The breakthrough was the video "What NOT to do in Japan", in March , which quickly amassed hundreds of thousands of views at the moment of its launch they had about a dozen subscribers. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May 25, Retrieved October 20, Retrieved September 21, Retrieved from " https: Articles containing Japanese-language text. Views Read Edit View history.
This page was last edited on 25 November , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. For someone who has no issue driving at high speeds in one of the most dangerous sports in the world, I found it very confusing. Unfortunately in order to get a second angle of us on the roller coaster we had to ride it a second time. I had been fine after the first run but we both definitely felt a little ropey after the second run! Filming finished we headed to the track and straight into our production meeting for the weekend ahead. After that I headed into the paddock where we filmed giant Jenga with the Haas drivers.
We expected it to take 10 minutes or so but we hadn't banked on them being so good at it. Give any driver a competition and they will do their absolute utmost not to lose. There are drivers who refuse to take part in games they don't think they can win at so you have to choose games where there is the real possibility they have played it before and can be confident they can win. Romain and Kevin made it to 31 levels before the tower fell.
It took over 20 minutes and their press officers were itching to get them away, but you can't drag a driver away from a competition until it's finished, or you do so at your peril! Then it was down to Red Bull hospitality to film my sit-down interview with Max Verstappen.
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I started by asking how he would be celebrating his 21st birthday and he said he would be flying back to Monaco on Sunday night and be at home alone. We had a chat about his highs and lows so far and I ended the interview by asking what he hoped to achieve by his next big birthday, his 30th.
He said he hoped to have four world titles by then. This was a line that made headlines but the interesting thing was, I don't think anyone who spoke about it said they didn't believe he would. Then it was time for Welcome to the Weekend which is live from the paddock at the end of the day. We had had confirmation of Antonio Giovinazzi at Sauber for so that was among various topics that evening, as well as Lewis' performance in Singapore, the fall-out from Force India's drivers hitting each other and Red Bull's forthcoming grid penalties.
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On Friday evening we were invited to dinner by Williams at a Japanese restaurant in one of the hotels in the Olympic Park. It's always nice to get away from the track and talk to people about pretty much anything other than Formula 1, and the food was fantastic. The food and service in Russia has come a long way since the F1 first visited in and I guess the recent World Cup helped that too. As a result of a conversation over that dinner, Williams invited us to present Welcome to the Weekend in Japan from inside their garage. The F1 Show in Russia featured the two Williams drivers.
It was interesting to hear from Lance Stroll what good friends he and Esteban Ocon are despite the situation they find themselves in. It's a shame Esteban can't replace Lance at Williams - but comebacks do happen, as after the F1 Show I went and interviewed Dani Kvyat after it was announced he was returning to Toro Rosso in Big thanks to the williamsracing boys for joining us. A post shared by rachelbrookes rachelbrookes on Sep 30, at 1: That evening we went to dinner at a restaurant down by the beach that I think used to be Bernie Ecclestone's favourite.
After the announcement earlier Dani Kvyat was there having dinner with the Red Bull team and the restaurant was littered with F1 folk.
Just after we had eaten our main courses, however, the fire alarm went off. The warning was in Russian so we weren't sure if we needed to leave or not and as our table was tucked away upstairs we couldn't see if anyone else was leaving. I got my Google Translate app out on my phone and recorded the audio of the alarm.
At that moment the waiter walked in and we asked him what the alarm was about. He shrugged his shoulders and said "It's Russia! The alarm didn't stop though so we paid our bill and left soon after. On Sunday morning, I arrived at the track and headed as I always do straight to our canteen for a coffee.
Inside were three large men in suits with earpieces talking Russian. I knew they weren't part of our crew but as President Putin usually attended the race I guessed they were part of the security operation ahead of his appearance later. Even so, they were very intimidating and a reminder that of however many years we have been coming here, some things don't change. Whether it's the aggressive security at the football stadium or the large numbers of suited men in and around the paddock, there is no mistaking you are in Russia. Before the race on Sunday I was doing my 'toilet run' interviews and caught Sebastian Vettel coming out of his garage.
Some days he talks, some he doesn't. This time he gave me a one-word answer to my first question and then ran off.
I could have run after him but then my cameraman would have been running backwards in a live pit lane and no driver is worth that, not even Seb. I had someone ask me if it was because I was wearing boots and not trainers. The rule is that you have to wear closed toe shoes in the pit lane for safety reasons, it doesn't stipulate that they are to be trainers, and after many years of wearing them I can assure you running in heels is no problem for me at all. In fact I might actually be quicker in heels than in trainers!
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Mercedes used team orders to ensure the win for Lewis and point gap leaving Russia. While I may not be a huge fan of it I understand why they did it and why you can never assume an amount of points is safe until it is mathematically impossible to be beaten. It still smarts though. Especially when it is someone as nice as Valtteri, who needed a confidence boost. I remember interviewing him in Singapore post-race and he told me how much he needed to have a good Saturday. He'd done that, taken pole and had the win snatched from his grasp. You could see he was devastated after the race and he said he couldn't wait for next year to start when he would be back on an even footing.
He admitted that he wouldn't be able to win a race until Lewis had the title but he understood it.
This week I did get to interview Lewis and as my final question I asked him if he asked the team if he could give the place back once they were both free and clear of Vettel and he said he thought about it but didn't ask the team. It's the ruthlessness needed to be a world champion, and a five-time world champion at that.
What if he had given that place back and went on to miss out on the title by seven points? Sunday night was a quiet one as I had a 4am alarm call in order to get a flight to Nagoya in Japan.
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Once in Nagoya, we went to our hotel at the bullet train station and I finally got into bed at 4am local time ready to catch the bullet train the next day to Tokyo. The bullet train is incredible and it runs on time, all the time. It allows about 90 seconds at a station to offload passengers and for new ones to board. When there are six of you with suitcases, bags and camera equipment it's quite an operation to throw everything on board and then try to find places to put it once the doors are closed.
I got into my hotel room in Tokyo at about 2. That evening we went out to find some food and I had my first experience ever of fried Brussels sprouts. I was craving vegetables after a lot of 'beige food' in Russia and they were pretty much the only ones on the menu, along with purple sweet potato fries which I also ordered. The sprouts were actually delicious and melted in the mouth, I can highly recommend! The purple sweet potato fries weren't quite as good and I won't be trying them again.
We then went to an area called Golden Gai, which has to be seen to be believed. It is street after street of tiny bars.
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And by tiny I mean only big enough for four people at a time. They were like small cupboards made out to be bars. We wandered around until we found one that could take all four of us - in other words one that was completely empty - and sat huddled around the bar observing the hundreds of bank notes stuck to the ceiling and bar from all over the world. I then headed back to research the sites for the next day's filming and write some script, leaving the boys to discover more of Tokyo. Mount Fuji from the bullet train on our way to Tokyo. A post shared by rachelbrookes rachelbrookes on Oct 1, at 9: Wednesday was a full on day of filming.
We had a plan to visit various sites, record links and film and get back to the hotel in time to catch the bullet train back to Nagoya at 6pm followed by a local train to Yokkaichi where we were staying for the race. Japan is an amazing country. The people are so respectful and so smiley.