A Spontaneous Adventure with Doshisha's Car Club

The past two days were of spontaneous adventure, and I dipped my feet into the Japanese car culture I've always been longing for. Saturday morning I took the shuttle bus from Imadegawa campus down to Kyotonabe campus, where most of the sports and outdoors clubs are hosted.

Upon arriving at the car club's parking lot, I was immediately invited to take a passenger seat to experience some drifting. The guys there seemed to enjoy taking turns taking me in their cars to show off their skills.

After checking out the garage and the cars, the guys told me that they were all headed to one of the biggest dirt track time attack events in Japan for the year. I immediately wanted to attend, but the catch? I had to go back home, pack, come back to the club's garage and sleep there in order to leave at 3:00. No problem, that's exactly what I did!

The drive over was wonderful, I caught some awesome views. We arrived at the event around 6:00 AM and checked in the club's car, a Honda Integra, making about 200 HP and weighing only 1100 kilos. A little FWD dirt rocket!

Four drivers took turns on two attempts during the day. The car ran into a variety of issues, such as coolant leaks, batteries dying, the alternator was replaced mid-meet, and we were constantly swapping the tires. I was greatly impressed by the teams ability to think on their feet and tackle these issues despite being under immense pressure due to time constraints.

Unfortunately I was less involved than I would have liked due to the language barrier and lack of specific car knowledge regarding their project Integra. Next time, maybe I'll be more prepared, but I still felt like I was participating in something I've always wanted to do. I enjoyed watching the senior drivers rip their Evos and STis through the dirt.