I have so much content to post up lately that I can’t really afford to take any days off so today, we’re going to head right into Part 3 of our ongoing “Kday!” Chapter 3 coverage. Shota Mori as always has done an incredible job of capturing the entire event from start to finish so everything flows very well and you get to see a lot of great cars from Japan that you won’t likely see anywhere else…
It’s really cool to see the positive general responses from everyone in regards to seeing coverage of events like Kday. Takeshi Kobayashi’s event is not very heavily advertised and much like my own event, it is meant for more of a loyal audience or people that are strong supporters of Kobayashi’s efforts. It’s not like a typical “Hellaflush” event or anything similar where you get a ton of random ass people going and the event is flooded all over social media sites. It is a true homegrown event and the people that work the show are also close friends of Takeshi’s that are doing it merely to help him out. It is much more of a “family”-like event in that everyone knows each other or knows of each other and you just sort of go to hang out. An event like this is not something you’re likely to see coverage of everywhere on the web and I’m very proud to show you guys detailed coverage of it because it is very exclusive to The Chronicles. Like the people that go to Takeshi’s event, I too am a close friend and supporter of what he does so I make a real effort to try to show you guys the fruits of his labor…
What I am even more happy with is the overwhelming response from the enthusiasts in Japan. They’ve done an amazing job of sharing this series of posts to all their friends and it seems as if the Japanese have taken a very strong liking to this site. That’s awesome to me because these are the people that I look to often for inspiration. Many of these guys aren’t really that “connected” so to speak in relation to the social media world so you may not hear from them often or see them posting photos up very much of their own cars. I’m glad to be the platform for them to display their work. Many of these cars may seem as if they just “came out of nowhere” but that is in fact not true at all. They’ve been around for a long time now and they just don’t get much recognition because we live in a world where if things aren’t seen or heard, they just don’t exist. I try to keep my scope very wide and to pay attention to what is out there and Shota Mori really helps me get detailed shots of cars that I want to see and post here on the site. All in all, it’s just refreshing to see these cars instead of the usual trendy stuff that you see shared numerous times online…
If you missed out on Parts 1 and 2, now is a very good time to go back and play catch-up. You don’t really want to miss any of these cars or the words behind them so try to stay on track by clicking the links below…
“Kday!” Chapter 3 Japan Coverage….Part 1…
“Kday!” Chapter 3 Japan Coverage….Part 2…
These next two parts that you’re going to see today and tomorrow are pretty good because they consist of some really great cars. As always, it is all good really, otherwise I wouldn’t post it up but I think the cars that are coming up are the ones that us here in the U.S. can really relate too in terms of style and execution. Trust me, you don’t want to miss out on these builds…
Kicking it off today with some shots of two really gorgeous EF Civic hatchbacks…
Deep candy red EF Civic on a set of rare Work Artrise Venette mesh wheels…Not completely sure, but I believe these are the Venette Vegas…
Hiroki Ono’s EF2 Civic with EF9 SiR front end and SSR EX-C Fins. Sadly, a couple days following the Kday event, Ono’s EF was rear-ended and totaled in an accident…
Tomohiro “Tonpe” Nakamaru’s EF Civic sedan on original Work Equip 01s…
Cool capture by Mori-san…
…of Coki Kawamura’s Integra sedan on Stark wheels…
Mori also captured the Tactical Art/Team Madame guys taking a break from walking around the show…
Vendors at the Kday event brought out a ton of USDM car parts for enthusiasts to purchase. Years ago if you told me that they would care about the U.S. car scene, I’d think you were crazy but the recent years have showed us that they are indeed very in tuned with what is happening stateside…
Yosuke Itabashi’s bagged LHD U.S. Toyota Tacoma…
Takuya Kurosawa flippin’ birds…
Yuki Yoshio’s EF9 Civic SiR on Work Carving Head 40s…
Koji Yonekawa’s Civic coupe modded to resemble a USDM EM1 Civic Si on silver Volk Racing SE37K…
A photo like this is something you’d likely see from a U.S. car event but even kids in Japan are dipping around in Cadillac Escalades now…
Azuma Naoki’s UC1 Honda Inspire from Ujos Society…
Accord Euro-R on polished Volk Racing TE37s…
Kazuma Oshima’s CD5 Accord on MAE Jewels…
Yuya “Chang” Nakajima’s EK4 Ferio on gold chrome Work Meister S1R…
Kazuhiro Furakawa made the trip from Osaka once again to attend Kday…
I love that one of the very, very, few K-swapped CB Accords is from Japan where K-swaps alone are still very uncommon. This is Masatsugu Chiba’s K20 CB engine bay…
Future Facebook profile picture…
You’re not true to the USDM lifestyle unless you’re reppin’ Eazy E as a seat cover…
Slammed Civic coupe with BYS front bumper that surprisingly looks undamaged despite the ride height…
Loved this DB Integra on Grams Lights wheels with 94-97 bug-eye front end. Also note that it is caged. I really dig the subtlety of the build…
It’s funny because I tend to typically ignore the bug-eyed front ends here in the U.S. because they are so common but whenever I see them in Japan, I tend to appreciate them more. Especially the Si-VTEC front too with the lip and fogs and all…
From what Mori-san tells me, this CC3 Honda Vigor 5-speed is an incredibly-rare car in Japan. Here in the U.S., I think any type of Vigor in this condition is rare. Shit, I can’t even think of the last time I event saw a Vigor that wasn’t sitting in a wrecking yard somewhere. They were very odd-looking cars with an even more odd 5-cylinder Honda engine but now that they are seemingly extinct, I appreciate the styling of it, especially since I was once a CB Accord owner and they share a lot of similar styling cues.
Speaking of things you don’t see everyday, here is a Civic Ferio Vi-RS on 3-piece Hartge wheels…
Another Civic Ferio, this one on Mugen M7s…
One of my favorites from the Kday! C3 event was Ryousuke Osada’s Honda Integra Type R on black-faced SSR Professor SP1s. Again, a very subtle build with some nice touches and the color and wheel combo just works…
This Accord Euro-R is possibly one of the most well-rounded CL7 builds over in Japan, with its custom engine bay and all, but like I mentioned yesterday, I hope the eye-lash mod was done as a joke, haha. Otherwise, it is a great build…
NA1 Eunos Roadster on SSR Dori Dori…
Masaski Morohashi brought his S13 Silvia back to its original Japanese roots by converting the car back to a JDM Silvia face…
…but then switched it up again by swapping his interior over to a very American-styled tan motif….
It’s pretty cool to see how popular the sedan variation of the Civic is in Japan. They aren’t very popular here in comparison to the hatchback and maybe even the coupe but in Japan, the Ferio is admired greatly…
In terms of executing a build to resemble that of a Honda build in North America, the owner of this Ferio did it just right with the BackYard Special front bumper, 16-inch Regamaster EVOs, and Recaro seats. Very nice build and the NWP4LIFE license plate frame and California plate are a nice touch…
I spotted this Ferio awhile back and was instantly a fan of it. Love the custom “Mag Blue” Mugen MF8s, along with the Mugen SS front lip…
Not sure who did the wheels for the owner since Magnesium Blue is such a hard color to get right but just from eyeballing it, it looks very close…
This Ferio also has a Mugen exhaust system, a piece that you definitely do not see very often…
A glimpse inside the trunk reveals a Mugen MF10L spare wheel…not a bad full-size spare to have…
Unlike our Honda community here, coupes were never really that popular or “common” as the hatchback and sedan platforms in Japan. I believe that coupes only started becoming more popular in the last couple of years when the USDM car culture really took off over there. Heck, some people here still believe in the very untrue story that coupes don’t exist in Japan. They do in fact exist but just aren’t seen very often because they just weren’t that sought-after. Seeing the blue coupe above is one of the reasons why I am happy that the USDM-style is now a prevalent choice of modding in various parts of Japan. I love everything about it and it was probably one of my top three favorites of Kday. I don’t know too much about it but I love the selection of parts like the BackYard Special front bumper, Spoon Sport side mirrors and rarely-seen SSR Professor MS3Rs. I have a certain prejudice of course since I am a SSR MS3 owner myself but you rarely see the MS3R (smaller sizing, non-step lip design) over here in America. I don’t even think people know about the wheel because they are so used to seeing them in larger sizes here. I think they look great on this coupe and it makes it a very unique car by their standards. The custom blue is another really good decision by the owner. They even got the EDM rear foglight in there for that true “USDM-style”…
Yet another unexpected sight from Kday was this DB1 Integra on VeilSide Andrews Racing V wheels… I didn’t even know they offered the wheels in this sizing. Like the MS3R here, we just weren’t exposed to anything under 18’s for this particular wheel…
Another really cool modification over there with the EF chassis is how they use the Wagon front bumpers on their hatchbacks and sedans. It’s a really subtle touch that probably only EF guys would notice but I really like the look. The SiR front will always reign as the best-looking front end for the EF but it doesn’t hurt to try something different…
This EF has the wagon front bumper and black Borbet Type T wheels…
Task Ogihara’s EF Civic hatchback on original GAB Sport wheels….
Task’s interior with old school AC Auto Technic indiglo gauge faces and confetti Recaro seats…
Ryuji Aida’s EF Civic from Progress car club…
This Midori Green EK hatchback really stood out to me with the BYS front lip and polished JLine wheels but I can’t help but imagine how much better it would look if everything was color-matched or if the BYS lip was black. It just doesn’t flow very well with the lip paint-matched and the moldings and sides left in their original black finish…
Another build that looks like it was plucked right out of the U.S. Honda community is this black EG6 Civic SiR owned and built by Honma Ryuzi. This EG features a set of 15-inch Regamaster EVOs and BYS rear spoiler…
Kiyoto Yoshihara’s USDM Milano Red EM1 Civic SI coupe on old school white Pirelli mesh wheels with custom Akebono USDM center caps. Interesting that he went with these wheels because I thought his EM1 looked absolutely stunning on the BBS wheels he had before and I’m honestly not even that big of a fan of BBS wheels on Hondas…
Gonna go ahead and wrap it up for today with a couple more shots of the two Ferios that you saw earlier. Above is the black one with BYS front…
..and the Mugen-themed Ferio on MF8s…
That’s all for today but there is still a lot more to cover. Hope you guys enjoyed it and come back for more. Thanks for looking as always…
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