FENDERIST-M ✕ Doridore. My first major event in Japan.

So I decided to have a break from cleaning tatami and gardening and get out of the house to go have a look at one of the coolest drift / car show events in Japan.

I can't begin without saying a massive thanks to my mate @heinne_in_japan over on Instagram who offered to pick me up from the local train station without ever seeing me in person before and then agreeing to drive over 10 hours down to Gifu for the weekend.

If you aren't following him already, definitely check him out. His level of precision and style are next level and I wont spoil what he's working on next but from what he was telling me it's going to be pretty wild.

But into the main event. We rocked up at around 9 and people were already piling in so I actually got most of these photos as people were getting set up just so it wasn't so crowded.

I always like to start off with just the carpark because there's always people with sick cars that either couldn't make the entry or don't have the money for a spot in the show and so you see some interesting builds even before you get into the show.

I've seen this 2F2F inspired R34 all over Instagram and I'm really glad I got to see it in the flesh. I'm even more glad that I got a photo of it in the morning before the owner ended up putting the rear of it straight into the barrier and destroying the rear end.

In classic Japan fashion, even the event venue looked amazing.

There was such a huge range of different styles at the event. I can't help but immediately be drawn to all the older 'kyusha' builds. This Corona is owned by @lowbrain_j2b3 and definitely stands out as such an unconventional platform. Looked incredible all day. Some keen eyed viewers might even spot @dino_dalle_carbonare in the background. Dino is an absolute legend and a huge inspiration behind what got me into automotive photography. Seeing his photos all across Speedhunters when I was just getting into the scene really influenced my style and so I was glad to get to say hello to him, such a great dude.

Another legend I got to talk to was Alexi aka @noriyaro. We had a good chat about our builds and what it's like living here. There's always that sort of sibling energy when Aussies and Kiwis run into eachother and so he gave me some solid advice that I really appreciated. We even spitballed some ideas for a potential future build.

But probably the car I really resonated with the most was this GT300 inspired R32 built by @daaa732 and I had a good chat with the owner and had to immediately give him a follow. I absolutely love these sorts of GT fenders and I'll absolutely be doing a GT styled build at some point.

It might not have been the cleanest car at the show but his creativity and the DIY feel of it really stood out to me. That's a Nissan Serena front bumper that he's grafted to the front. He was also very talented behind the wheel.

I know a lot of people feel certain ways about the heavily cambered cars in Japan, I personally absolutely love it. I'm a huge supporter of build your car as stupid and impractical as you like. As long as you're having fun and being safe, go nuts.

This guy seems to follow me around everywhere I go haha. Pretty cool seeing Mad Mike tear it up on track with some local drifters too.

There were 2 drift course, one up in the main carpark that from what I could see people were more or less free to come on and leave as they pleased, basically just coming on to destroy a set of tyres and then going back to change them over.

The main event was probably the road course which was actually just the same road everyone drove up to get in. There was one incident with a silver 180sx tapping a wall and sliding down the bank but looks like the owner and everybody else were OK and hopefully the car can be recovered.

After the drifting it was just another stroll through the cars parked up. It wasn't just drift cars, there was a huge range of styles which is just everything that I love about being here.

Shibatire had a booth setup and they were selling / changing tyres all day. It was such a brilliant idea and they seemed to be pretty popular out on track. I've personally looked at Shibatire a lot because they offer some really unusual sizes for smaller, wider wheels.

This was an FD rx7 with a corvette rear bumper and it was so seamless that I almost didn't even notice anything was up at the start.

And then best for last, this beautiful Hakosuka.

I know we've all seen pictures of Hakosuka's hundreds of time online, but I'm pretty sure this was my first time seeing one in person and it's always been just one of my absolute favorite looking cars of all time.

It was great getting to see it and even had a chat with owners friend and got to show him my builds as well.

As the day wrapped up and every starting heading out, we started our 2 day road trip back home too. Stopped off for a late night nap at an onsen and then continued all the way back to Saitama and then Chiba.

That's a wrap on Doridore,

I'll be putting a video up of the event over on YouTube but first I think I need to put together that 10 minute recap of the Stagea build. The 4 and a half hour one that just went up might be a bit much for some people haha