The board was amazing. So much pop, flex and jibs. The Gorms has a select park option which you have to walk to but my god it was worth it. T-Bar to the top and your in for 3 butter plates (mid, wide and narrow) a hop to it box, a rail then a sweet kicker all in a nice even row. Was sick!

Not sure how the photos will turn out but it was super fun. Heading back up tomorrow for more slides can’t wait. Riding fresh powder again got me addicted fast. This board butters sooooo well, I swear I can hop like 3x higher as well lol.

Oh and how’s this for a winter beater?…

Anyway that’s most my pictures for the day. Since I got shot of Facebook I can stick Em up here again and make things worth while.

Although there was a good amount of sweet spots the following pics will show u just how bad our season has been so far..

But hey. Scottish Snowboarding. Who cares. Ha! Until tomorrow!
Ja Ne!

It’s almost time for Chinese food!

Kawagoe is a famous town known for its edo period remaining buildings. The Bell tower still stands and for whats left, museums are on hand to display the history of the old Samurai town.

The city is known locally as “Little Edo”(小江戸, Koedo) after the old name for Tokyo, “Edo”. Kawagoe castle was the headquarters of the Kawagoe Domain and occupied by close aides of the Tokugawa shogunate. Most of the buildings were dismantled in the 1870s but some remained or were relocated.

Before it was merged with Saitama Prefecture in 1873, it was the capital of Kawagoe Prefecture (1871) then Iruma Prefecture (1871–1873). (Click below for more!)

Here we have Amanda showing Danny some of the meaning to the charms. He was looking for a ‘Safe Driving’ one!

One the best things with Japanese gardens for me is the interactivity there is. It’s never a static show where your just looking at a tree.. this garden was a prime example, and your about to see why.

A tsukubai (蹲踞^?) is a small basin provided in Japanese gardens and temples for visitors to purify themselves by the ritual “washing of hands” and “rinsing of the mouth”.  Tsukubai are usually of stone, and are often provided with a small scoop, laid across the top, ready for use. A supply of water is provided via a bamboo pipe called a kakei.

All clean and ready to begin some of the tasks within.

I don’t remember these off the top of my head (the meanings) and my Kanji is no where good enough to be able to translate them (YET!) however I do recall that one was for money, one for being happy and succeeding etc. Basically, you donate however much you feel you want to (I believe usually its 50-100 yen) Ring the bell and make a wish.. collect 3 rope rings, and your basically playing a game of hoopla to which ever one you wish to aim for.

This dude makes sure you dont cheat.

Sophs up

Then D.

Its all a good laugh really to see if the gods will be on your side to aim for your wish.

If you fail as hard as I did to get them on there, not all hope is lost for your future. Right next to this (in front of Amanda) is a zeniarai bath. This means to coin wash.

It is said, that if you wash your money in this bath, your money will double in value with the way you spend it. However.. im not 100% convinced this worked with me

I took this photo for Jay and Caroline lol.

Check the options they have there for the KOOLS and Marlboros! Were getting bumped here.

Alas.. I hadn’t emptied my cards before hand, (Being the last day and all) thus had no space left on my cards, There was a tiny little shop selling 2gig Compact flash cards but the price was way over priced that I couldn’t justify the money. Soph bought a cheap disposable one the rest of the day, Will need to get those seen to.

A pretty cool looking Accord.

Here stands the famous Bell tower. Restored into prime condition and a really nice sight for this little town converted to a modern city. We had a great time, enjoyed some of the local food, and vending machine milk (which was amazing!) went to a few Museums and went to the odd park (to watch the cats and be eating by bugs!) It was a great day out! Arigato Amanda! <– Epic tour guide!

Ja Ne!

Ahh Japan. That good old Asian island on the ring of fire. Where the sun sets red, the cars tear up the touge and girls wear shorter shorts than Soph.. well, almost

ANYWAY. Several members of Minty.Fresh including myself headed over to Japan for the Summer Matsuri held at Ebisu, in Nihonmastu. With a MASSIVE thanks to Andy and Emily from Powervehicles, I would first off like to wish them all the best with their wedding and the fun times to be had. Im almost certain, we’ll see you again though

This post however is just some photos from Yokohama. Mainly because trying to find time to edit photos, well.. there’s not much of it.

Check back often though – I’ll get through them and type up a report on the Summer Matsuri and the rest of our adventures in Japan.

Ahh good old Japan!

-Mata Ne

The car was in a certain garage to get work done, long story short, they werent happy with the car being a bit ‘used’ (i.e. subframe scraping, a bushing fell out) so after charging me for their ‘time’ I got in touch with a friend of a friend, who could do the job at his workshop. With the car running around -5′ of camber on the front, it handled terrible! So you can imagine after months and months of having it sitting on stands, the day when I had it back again, on the back roads.. I was happy, VERY happy!

Alas, good things usually come with an equal. About 10 minutes from my house I encountered a very large deer, who helped me spent some more hard earned.. lame.

As you can see, headlight was totalled. No surprise really. Wing, indicator, lens, lid, motor and those super bright Raybrig headlight bulbs i picked up in Autobacs. Gutted.

I was beginning to really panic now, this was Tuesday.. around 2am. I had to leave on Friday, at 8am. Which left me.. Wednesday and Thursday, both of which I was working. I set to it and got some parts ordered up and sent up to my door before the end of Thursday and took a day off work to get the car fixed and road ready for the drive down.

Basically, I got it done, along with a new exhaust system (from the US) which is amazing. Got the whole car painted and made the deadline for yesterday morning. However, I had brake issues.. big ones, it almost put a stop to the drift day, but we got there..

More photos and info to come on the full paint job and from todays drift practice at crail.

Ja Ne

I updated the noonefresher blog 5 minutes after it was announced by Team Japspeed. Here are some day light photos showing just how they found the car.

As you can by this photo, the car has been returned now safey to the correct hands and can be inspected for damage and missing parts. The spoiler has gone along with the rear over fenders (which are inside the car)

The rear lights were in the boot and the stickers down this side were almost totally gone! Its just aswell the found it when they did or it could of ended up just another looking scoob!

Here’s the shot of the wings in the back. Guess it was a quicker way then peeling those stickers off.

The bumpers gone too but I dont know if Japspeed have that or not at this point. It looked missing in the early morning photos.

Lights in the boot.

So all wells that ends well. No word on if the cops have those guilty for this yet, plenty of rumors going around as you can expect. Were just happy this is all over with and hopefully in the future.. we wont have to do this again. Needless to say this will have done good things for Japspeed over the weekend, alot of people were helping them out! Good job to the Driftworks community and various other clubs out hunting.

Ja Ne!

(Picture thanks to drifted)

There has been a massive flow of support thanks to the members over on Driftworks with a running update down to seconds and sightings all day. People heading out and sitting at various locations on the M25 and various other spots its possible to swing past. Infact as I type Mitto and others are out in the MK area scoping out the place for any updates on what the hell is going on – Crimestoppers are involved, various regional police departments and only tonight, it was shown on the BBC London news!

(Dont know who owns this picture im afraid – contact me)

So at the Performance Vauxhall show at Santa Pod yesterday the car was connected up (Battery) and driven right out the grounds. At first question was coming in to if this was a pro job or not, stolen to order as well.. this car runs a 1JZ 400+hp engine RWD set up, unique to this car so the parts arnt exactly something you can stick up on eBay and expect a quick sale. However a video was released of the car about 1 hour and 15 minutes later spotted on the M25 heading the Heathrow direction.

The car was stolen around 6.30pm so this would tie in correctly – Now the car only has a small fuel tank, So they must be making quick stops or they have spare cans with them.

Anyway, More information has been coming through all the time about possible sightings and its where abouts. This image was released of the car leaving the Santa Pod exit.

Here is one of the latest quick reports from Mitto, one of the dudes out on the scene at the moment.

11/06 100% confirmed seen on the M25 (video proof)

11/06 suspected to be in windsor, wolf lane area

12/06 suspected sightings by josh crofty in milton keynes, fullers slade, seen on weavers hill and shermans

12/06 suspected sighting by kye hedges in Hertford, then heading along the A414 into hetfield, hilltop.

Here is the report from the BBC

There is a reward going out to anyone with information on this. If anyone has any detailed know how or serious info then contact Crimestoppers ASAP! Contact details on next image.

Although there has been a massive positive response on this matter from like minded drifters, there is still the odd nut who feels the need to joke and laugh about this and through conspiracy theories all over the shop aimed at Team Japspeed. Its unreal, thankfully we can all ignore that and get on with the matter at hand. I really hope this is brought to justice shortly and those caught, are dealt with.. correctly.

Driftworks Thread

Team Japspeed Facebook Page

Ja Ne!

Being massive Chromeo fans that we are, when the opportunity arose for us to head south of the border to go check these dudes out jamming some g-tar and talk box we had to ensure there was no way we were gonna miss out! We got our tickets super early, sorted the flights out.. hotels.. basic plans for what else to do and see and 3 weeks before the gig.. it was announced Chromeo has cancelled their London show, due to a sore throat .. Pretty miffed off, TK checked up and found out DJ Hype was playing live at Fabric Live that night, so we decided to maintain our plans and get on board our flight outa the granite city scape!

London is one place, im not a fan of. If I could avoid going to that city in the future, I will indeed try my hardest not to. So you can imagine I wasnt exactly too stoked on going especially since Dave and P Thug had pulled out. However, Tk convinced me it would be some good times to be had and I did need a break from work and the norm.. So meh. One thing about London I came to realise was just how, ‘fake’ it was.. I could best describe it like going to Lego Land. Everything was so false and just ‘there’. Non the less, there was some cool shit to see as a tourist.

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This was the space observatory was a plan to see – TK was right, that place had some super cool stuff inside.

One thing in amongst all the space ships, and cool info was ALOT of talk on what seemed to be an up and coming event. ‘Deep Impact’ – The end of the world kinda stuff.. and there was posters up for it EVERYWHERE. Now Im going to post this now, on the 11th of June 2011 that I actually read something yesterday, about a man who had been spoken to be someone else, and was told that by the end of next year there is meant to be an asteroid which will come kinda close the earth according to NASA, it will miss the place he said however the panic caused afterwards is meant to be pretty wild.. so they say, Could this be a way for them to get the hint out there to drop into our sub conscious? Or is it just by chance lol. Either or, if it goes tits up next year.. you heard it here first folks :p

One of the other things at the Space place was the time line. I have to admit, if you or anyone you know paid to go see that.. you got bumped. Mega glad at times like this, we were acting typical skint scots. Anti-Climax.

Non other than the TK himself – Checking some stills on the old bust a move.

As to be expected with London.. there was loads of this kinda shit.

I decided to go all tin hat mode for the weekend – Taking photos of CCTV cameras, pictures of eyes and triangles, then laughed pretty hard when I seen this :p (I know its nothing to do with it but lol)

Some cool ass buildings by banks and the likes.

One of the only decent cars we seen in the whole place! Gutted.

Although.. there was a party boat! Now this was cool, this party boat went up and down the river just raving all day and night. Was pretty decent.

Repping hard.

Lets see what else there is to comment on. Drink.

What kinda trip would it be.. if you didnt go and snoop around the Mi6 building? So much so.. we almost got arrested. No joke!

The Domestic police shortly showed face screaming down the road with the blues and twos, guns drawn handcuffs out! Well.. not the last bit, but they had guns. I snapped this shot of the bacon roll as they winged past before the domestic 5 series raced up.. To say they were unhappy would be an understatment.

Bags searched, ID’s taken for checking, questions asked, memory cards looked at, flight info passed, hotels given, reason for being alive asked for etc etc. Section 44, a magical section where it dosnt matter who you are, or what you are doing you can be stopped and searched for anything.. its not actually legal according to the European Union Its actually against the human rights, but hey.. its a police state. We know this now.

However it was worth a talking to and being raped of personal information, just for this shot. They may be sneaky buggers with there death pills and pen bombs, but there is no question, that.. is a cool house! I asked the copper, ‘Is it true there’s 6 floors underground the Mi6??’ he couldnt answer me lol!

Dont ask me to translate.. I dunno. However it was pretty hard hitting to see all these people, out there speaking for their beliefs. There was people protesting for all sorts of things, The war on Iraq, Masons killing people, showing photos of injured babies, people who had been jailed for stuff etc. We got speaking and met some sound dudes.

This dude (Forgot his name) was protesting after being jailed for 6 years for doing nothing.. Now, I heard this man out. Everyone has a story right? I felt it only right to hear his. He was accused for drug selling and put in prison. He is putting his own life on the line now, to plead its a load of shit. Now, usually id of thought, that if someone was to have gotten busted for that, then they wouldnt go out publicly and tell the world it happened.. right? I mean surely if he’s done the crime he’d just get on with it.. why would he go so far out of his way to tell us all if it wasnt true what he was saying? He was beaten inside, tortured by these prison guys. For no reason. His life is now ruined and for what he thinks was only for a financial benefit to those in charge. He told me that the government receive up to £40,000 per annum to hold someone in prison for that 1 year, and he said that over the time he was locked up, they would have gotten around £240,000. Thats alot of easy money..

I dunno, Its one of these things you will never know for fact what the deal is, however the look in his eyes when he told us about being followed 24/7, How people dont serve him in shops now, how his friends and family have been made to leave him alone, people in shops signal others to make sure they all know he was in jail for ‘giving their children drugs’ when the reality of it is.. even IF he was, the drugs he got, would be straight from the hands who are dishing out the penalty.. Its a dangerous circle im afraid, and people do.. have to live with this. However he told me has nothing more to live for, but to get his message across for some form of justice. He said he’ll now die for this cause as if he doesnt, there is no point to living. Bold statement.

Well.. this is more than obvious really.. I’ll leave it at that lol.

Thats Part 1, Part 2 is to come when I clear out the cards I have sitting about – Few more snaps in there for you, There we have it – Fingers crossed after the Japan stop in August, i’ll never have to go back there! The sheer feeling alone of getting back to Aberdeen was unreal.. no cameras, no people, noone watching your every move.. its like being on Big Brother, im honestly not joking! The air coming out of Aberdeen Airport felt so fresh and clean compared to London’s fakery.

Keep your London – Im done with it.

Mata Ne

I have been in London with TK – I messed about with some pictures while we were getting drunk.

mmm i miss this. OEM Arch flared… WIN!

Ja Ne

We got home really late last night – The drive home was horrible.. Semi Slicks in rivers dont work :/ After a quick break at Dundee for scran we headed off.. I caught up with Scotty from SXOC and noted that his Zenki 14 didnt look to be in the best of health… within 7 miles of leaving, the bottom end went. We tried what we could and eventually got a tow truck to come past.. 2 HOURS! So with the long drive ahead we decided to carry on.

By the time we got back.. Outside of Aberdeen was a white out! It make driving.. hmm, hard. The front lip acted like a plow however somehow.. it survived. Looks like Wes was right when he said they were solid! I had no tripod and I was shattered but you get the idea

This was a good day.. despite whats been going on in Japan, Iv been stressed out.. mega worried for all my friends over there. I hope they pull through.

-Ja Ne