American Touge 2 Behind the Scenes

We are preparing our American Touge 3(2006) shoot for December 19-20 again. Tentative plans is to have a US version My Car Challenge on 12/19 and a American Touge on Horse Thief Mile on December 20.
In the meantime we've uploaded some Behind the scenes footage from AT2 on http://www.gtchannel.com.
We will be uploading new content everyday as we fix the glitches and bugs of this site. Let us know what you think! E-mail your comments and ideas to info@zigzagasia.com.

Waseda American Football Beats Nihon Univ.

Waseda beat Nihon University 28-20 yesterday.
My alma mater Waseda Big Bears are now 4-0. We are playing Senshu Univ next week and after that Hosei Univ. which are the reigning Kanto college champs.

To beat Nihon U is a big feat for us since they have beaten us 30 times in all 39 official season games we have played them since 1940. Our loss when I was senior is included in one of the 39 losses against them.

The last time we beat them was in 1993. At that time Waseda had not beaten them in 40 years. But since 1997, Nihon U lost their edge. Yesterday was the first match up in 10 years.

Nihon U Phoenix had a charismatic coach named Shinotake who passed away earlier this year. He had a aura that none of the other coaches had.
The other coaches including Waseda were all part time Sunday coaches. But you can't win football games that way. Thing started changing for Waseda when Takao Asakura became coach. He graduated 2 years earlier than me and was the captain of the team when I was a sophmore.
After winning a championship with the Asahi Beer Silverstar he worked for the NFL Japan office for a while and then quit to become the head coach of the Waseda Big Bears. He has shown a clear goal to win the college championship and a plan to achieve it. We are supporting him.
I hope we can make it to Koshien where the Kanto champs and Kansai champs fight for the Japan collge championship. In 2002 we went to the championship game but lost to Ristumeikan 51-14.
Our 06 team has a good chance to be the champ.

Super Car Spotting

Lamborghini Gallardo parked outside of a Shinjuku department store.

GT Channel.com Update

Our online automotive site "GT Channel(beta)" is up and running now! It has taken a long time to get here but we are so proud we were able to launch this site. This is what GT Channel offers.

1. Top quality videos starting from Best Motoring, Hot Version and the Super GT racing footage from Japan. We have original programming coming up soon! First videos from SEMA Show 06.

2. Viewer uploads of their own videos. Just like YouTube, you can upload your ride or video footage you took at events etc. Unlike YouTube, once you sign up and upload your video, you will be PAID a portion from the ad if someone clicks on the ad.

3. You can also make money by just "grabbing" the videos too. We call this syndication. Just sign up and start grabbing your favorite videos and start posting them on your blog, myspace, homepage and forums. We will also pay you a portion of the ad sales if someone clicks on the ad you syndicated.

Still some glitches here and there but GT Channel is up and running so go crazy!

Mine's GT-R in the US?!

Mine's R34 GT-R

The Mine's R34 GT-R arrived to the US for its promotional tour. It will first go to SEMA in Las Vegas in 2 weeks. Then to the Super Street Time Attack.
In December it will be at American Touge 2006!

BMI Type R Legend videos for UK Honda Type R Site

Copyright Honda Motor Europe Limited

The 2007 Civic Type R will go on sale in the UK in March 2007. We were proud to take part in helping UK Honda tell the Type R story. Couple clips were used from Best Motoring International Vol.1 Type R Legend for the special website.
Now if only we can get a Type R in Japan too...

Check out: http://www.redh.co.uk/
Archives
'92 NSX Type R Gallery-Next
'95 Integra DC2 Gallery
'97 Civic R EK9 Gallery

Hakone Shoot (2)

A silver version of the Spoon S2000.

Rays Wheels and Williams F1 Team

Japanese performance wheel maker RAYS and Williams F1 Team announced their collaboration for the 2007 F1 season at Suzuka GP last week.






Spoon S2000 with Rays wheels
Photos Courtesy of Yuki Imamura.

Run DMZ

Took a trip to Seoul Korea last weekend and also visited the DMZ. Little did I know that N.Korea would test their nuke the next day!


Here is the last station on the South side before entering N.Korea. It's called Dorasan Station.


They even make rice in the DMZ. Special farmers are allowed to work and live near the border to cultivate the land.


We visited the 3rd tunnel. This was the third tunnel dug by the North which was capable of transfering North Korean troops across the border underground. Who knows how many others they have dug?


In downtown Seoul, Nandaemon.


Japanese ladies taking photos in front of a billboard of Korean soap star Pei Yon Jung...


Obviously I was also thrilled to take a photo with Yon-sama.

Star Trek Cribs

This is one funny video. Just had to post it.



ブラックでヒップなスタートレック人形のMr.スポックが展開するStar Trek Cribs。G4というアメリカのゲーム／オタクなCATV局で放映されています。スタートレックの再放送をアメリカで見て育った私はおもいっきり笑ってしまいました。

ところでこのビデオはYouTubeからのフィードですが、Googleが本日Youtubeを16億ドルで買収したというニュースがありました。Youtubeはまだ事業性を証明できていませんでしたが、Googleがこの大金を払って買うということは今後の可能性を読んでいるのでしょう。著作権問題がYoutubeをNapsterにように閉鎖させることになると予想するアナリストや業界人はいますが、果たしてどうなのでしょうか？これでクリーンになれるのでしょうか？実際我々のBest Motoringのコンテンツも無断でユーザーによって毎日YoutubeやGoogle Videoのアップロードされています。一応Claimをすると早ければ数日後には削除してくれますが、対応は遅いし、そもそもチェックしていないところがまったくダメですね。その辺は大きく成長するための必要リスクと見ているかもしれませんが、もっと著作者への配慮がないと今後問題になりそうです。