Well due to poor WiFi and just being incredibly busy I am super behind on my blogs so I’m writing this now as I sit on the Shinkansen as I leave Osaka and I am doing my best to catch up on it all. Anyways enough of my excuses…
Day 4 was a dream of mine since being a child, finally I would get to go to my number one dream race circuit Tsukuba! For years I have spent far too many hours on game such as Gran Turismo lapping this course over and over fighting to get that perfect lap with a dream of one day going to the circuit itself!
It started out with me getting my things all packed up as I would be leaving my pod at Shinjuku to head to Ibaraki for the day and then heading over to my next hotel at Kawasaki. I headed over to the train station as I needed to head to Sodo Station to then walk over to Tsukuba Circuit. On the way I stopped off at a beautiful little town called Moriya which I would love to go back to at some point. It was strange going from the crazy and busy streets of Shinjuku to Sodo a small town or village even, it was so quiet and so empty, it was peaceful and quaint and my first proper experience of being out in the sticks of Japan. It was a good 50 minute walk to Tsukuba Circuit but I took everything in walking from Sodo. The beautiful farm houses and traditional buildings with old shack type buildings housing old Nissans just left there under the dust, in pictures below you will see a pair of Z32 300ZX’s just sat there, whether to be restored or just abandoned I’m not sure but I wanted to rescue them. I saw a lot of early mode Lancer Evolutions along with quite a few Skylines, Silvia’s and RX-7’s. I felt good about this place, very good.
I continued my walk not really knowing how close or how far from the circuit I was and it was at that point I heard what sounding like racing in the distance I knew I had to be close! It was at that moment I walked down a side street and in the distance I saw a lovely JZX90 but more importantly I saw the Dunlop bridge of Tsukuba Circuit! I couldn’t contain my excitement and at the point was very likely making sounds like a little girl and though tired carrying the weight of my fully loaded burgan I found a spring in my stepped and my walking pace increased!
Finally I had made it! There were old race shops surrounding the circuit area and some modified cars around. When I got to the circuit I found there was a trackday for bikes. Sadly no Nissans time attacking but it was still amazing watching people race around the track and hearing bikes bouncing off the revs down the back straight sent chills through me! After walking through the pits and checking out the circuit itself I found my self hurting my wallet in the circuit shop. But it was so worth it! I couldn’t not go to Tsukuba and spent money on merch!
What amazed me so much was the surface of the track and just how cambered it was and the elevation changes of the circuit it gave me a whole new perspective of the track layout but it was beautiful and a moment I will never forget. One day when I go back to Tsukuba I hope to do a trackday there or go to and Attack event but until then just experiencing the place itself was more than enough for me.
After finally leaving the circuit it was time for me to head to Kawasaki. I walked back to Sodo Station and caught the train to Kawasaki and was once again blown away! It was a busy place with tuner cars screaming up and down the streets all night, Skylines, Evo’s, Silvia’s, Subaru’s, RX-7 and RX-8’s and S2000’s, and all other built wangan and track cars! What a sight it was, I knew at that moment this was a place I could call home but tomorrow would be even better and I would finally find the place I could truly see my self never wanting to leave.
Rendle.
P.s. apologies again that photos aren’t in order, it had phone pictures first followed by camera pictures.
Kyusha-Riot Autoworks 