Yes, I last posted a while ago since I got to study for an exam. I thought my last exam would be in 2020, but it seems that exam has returned to haunt me.
After visiting Irohazaka, we drove to Gunma, specifically Takasaki, for our hotel. Takasaki is where the Takahashi brothers live, by the way. This part of the trip was perhaps the most exciting time in Japan, along with diving at the USS Emmons. After watching Initial D for god knows how long, I am finally here to see the real thing.
From this point onward, I will refer to Mount Haruna as Mount Akina. Mount Akina is the frictional name for Mount Haruna in the anime.
Of course, I convinced everyone to check out Mount Akina – at midnight. Why? The main characters in the show always hung out late at night, and we were recreating the scenes. The journey to the mountain was fun; A R34 wanted to race us, which would never happen since we were in a regular Toyota Corolla (we wanted to avoid getting into trouble).
While driving uphill, we noticed some broken road barriers, implying that people had raced and crashed there before. The damage to the barriers was significant, confirming our theories that people actually raced at Mount Akina. It was snowing halfway through the mountain, and the road became extremely slippery (I was fighting against my intrusive thoughts – should I drift?).
Finally, at midnight, we were at the hangout spot at Mount Akina, just like the characters in Initial D. However, it was bloody cold, and we were “cosplaying” as the characters, which meant only white T-shirts and jeans. We didn’t stay there for long.
Before we went back to the hotel, a heavily modified car spotted us and decided to do a burnout. The driver knew we were checking out Mount Akina due to Initial D. Seeing a real burnout in public was surreal.
That’s it for now. The next blog post will be about Mount Akina again but during the daytime. I won’t be posting soon because of the exam.
See you soon! (hopefully)