Looking through some of my older posts from years ago, I really wanted to start throwing together blog-style posts again. I’ve been really meaning to dive back into work and building new content for the site and I think the site would get better with other posts that aren’t necessarily just based mostly on event coverage. I think I really want to start throwing together posts based on the lifestyle side of things again and if all goes well, you’ll see the site heading in a different direction. There are so many blogs that cover events now that I think I really want to dive back into showing people what is rarely seen and what most people ignore, which is the lifestyle of car culture…
For Japan this year, I decided to just do a compilation of photos that I captured throughout my journey. Tokyo Auto Salon will be set-up on its own as your more traditional event coverage-style but I’ll start throwing all the other photos together so you guys get to see what I am seeing outside of the Vlogs. I miss covering the lifestyle side of car culture in my circles so 2017 will mark a change in that format. Tokyo is an amazing place and I try to cram in as much car-stuff as I can while also making time to do regular travel adventures. I love cars, as many of you will realize by now, but I also don’t want to miss out on seeing the world as it is. Japan has so much to offer and you’d be doing yourself an injustice if you just focus on one thing alone. I arrived in Tokyo a couple days earlier than I would normally because I cut my stay in Osaka short. Normally I would split my 10 day trip in half and spend the first portion of it in Tokyo before heading to Osaka after the Tokyo Auto Salon event. I have to go back to Osaka for 8 days in about a week so I didn’t want to stay very long there since I would be going back so soon. We really didn’t even do a whole lot in Osaka this time. I just wanted to make sure we saw our friends and I got to see them before I left. My return trip to Osaka might be busy so I wasn’t sure if or when I’d be able to see some of these people again…
I wanted to make sure that Tiffanie got to experience Tokyo outside of car things too because it was her first time there. When she went last year, it was just a short stay in Osaka and Nagoya for the Wekfest Japan event. Tokyo was a new area for her to explore so we split-up for portions of our trip so she could go hang out with her friends and do the shopping/sight-seeing thing. I was buried in car stuff in Tokyo and I didn’t want her to be overwhelmed with it. She would pop in every now and then to spend time with me and shoot some car stuff, and as such, I’ve included some of her photos in here as well. I really enjoy her point-of-view because automotive photography is pretty new to her still and her perspective is refreshing. Over time I’ve become so overly organized and systematic that I think having her around challenges me to shoot differently, or want to shoot differently, and not always stick to the same angles just to get “the shot” of a car that I think I want. She shoots so much and so often that her stuff is constantly improving and evolving. I hate being stagnant, especially after doing this so many years, that I need that injection of change to keep me from burning out…
I spent my first full day in Tokyo going to Type One, Seeker, and JUN Auto. They were brief visits that I made mostly for video content, but I also shot photos as well. I also stopped by the RWB Meet in Roppongi, which you guys should have already seen photos that I posted up a few days ago, before heading down to Decks Tokyo Beach for the wild Super Street Meet. Below are a collection of images that both Tiffanie and I captured during that day…
WORDS: StickyDilJoe
PHOTOS: StickyDilJoe and Tiffanie Marie
I always enjoy seeing the Type One facility and just how clean it is for a shop where cars are constantly being worked on. This year, they were even doing renovations and making Type One even better…
On the first floor sitting on a lift was a classic Honda S800 coupe. This thing was incredibly pristine and looked almost brand new…
Upstairs in the showroom-like work area was the Super Taikyu S2000 race car and something you wouldn’t typically see at Type One, a motorcycle…
I don’t know much about bikes and won’t claim to try to know, but I think this could be a CBR400RR without its exterior panels attached…
Up in the storage rack was another S800, this one a roadster in yellow…
As usual, the Spoon Sports NSX-R was on display, now cleaned-up and looking better than ever considering its previous battle-ridden life as a race vehicle…
The carbon fiber dashboard inside the NSX along with a single Spoon Sports seat…
The C32B 6-cylinder engine with the signature Spoon Sports yellow valve covers…
The light shining through the windows of Type One always provide epic lighting for the cars parked within…
This visit marked my first time ever seeing a DC2 Integra Type R inside Type One, this one a customer car that was in for service…
Side profile of the Spoon-modified Honda CBR…
Old school Spoon Sports sticker before all the yellow and blue came into the design…
After leaving Type One, we stopped by Seeker which was down the street. Unfortunately, they were at the track and their facility was closed for the day. They left this FD2 demo car of their’s outside so I snapped a shot of it since it was buried in snow last year…
JUN Auto was a incredibly interesting place to visit, I just wish it wasn’t so close to Tokyo Auto Salon time so the shop could have had more cars inside. While walking around, we spotted this PS13 0-400M drag car that belongs to one of JUN’s loyal customers. The car has been around for over a decade now and is regularly stored within the JUN facility…
We stopped by Upgarage to see if Yuta wanted to buy more stuff he didn’t need. When we arrived we spotted this slammed Kei car that belonged to one of the employees there. The car is a bit beat-up but the owner told us that he also drives this car everyday to work, which adds up to an hour commute one-way!…
I didn’t take any pictures at the Super Street “Tokyo Fresh” Meet since I was doing video so Tiffanie Marie came through and snapped some shots for me….
Norifumi Kobayashi’s Accord Wagon from LEVEL ONE Japan is by far one of the best Honda builds of the year to debut in 2016. So much work went into transforming this Wagon into what you see and he’s been rewarded plentifully at every show he attended in ’16…
White DC2 Integra Type R with a Spoon Sports carbon front lip and white TEs, a look which will work anywhere in the world…
S15 Spec-R Aero on aggressive Work Meister S1R wheels…
Slammed and static MX-5 carrying a Honda Zoomer in the rear dragging and catching everything in sight…
Beautiful AE86 Trueno coupe on gold RS Watanabe wheels from the Tokyo Fresh Meet…
The parking lot across the street from Decks Tokyo Beach provided a great view of Tokyo Bay so I had to stop to get a long-exposure of it before leaving…
Spotted this beautiful Toyota Alphard van bagged on OZ Futura wheels at the Aeon Mall across the street from the Tokyo Auto Salon event…
More to come throughout the year as I’ll be in Japan pretty often. Stay tuned for more!!…