For the second time in as many years, the Japanese Honda enthusiasts from car club, Akebono USDM, decided to get together to hold a gathering with some friends. For those unaware, the Akebono guys are a group of 80s-90s Honda enthusiasts with a particular affection towards USDM styling. They’ve taken some of the cultural elements from America and have incorporated them into their every day lives, and you can tell from their builds that their Hondas are also very much inspired by U.S. car culture. Things have come full circle in the last couple of years and now you have guys over in the U.S. building their Hondas based off of how the Akebono guys build their’s. It all sounds a little strange to be going back and forth but that is just how the two styles have meshed over time. Now JDM is not true JDM anymore and USDM is still American’s own interpretation of what they imagine “JDM” to be. It is always cool to see what others imagine to be our way of styling. In the end, they sort of create something entirely unique and that is what the Akebono USDM guys have done. Their cars aren’t really what you would really consider “USDM” because they’re almost a little better. The platforms are still very much the original Japanese platforms and the parts that they use aren’t your typical USDM parts. They’re more like rarer Japanese products from the 80s and early 90s that you just don’t really see anymore. This makes for a really cool look that is honestly more old school Japanese than it is American. I think that is why “Akebono style” has become popular in America. Guys who own EFs and DA Integras can replicate the look very easily and if people don’t quite understand what they are doing, they just go and purchase an Akebono USDM windshield banner and slap it on their cars. I dig it. I remember the first time I saw a Akebono banner here in the States and I was pretty excited about it. It represents mutual inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with a hybrid of styles and guys exchanging styling cues from one another. I think it is getting a little overboard now because guys aren’t really utilizing the styling and just tossing the Akebono name on their cars but whatever, that’s their prerogative. If you have the $50-$60 to go purchase a banner, I guess you too can rep Akebono USDM now (EDIT: I guess the banners aren’t actively for sale anymore). I don’t know if that qualifies you actually being a part of the original group from Japan but some of the guys that truly “get it” are able to pull off some cool EF builds that look exactly like the ones from Japan…

I’ve actually been sitting on these photos for a couple months now. There has just been a lot going on where I wasn’t able to really get to them until now. Shota Mori comes through once again with some great photos and I’m happy that he saved them for me to post here on The Chronicles. The photos just document mostly everything that happened that day from the actual traveling to the venue until the very end of the event. One of the more unique elements of this meeting was a “car limbo” type of thing that they put together for all attendees. Your car has to be especially low to get under, ala human limbo, and those who weren’t able to get under had to take extreme measures to get under the bar to get into the meet. It looks more exciting than it sounds and you’ll see some of the cars attempt to get under this low hanging bar. Enjoy the photos and make sure to come back from the rest in the coming days…

We kick things off with a shot of this really clean DA6 Integra cruising to the meet on white Volk SE37K wheels…

Mori than met up with some of the others at a local rest stop as they continued their journey to the event venue…

Honda Shuttle slammed on SSR Formula Mesh parked next to Tonpe Nakamaru’s EF…

Mokkun’s EF9 with some blue tape to avoid rock chips during the drive….

Honda Inspire with USDM TL front grille and traditional VIP-styled dish wheels from Lorinser….

Slammed coupe on what looks to be old school Takechi Project Racing Hart Super Spoke wheels minus the center caps…

The DA6 from earlier posted next to Shota Mori’s new CA Accord project. If you remember, he had a CB Accord sedan a couple months ago but someone gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse so he sold it and picked up this Accord after….

Two-toned CR-X from Akebono USDM. Wheels are either Work Ewing Fins or SSR EX-C Fins without caps…

Another two-toned CR-X, this one an EF8 SiR, on Garson Deep Racing Ryuji…

“‘Back view’ produces your car’s tail-lamp more fashionable since 1991, from propose bad. CR-X bad.” Uh…I don’t know…

Neat “Akebono Homies” decal on the back of this CR-X…

The smoked turn signal lamps are a good touch on this EF8…

A mini Yamaha PW50 bike…

Nice to see guys still running Buddy Club Spec II exhausts on their 90s Hondas. One of my favorites exhausts of all-time…

White EF Civic hatchback that you guys may remember seeing a while back here on The Chronicles. It has a very rare set of Enkei Space Crew wheels on it which is the only set I’ve ever seen…

Dual rollers of the two-toned CR-Xs….

Tonpe back on the road…

Volk SE37Ks have always been a favorite Volk wheel of mine. Really rare to see them in white and used in Japan. I still remember the first time I ever saw a set of SE37K wheels was in the Rays Engineering wheel catalog and it was on a 2nd gen Toyota Aristo. That picture still sticks in my head until this very day for some reason. One of those odd memories that you always have but don’t necessarily know why….

I see the parking pole is totally erect on this EF9….

Another random memory of mine was having a bootleg Transformers toy when I was a child that actually folded back up into a Civic Wagon/Shuttle. Not sure where it came from but it was one of my favorite toys as a child…

The guys then made yet another stop for a photo op before the event…

Never underestimate the ability for an old late 80s economy car to look good in 2014…

A couple snaps of the Murata EF on Enkei Space Crew wheels next to a white RA1 Odyssey…

A fellow enthusiast looking for Nakamaru’s exhaust on his EF2….

Love the deep blue tone of this Integra against the white SE37Ks…

Mokkun then lead the way to the Akebono Meeting….

Satoshi Aizawa’s CR-X. He is also the owner of the full Mugen CR-X Pro.2 from Akebono USDM….

Yuma Saito’s USDM 240SX hatchbach on Panasport G7 C5C2. This event happened prior to Wekfest Japan so he had no put on his brand new Barramundi Design Grandys….

Interesting wheels on this Civic Ferio…

One more of the DA6…

Loved the red on this EF as he cruised into the meet…

Nice and simple DA8 Integra…

Takuya Kurosawa’s EG Civic….

Another DA, this one sitting on rarely-seen Prova wheels…

BB6 Prelude on BBS wheels. Not sure what the front lip is but the rear wing looks to be Mugen….

Lining-up to roll into the meet…

Yuma Saito’s S13. I love the BMD Grandy wheels now but the Panasports looks pretty amazing on there…

Modified vs. OEM DC5 RSXs. The OEM DC5 has a touch of USDM with the U.S. front Acura grille…

Different variations of the Akebono USDM logo…

It wouldn’t be an Akebono meeting without a surplus of EF builds….

Space Crews, rarer than your J’s….

And then then the car limbo contest began… I’m not entirely sure how it worked but it looked like the bar got progressively lower as did the cars…

This Integra didn’t look like it was gonna have any problem getting under but the people that watched on heeded caution…

Looked like he had plenty of clearance when he finally got under….

While I would never personally do a car limbo contest, I do admit that seeing their reactions is genuinely priceless…

Great candid captures by Shota Mori….

Mokkun shouldn’t have any problems seeing as how his EF is about as low as it possibly gets….

The little girl in this EF probably had no idea what was going on or what the point of this whole ordeal was…

The Integra got through just fine…

Very minimal clearance for this slammed Integra as the bar gradually got lowered…

This DA6 made another attempt with the lowered bar, joined by another passenger to help get the car lower….

Satoshi’s attempt….

Saito’s S13 is also another car that is pretty low so he got through the first couple of rounds with no problems…

Eventually even Mokkun found himself closer and closer to scraping the limbo bar….

Gonna cut it off here for today. Got some other stuff to take care of but make sure to come back for the rest of the photos in our next update. Thanks for looking.