Ahhhh….it’s nice to finally be able to sit down at the office to catch-up on work lately. The first ever CHRNCLS coffee table book is finally in my possession now after coming in from the publishing company I was working closely with and once I get through signing them and numbering each of them, they’ll be going out in the mail to their respective owners. I’m super happy with how it all came out and I hope all of you who reserved one will enjoy it as well. Things are slowly starting to get back to normal and I know it has been awhile, but Yuta and I are finally going to sit down and do a podcast. It’ll be the first one we’ve done in 2018 and man, honestly, it is going to be a long one. I still haven’t had a chance to talk about our trip to Japan or any of the craziness that happened after I got back. If you guys are interested in my life in that way, I think you’ll want to listen. If not, well, we still have regular content coming with all the car stuff I’ve been collecting over time. Most of it is from our Japan trip in January and there is still a big chunk of Tokyo Auto Salon 2018 coverage that I have barely touched. I felt like the content that came after was much more interesting because there were already so many people at TAS doing coverage this year. The rest of my trip was much more unique in that we got to see a lot of stuff that most others didn’t, so I chose to post all of that first…

Today I will show you guys some photos from the day before I came back home from Japan in January. These are shots I collected at the AFFest event, hosted by my friends from Autofashion USA. Last year they hosted a VIP Festival event in this same venue, dedicated mostly to Japanese Bippu/VIP builds, but being that there were also so many builds that weren’t built to that theme, the guys just decided to change the name of the event to include everything else. VIP style is still what they focus on but the gathering of vehicles also brought in a Hondas, widebody fucking everything, and a lot of really clean, more traditional builds. I didn’t get a chance to go last year since it would mean that I would have had to stay in Japan an extra two weeks, but this year’s was moved-up to the week after TAS 2018 so I made sure to extend my stay by two days to include this on my schedule. Freddie and the guys from Autofashion have always been big supporters of mine so it was only right that I make every effort to be there for their big event…

The venue itself wasn’t very big, but it was quite scenic, being that it was right by a waterfront. On the other side of it was a huge shopping mall that had every store you could think of and a pretty good food court. The best thing about this venue was that the mall was constructed mostly of glass so when the sun bounced off the windows, it served almost as a natural flash that lit up the cars from all angles. It was still pretty cold during January but the sunlight provided a good amount of warmth for us to hang out for a few hours to take in all the great cars. I went in expecting to see a lot of VIP builds but the event had a great amount of diversity. The guys from Tactical Art brought out their Hondas, Racing Padock Miyoshi displayed all their crazy FD RX-7s, and Mode Parfume debuted their new S2000 widebody kit. There was a lot to look at and I squeezed in as much shooting as I could before having to run off to take care of some other errands with Yasu before I had to leave to fly back home to California the next day. There’s a little bit of something for everyone in this post. Take some time to get a good look through and enjoy…

One of the many wild RX-7 builds from Racing Padock Miyoshi, this one featuring a Red Bull livery and a Rocket Bunny Boss kit…

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the Boss kit for the FD but I understand its appeal. I just think that the rest of the kit, other than the face, suits the lines of the FD so much better…

Aggressive Work Seeker DX wheels with customized faces to match the Red Bull livery…

This red FD from Racing Padock Miyoshi has the same Mazda Atenza/6 front end that I remember seeing a few years back during a Tokyo Auto Salon event. I can’t remember what tuning shop it was, perhaps it was Pro Shop Screen, but you just don’t forget something this weird…

I didn’t get a photo of the back end of the car but the whole car was themed to the popular Supreme/LV collab with the monogram adorned all over the roof and rear section of the FD. On another note, look how far the front end comes out with this bumper…

Talk about a dream set-up here…. I’ve always wanted to own a Toyota Crown and with this combo of air suspension and SSR Professor MS3 wheels, this one sits just right…

Volkswagen Scirocco planted to the ground on traditional BBS RS wheels….

Another Toyota Crown, this one repainted in this goldish hue, running custom fender flares housing a set of Work Meister M1 wheels with bronze faces…

Old&New Porsche 996 slant-nose build from AP Garage which was on display at the Osaka Auto Messe event last year when we attended…

Nakkan’s personal Old&New Porsche build on gold Rotiform wheels. We asked why his kit was different from the other Old&New kits where the headlights once were, being that the vented section was removable, and he explained that they altered this kit so that the car could pass Japan’s strict visual inspection process. With that section removable, Nakkan is able to put the required headlights back on the car and swap them out again after…

This is the best stage of his build, in my opinion. I love the blue and the contrasting gold wheels which are a far departure from when the car was chrome vinyl wrapped and multiple colors…

Motoki Tsubouchi’s beautifully executed EK Civic hatchback build which I once shot and wrote a feature for in Super Street magazine. Not much is new on this build other than the bronze Volk TE37 Sonic wheels but there isn’t much else you can do to this thing, especially since it has pretty much everything…

In the shaved engine bay is a K20A engine from a DC5 Type R, running a Skunk2 Racing Pro Series intake manifold and K-Tuned header….

If I remember correctly, this might be one of the first builds in Japan running the then-new Rywire tucked radiator set-up with custom -AN cooling hoses…

The exterior is pretty simple, mimicking a EK9 Civic Type R with the entire car resprayed in Audi Suzuka Grey…

Tomoyuki Sasaki’s Lamborghini Arancio Ishtar (Orange) Civic sedan, once assembled by both Atsuki and Yasu before the Tactical Art split. Always been a huge fan of this car and loved how I got to see it all come together….

’96 B18C Integra Type R engine swap also running a Skunk2 Racing Pro Series intake manifold but with a custom-made intake pipe and Mugen header…

Yet another really well-executed build with everything done inside and out. Not much else you can do now other than some wheel changes here and there. This thing is just about perfect…

Kazuya aka Chibichan’s epic K-swapped Civic Ferio build now on Enkei RPF1 wheels with a Sergeant front bumper and Tactical Art carbon front lip…

K20A-swap in the engine bay of Chibichan’s sedan running a traditional RBC intake manifold and a catalog of accessories from Hybrid Racing…

Keigo’s DC2 Integra Type R build, which was the last joint venture between Atsuki of Tactical Art and Yasu before he split off and formed Exceed Japan. It still feels like yesterday hanging out at the shop while these guys were putting this car together. Oh how far we have come and how much has changed. This was probably the best car they put together at that time and as you can see, it is quite impressive inside and out…

It was already a Type R so the B18C remained, just cleaned-up and dressed-up before going back into the gray-painted engine bay. It also runs a Rywire tucked radiator set-up and Kinsler individual throttle bodies drive air into the head…

The interior of Keigo’s Type R has been reupholstered in black suede with red stitching the match the factory Type R motif…

Another angle of the Integra Type R, sitting nice and low on aggressive CCW Classic wheels…

One more look at the engine bay since it looks just about perfect…

The new Mode Parfume widebody S2000 demo car, completed just hours before this event took place, shining under the bright sun in NSX Valencia Red Pearl….

I was there for the entire process of Masao from Mode Parfume designing this kit from scratch. I love all the little intricacies of it and how it looks unlike any other kit available…

Brand new, recently released, SSR GTX03 wheels…

Mode Parfume Nissan Fairlady Z build running air suspension and SSR Professor SP5 wheels…

Beautiful RPS13 180SX Type-X, looking like a true 90s classic on OZ Racing wheels…

Lexus 3GS looking pretty great on BBS LM wheels…

It is always a pleasure to run into this pristine Nissan Fairlady Z slammed on SSR Longchamp XR4…

1st generation Toyota Mark X on Work Emotion CR…

Interesting to see this JZX100 Chaser with a retrofitted BMW front grille and custom front bumper set-up. The owner even managed to integrate the E92 M3 fender vents into the fenders of the Chaser…

The rear has a completely molded-on rear custom bumper which also has a lower section from an E92 BMW M3. Also notice how the Work Meister S1 wheels are different finishes on both sides…

A70 Supra with its BBS wheels buried deep in the wheels wells…

The of the infamous No Good Racing “Shark” EG6 Civics, making a rare day-time appearance at a car show of all places…

Toyota Mark II on classic Work Equip whels with its hood-popped to reveal the 1JZ-GTE…

Rocket Bunny Porsche Cayman in all white on Work Meister M1 wheels….

Not only did this Toyota Crown look great on concave Volk Racing TE37 wheels…

…but the owner also integrated a window into the hood of his Crown to reveal the 2JZ-GTE engine swap…

Love the green on this Lexus 3GS, I guess you can say I’m partial to dark green, and I really like the subtlety of the custom fender flares front and back…

One of my favorite demo cars currently is this Aimgain VIP-GT Lexus LS460 on Savini forged wheels. Love how they stepped away from the traditional monotone colorways of most VIP builds and went with a vibrant blue tone, contrasted by the bright gold faces of the Savini wheels…

Newly debuted Aimgain Sport Lexus LC500h which first made its public appearance at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon event…

Southsiiiiide Auto Customs EF Civic sedan bagged and planted to the pavement on Work Equip 03 wheels…

Another Rocket Bunny Boss FD RX-7 from Racing Padock Miyoshi, this one in particular wearing a chrome vinyl Red Bull livery…

If you’re looking to attract some attention, there’s no better way to do it than with brushed mirror chrome and a massive Red Bull logo on a faux-retro front face…

Measured and sized to perfection are these Work Meister M1 wheels with brushed step-lips to match the brushed chrome vinyl livery. I love how the meaty tire just tucks so nicely under the widened panels of the RX-7…

This other Racing Padock Miyoshi FD is particularly interesting, not because of its color scheme or aero…

…but because it has this super peculiar rear hatch set-up covered in mirror chrome vinyl. I don’t know if they produce this hatch or another company does, but it seems both strange and mildly awesome. I don’t know why you would need a hatch like this on an FD unless you were transporting the Pope or something but, well, I can’t say I like it or hate it…

EG6 Civic race car from Mecha-Dock running front wide fenders and a Tactical Art carbon front lip…

The gutted and caged interior of the Mecha-Dock EG6…

Toyota Mark II looking pretty good on Advan GT wheels…

Toyota Crown in a cranberry hue on black-faced Work Meister M1, which seem to be the popular choice right now for wheel choice in that region…

Kentarou Yamamoto’s JZS171 2JZ-GTE powered Toyota Crown which also doubles as a drift car. Crazy to think that this car does any type of motorsport but I’ve been following him for quite some time now and have seen this thing in action sliding around everywhere…

12.5-inch wide custom BBS wheels on Yamamoto’s Crown…

Not sure what is going on with this crazy Nissan sedan but there’s definitely quite a bit of custom body work on it with the custom front bumper, front radiused fenders, and radiused rear quarter panels…

This Y33 Cima had more of your traditional Japanese VIP appeal with the dish wheels tucked deep under the fenders and a factory OEM GT Touring front bumper…

Clean JZX100 Chaser sitting on a set of silver Work Meister wheels…

Aimgain VIP GT Toyota Crown on 20-inch Advan GT wheels…

One more look at the duo of Racing Padock Miyoshi FDs…

…And we wrap things up from the AFFest Japan event with a shot of Yasu photobombing the Southsiiiiide EF. It feels good to be pushing good content out again. I hope you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for looking!!!…