“HIK” stands for “Hot Import Kenoh” and is a new series of events that was founded last year in Japan. These smaller events are generally pretty hard to keep track of, since I don’t have that strong of a grasp of the Japanese language, but luckily I have guys like Shota Mori over there to always help me cover events. I absolutely love Mori-san’s work and he is certainly one of my favorite photographers out there. I like the angles that he captures and I think we have a very similar taste in cars because he always seems to take photos of cars that I like or am interested in. That could just be the fact that I love a lot of the car scene in Japan but it helps to have a eye that I can relate to in Japan. He’s always out and about and stays up to date with many of the import automotive events that go on over there…

This particular HIK event was held in Odaiba, Japan at a venue known as “Rainbow Town”. Rainbow town probably means something completely different overseas but whatever the case, it served as a great venue for a car meet/show. A lot of the back drops in these photos provide for a very picturesque environment and really add to the overall look of the photos. The shots come out really clear and you get a good grasp of what it was like to be there that afternoon with them. Hot Import Kenoh can be considered more of a automotive lifestyle event rather than just a basic car meet. It is actually a show that has three different events going on at once; one is a car show, the other a car audio display/competition, and the third an SBM or “Style Box Meeting” which is catered to the vanning crowd. You’ll see some of these modified vans in the photos below but Shota devoted most of his attention that day to the cars that we are more accustomed to seeing. All in all, he gets a bit of everything and that is what I would try to do had I been in attendance. Shota Mori does a great job of covering this meet and I always look forward to new stuff from him…

This will be a two-part series of photos. I am currently working on some Import Alliance Atlanta coverage as well and will get that up this week. From this month on, I think we are starting to get back to the swing of things where there are constantly updates here on the site. The first couple of months were slow but I already have the feeling just from the content I have now that there will be a ton of stuff for you guys to see. Might be visual overload for some so I highly recommend you guys coming back daily (if you don’t already) to make sure that you are up-to-date on all the happenings here on The Chronicles. Anyways, let’s get into the photos from HIK today…

All photos were shot by Shota Mori and then processed by me (StickyDilJoe)…

From what Mori-san told me, he cruised out to this event with his friend Koji Yonekawa. Koji owns this Civic coupe that he converted to U.S. EM1 Civic SI specifications. People ask me this all the time but no, Japan does not have a EM1 Civic Si coupe. That means no sunroof, no EM1 B16A, etc. They DO have coupes over there, contrary to what people might tell you, but they do NOT have the SI coupe. If they want an EM1, they either have to import it here from the U.S., which a couple of Japanese guys have done, or they have to take the coupe they have and essentially transform it into an EM1-“look”. Much like how guys here will try to convert their Integras to JDM ITR specs…

A couple of other Honda enthusiasts who joined up for the caravan to the Odaiba Rainbow Town venue. You’ll also see an FG2 Civic coupe in this photo, another car that is not available in the Japanese Domestic Market. This one cannot be converted since there isn’t a base for them to convert to, so this white FG2 you see is an American import…

Also with them was this FG3 and FG2, both which of course, are from the good ol’ U.S. of A….Pretty interesting to see this happen so often now in Japan but like us, they also want what they didn’t originally have…

Really liked this shot of this trio of Civics… the EK up front is owned by Mayu Chi, a female Honda enthusiast, followed by Yuji Yoshida’s EK, and Yuki Kuroda’s FG2…

Yoshida and friends arrive at the Odaiba venue…

The funny thing is that I actually don’t really look at the FG2 builds over here but I’m instantly more motivated to look at one when I know that it is in Japan and how cool it is that they imported one over there…

You’ve seen this white/green Integra Type R a couple of times here on the site and most recently at the Track and Show event. The owner of this car definitely gets around and attends a ton of events…

S2000 from Scrapers on silver BBS LM… Also an interesting observation is their fascination with U.S. license plate frames. Their plates are actually a bit bigger so the frame ends up covering a large portion of their Japanese-issue license plates…

The mini-truck segment made an appearance at HIK, as seen here with this brightly-colored Toyota pick-up truck…

I don’t know too much about the trucking scene but I do enjoy these really clean examples….

S14 Silvia with some rear quarter damage on Barramundi Design Eleven wheels…

Mori is also a VW aficionado and captured this really nicely-done orange MK5 Golf GTI on Rotiform ROC wheels…

Y33 Nissan Cima with OEM GT Touring front bumper….

Clean 4-door Honda Integra with some purple Sprint Hart wheels…

Another U.S. import at HIK was this bagged Acura TL…

You can see in this shot alone the type of variety that HIK presented…

Even our very own Takeshi Kobayashi made an appearance at HIK in his U.S. Toyota Sienna van, which he actually sold that day of the event. From what he told me, he wasn’t expecting to sell it at all but the buyer had the cash on hand and he just couldn’t pass it up. Next time Takeshi pays us a visit he will be looking for a new family commuter to bring back with him. The blue NA1 NSX in the background is also the same NSX that you’ve been seeing lately here on the site. It was at the Track and Show event a couple weeks back and was also our banner car last week…

Shinichi Konno and Koji Yonekawa’s EM1 coupe conversions on display side-by-side…

Slammed B5 Subaru Legacy sedan…Not really sure what wheels they are but in another photo, I was looking to see what the center cap might say and the owner made custom center caps out of soda can tops. I swear, you can’t even make it up. I have a photo later that better illustrates what I’m saying…

ES1 Civic sedan on anondized purple Barramundi Design Toman wheels…. It’s rare to see these things modified anywhere in the world…

Looked like a beautiful day to have an event in Odaiba, Japan….

Mayu Chi and Yuji Yoshida’s hatchbacks…

White NA1 NSX with Marga Hills aero and Volk TE37s…

This Toyota Altezza build was one of the cars that I wished that Shota had gotten more detailed shots of. I’m kind of over the whole two-toned look but I am a big fan of the Altezza and always want to see what the Japanese are doing to them, especially since they don’t seem all that common anymore…

Another shot of the black Y33 Cima…this is the same front bumper that I once had imported over here but then was destroyed in a shop fire…

The K-Break LS came out to enjoy the nice weather…

Above are a couple of vans that showed up for the Style Box Meeting…

Killing me with the odd wheel choice but I am oddly intrigued by the front bumper/lip combo on this Honda NSX…

An aggressive set of forged Barramundi Design wheels on the ES1 you saw earlier…

More of the Legacy with an EF sedan on older Advan Racing wheels in the back…

Speaking of which, here is the wheel shot that I mentioned earlier…

Black FG3 Civic coupe on Work Emotion 11R…

Satin black Lexus GS on Work Gnosis HS201 wheels…

A better look at the rootbeer-colored DB Integra…

Barramundi Design Snook wheels on this blue EK Civic hatchback…

Immaculate EF Civic sedan…

One of the coolest displays at HIK that day was this EK on blue CCW Classics. The car is really clean and all, but what made it cool was that it was sitting on a flatbad tow truck…

…that belonged to Tetsuya Yamaguchi of USDM Jam and Yama’s Store. The flat-bed tow truck is actually a Japanese Mazda Titan truck that Tetsuya converted into a USDM GMC W5500… Pretty awesome to see the lengths some of these guys will take to have that USDM flavor. I’m sure it wasn’t easy either but the pay-off is something that is completely unique to the Japanese market…

On that note, I’m gonna cut it off here for today. There are some more photos from this set that I will save for tomorrow, just to not overwhelm you guys. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more….