Street & Track life with Joel Hedges from New Zealand and Jesse Streeter from Japan. A Spring day well spent at Meihan Sports Land with these boys x

Jesse Streeter getting personal with the wall on his stomping grounds – Meihan Sports Land. Plenty to come x

Heading to Japan with a handful of good friends was an awesome experience for 2 or so weeks. However when they left I was a little worried I’d get bored by myself and not know what to do at times. Yes, there were times like that but it was mostly exciting. A few days after my friends had headed back to Australia I decided to stay an extra week in Kansai to meet up with Jesse Streeter and his new room mate all the way from New Zealand – Joel Hedges (C’S GARAGE). After getting a couple of hours rest we woke up to a gorgeous Spring morning en route to Meihan Sports Land for a traditional そうこうかい track day. With Joel living in Japan just over 12 months he was pretty settled in to the lifestyle, to be more specific the car side of things. Up front is his R32 coupe and behind is Jesse’s other wall-rider, a Zenki S14 with a similar engine setup to his PS13. When I think back, these are some of the best days spent in Japan. Waking up before the sun rises, throwing all our gear in to the back of a drift car hoping it doesn’t get smashed. Sitting in a low and ridiculously loud car on the way to Meihan with a few pit stops. I remember this day very clearly. It was a moment where I had been in Japan for a few weeks, everything was starting to become quite regular, life was awesome. Riding in a slammed car making a deafening amount of noise along the expressway next to another gorgeous drift car. It is honestly such a cool feeling – and I wasn’t even driving! I have a bunch more photos from this day including a tonne of action. It wasn’t a huge turnout but there were a few D1SL guys practicing and tearing up. Be sure to stay tuned x

This will conclude my posts from Japan. Not from what I’ve shot but this will be my final article from Japan before I board a flight back to Australia. I have spent just under 2 months, once again venturing this limitless country. In the 7 weeks of being here I have met so many new faces, travelled just under 5,500km’s by car, train and foot to witness some awesome events, shows and sights. Within those 5,500km’s we have stretched from the Northern prefecture of Miyagi-ken (Sendai) all the way down to Hyogo-ken (Nishiwaki). Each and every time I come to Japan I never really know what I am in for, this trip has once again sprung out at me like a punch in the face with each day progressing into something extremely exciting. Every weekend has been spent shooting constantly which means 1-2 hours of sleep from Friday morning to Sunday night if we were lucky. Throughout the weeks have been more relaxing, checking out places I haven’t the past few times being in Japan and occasionally making our way out to track days or meeting up with friends. Here are some people I’d like to say thanks for everything, especially meeting you after speaking for so long. Park, Joel, Jesse, Ewan, Travis Emily & Andy. Team DLK – Kushunoki Takashi-San, Kimura Shou-San, Ryogo Saitoh-San. Team REVIEW – Shota Sasada-San, Kenji Ariki-San, Nakagawa-San, Idekawa-San, Umeda-San and Sato-San. LOWBRAIN – Yuu-San, Shingo-San, Abe-San Muko-San, Takuya-San. Team Freee’s ☆ – Ryohei-San, Hiroyuki-San, Tatsuya-San and the rest of the team. RWB – Nojima-San, Shinji-San, Nakai-San and Tomotake-San. Luke, Dino, Mark, Max and Tim all the way from the USA for the Hellaflush Kansai at Central Circuit. Honda Boys – Nakamaru-San, Shota-San, Seita-San and Kato-San. Also, my american friends from the base: Colin, Curtis, Charles & Rod. ありがと 皆さん！

With just under 350gb’s, approximately 24,000 digital photos captured and a handful roll of films I’m really looking forward to showcasing what I’ve frozen over the past few months here in Japan. Stay tuned. Casey x

Jesse Streeter, Meihan Sports Land 2011 x

The Wreck `Em Meihan drift day was a day where we were up at 3:30am and home by 8:00pm. A day where over 30gbs of memory cards were filled with awe-inspiring cars. A day where the boys on the tour drove Meihan Sports Land for the first time and for some of us, rode in with the best drivers in Japan. After all the drifting we were blessed with a gorgeous, spring sunset over the track which lead to some pretty dramatic photos. Here are a few from the afternoon.

Walking back from shooting the SuperMade SR Gloria I captured this shot, the lighting was so spot on.

Walking back, I spotted MeZ filming the Team Burst family, chatting and having a few jokes. Here is one of the drivers throwing one of the kids in the air. I am so, so fortunate to have spent a whole day hanging out with these guys, they’re definitely more than a fucking crazy drift team that’s for sure.

One of the statements Nakamura-san gave us at the end of the interview was “Lets go back to the mountains in the Osaka prefecture” where he was caught street drifting back in early 2011. Note, the smiles on peoples faces!

Here is a shot of Jesse’s beige beauty sitting in the sunset alongside Ewan’s Cresta from Nagoya.

As the presentations got set up the SuperMade gang were positioned in a perfect spot! Here is Jesse standing behind the Gloria checking out the picturesque sunset.

The SuperMade S15 was screaming out for photos all, day, long. I couldn’t get enough of the 15″ Work CR-01s.

Nakamura-san, fellow from SuperMade, Kuroi-san from M-BROS, Taguchi-san from T-Welding, Shane and Kazuya-san from B-West having a laugh.

Another glamerous shot of the low and wide Gloria from SuperMade with a bunch of gaijin to back it up.

Kazuya-san having a chat about the days efforts with Team Burst, just have a look at his hand gesters.

In most videos you’ll see this little guy, you probably don’t take much notice but he is the person in control of the cars entering the track. Next time you watch a video at Meihan look out for him with the yellow or checkered flag just in front of the control tower.

Here is Yuu-san and his girlfriend during the presentations, a very good friend of Jesse’s and an unbelievable driver too.

To end the day, the Gloria exiting Meihan with blurred cherry blossoms. Meihan really is a fantastic circuit with a very relaxed and friendly vibe. 5 weeks today until I’ll be back in Japan x

I thought it would be a little different to put up a sequence photo of the one and only Jesse Streeter throwing down a perfect lap @ Meihan Sports Land back in 2011. Here he is, 3rd gear, just braking traction in order to link from the first left hand corner, along the straight…

…directly into the wall of Meihan, on lock, spot on.

Around the hairpin, continuing his way around the circuit. I could watch drifting all day, everyday at Meihan or any track in Japan for that matter x

Jesse Streeter – Meihan Sports Land 2011 x

Doing my own thing and making my way up to the bathroom block at the entrance of Meihan Sports Land I heard a feint SR noise come from the distance. Turning around was Jesse Streeter rolling in with his beige PS13 followed by his wife Akhemi-san in the Kei van. I’m so happy I took my camera to the bathroom block…

The amount of photos I have from the Wreck `Em Meihan drift day is outrageous, I’m so happy I shot well over 30gbs of data. Here is a shot of Jesse’s PS13 parked up next to his Kei Van. The life.