. Overall it was a really cool setup. But the real fun was outside.

The first thing I noticed when walking around the left side of the building was a beautiful orange and black Veilside RX7. Though this car was never featured in Initial D, it was still awesome to see parked outside, as it was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to view one of these in person. It didn’t hurt that it was the same color scheme as Han’s Veilside RX7 from Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift!

Though I was excited to see the RX7, I didn’t have to look too far to find something even more incredible. Directly behind the RX7 was a garage that contained three cars, two of which were exact replicas of vehicles that were featured in Initial D, including (of course) Takumi’s black and white “Panda” paint scheme AE86.

This was by far the most exact replica I’ve ever seen of Takumi’s Hachiroku. Everything, from the paint, wheels, fog lamps, and door decal, to the perfect showroom condition interior in the same color (red) with the red aftermarket Italvolanti wheel in Takumi’s car and air vent clip on cup holder that was in his car in the anime. It was incredible to see the car from the anime literally brought to life.

The two other cars in the garage were quite something as well. Both were RX7’s, and both were heavily modified. The yellow FD was a near exact replica of Keisuke Takahashi’s from the later Project D anime, fitted with what is basically the entire RE-Amemiya parts catalog for FD’s. It had a very aggressive look, but the interior remained mostly intact aside from the addition of racing seats, a rear roll cage, and a few aftermarket gauges on the dash.

For anyone who may be interested, this yellow RX7 was actually for sale at the time. I didn’t bother asking the price, but I don’t imagine it would go for cheap considering the extensive list of mods as well as the fact that it is such a well-done replica of the car from the anime.

The red FD was very heavily modified as well, but was clearly a bit more track focused than the yellow one. The interior was almost completely stripped, and it had a full cage. It was all beautifully done though, and it looked like no corners were cut during the build. As nice as the red FD was, of the three cars I think you can probably guess which one I’d take.

In a heartbeat I’d go with the wonderfully executed Hachiroku. Of course, I’m a bit biased, but given the choice which one would you guys end up going with?

Unfortunately though, I didn’t have enough money to buy the AE86 off of the owner, and the doors were locked so stealing it wasn’t really an option. So I trudged back over to the “boring” Roadster and began the drive up the legendary Mount Haruna. Keep in mind that Mount Haruna not only inspired the “Mount Akina” that is featured in the manga/anime, but the live action Initial D film was actually filmed on these very mountain roads in Gunma Prefecture.

We made a few stops on the way up to admire the view and, of course, take some photos.

As much as I enjoyed taking in the amazing views that Gunma had to offer I was itching to get back in the driver’s seat and experience the amazing roads of Mount Haruna. Also, as you probably know, Initial D was largely focused on racing DOWN the mountain, not UP it. Thus, I would have to get to the top of the mountain before I could really live out my dream of pretending to be Takumi. Though I have to admit, I can’t by any stretch of the imagination say that the ride up the mountain wasn’t exciting. The road was amazing, with more twists and turns than any road I’ve ever had the opportunity to drive on, and it really gave me an opportunity to push the Roadster a bit and get a better feel for its handling capabilities before I took on the downhill.

So finally, we reached the top of the mountain. This area, with the two guardrails, can actually be seen as the starting line of the races in the live action film. Here’s the scene I’m talking about for reference.

Now began the best part of the day. The downhill. Luckily just as we set off in the Roadster a white 90’s R32 GTR came into view. That’s when I knew it was going to be fun. I went off after the GTR, and although it obviously had significantly more power than the Roadster I was able to keep up because of the Roadsters impressive handling.

I would have been more than satisfied to enjoy driving the roads of Mount Haruna “alone,” but having the added aspect of another car like a GTR to enjoy some spirited driving with really made the experience even more special. The Roadster was genuinely impressive, with a level of grip that I did not expect considering it’s on stock tires, and although I really wish that I was able to rent a manual Roadster, the automatic in our rental was more than sufficient. Normally I would say that an automatic would “kill the fun” but seriously, how could you possibly not have fun while driving some of the best driving roads in all of Japan?

After driving up the mountain, back down it, then up again, we decided to take a break at the crater lake at the top, conveniently deemed “Lake Haruna.” This is an absolutely beautiful lake, and the light fog that had rolled in by the time we arrived made for some awesome photos.

Now, being that we drove a little more than 4.5 hours to get to Gunma, I am not ashamed to say that I drove the mountain roads quite a few more times. Specifically, I went up and down the mountain 4 more times after we took our quick break by the lake. Thankfully my girlfriend was able to understand that I was living out a childhood dream of mine, so she wasn’t terribly upset as I continued endlessly driving up and down Mount Haruna. Finally, after I’d had my fair share of driving the roads, we decided to make the trek back to where I was staying in Minamiyukigaya, Ota, Tokyo.

It was with much regret that I finally had to say goodbye to the beautiful and incredible Mount Haruna and Gunma Prefecture. I wish that I had the opportunity to spend more time there, but there was something else I had planned for the evening that required both us and the Roadster to be back in Tokyo. Exactly what will be discussed in Part 2! Hope you guys enjoyed Part 1 of my adventures, and there’s much more to come!