Tsukuba Circuit license

As of today I have my very own Tsukuba circuit license!

I attended their lecture on last saturday with a japanese friend of mine (same guy who helped me buy my Type R in the first place) whom I brought along just in case I needed some translation. Language wise It turned out to be much easier than I thought.

I submitted my application form, paid the fees and attended their initial 2-hour lecture followed by a 1-hour on-the-course bus drive. The lecture itself was a world of difference compared to that given at Fuji Speedway. First of all, in Tsukuba they don't bother going through the textbook page by page and explaining what you can read about anyway in your own time, instead they talked about how to drive on a circuit, from heel-toeing, braking, shifting etc. It was almost as though I was in driver training ! The main lecturer spoke fast but somehow I was able to get 70% of his japanese and thus make out what the main points were.
In the end another dude showed up and went through the details of their unique reservation system, which again is completely different to what they do at Fuji. I won't go into the details of it but basically at Tsukuba you need to book a month in advance and on occassions 2 days ahead of your chosen day but only if there are open spots due to cancellations.

Ahh, the bus tour/drive, whatever you want to call it took place from 4pm to 5pm and it consisted of us being driven on the TC1000 (short course) and TC2000 course and explained about corners, clipping points (apex'es) etc. It was quite useful but a bit weird as normally you wouldn't be sitting on a bus with a suspension so soft it felt like you were about to topple over.

In the end we got told our temporary licenses would arrive in a few days (I got mine today !) and our actual cards (the plasticy, shiny thinges we all have hundreds of in our wallets) would arrive in a month's time. God knows why they need so much time but hey.

So, if you're out at Tsukuba and see me, come say hi, otherwise stay tuned for videos from Tsukuba coming soon !

And one last thing, I need to get a tow hook for both front and rear, circuit rules !