It was many years ago I can't recall the exact year but my show PunishUM Motorsports started in March of 2000 so for these 3 young men it must have been about a year after that. Jason Ryan, Mike Irion and David Tang started a company here in Hawaii that would end up becoming a world wide phenomenon called Grip Video. The Three Amigos. The mission of Grip was to cover the international import scene from car shows to street racing, put it on a DVD and make it available all over the world. They did and covered it all. Anyone could pick up one of their DVDs from every major retail chain anywhere in the world these outlets had a location. From Borders to K-Mart.

The gang from Grip would travel all over the US and Japan gathering their footage. One day I got a call from Jason asking what I was doing a few weeks later. They needed another cameraman as Mike had some other obligations and could not make the upcoming trip they were planning. I asked where? Jay said Japan. WOW, that would be an experience. "Drifting and Sushi" where it all began. I never heard back from them so thought nothing of it. They were leaving on a Tuesday and I get a call on Friday to say if I was still interested. I said sure. So they got me a ticket but there was a BIG problem. I had No PASSPORT!!! MOM to the rescue. She made a few calls and found out I could get a rush passport if I had the ticket in hand and if I had an important J-O-B. My press pass from being a news cameraman at NBC KHNL was all I needed. I had a scheduled video shoot that weekend at the Turtle Bay so on my way home that Sunday I would have to stop and get passport pics made at a local store. A mad rush was on as I had to also finish some stories I was working on for Ch 8 before I got on that plane. Spent all Sunday night editing then went straight from the TV station to the federal building early that Monday morning. I was the second person in line. When it was my turn the teller at the passport office window said "NO WAY". I told her my story, she grabbed my press and boarding passes and disappeared. She comes back a few minutes later which felt like forever and said come back in the afternoon, we'll have it ready. I was stoked but I was so tired that my dad had picked it up for me later that day. I went back to the station later that night to finish editing the second of a two part story on the Import scene reporter Sharon Chen and I was working on. When I finally walked out of KHNL it was well after 5 am. The flight was for that morning at 8 am. I hadn't even packed yet and I was fighting a cold.

Jason Ryan and David Tang were already at the airport when I arrived. Eight hours later on that plane and, WHAM!!! You ain't in Kansas anymore Dorthy. We had to get onto 3 trains and a bullet train to get WAAAAAyyyyyy out in the boonies. Grip were guests of world renowned drifter Kumakubo. His family owns one of the most well known race circuits in the world, Ebisu in Nihonmatsu. On our way to the hotel we all fell asleep on one of the train rides and ended up at the end of the line. None of us spoke Japanese well. A word here or there but that is it. When we finally arrived at our hotel it was well after midnight. Luckily it was just a stones throw away from the train station and right next to the hotel was a 7 Eleven. No burger and hot dog counter near the register like the 7 Elevens we are used to here. Instead you had a huge pot of Oden. That was a trip. It was Marukai in a 7 Eleven. You are greeted at the door "Irrashai" and ALL the train stations had this Bee Bom bell chime before the announcements. The three of us imitated that Bee Bom sound for years to come.

One of the major cities Koriyama was a 20 minute train ride away and costed a couple of bucks which we went to regularly as Nihonmatsu was like a time capsule over a hundred years ago. Nothing to do or really see. Koriyama had all of the major auto chain shops we wanted to go to as well as major malls and places to eat. Our first trip to Koriyama from Nihonmatsu Jay wanted to eat at the Mc Donalds and I said WHY? He replied,"The food looks EXACTLY like the pictures on the wall." Are you KIDDING me? Dude we are in JAPAN man, let's eat things we can't get back home. That is what traveling is all about. Dave was such a good guy, he just stood there and laughed while Jay and I was having our debate. I really don't like sushi as about 10 years earlier the company I was working for took us out to this all you can eat joint in town for Christmas. I ate SOOOooo much sushi, after that I could not even stand the smell of sushi. So this trip to Japan would be the first time in over 10 years since I last had them buggers. We ate the most AMAZING sushi at a joint near the Koriyama train station. UNREAL, never tried Toro before which Jay chose for us. It was less than 2 bucks for 4 pieces. Here just one piece is close to 10 dollars. The Toro just melted in your mouth. Tried the Toro at a few places here after that trip but there is no comparison. Now with our bellies full it was time to go and seek out these auto shops. We were like the 3 Stooges as we stumbled all over town and in our broken Japanese asked anyone on the street how to get to an Autobacs store. Autobacs is the Japanese equivalent of a Macy's for import car lovers. When we were finally pointed in the right direction it was a trek and a half to say the least. So much so that I could not walk the next day. But it was so cool, having just seen pictures from the pages of Japan Import magazines we were now in an Autobacs store. After that long walk I just had to buy something, anything. I recall getting some small things like accessories for my cell phone just to say I got them from AUTOBACS. The next morning while Dave slept in Jay and I went around Nihonmatsu, well, Jay walked while I hobbled and we came across this temple. The priest scolded us for taking pictures I guess in a restricted area. He asked us where we were from. So in my broken Japanese I told him Hawaii and I was a Yonsei. At that point he said,"Ohhhhh" and that helped him to understand what a Gaijin we were and he then had sympathy for our ignorance. He began to educate us on the temple. As I can recall the priest said it was the temple of Ieyasu Tokugawa. The first Shogun of Japan. Talk about getting to touch history. And the Cherry Blossoms were also in bloom at that time.

The next day we had to travel out of the city to meet this American now living in Japan who was running an auto shop in who knows where. He was going to take us later that night to where it all began, Togue. Mountain road DRIFTING. Dave who was some 6 feet 4 inches PLUS was the tallest Chinese guy I ever met. He was a former volleyball player at UH so you get the picture. Back in Hawaii Dave got an International Drivers License so he could drive in Japan. Which is required to rent a car in practically every foreign country. That had me laughing as those darn things are given to anybody. The car rental company never even cared about his Hawaii drivers license where you have to take a written test first just to get a learners permit and then you have to pass an actual driving road test. This international license is so easy to get you could make a copy of it at your local copy center. All you had to do was answer a simple multiple choice test. If you got just one correct I think they still gave it to you. Ok, so we proceed with poor directions in RUSH hour as the sun is going down. Great, no daylight, no idea where we are going, in a foreign country with a guy who guessed right at a few questions on a questionnaire getting us there. Now the fun part. The Japanese drive on the opposite side of the road and Dave, well this is his first time driving on the wrong side of the road, EVER!!! Needless to say I lost count of how many times we came close to DYING!!! Especially during left turns. It feels so unnatural as you are turning into on coming traffic lanes here. We went head on with other vehicles at EVERY left turn. There were a lot of honking and screaming of words we had no clue what they were saying other than the mad looks on their faces were indicators they weren't telling us "Aloha".

When we finally got to the mountain road late that night, the mountain was amazing. Even though it was raining and cold when the drifters there heard that the guys from Grip Video was coming out to do a story on them, they packed that mountain. Grip had some clout let me tell you. Although it was still illegal street racing it was well organized and the locals living in the area know to stay off of that particular stretch of road at night. The police never bothered except for some Boso punks who are basically Yakuza wanna bees. They were drunk and throwing rocks at the drifters. So a bunch of the drifters and Jay with a few tire irons and baseball bats went to confront them and when Jay started yelling at them in English them Boso's didn't want problems with a Gaijin so they left. That was too funny. At first we all thought it was the cops. You should have seen it, it was exactly like the mad scramble to leave like the street racing scene in the first Fast and Furious movie. So with that settled and the drifting resumed we ended up staying till the very end. That pic of that winding mountain road we were on was taken just as the sun was coming up. This is why when the Japanese drifters go to a real racetrack they are so proficient already or maybe . . . . Dead? Either way they know what they are doing. Not that I condone street racing of any type but these street drifters were better than any American Pro I ever saw.

The drift club that ruled this mountain was called Rapid. Them Japanese come up with names that you just have to scratch your head and say HUH? Like Team Orange. What? This pic of Rapid's Team Members was taken from the mountain tunnel that was the designated start point lower on down the mountain. In front with his head cocked is Jason Ryan and on the far left is me with the hood on my head and gloves. Right behind me wearing the black cap is Good Ole David Tang. As we were leaving and heading down the mountain as the sun is coming up the locals are now on this road as well. Dave almost went head on with another car AGAIN and that time I was surprised he avoided what seemed like and should have been an impending CRASH.

The next day we finally get to see what we really went to Japan for which was BIG X. Team Orange's major annual event at Ebisu. While the worlds top drifters are drifting Freestyle Motocross guys are jumping over them. The circuit is amazing. Ebisu consists of 7 drift and road courses, a drag racing course and a lion country safari. Complete with albino giraffes and lions. That track and zoo occupies a lot of land and in a country that is the size of California with a population around half of that of the US, that is impressive.

The event was in the middle of the week and I was amazed at the thousands and thousands that flocked to the track. Then I was told it was because that week was Golden Week which is THE major holiday where the whole country takes off for 7 days.

It was HEAVEN. All that drifting by the worlds top drifters and the highlight at the finale was when Izumida in his Z33 ( 350Z here in America ) motioned for me to get in the middle of the track. He proceeded to do donuts around me less than a foot away. And then, "THE" best drifter in the world Taniguchi in his own personal S-15 joins in. Later that night laying on my hotel bed I could still hear tires screeching ringing in my ears. That was just Too Kewl man.

The next day was another event at Ebisu open to the public called Drift Day. For around $100 US dollars you can drift at any one of those 7 courses for 24 hours. People were camping out and in one area they were roasting an entire side of a cow on a spit. At that BBQ we ran into a guy who had lived in the US and he spoke perfect English. He's the one in front making the thumbs up and next to him is Natsuko. This girl can drift circles around any pro from any country in the world other than Japan. That is me to the right with the hood on ( This hood wearing is my theme as it was COLD man. ) and Jason and Dave in the back.

Before we left Ebisu I had asked that guy ( Excuse me as I am VERY Bad with remembering names. ) to write down in Japanese instructions I can hand to the taxi cab driver on how to get to a place called "UP Garage" in Koriyama. Up Garage is an upscale auto recycling center
( Can't call it a junkyard as the place is better kept than any auto parts store here in Hawaii. ) where there are racks of sets of used rims in excellent condition as well as everything used from BRIDE seats to Momo steering wheels for cheap. The rims in the picture is what I picked up. These were RARE Japanese Sparco rims. ( Wipe the drool please. ) Like a lot of the rims in Japan they were made for the Japanese market ONLY. Guess how much I bought these bad boys for? You'll never guess. The entire set cost me $108 dollars!!! Brand new they were probably going for a couple grand. I didn't even care how I was going to get it back to Hawaii. So I spent an hour on the shops floor wrapping them up with cardboard and plastic. Jay and Dave helped me load them up into the taxi and we went back to the train station. Dave stayed with the rims while Jay and I went to look for a luggage cart which I used like a hand truck to get them around.

When we were finally getting back onto the trains heading back to the airport for our return trip home at the train stations Dave would stay with all the luggage while Jay would go one way and I the other to find escalators. When I got back to Hawaii customs thought I was bringing back Taiko drums because of the way I had wrapped them. LOL

That year the boys from Grip took me to help them shoot their videos at the Formula Drift events in Houston and Infineon which is in Napa Valley. I had a blast. But that trip to Japan with Dave and Jay was one of the highlights of my life because I got to experience it with good friends.

The Bee Bom sound was our greeting to each other after that trip to Japan. An inside joke that only we understood. That was our connection to each others memories of that great trip I refer to as "Drifting and Sushi". We kind of lost touch with each other. Jay went to Iraq and Grip Video went on hiatus as Dave was diagnosed with cancer. Dave loved cars and people. He always had a way of making everyone he met feel special.          I knew he was battling cancer and heard he went to Boston for some new procedure he was willing to try. About the time I started to promote the drift events at the stadium I got an email from Dave wishing me good luck and for us to get together.     I never got that chance. No one told me of Dave's passing. I found out by accident Googling his name last year right around Thanksgiving. My friend David Tang died from cancer on February 22, 2008. Six days shy of his 32nd birthday. I think about Dave every now and again and what better way to remember my friend Dave Tang then letting others know who he was. So here's to David Tang, where ever you are BUDDY I just hope there is a lot of "Drifting and Sushi" for my friend . . . . . and some sake.