Category: Car Photography

JDM as Luck is a place made specifically for car photos, videos, and other car related content that I hope to put out some time in the future.

Stumbling On A Drift Shop

When My Dad Came To Town

We explored town far more than I usually do on my own. As typical I take pictures of all the cool cars I see as we made our way around town. We even visited the famous UP Garage in Matsumoto where I spotted a clean Z32 Fairlady Z, which it looked like it had been a one owner car.

Azumino

is a small city located just fifteen minutes north of my house. Having never been there, it was fun to have a shared experience of exploring with my old man. On our way to the Thrift Shop(Cue Macklemore Song), we made our way by a Go Kart track where there were more sweet whips to add to the collection. This particular track also had Drift Karts outfitted with pvc on the rear wheels allowing for oversteer. I wanted to try it out, but the Drift Karts are a member only activity!

Down The Road A Little Further

Was a small drift shop which made me pull a U-Turn and park. There was a small group of people sitting on plastic chairs and chatting as they saw us pull up. After introducing both my father and myself as Americans. In broken Japanese I told them the story of how Japanese cars were one of the reasons I was currently in Japan. 

I thought of my cousin and some of my friends back home who had introduced me to car tuning, drifting, and Japanese cars and it was hard for me to hold back my excitement as I oogled at all the unique cars in front of me. The strange thing was I couldn’t find the shop on the internet and it was only twenty minutes from my house.  I was really glad to meet some car people and it seems that they had welcomed me with open arms.


“We’ll teach you how to drift when you get a car” they said laughing.

Getting UP

One of the mechanics started to point out the different cars. He smiled as he opened up hoods, proclaimed mods and paint jobs, and told the stories of different cars. One car in particular made me feel like a sixteen year old kid again. 

The Yellow Toyota Chaser

Not only was a cool car that was unavailable in America, but also belonged to a sponsored Professional Sponsored D1GP driver. The 530 HP beast reminded me of the days when my friend Nick and I would sit and watch D1GP or best motoring videos for hours in his “Virgin Den”. I daydreamed about being able to be a professional driver for a small second, I often imagine driving a car as I’m walking around, heel toe downshifting and skidding a car as I turn. A fun thing you can do in a supermarket with carts is pickup the rear and give angle to the turns. 

After having exhausted my Japanese skills I said thank you bowed and parted ways with the small shop owners. The opportunist inside of me wanted to offer my services to build a website for their shop, but not being able to get traffic to my own site, I didn’t feel confident in providing any value for them. Wanting to start my own car importation business and learn to work on cars myself I thought of maybe offering to wrench on cars for free perhaps shooting videos so I could learn about cars and help them out.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep hanging out with them in the future, but we will see!.

Until next time <3 LaidbackMarco

by Laidbackmarco

Initial D Tour: Initial D In Real Life

Eight Years Ago

I watched a movie because my first car, a $5000 automatic 1995 240sx, lost to a slow hatchback in an anime made in the nineties. If you know anything about anime, you already know what Movie that was, the movie told the story of a young boy who delivers tofu in the wee hours of the night. Only to find himself unwilling improving as a driver and enjoying the thrill of racing. After the movie I watched the show, which is much better than the movie. Watching the show late at night with my friends sent me on a journey that eventually had me sitting in a car driving the very roads that were made legendary not just by the show, but the real drivers that inspired it.

After Initial D

I learned about the history of drifting through best motoring international and became a sponge. I researched so much information on cars(although I’m still shitty at working on them). Things like model numbers, specs, and even the history of why a car was made was so much fun to absorb. In the library at school I used my free time to look at cars I couldn’t possibly afford. For the first time I enjoyed racing games drifting in Forza, even picking up a simulator wheel to play the games the way they were meant to be enjoyed. As sad as it sounds one of my proudest achievements is remaining undefeated in Initial D and making a group of asians at the bowling alley rage quit.

There Is More To This Story

Well I pulled the engine and gutted it. . . how do I put it back

After the s14 there was a red ae86, a gray one(still in the garage ripped apart), another late model s14 240sx, the Blue WRX(still in the garage at home). After 8 years of dreaming, failed japanese courses, and working my ass off to get here I finally made it to the legendary touge. Through the luck of being placed in matsumoto, meeting Chris at the storyhouse cafe, and then meeting Moacir I was able to participate in the Initial D tour and finally meet people who had this shared love of cars.

The Initial D Pose

It was a straight Trade for my s14

When My AE86 Was Deemed Too Much of a Pain in the ass my dad didn’t want to keep helping me fix it so thanks to the old man I had another 240sx.

This car got me over the pass and back safely I went to college in a town where it snowed a lot.

The Car I Currently Whip In

When My AE86 Was Deemed Too Much of a Pain in the ass my dad didn’t want to keep helping me fix it so thanks to the old man I had another carThis is a culmination of all the photo editing skills I’ve picked up over the years, I started when I tore my acl 7 years ago and became a yearbook photographer. Since then I’ve pursued photography forgoing parties and social events to edit photos on my computer. Using the skills I’ve learned doing art, color theory, and studying the fundamentals of design has helped me see the world in a new light.

by Laidbackmarco