I’m not sitting here and saying this because I’m a regular on the Wekfest Tour or anything, trust me, but Wekfest Japan was amazing this year. Seriously. I’ve been going since the very beginning when Wekfest first started doing shows in Nagoya, Japan and this year by far was the best year ever. The vibe is generally the same much of the time because, well, Japanese people stay pretty consistent but the show was vastly improved because of one simple thing; the cars. The only major change for the show this year turned out to be the most important one because it helped boost the quality of the cars quite a bit. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the rule set for the Japan Wekfest event, it has always been catered specifically to USDM-styled vehicles and for a vehicle to participate in the show, the specific chassis that each enthusiast brings to the show must also be a car that is available in the North American market. So say, even if you lived in Japan and owned a Toyota Chaser (which is a JDM vehicle), you technically couldn’t be in the Wekfest show because a Chaser was never available for sale in North America. It sounds a bit strange, I know, but these are the rules. The show was deemed an American import to Japan so they stayed very true to the style of the U.S. Wekfest events. It kinda sorta picks up where the old USDM Jam event series left-off with the specialization towards USDM style. Myself and a few others have lobbied for the change to include Japanese Domestic Market vehicles for a couple years now and it finally happened this year…

I hate to say “I told you so” to the detractors, but well “I told you so”. Haha. The show was spectacular this year because there were no limitations to style and no exclusion of vehicles. That creates another layer to the Wekfest Japan event that was much needed. Otherwise, you’d have pretty much the same vehicles from year-to-year with just minor alterations like a simple wheel change. The quality is always high at this particular event but it just needed that added taste of variety to make it that much better. I really enjoy the show and how much it has grown over time. It is unlike any other stop on the tour because it’s in Japan for one, and because the venue itself is like no other. It is this beautiful dome-shaped convention hall with these windows of natural light that peek in throughout the day that just makes for spectacular visuals. If you never get to experience this show for yourself, you’re really doing yourself an injustice because it is a true spectacle. Just being in that environment and seeing these cars, man, I don’t even think I can describe it in a way to truly make you understand. I try my best to capture it in photos but there’s nothing else like standing in the middle of it all…

Our day usually starts out incredible early for this event. We wake up at around midnight and then meet-up with everyone to make the drive out to Nagoya from Osaka. We get the early wake-up call because the drive is almost three hours and we typically have to get to Nagoya to set-up around 4 AM. This year, we actually woke-up on time, but we had to load-up two vehicles to bring to the show and that took a big chunk of our morning. By the time we got on the road, it was already 4 AM! We arrived around 6:30 or so I think because Yasu drives like a fucking maniac and I started shooting as soon as we got to Port Messe. The photos started-out a little rough because I think I was still in a haze from lack of sleep but I promise you, they get better as the coverage goes on, haha. Just sit back and enjoy all the cool builds, both USDM-styled and Japanese, and come back for more because I probably shot more than I ever have this year…

The first car that I wanted to see when I got to the venue was a bagged Ferrari Testarossa owned by Kazuki Ohashi from CROSSGLOW. It is a car that has popped-up online numerous times since it was revealed and I mean, what’s cooler than a bagged Testarossa? You never even see these things around anymore so to know that there is one hammered to the ground in Japan is something that you want to see for yourself, you know?…

The Ferrari was parked at the Autofashion USA booth by the time we spotted it. Freddie and Kazuki came to an agreement to collab together so the car was displayed at the booth with an Autofashion x CROSSGLOW windshield banner and all. There isn’t much done to the car other than it being on air with a custom set of wheels. It’s a Testarossa so it just looks fucking cool the way it was originally designed. Everything looks better low to the ground and that couldn’t be more true for this particular Ferrari…

Kazuki had a set of 18-inch Autostrada Modena wheels built for the Ferrari complete with the caps and all. Everything fits snuggly and it is the perfect set of wheels for it…

A couple of 80s heroes, both on very different ends of the financial spectrum…

Wider angle of the extremely long Testarossa…

You can’t even see any hint of tire here so the Ferrari just looks like a 80s spaceship floating millimeters off the ground…

After gawking at the Ferrari for a good 20 minutes, I saw Tomoyuki Sasaki pull-up in his orange Ferio build. Not much has changed on this Honda since every inch of it has been reworked already, but new for 2017 are a set of black Volk TE37 Sonic wheels…

Not to be confused with Tomo’s Ferio was this orange EK4 SiR that wasn’t too far away on a set of bronze Volk Racing wheels…

This widened Mercedes C-Class wagon looked pretty interesting…

Phaze2 Japan’s USDM Acura Integra with Exceed/Mode Parfume front lip for the 98-01 front end…

In the growing line-up of show cars pulling into the venue that morning, this lifted J80 Land Cruiser definitely stood-out…

This Y31 Cedric is a good example of a car that you would not have seen in the previous years of Wekfest Japan. Now, Americans like myself get to enjoy a little bit of the Japanese Domestic Market mixed with the cars I am used to seeing…

This M&M Honda Hyper Widebody S2000 is the same AP1 from last year but looked a little different this year now on Work Meister wheels and without a big GT wing….

Not too far away from it was a bright green Rocket Bunny RPS13 180SX…

Five Mart-built Honda E-AT Civic on new Work Equip 40 wheels…

Chameleon-colored Nissan Y34 Gloria on Volk TE37V Mark II wheels…

This is the crazy widebody FD that you guys might have spotted towards the end of The Chronicles Vlog that I posted on YouTube the other day. It features a real RE Amemiya Super GT kit and also has a 13B Bridge Port motor…

This Z33 looked to have Rocket Bunny flares on it but with the front vents filled-in…

Masumi Nakano’s orange Hakosuka coupe on black RS Watanabe wheels…

The Varis-produced “Hurtling” Solid & Joker widebody Integra made an appearance at WFJP ’17…

S14 Silvia with a set of Volk Racing TE37V RT wheels stuffed under its widened wheel wells…

Mao Nakai’s Skyline sedan airred-up and prepping to park in its designated spot…

Garage Excellent’s badass Toyota Century build…

Yasu from Exceed’s Mode Parfum Phantom GaMU Aristo was our ride to the show that morning…

Racing Padock Miyoshi’s Rocket Bunny FD3S RX-7 with lambo-style doors…

Racing Padock Miyoshi’s Rocket Bunny Boss FD in a bright green hue with red accents…

Mode Parfume Z34 Fairlady convertible on SSR Executor wheels…

Another angle of the Garage Excellent Century pasted to the floor on Work Wheels…

Shinpei Yamashita’s slammed and radiused EK9 Civic Type R…

Good to see Work Equip 40s popping-up more and more in Japan. This gold-faced set looked great on the E.Prime AE86 Levin…

Daito from E.Prime unloading his Levin race car off of the trailer…

Probably the only Jaguar in the building that day but a good one…

One of the more unique aspects of the Wekfest Japan event is how many incredible Euro builds show-up to compete year-to-year. The quality of these builds is some of the best I’ve ever seen…

Loved how Shota Iwanaga’s Kouki S14 Silvia looked riding on Infinitewerks wheels. Just to see this thing rolling so low to the ground was pretty insane…

Yuya Chuta’s Toyota 86 featuring a rarely-seen Rallybacker widebody aero kit…

I couldn’t stop myself from going back to look at the E.Prime Racing Levin…

Rallybacker widebody ND Mazda MX-5 Roadster…

Eunos Roadster nice and simple on aggressive BMD wheels…

Ever seen a slammed Honda Helix? Well, now you have…

This Honda CR-X del Sol was definitely one of the builds that caught my eye. Not so much because it was riding pretty low on bronze Mugen MF8 wheels, but because it was actually only 2/3 del Sol…

The front end is actually a EG Civic front with a Mugen front lip. I’ve seen this maybe once or twice before in the past but this one just sort of flowed perfectly and the car looked like it almost should have came like this. Pretty cool. Also note that the del Civic has Spoon Sports mirrors…

One more just because it’s so fucking cool…to me anyway…

MK6 Golf on Fifteen52 wheels from LocalMadCrew…

E46 M3 coupe on OZ wheels…

Datsun B110 Wagon looking just right on 15-inch Barramundi Design Sunder wheels…

Zerozero8 Works Z32 Fairlady on Work Meister L1…

Seiji Ookawara’s Vertex Lang S14 Silvia from Zerozero8 Works…

Seiya Suzuki’s always classic Mugen Integra Type R with just a hint of Spoon Sports parts…

Kohei Taguchi’s DC2 Integra Type R with carbon Spoon Sports front lip, Mugen Gen. 1 wing and Sprint Hart CP-Rs…

Takeru Tojo did the unimaginable and swapped his Mugen RR front bumper for a Spoon Sports front, which is also altered by shaving the front emblem area…

When unloading, be sure to have good friends to lend a helping hand…

Out of nowhere came this chopped Ford Model A, better known as “Risky Snail”…

This rat rod left everyone frozen in their tracks as they stopped to see this Ford roll into the venue. The roof was cut so low that it didn’t even look like anyone could fit inside….

By far the most unique build of the entire show and one of the more talked-about builds that day in Nagoya…

Gonna end Part 1 right here since there is so much to process. I’m sure you guys are a little overloaded with photos at this point. There’s a lot more cool stuff coming so I’d rather let you guys take this all in for now. Make sure to come back! I’m gonna upload the next Vlog this weekend too so keep an eye out for that! Thanks for looking…