Now to continue the look back on my short career as an automotive photogr……..

Uh I still have trouble using that term.

Anyways, during my last post I got to the point where I had relocated to Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan during the final few days of  the year 2007.

Just a few days after arriving, I headed over to nearby Tsukuba Circuit to take my new Canon 30D on its maiden voyage in Japan. Powerhouse Amuse was holding a track day, and it was sure to be a good one.

The late Tanabe-san of Amuse was out in his showroom fresh R35 GT-R, aiming to break the one minute mark at Tsukuba. It was a fine way to reacquaint myself with the place.

The action continued a few days later with Tokyo Auto Salon – my first trip to this chaotic, yet incredible event.

It's something that everyone should experience, at least once.

Meanwhile the wife and I found a decent apartment to rent in Tsukuba City. She found a job at a travel agency while I started picking up a few freelance gigs here and there. Slowly things were coming together.

Some days I'd hop in our little Honda Fit and take a drive over to Tsukuba Circuit just to see what was going on. I always found something cool to take pictures of…

The Tokyo metropolis was also a short train ride away, so I'd head down there often for events like the JCCA New Year Meeting.

Drift events on the big Tsukuba 2000 course were always some of my favorites to shoot.

It was also this period that I spotted RWB Porsches for the first time. I had been seeing them for years in Autoworks Magazine, but seeing them in real life was a holy experience. I posted pictures of them on my blog, helping them down the path to being the internet legends that they are today…

The best place to see the RWB machines in action was at the Tsukuba Idlers Games, one of the best automotive events on the face of the planet.

In the early spring of 2008 I was contacted by this guy named Rod Chong about a website that was being started up. Apparently my little blog was an inspiration for this new site, and Rod asked me to join the team for the launch.

How could I say no? I'd be doing the same things I'd been doing, but on a much bigger scale.

As the groundwork was being laid for Speedhunters, I continued to shoot as much as I could. When people thought of cars in Japan, a GT-R going down the Wangan or a Silvia drifting in D1 probably came to mind. I tried to share some of the other sides of Japanese Car Culture, such as he Mooneyes Street Car Nationals.

Not that there's anything wrong with drifting of course. I'd also fallen in love with Nikko Circuit, one of the best places to see drifting in Japan.

Speedhunters launced in May 2008, and one of the first big events I covered here was the D1 match in Odaiba.

The first time I met Rod in person was in August of '08 when he came to Japan on a Speedhunting trip. For me the highlight of this trip was our visit to the Rauh Welt shop in Chiba. Hearing Nakai-san talk about cars was incredible. There's really no one else like him.

There's no need for me to look back on all the Speedhunters work I did while in Japan, as that can be found in the site's archives. Take a look and you'll find some cool stuff back there, like Dodge vans on Watanabes.

The '08 Nismo Festival at Fuji Speedway was another highlight from my time living in Japan.

One of my favorite things to do while in Japan was put together posts of random cars I'd seen in parking lots or driving down the street.

As the year drew to a close. the wife and I decided that we'd made the most of our time in Japan and planned to move back to the US the next spring.

Japan was incredible, but there was a lot I wanted to do back home in the states.

As 2008 became 2009, it was once again time to start packing up things and prepare for another move across the Pacific. One of the last things I did in Japan before moving home was visit the HKS factory in Shizuoka.

This included an up close and personal shoot with the CT230R, along with a few other fantastic HKS vehicles. It was great way to finish off over a year experiencing the many facets of Japanese car life.

So in March 2009, we packed most of our stuff into four big suitcases and hopped on an All Nippon Airways 777 headed for California. It was a bittersweet experience leaving the wonders of Japan behind, but I hadn't seen my family and friends in over a year, and I was excited for my new life as a Speedunter in the USA.

Next time I'll wrap up my saga with a look at what I've done since returning to the states.

-Mike Garrett