Yesterday was my first time visiting Sports Land Yamanashi SLY for a Drift Ensemble soukoukai. Without question the coolest track I’ve seen in Japan. Being located in the middle of the forest the feel and outlook is definitely similar to a street and touge layout. Here is a shot of Alexi in his Mark II x

Since leaving high school I have been determined to make things work for myself. Almost three years later I am quite happy with the things I have accomplished since graduating, however there is still way too many goals and achievements I want to smash before I am a certain age. I have had a couple of part-time jobs since finishing grade 12 although they haven’t really lasted due to travel. With that being said, budgeting and planning trips overseas is normally a little harder than looking in my savings account and seeing how much I am able to withdrawal.

Since running this blog, I’ve tried to put a fair amount of effort into it which I think is slowly paying off. It has come to a point where I want to try and expand that coolness into something a little more satisfying for you, as readers and followers. With that being said I have recently picked up a night-filling job to help me grow Shirtstuckedin into bigger and better things. I have quite a few projects on the cards at the moment including a small apparel line, 2013 calenders, new stickers and the list goes on. None of this can be accomplished without a budget, hence why I am now employed with a part-time job.

I think this will give me a bigger and better opportunity to travel to Japan a lot more frequent as my work knows what I love to do. Infact my boss loves watching drifting and is heavily involved in imports so trips to Japan shouldn’t be a worry. So soon enough a variety of simple collections will be available to you all. Also, another Japan trip is on the horizon for early next year. Once again, I can’t thank you all enough for your following over the years and I really hope it can continue to grow. Nothing is dramatically changing, my whole outlook 0n the site is to keep things super-simple for you and thats the way it has been from day 1 and will continue to flow in that path. Casey x

On the last week of my trip one of my good friends Ryohei Takahashi-San opted for us to cruise out of central Tokyo and meet up with the rest of his team mates – Team Freee’s ☆. We shortly found ourselves about 30km’s past Ebina / Atsugi before we stopped in a PA along the highway to meet up with the rest of the crew. If you’re asking yourself where you remember this car from I could almost bet you’re thinking of Hellaflush at Fuji Speedway late last year. Prior to travelling to Japan I once again never actually thought I’d see this car, let alone sitting in a PA. The driver goes by the name of Yo-San and is a full-time painter – the craziest and coolest Japanese person I have met, period. The car currently has no shakken aka registration and no license plates. The current plates on the car specifically say ‘FUCK 50 FREE’S☆ WE MESS AROUND IN TOKYO-KANAGAWA AREA‘. Pretty cool if you ask me. Don’t worry, I took way too many photos of this car that night and also got some highway shots. There will be lots and lots to come, along with the remaining team cars. Enjoy x

I’ve always said to myself that when I move to Japan I will build and own a Toyota Chaser – JZX, whether it be a 81,90,100, 100mk2 or a 110, either way I absolutely adore them. This particular 100 was spotted at Nagoya during a street session on a Friday night. Even though you can’t see too much detail on the car it’s pretty much how I would style a big 4 door Toyota: Remain standard aero and deep 18’s with a sexy exhaust system that produces an amazing 1J note, I really wish I could explain to you exactly what this machine sounded like when it was sliding.

The end of something truly wonderful. I’m not sure if many of you know, but a lot of the street / mountain action is unfortunately closing in with the police cracking down harder than ever. Ports, mountains and roads have been shut down and monitored closer than ever before. Whilst I was in Japan I was speaking to Shane Bingham a local resident in Osaka for the 5-6 years about drifting. Living in Japan over the few years he has seen a dramatic change in the street scene. As you know, last Japan trip we got to experience some pretty amazing street driving in Yokohama Bay Tokyo, this time we were even luckier. After a track day in Suzuka we headed up north to Nagoya were we met about 40-50 drift cars in a local Lawson’s carpark, this itself was surreal. You probably remember my last photo I posted from this night with the 2 D1 S15’s. As the Lawson’s is privately owned no police are restricted to enter that’s why all these cars hang out here prior to driving. As soon as they’re finished they roll back, change tires and then head back out, pretty cool huh? After everyone had filled up on fried chicken and energy drinks, we made the drive to the port which is about 2km’s down the main drag from the Lawson’s, suddenly your lining up in the line to do the lap. Top of 3rd gear transitioning into a tight u-turn right hander and then back up the opposite side of the road. This is one of many I captured that night, along with tonnes of video footage. Incase you can’t pick it, it’s a JZX 90 which of course had an unbelievable 1J note to it.

A month or so prior to this Japan trip I was contemplating selling or trading my 5D Mark II for another body, preferably a 1-Series. I did the same last November before I headed over. As soon as I got home and had the chance to look at the images I captured on a display larger than 3″ I really take my 5d for granted. I really can’t wait to show you more from my recent trip.

So, this year I’m 19 years old which to me feels daunting. Up until now I’ve done some pretty exciting things as a teenager, as most of you know I visited Japan last November. Over the 18 day period the memories will be imprinted in me until the day I pass on. Meeting random Japanese people from Daikoku PA and ending up in their cars smashing up the mountains the night after was truly breathtaking. Visiting dozens of tracks, workshops and shops was overwhelming for all of us, as I still sift through the images I find it hard to believe I was there only a few months ago.

The last week of the trip we were settling in at Nihonmatsu, Fukushima for the G1GP and Autumn Ebisu Drift Matsuri held at Ebisu Circuit. Travelling with 9 drifters from Melbourne, Victoria, 7 had purchased cars to compete in both the Gaijin Drifting competition and the Matsuri. The only 2 people that didn’t purchase cars were myself and Nigel Petrie. As we had 8 long days and nights at Ebisu, Nigel and I thought it would be more than ideal to drive the 167km’s back towards Tokyo to a little town by the name of Utsunomiya which is where the ever so famous Nikko Circuit is located.

On the Sunday night we arrived to Nihonmatsu, everyone except Nigel and I had planned to head to Ebisu to pickup their cars and begin work. However our schedule was a little different, we had planned to attend the JZX day at Nikko the next morning. Driving along the highway keeping our eyes peeled for the exit I noticed the humungous power lines sticking up beneath a number of trees on the opposite side of the highway. We literally screamed our lungs out. After getting f*#%d by the GPS we randomly ended up out the front a small workshop with the characters “IKEYA FORMULA” printed. Our days just kept getting better and better, we must have done a few good-deeds to deserve the things that come in our path. After driving in, parking and being introduced to the President of Ikeya Formula we sat down, had a drink and looked over the Presidents hill-climb 350Z and a few customers cars. Shortly after we were Nikko bound.

As we arrived a little later than expected, we only caught about 3 or so hours of the 1 and 2J’s screaming around the tiny circuit. After the day concluded we met up with Alexi Smith and Manabu Mitsumori once again to tea up a feature on his JZX 100. After shooting the car all I wanted to do was to lock up my camera and make sure nothing could happen to it to loose the data I had stored on that little SanDisk Extreme III 8GB memory card. As I was finished shooting both the JZX and Manabu-san I sat back, had a talk to Nigel and Alexi and watched everyone pack up their belongings and head home for the day. This time of the day is truly spectacular, I say it so often and I’ll say it again, I really wish it lasted longer than it does. The light is even, the air is crisp and the atmosphere is silent, at the specific time at Nikko I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere else I would of rather been.

I’m not sure if these images give the same impression as they do to me but I’ve tried giving you a detailed description to help. As these are some of my favourite images I’ve come across I’d like each and everyone of you to have the access to widescreen, high resolution wallpapers.

First image: 1920×1200. Second image: 1920×1200.

Casey.