I love it when Shota Mori sends me photos. Whenever he sends me something, it is pretty much always good. It doesn’t matter what he’s covering, where he’s at, or what’s he’s doing because it is almost always car-related. When you combine all things car-related with Japanese culture, you just can’t go wrong. There are times when I don’t even know an event is going on over in Japan and he is already there covering it. I don’t even have to ask and he automatically sends me the photos that he takes. It’s a wonderful relationship, haha. Today, we’re going to look at some photos from a mini-truck cruise of all things. While it may not sound exactly appealing to many of you, bear in mind that a lot of other Japanese car enthusiasts participated in this event. The great thing about Japanese car culture is that you’ll often see a mix of different styles and cars whenever an event happens because they are car guys that like doing car stuff. You’ll recognize many of the cars you see today because this event was held in the Miyagi Prefecture in Northeast Japan. In that region is our good friend Takeshi Kobayashi from Type_K Autosource and the guys from the Akebono USDM crew. You’ve seen them plenty times on this site but we haven’t heard from them much in 2014. This event provided an outlet to see what was new with those guys and to see what was out there in Japan. I’m gonna head back in a couple weeks for Wekfest Japan but I’m always happy to see these photos and to see these guys having a good time…

There’s not much else to be said about this event that will profoundly change anything so just sit back and enjoy the view. Thanks for looking and as always, thanks to Shota Mori for the great photos. He’s become one of my only trusted, regular contributors, and I enjoy his work so much that I even made a watermark specifically for his photos now…

JOYRIDE 2014
Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Photos by Shota Mori, Post-processing by StickyDilJoe

We kick things off with a shot of a USDM FG Civic coupe in the early morning hours sitting on Volk TE37SL…

Kouji Matuzaka’s freshly-painted AP2 S2000 from LEVEL ONE. If you guys remember, Matuzaka’s S2000 was previously white. I think he has some new wheels coming soon as well so it’ll be cool to see what else he adds in time for the Japanese Wekfest event…

Arrival at the JOYRIDE 10th Anniversary event which was a mini-truck meet with a mix of other makes and styles….

I didn’t go through a bulk of the mini-truck photos but I did pluck some from his set that caught my eye…

Love how this Z33 Fairlady sits on these Work Gnosis wheels…

This left-hand drive Toyota pick-up looked pretty cool rolling pancaked to the road…

A black Mini cruising through…

Always been a fan of the red striped moldings on JDM EF9 SiR Civics…

Cool photo of a guy taking a photo…

Matuzuaka arrives in his topless AP2…

Tonpe Nakamaru’s EF2 Civic that should be a familiar site to you guys who follow regularly….

If someone knows what wheels these are on Nakamaru’s Civic, please feel free to comment. I know my wheels but even the names of these elude me…

This other EF was on European Renoma wheels…

SSR EX-C Fins are always timeless on an EF hatchback body. This Civic right here is just on point…

Satoshi Aizawa’s Mugen CRX Pro.2 is yet another fine example of a timeless Honda build…

Takeshi Kobayashi’s USDM Integra Type R on Spoon SW388s. Always good to see his ITR out of hibernation…

Kohei Saito’s EK9 Civic Type R that has been re-imagined to look like a modified USDM Civic DX model. This is personally one of my favorites from Japan…

EF hatchback from Team Murata sitting on some really rare 80’s Enkei Space Crew wheels….

I think I’ve only seen photos of these wheels one other time online like ages ago…

The group gathers consisting on some regulars like Takeshi Kobayashi, Hideo Shingu, Kentaro Unuma, and others…

Tonpe Nakamaru and friends… Some very interesting sunglasses on the guy in the middle…

Nothing better than a weekend cook-out with some friends who love cars….

Love that Mori-san captures people as well as cars to match my style when I cover events here…

Another look at Nakamaru’s EF2…

It’s always crazy to see GM big body coupes in Japan. Total culture clash from what you typically see but somehow, it just makes sense…

Wataru Oseki’s Honda Element S/C on Advan Racing wheels…

All smiles in Japan. It is always refreshing to see their enthusiasm whether it be cars or anything…

Here’s a closer look at the shaved Toyota mini truck from earlier…

Love the 80s-style decal designs on the back window of the truck…

Saito’s EK9 Type R…

Hideo Shingu’s USDM-themed Integra Type R on WED’s TC05 wheels…

This Nissan Hardbody pick-up was a good look…

This rotted Toyota pick-up was pretty sick. It’s stuff like this that you would rarely see outside of Japan….

A duo of EFs, including Mokkun’s cream hatchback on Kosei wheels…

Neat shot of Matuzaka’s S2000…

This might be one of, if not the only times, you’ll see a lifted Nissan Pathfinder here on The Chronicles…

Two very different styles sharing the same space at the JOYRIDE event. I absolutely love Satoshi’s Mugen CR-X. What I enjoy about it the most is that it doesn’t look anything like any of the other Akebono builds in that it is much more traditional and classically styled…

Gonna cut it off here for now with another shot of Mokkun’s EF from Akebono. There is still some more photos to come but I’ll save those for tomorrow. Thanks for looking!..