Okay, so techinically, this wasn’t the “final day” of the show. It was just the final day that I was there. Normally, the Tokyo Auto Salon show is a total of three days (Friday – Sunday), but honestly, if you make an effort, you can see the entire show within two days time. They just extend it to three days because most people can’t go on the first day and it is usually reserved for media. Being that I am only in Japan for 10 days, I really wanted to maximize my time. The only reason I would ever go back on a Sunday would be to buy cool shit and by Sunday, most of the really cool stuff is gone already. Prior to me leaving for Japan, I got a message from a friend in Japan who wanted to meet us and arrange a gathering with some other car crews. The only issue was that he wanted to meet up in Gunma, which is maybe an hour train ride away from Tokyo. We didn’t really have anything planned for Sunday so we all decided that it would be a good time for us to head out there. I have many supporters in Japan and if someone wants to arrange a gathering for us, who am I to say no, right? I really appreciate the time and effort people put into creating these gatherings and they also are kind enough to drive us around and pick us up from the train station so that is always good. I’ll tell you guys more about it tomorrow when I get to the actual coverage of the gathering but today, we’re going to wrap up the photos from TAS.
The show itself is pretty incredible. If you have ever gone to SEMA, imagine it to be similar to that in size, but with cars that you actually want to see, haha. Don’t get me wrong, I love SEMA too, but half the time you’re just walking by trucks or tools or other shit that really doesn’t concern you. As a true Japanese automotive enthusiast, there just isn’t another major event that compares to Tokyo Auto Salon because it features a great variety of Japanese-tuned vehicles. Even the Euros and exotics there are built by the Japanese so in many ways, it still relates to what you want to see as a Japanese gear head. I look forward to the show every year and every time, it is just a visual overload of amazing builds. I find it hard to really describe because you just have to experience it for yourself to truly understand. The photos should speak for themselves. Just imagine seeing every car you’ve ever seen online or on posters in person finally along with some stuff that you have never seen before. It’s a remarkable experience. If you are a car guy, it just doesn’t get any better than TAS…
There’s been a lot of content lately so you may have easily missed a post or two. To catch-up, I’ve provided the links below to each post prior to this one of my adventures in Japan…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 1: An Intro, An RWB Meet, and TAS ’14 Coverage…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 2: Tokyo Auto Salon Coverage Begins…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 3: Tokyo Auto Salon Coverage Continues…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 4: The End of Day 1 of TAS ’14…
…and here is the close of my coverage of TAS ’14. Tomorrow, we move onto my visit to Gunma Prefecture…
Wald Black Bison Edition Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II… The only thing more baller and intimidating than this is the Junction Produce Phantom that was not in attendance this year at TAS. The Series II Phantom is quite a sight to see in person I’ll admit, but what kinda killed it for me was the big “For Sale” sticker on the back window. It just looked tacky on an otherwise awesome car…
Wald International also debuted its new Black Bison Edition Porsche Cayenne 958…
One of the more notable surprises from this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon show was the sheer amount of new Toyota Land Cruisers in attendance. I guess the Land Cruiser is quite the popular car in Japan and it could possibly be a SUV that the Japanese might really want to invest some time and money into modifying. Above is the Wald Black Bison Edition Land Cruiser…
Another look at the Spirit Rei 180SX, just because I liked it so much….
This R34 Skyline GT-R looked pretty good on BBS LMs, but in a sea of heavily modified Japanese tuner cars, you probably wouldn’t give it a second glance….that is, until you start hearing people chatter about a certain twin-charged RB26DETT at TAS ’14….
Upon closer inspection, it turns out that this Skyline is no ordinary BNR34; this was dubbed the Skyline GT-RS, with the “S” denoting the fact that it is supercharged. Yes folks, this is a twin-charged RB26, featuring both a turbo and HKS GT Supercharger kit. I marveled at the engine bay for a bit and couldn’t help but wonder how the thing sounds when the motor is running both the turbine and the S/C…
I finally got a chance to get some more detailed photos of the GM LS-swapped Rocket Bunny 180SX that I posted the other day. This car had a crowd around it most of the time because there was an audio file playing next to it with the sound of the GM V8 revving. We are pretty used to it here because it seems like a standard swap in S13 and S14s in America but the Japanese were crazy about it…
This S13 probably had one of the cleaner LS swaps that I have ever seen. Most of the time these motors are going into drift cars and they aren’t exactly the cleanest swaps. They just want the motors to run and they just drift the living shit out of them. This swap looked great, especially the custom intake arm that they created for it…
I really dig the low chassis-mounted rear wings that seems to be the new trend in Japan. These 180SXs just look so raw without the rear bumpers on and with the wing mounts exposed. All you see is a rear diffuser and the huge wing and it just looks menacing…
Garage Saurus-built JZA80 Toyota Supra that pushes out 1000ps (Roughly 986hp) via a stroked 3.4L 2JZGTE and massive T88-33D turbo….
One of the most popular builds from the 2014 TAS event was Shuichi Nakagawa’s (aka “180Nakkan”) RPS13. He showed up to TAS with a new set of Work Meister M1 wheels and some other new additions to this Rocket Bunny-themed build….
The two-toned engine bay features a shaved engine bay with custom tubbed wheel wells and an SR20DET with CTS Turbo upgrade…
Since his Super Street feature, he’s revised his front splitter and rear diffuser to match the fluorescent yellow/green in his engine bay…
I didn’t get a shot of the entire car but I loved the spiral-cuts in the horns of these carbs. Never seen anything like it….
Mugen Vezel Concept, based on the Vezel SUV that is set to hit the U.S. this year. Not sure if a Mugen version will ever come to fruition…
Rando Sports “Black Edition” Toyota 86 on new Volk Racing C345 Ultra Light wheels in classic Volk bronze finish….
Noblesse Honda Odyssey Absolute on Rays Gram Lights 57FXX Pros…
One more look at the Nissan Z34 Fairlady featuring their new Varis aero kit…
…and a more detailed look at the Original Runduce Toyota 86 running Varis aero. This kit seems incredibly mild compared to their widebody aero kit and by typical standards, this would be considered aggressive…
That concluded my photos of TAS ’14. After I put my camera away, I just walked the show with the guys and enjoyed my time there. Last year, it was much more hectic since it was my first time there so I was running around everywhere trying to get as many photos as I could. This time around, I was chillin’ and even managed to buy some cool shit to bring home for my office. The show was almost over by that time so we left the Makuhari Messe to return to Shinagawa. We had dinner plans with Hiro Ueda and Kenneth Li from Wekfest once again so I got some rest at the hotel before heading out to the restaurant….
For dinner, Hiro decided to bring us to a spot that featured chicken. They had every kind of chicken you could think of, including the rare but often talked-about Chicken Sashimi, which as you guessed, is RAW chicken….
I don’t typically smoke but I will admit, while in Japan, I enjoyed the occasional Mevius Menthol. These have a little flavor capsule that you pop before you light it up and it is really good….
One thing that we all noticed this time around in Japan was how much they enjoyed heavy amounts of foam or “head” in their beers. Every beer that we drank had a ton of it and we actually even asked why they have so much foam. What the Japanese told us is that this is how they prefer their beer and this is considered a really good pour. Normally in America, you’d be angry as shit when your beer as this much foam because it means you have less beer to consume. There in Japan, it is almost picture-perfect and they want their beers to look straight out of an advertisement. We got used to it pretty quickly. I mean, it’s no big deal, but it was just one of the little cultural differences that we spotted during our journey…
This is the famed Chicken Sashimi, better known as “toriwasa” in Japanese. It is a raw chicken dish that is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world. It isn’t like your conventional chicken in that it is made from a certain type of Chicken. In Japan, it is the Nagoya kōchin and in America, it is known as the Blue Foot Chicken. You can eat this meat raw because it is certified to be completely free of Salmonella….
Knowing this, I still really couldn’t get down because I just couldn’t get passed the mental block of seeing the raw chicken and eating it. As someone who had gotten food poisoning before from eating undercooked chicken, I was a little scared. I used to work in a restaurant too and used to prepare raw chicken and to me, it just looks way to raw to consume, so I passed on this particular dish…
It kinda makes me cringe just looking at the photos of it, even knowing that it is completely safe haha… Everyone else ate it and they were just fine but ehhh…my mind was definitely fuckin’ with me. I had already eaten raw beef and horse the night prior and was fine, but just couldn’t get down with the chicken sashimi…
This particular dish, which the Ryans dubbed “Propane Chicken” was slightly braised on the outside but was still mostly raw on the inside. They had tried it last year and said it tasted like propane gas and were not pleased with it, but they tried it again this year and actually liked it. Since this chicken looks more cooked than the other dish, I actually tried it and was pleasantly surprised. I just didn’t look at the inside of it and consumed it quickly…
Chicken Karaage, or fried chicken, with a side of romaine lettuce and some mayo dipping sauce. This was certainly the most “regular” dish of the night…
A chicken hot pot type of thing that I forgot the name of. This is in its raw, uncooked form as it was beginning to cook. It was pretty decent, nothing to rave about but it was good…
The finished product in the grasp of Ryan Der’s chopsticks…
The other Ryan seemed to enjoy it…
I can’t say I remember the name of this dish either, but it featured sliced seaweed and a raw egg yolk, which Der was totally in love with while in Japan. Dude even went out and bought an egg yolk strainer after this. You can see the sauce that they are pouring on top of it before you mash it all up and consume it….
It didn’t look like the most appetizing thing to eat but they seemed to enjoy it. I do believe I tried a small bit of it too…
This chicken sausage dish caught my eye while I was glancing at the menu and so we ordered it. It has two things that I enjoy eating, sausage and cheese, so you can’t really go wrong… When it arrived at the table, it came with some small slices of bread which I wasn’t sure how to eat with the sausage…
So I did what I my perverted mind knew best and put the sausage threw it. This helps to get the cheese onto the bread as well and also made for some good laughs because we are all 12 years old and immature…
Ken enjoying one of twelve million cigarettes he smoked during his time in Japan. You gotta remember, they don’t have the same smoking laws we have here in California so you can just kind of smoke wherever the fuck you wanted to, including inside restaurants and during dinner. You could even smoke and eat at the same time if you could manage that feat….
Another unique feature about this particular restaurant, other than the raw chicken, was that they give you these business cards every time you go there and write your name on them. These are like legitimate business cards with your job position on them and every time you go there, you move up a position. Der got his business card that said he was a manager….
Hiro got his which simply said “Sukebe”, which means “Pervert” or “Dirty Old Man”….haha…our female waitress was kidding of course….or was she….
This place was cool overall. The food is interesting and the vibe of the whole place was really relaxed. You could tell that it was more of a restaurant for traveling businessmen that just wanted to hang out and enjoy some beers but it is perfect for foreigners as long as you can figure out what to order. Let’s just say, you may end up ordering the Chicken Sashimi without even knowing it and then making a fool of yourself when you ask them to cook it after it shows up at your table. Anyways, always good times with Sukebe Hiro and Ken and the rest of my dudes. Signing off for today. Hope you enjoyed it! Back with more tomorrow!!….
Great pics and nice work as always!
you can only smoke in smoking areas in Japan most of the time not anywhere on the sreets
You can smoke on the majority of streets in Japan. Only a few out door areas have designated non smoking areas.
Excellent photos and words. I love reading articles like this because it makes me appreciate living here even more. And, realize how crappy my photo taking skills are.
For the future, the “karage” dish you took a picture of is actually “chicken nanban” and happens to me one of my favorite foods in Japan. If you like it, don’t forget that name the next time you come.