So today I've been thinking about Japan and Hawaii… and as I was looking through some of my photos, I found this cool pic of my friend Hirotaka Hoshino greeting the drifting fans after his performance at Big X at Ebisu West Course. Hoshino owns a custom paint and body shop in Gunma Japan called Hoshino Car Style, and is the leader of a Gunma-based drift team called Geki Kassou Dan.
Geki, which means "strong" is a very popular group of young drifters who have a "cool guy" personal image, aside from having cool cars, and a high skill level. As a result, they have quite a few hot females hanging out with their crew! Good job guys!
Geki Kassou Dan is also strongly tied to Team Orange, as Hoshino looks up to Nobushige Kumakubo as his sempai (it means like a mentor or something like that). Since the Geki team showed Kumakubo alot of dedication (both in improving their drifting skill and dedication to Team Orange), Kumakubo invited the Geki team to perform in Big X, the world's first event to combine drifting with freestyle motorcross bike stunts, high flying car stunts, trial bikes, and street bike stunts. To show even more dedication, Hoshino painted the entire Geki team's cars in different shades of orange!!! Wow, now that is being down for the cause!
Before I forget, let me also mention that Hoshino is a D1GP driver, and has competed in an FC3S RX7 (D1GP USA), and S15 Silvia as well. I can't wait to see Hoshino, Minami, and the Geki crew again next time I'm in Japan!
-Antonio Alvendia