Japan Drift Matsuri Dates, Who Wants To Come With Me?

Okay CTzens, the time has come for the Japan Drift Matsuri dates to be released. I will hopefully be going to all 3 this year and getting some awesome photos and videos for everyone to watch and lose their minds over.

Milky Diamonds

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

You can either buy a drift car and i’ll give you some lessons while we’re out there and we’ll run some drift sessions.
You can come and be a spectator and watch during the Matsuri weekend and get free rides with everyone.
You can just come and spend rad times with awesome people who love to drift.

Theme Park for Cars

From my last 2 adventures out in Japan it will be around £1,500 for flights, accommodation, money to buy awesome bento boxes, track entry, just general money. However this depends on the exchange rate at the time as well. This is NOT INCLUDING the stuff you need to buy for your drift car, add another £1,000 for tyres and fuel and repairs (Don’t go on the School course). All of these numbers are approximations and should be taken with a bit of salt, there is no “set” price, you just have to be smart with your money.

Drifters Lodge

This is where we’ll be staying The Drifters Lodge which is run by Powervehicles. Literally a house full of about 30 people who all drift together during the day, go to the local Japanese town and get dinner and then chill out during the night. You get to meet awesome people from all over the world: Strayans, Kiwi’s, Americans, Europeans, and ME!

Ebisu Circuit & Tohoku Safari Park

For those of you that don’t know what the Drift Matsuri is, it is a 36-hour, non-stop drift festival where you can drift on all of the tracks, including the 2 grip courses which are normally not open for drifting (160 km/h entries anyone?). Last time we were there, we were drifting until 3am on Minami and had the whole track to ourselves, just doing donuts and 360 drifts (Nobody tell Andy that, he’ll tell me off again). Did I forget to mention that there is a ZOO here as well? As in lion’s and llamas and monkeys and AHHHH. Plus they bring out the baby Lion for you to play with during the hot days (OMG the next one is in spring, spring is hot, right?).

Andy Gray vs Daigo Saito

Get rides with anyone including professional drifters. Last year a lot of awesome drifters came down; Daigo Saito, Robbie Nishida and so many more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. Then there’s drift teams that come down as well, Team Orange, Team Liberal & Teams from Australia like Hit & Run.

But we all know the one you really want to go with is Milky Diamonds!

G1GP Competition

1st) Brenden Mansfield 2nd) Ken Leong 3rd) Chris DeJager

The day before the Matsuri the competition also takes place. The G1GP (Gaijin Grand Prix) a foreigners only drifting competition which I compete in (Only person from the UK! Wooooo!). It’s an awesome experience, it is all for fun and it can really improve your drifting. There are some REALLY good Australian drifters who come down and compete, it really is fun to watch them go for it. For those who noticed, that is Alexi from Noriyaro who pretty much runs it on the mic. We also play Japanese rock, paper, scissors with EVERYONE and the winners get free goodies from tires to t-shirts.

The main purpose of the event is to have fun! I’ve made this today just to inform everyone of when the events take place during the year and that I am more than happy to make CTzens dreams come true and take them around Japan drifting. If you’re lucky i’ll take you around Tokyo as well, imagine London but everything is ramped up to 100.

The things you need to know around £1,500 for the whole trip without a drift car, with a drift car it’ll be around £2,500 (extra £1,000 for tires and fuel). You also need to consider the price of the drift car which is around £3,000 for a non-missile (but missiles are cheaper). I will be posting a detailed how-to blog post in the coming weeks on exactly what to do and how I done it for anyone who can’t make the matsuri dates. For now take a look on Powervehicles to find out what drift cars they have in stock to see what you may potentially buy. DRIFT CARS

I will give you the exact dates I am going for the Spring Matsuri soon. It should hopefully be around 2 weeks in Japan, so start saving CTzens, this is one you don’t want to miss!

Comments

I will be here one day, maybe not next summer, maybe not even in 4 years, but I will be here (;

Well when you decide, let me know!

How did I not know that such a heavenly thing exists!? Now i just have to start saving! Need me a drift missile and some sweet Ebisu track time! :D :D

Yes, yes you do, make sure to try and make the Drift Matsuri!

I don’t get it. You buy a car for like £3000 and then you drive it for two days. Then what? Do you keep the car for next year or sell it and get like £2900 back or what? This would literally be a dream come true but for £5500-6000 for a two day holiday and a horribly long flight doesn’t seem worth it

You can go for as long as you want, the ‘drift heaven week’ is a week long. You can choose to buy a car then drift it for the whole week, then either keep it in storage for the next Matsuri or sell it back (price depending on what damage you’ve done to the car). It’s always expensive to buy the car, but once that’s all done, the return trips work out much cheaper. I try and make all 3 Matsuri’s in a year (6 weeks worth of drifting - 6+ hours a day), you don’t get that sort of track time anywhere else.
Hope this helps!

Hey Milky, this sounds amazing and I will definitely be going for the summer Matsuri! I can’t wait! I have the money saved up already so I’m good to go :) do I just book my flights and all then meet you at the circuit or what’s the plan? It’ll be my first flight abroad without family so it’ll be a surreal experience!