The Finale Of My Adventures In Japan…

The Finale Of My Adventures In Japan…

A month and a day in Japan. It’s time for me to go home to Los Angeles. It’s been fun but the summer is coming and Japan is not the place to be during those months. We pick up this final episode right where the last one left-off at the Chan-Oka Honda Meet. There were still many cars to go over and I provide some insight on how I feel about West Coast Honda style/culture being translated to Japanese Honda builds. After the meet, I head to the parking lot to give you guys a look at one of the coolest Mini builds ever before heading over to “Built By Legends”. There, we get an in-depth look at their ongoing Spoon Sports concept EG6 Civic build and try to understand what the whole purpose of the project is for…
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Abandoned Hondas At Real Company And Collecting Rare Parts In Japan…

Abandoned Hondas At Real Company And Collecting Rare Parts In Japan…

As my adventures in the Kansai region of Japan near an end, I find myself in the countryside of the Nara prefecture where I visit Real Company. This Honda modification shop is about as traditional as it gets, playing host to both Civic race cars as well as many more that have been left behind to be reclaimed by nature. It’s always interesting to see what types of gems Yasu and I stumble upon. There are a surprising amount of cars that have been out of service for years, slowly being overtaken by the elements. After that, I take you back to Exceed where I show you some pretty rare parts that both Yasu, myself, and my good friend Cody have been collecting to send back to the good ol’ USA. I came to Japan for many reasons and one of them was to secure products to send home for business as well as personal use.
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You Won’t Believe What We Found At Top Fuel Japan…

You Won’t Believe What We Found At Top Fuel Japan…

This one might be one of my favorite episodes yet! Just based purely on all the stuff I unexpectedly found while in the Mie prefecture. First we visit one of my all-time favorite shops for the first time ever, Top Fuel in Matsuzaka. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when we arrived, thinking that Top Fuel had shifted their focus to other cars and hadn’t placed much focus on Hondas anymore. I thought it would just be a empty shop with a bunch of Suzuki Swifts being worked on but boy was I wrong!! After that we stopped by Voltex in Suzuka for a visit which was also very cool because neither Yasu nor I had ever been. This area is so rich in tuning history that there was so many surprises. Wait until the very end, it’s a wild one! You’re gonna love it!
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Stancenation G Edition Japan Has Some Crazy Good Builds…

Stancenation G Edition Japan Has Some Crazy Good Builds…

Hope you watched the previous episode because this is the second half of our journey documenting Yasu and I bringing the old Phaze2 Integra from California to its (possibly) final major event at Stancenation G Edition Nagoya. I’ve personally never been to this show before but I’ve always heard good things about this event series. There are usually A LOT of cars that participate in this series, with this Nagoya event featuring over 700 cars. Yes, you read that correctly. I went in with no expectations thinking that I’d just take this event as a new experience and I was pleasantly surprised!! I take you guys on a walkthrough of the event while also simultaneously covering all that was happening with the Integra. I don’t know how many Americans have been to this show before or how many have documented it but here is a very rare look at what a Stancenation event is like in Japan. It’s so different than what we have in the U.S. and definitely features way more than just the typical “stance” builds you’d see in North America. Japan just does it different, and more importantly, better. The quality, the details, the quirkiness of Japan…
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Yasu Said It’s Time To Retire The Phaze2 Integra…

Yasu Said It’s Time To Retire The Phaze2 Integra…

It has been quite a journey with the Phaze2 Integra. I watched the car come together, be sold, re-purchased, rebuilt, and sold once again in the span of the last 17 years. Though it has never been my car, I’ve always had a connection with it. I’d say this car is very much a part of my legacy. To this day I think the Super Street cover of this Integra is my favorite cover that I’ve ever shot. When it was sold to Yasu in Osaka, it felt like the perfect home for it. In Japan, it developed its own history. The car was maintained by Yasu for some time, sold to a friend, and returned to Yasu’s ownership. Recently, the car has been in storage and starting to show some age. The motor itself is not doing so well, and some parts on the car could definitely use a refresh, but… there just hasn’t been time. Yasu is super busy these days with other projects but since I was in town for the month and the Stancenation G Edition event was happening nearby, Yasu decided he wanted to pull the car out and make it look fancy again for one final major event…
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Wekfest Chicago 2022 Coverage… Part 2…

Wekfest Chicago 2022 Coverage… Part 2…

YES I AM STILL IN JAPAN. I am not sure when or if I will ever return. Just kidding of course because the government will definitely not be too keen about that and also, summer is coming and it is starting to get pretty hot here in Osaka. Now I know what people mean when they say the summers here are unbearable. It’s not even summer yet and the humidity is weighing on me like a heavy blanket. Do I wish I was home already? No, not really. There is still much to do here and much to see. I was fully prepared for the weather too because Yasu told me it was hot. All I brought were shorts thinking it’d be blazing but then I came to realize that Yasu probably doesn’t understand what the word “warm” means. It’s either hot or cold so his definition of hot probably just meant that it was warm. I soon discovered that when it’s hot, he just says that it is “fucking hot”. 
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Adjusting To “Normal” Life In Osaka…

Adjusting To “Normal” Life In Osaka…

I use the term “Normal” very loosely of course becaues living the life I live the last decade or so would hardly be categorized as anything close to normal by conventional standards. Nonetheless, this life is normal to me so being in Japan has required a bit of an adjustment over the last few weeks. Osaka is a very special place to be, especially if you’re a car enthusiasts so hanging out with Yasu every day has provided me with a very special outlook on how life can be for people in this area. I’m sure he would be the first to tell you that me being here for this amount of time has completely flipped his world upside down. My stay here has probably shaken up his routine so I tried to make it easier on him by having him carry out his day as he would had I not been here. Of course, that didn’t happen as I expected it to, as he took me to ASLAN to go visit and the rest of the time was spent running errands and doing random stuff.
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In Kansai, CIVIC IS CULTURE.

In Kansai, CIVIC IS CULTURE.

We’ve been taking you any and everywhere the last few episodes because there was so much going on during the Japanese “Golden Week” vacation period. It seemed like there was something going on every single day because people are just happy to be out and about again. But…in this episode, we get back down to business covering what we’ve come to be known for…All things in Japan, in the Kansai region specifically, related to ’90s era Honda Civics. The weekend of Golden Week, we were invited out to see the JJ Cup event at Central Circuit in Hyogo featuring a one-make style competition of time attack Civics. I do a track walkthrough of the event, show you guys some of the grittiest Hondas that this area has to offer. A day before that however, I stop by to make a shop visit to Charge in Osaka and also stop by to visit our friends at Mecha-Dock for a good old Golden Week BBQ!…
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Wekfest Chicago 2022 Coverage… Part 1…

Wekfest Chicago 2022 Coverage… Part 1…

Attention, attention, we are now interrupting what seems like regularly scheduled posts from Japan to give you some photos I’ve long been waiting to post. As most of you will have realized by now, I am currently in Osaka, Japan. I have so much content to upload as I have been making Vlog episodes basically real-time that I haven’t had much time to post anything else. Right before I left for Osaka, I had literally crammed two nights into completing these photos from Wekfest Chicago only to have them sit on my hard drive for another two weeks, lol. There’s just been so much cool shit happening on this sound of the pond that I haven’t been able to sit down to lay out this post. It’s a shame because I really enjoyed how these photos came out…
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