Japanese MR2 Club 2 Day Meet

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Warning - Lots of Pics! 56k beware

(more pics added on second page)
(Video link posted in post #8)

T.J.M.C.. Lake Shirakaba off

I had the opportunity to attend the Japanese MR2 Clubs Lake Shirakaba MR2 meet this past weekend (20 - 21 May). I would like to share with you all the cars and what we did at the meet. There are lots of pics, including a video so enjoy.

We met Saturday morning at a rest stop off the highway near Nagano, Japan. There was about 24 MR2s that showed up including a Honda beat (similar to a mk3). We walked around a little and checked out all the cars. The meet started off with the organizer (nekomata-san) introducing himself and his car. Each owner went around and introduced himself and his car, to include modifications and a little history on the car. Being unable to speak Japanese MRTURRARI (Jeff) and I listened quietly and smiled. Luckily there was about 3 people who had a little experience with English and when they were together, could figure out what we were saying and translate so it wasn’t too bad. We headed off into the mountains when the introductions and assignment of groups were complete. What a nice drive…….



We drove for an hour or so to a museum that was located on top of a mountain. We parked and ate a very nice lunch with the group. We had a little while to walk around so Jeff and I took some pictures of the museum area.

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The Museum Area and outside of museum.





After the Museum we headed off back down the mountain. Each drive between points and rest areas were about 20 to 30 minutes. We stopped off at a rest stop about half way down the mountain and stretched our legs. By this time the rain really started to come down.

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After a few minutes at this rest stop, the Supra guys showed up with some nice cars, although they had no where near our numbers. Notice the exhaust on the silver and blue supra? It was wierd. A tripple exit, single canister exhaust.



From the rest stop, we headed off down the mountain to a Dairy Farm……Yes, a dairy farm. Although I thought it was a little weird, I found out the reason why we stopped when we got inside. They had the best Ice Cream Ever!

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(Pictures posted soon)

After the Dairy Farm, it was off to a parking lot down the road from our final destination, the hotel.

Here we parked and it was group photo time. They got everyone to park the cars all lined up and took a ton of photos of everyones cars all grouped up. A nice mist came in and the fog rolled in quick for some nice pictures.

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From here, it was off to the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel and checked in, luckily Jeff and I got our own room with a shower. Most traditional Japanese hotels have community showers and are situated like hostels and you have to wear kimonos (Japanese robes). So we were happy to get our own room and not shower with 30 Japanese guys in 1 shower room.

We had dinner and did a toast with everyone. The 5 course meal was really good and to my surprise, a steak dinner. I havnt had a steak dinner since ive been hear because its so damn expensive in this country for a steak (about $80). We finished dinner and prepared for a night drive.



When it finally got dark, we split off into 2 groups. 1 group headed off towards the onshen hot springs into the mountains for a night time dip and the other group for a “Spirited Drive”. So the crazy night drive through the mountains was insane, it was fast with tons of blind corners. I definitely wasn’t ready for it as im still a new driver in Japan. And if you think driving a RHD car on 2-way roads as wide as alleyways, your wrong. Its completely different. I fell behind a little on the corners but was able to catch back up on the straights.

We drove back to the rest stop on the mountain and hung out there for about an hour or so. It was rather cold but we were all screwing around and made it fun. One guy brought this rather large telescope that took him about 20 minutes to setup and focus in on Jupiter. It was really neat, you could see the rings very clearly. Another guy brought his air soft gun with some glow in the dark pellets which was fun. We Headed back down the mountain to the hotel at a less than spirited pace.



We got to the hotel and the fun really started, the booze came out. Man did we get wrecked. Lots of beer, good (somewhat understandable) conversations about the American MR2 Clubs, and Japanese clubs.

You’ll be surprised to find that most MR2 owners in Japan are between the ages of 30 and 50 years. The 2 heavily modded MR2s were owned by older guys, 1 late 30’s and 1 in his early 50’s. I was impressed, in fact, I might have been the youngest one there at the age of 26.

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After a night of drinking and stories, we woke up to a 5 course breakfast with some sort of weird runny eggs as the main course. It was good, but Mcdonalds was definatly calling our name.

We left the hotel and drove back to the parking lot where we had taken the group pictures the day before. About 4 more MR2s showed up at this point and joined in on the days activities.

Basically we arrived at the parking lot at 9:30am, did introductions of everyone and there cars, and had “free time” till 1:00pm. During this time Jeff and I grabbed the ol chairs out of the car, napped, took pictures, drove around a little, basically relaxed.

At 1:00pm we got the cars all grouped up for a picture……(shown in video)

(pictures on second page)

After the photo, we headed back to the Dairy Farm for a really good lunch and more Ice Cream (I had 2 J). After lunch it was over, we said our good buys and drove the 3 hours it would take to get us home. Unfortunately it took 4 hours due to congestion on the highway but we didn’t care, we were happy to be home from such a long weekend of driving (and drinking for me).

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Here are some Random Pics of the meet. Ill be posting a bunch more pics later on in the week as I get them in from other people. I hope you guys enjoyed this.

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This Video is a few seconds over 5 Minutes so it will take a little bit of time to download.
Its roughly 17mb
I have no idea how to post it online for you to download, im just not that smart yet
There is music, turn your speakers up
If you dont like it, piss off, i spent an hour of my life putting it together for your pleasure.


Video

Here's the download link. "Right-click, Save As"

http://www.beams-redtop.com/Movie.wmv

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View from the Musuem Parking lot



Nice interior, EVERYONE has a GPS setup of somekind



This guy drives crazy fast! Even the Japanese guys say he drives too fast.

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This picture makes me sick.....Even though 2 of them were only 96's, all those 98-99 MR2s. This was on the first day, the 2nd day, 2 more 98-99 mr2s showed up. Yes, 2 of them were Beams Redtop Engines, and Jeff did get the opportunity to ride in one.

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Nifty Fenders





Notice the side engine lid pieces?

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thats it for now, MRTurrari and I will probably be posting some more pics in a few days when i get them.

[Ncturnal]

That is SICK! Sounds like a great time. I'd love to go on one of those some day.

[N8s93turbo]

wow, looks awesome. noticed a lot of body parts i had never seen before.

[michaelmr2]

What is the car next to the red MKII?

[ween191]

i think it might be the random Honda (Beat?) mentioned.

[Crispin]

Very nice...

[turbomr2]

that looked like it was a blast

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the owner of that red little honda (i think beat) was the owner of the Japanese MR2 clubs MK3 of the year last year, and it was a really beautiful car.

I dont know if he still owns it, i think he does but the translation of that conversation didnt really come out right and all i understood was something like pork with cabbage out of the whole thing.

Does the video work for everyone?

[michaelmr2]

yeah..good video...who is the big loser who sticks his face in the camera at the begining? uuuuugly.


anyway...so no MKIII's there huh?