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stickydiljoe

'Stickydiljoe' aka Joey Lee is a freelance photographer, writer, and creator of The Chronicles.
Why You Should Go To An Itasha-Style Car Show In Japan…

Why You Should Go To An Itasha-Style Car Show In Japan…

When I first landed in Osaka, Yasu mentioned that there was an Itasha-style car show happening just two days after Wekfest—at the exact same venue in Nagoya. He asked me if I wanted to go and I thought about it for a whole 2 seconds before I said “YES DEFINITELY”, lol. Why? Well, I’m here in this country that I haven’t been back to in two years so I want to experience as much as possible. More importantly, I want to see and experience NEW things that I haven’t had access to before. Itasha-style car builds are SUPER popular here in Japan and from the photos I’ve seen on Twitter, they always look to be of pretty high-quality as well. SO OF COURSE I WANTED TO GO. And if you watch this episode, you might want to go too! I think everyone experiencing car culture in Japan should try to go to one of these events at least once. Would I go back? Uhhhh….YES.
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A Surprise Appearance At An S2000 Car Meet In Mie Japan!…

A Surprise Appearance At An S2000 Car Meet In Mie Japan!…

The day after Wekfest Japan, we jumped out of bed and into our friend Eishi Suzuki’s Voltex S2000 to attend an all-S2K meet at a parking area in Mie. This was a special occasion because Eishi passed away a couple of years ago and he was once the organizer of this particular meet. His close friend still hosts the meet every year in his honor and Yasu thought it would be a great surprise if we brought his car out for it! I don’t think anyone expected it to be there but everyone was stoked when we pulled-up. The car hasn’t been brought out in public since his passing so it was important that the car be there for the gathering he once hosted…
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One Of The Main Reasons Why I Came Back…WEKFEST JAPAN

One Of The Main Reasons Why I Came Back…WEKFEST JAPAN

As many of you may have figured it out by now, one of the reasons why I returned to Japan in 2022 was to attend the Wekfest event in Nagoya. I’ve been to every single one since the very beginning, with the exception of last year’s due to the global “thing”. It felt weird not coming back, especially since it has long become a regular checkmark on my annual travel calendar. When I found out that there was an opportunity to return, I leaped at the opportunity. This year was a bit different for me. I decided I wanted to experience the show as a spectator and shoot the event for myself. There were so many great builds that I wished there was more time to cover it all, but I had to find a balance between vlogging and photography…so, here is the video portion of my adventures at this Wekfest event…
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Finishing-Up A DC5 Integra For Wekfest Japan…

Finishing-Up A DC5 Integra For Wekfest Japan…

It’s that time of year again for both the Golden Week holiday and Wekfest Japan! Now that things are starting to get back to normal, everyone can get back to building cars and getting them buttoned-up for the Wekfest event in Nagoya! One of the main reasons I came back to Japan finally was to attend the Wekfest event but before that takes place, we spend an entire day wrapping-up a DC5 Integra build that has been in the works now for the past few months. Parts show-up just in time, good fun was had, we met Yasu’s mom, and more!…
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Just A Regular Day For Car Guys In Japan…

Just A Regular Day For Car Guys In Japan…

As I begin to settle into my stay in Osaka, Japan, we get to work on some of the cars that are going to Wekfest Japan, spend a day-off in Osaka, and stop by a local car meet before getting back to work. This is just your average day in Japan for car enthusiasts like Yasu and myself. I promised I’d be doing more videos while I’m here and though they might not be daily, I’ll continue to upload as often as time permits while I’m here!…
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Our Toyota GR86 Gets The Brand NEW APEX’i N1-X Exhaust!!…

Our Toyota GR86 Gets The Brand NEW APEX’i N1-X Exhaust!!…

Didn’t expect to start modifying the GR86 so soon since we are still waiting on so many parts to come in from Japan but this was an offer we couldn’t refuse!! APEX’i recently received their new N1-X Evolution Extreme Muffler system from Japan and provided us with the amazing opportunity to run the first one in North America! As many of you know, we are in the process of building a stateside version of the Exceed Japan demo GR86 and it just so happened that Yasu is also running the same exhaust. I guess you can say this opportunity was a serendipitous one.
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Seeing black-and-white in film through the lens of a classic Nikon F3HP…

Seeing black-and-white in film through the lens of a classic Nikon F3HP…

Finally can start doing these monthly film dumps again now that I have a capable camera body to shoot with. I’ve been shooting with this expired Fuji Acros 100II black and white film for a few months now but just was never able to produce any good photos with it. I think the main issue was shooting with a very basic film camera that didn’t have any light-metering capabilities. Being that the film is 100 ISO, it needs a lot of light and I was always trying to shoot any and everywhere which wasn’t always in the brightest setting…
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Stanceworks K24 Turbo Ferrari 308 GTBi Updates…

Stanceworks K24 Turbo Ferrari 308 GTBi Updates…

It’s been a minute but I had a chance to stop by Stanceworks Garage last night to see the current progress on Mike Burrough’s K24 turbo swapped Ferrari 308 GTBi. This is one of those projects that has probably taken longer than expected but it’s not like there are just a bunch of K-swapped Ferrari out and about. Great things take time especially considering the amount of custom fabrication involved and so many little one-off minute details.
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