Tag Archive for ‘car meets’

The One Where Our Friends From Japan Experience California Car Culture…

The One Where Our Friends From Japan Experience California Car Culture…

Finally after 3 years, Yasu is finally back in America! It feels like it has been forever since he’s been back and he even brought our friend Ryuji from NO GOOD RACING with him. A lot has changed over the last few years so he definitely had a lot to catch-up on. With it being Ryuji’s first-time in America, we wanted to make sure he had the best experience here in California. Luckily, there seemed to be a plethora of automotive events happening every week here. That’s just one of the many perks of living out here I suppose. Whatever they wanted to see, we found it whether it be car shows, meets, lowriders, the American Honda Collection Hall, etc. We did it all. This episode consists of our many adventures during the past few weeks with bits and pieces of everything we experienced. I know it seems like Yasu is typically the one showing me around Japan but it was time to return the favor and catch him up on all the amazing things our car culture has to offer…

Back To New York City For The Honda Collective!!…

Back To New York City For The Honda Collective!!…

I had such a good time at the Honda Collective event last year that I made sure to return once again in 2023. My schedule was jam-packed after being in Japan for three weeks but I managed to get home just in time to do laundry and hop back on a plane to New York City. If you’re a Honda enthusiasts, this is the one for you. New York City is such a vibe and seeing these Hondas cruise around town and pop-up in a busy Timesquare is a sight to behold!…

KDAY!! Is One Of Japan’s Best-Kept Secrets…

KDAY!! Is One Of Japan’s Best-Kept Secrets…

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Takeshi Kobayashi for over a decade now but have never actually been to one of his Kday!! events. It’s an annual car show he does every year and though I’ve been to Japan many, many, times, I’ve just never made my way up to Miyagi Prefecture during Fall. After my trip to Australia, I decided to head to Japan for a few weeks and it just so happened that Kday!! was happening the same month. Yasu had planned to attend with his newly-finished USDM Civic coupe so everything just sort of fell into place. Not only would be be able to present the Civic in its near-final form, I’d finally have the opportunity to experience Takeshi’s labor of love in his hometown…

The Return Of A Local Legend In Japan…

The Return Of A Local Legend In Japan…

You know, I’d never thought I’d see the day when this Civic coupe would re-emerge over in Japan. It wasn’t the best kept secret ever, but Yasu from Exceed Japan actually purchased this coupe about 5 years ago as a bare shell. DPK David had decided to move on from Hondas and Yasu leaped at the chance of owning it. The two-door was one of Yasu’s favorites from the West Coast and one of the builds that really got him fascinated with how enthusiasts build Hondas in America. He had planned to rebuild the car as an homage to its prime years here in Southern California but with some updated details to make it his own. As the business grew over the years, it became less of a priority to get this thing back together. This year marked the first time Yasu even had a chance to even touch the car and over the last few months, it has started to look like its old self again. After I left Australia, I flew straight to Japan to see it for myself…

The Beasts Of WEKFEST EAST…

The Beasts Of WEKFEST EAST…

I’d say that it’s been a minute but that would be an understatement. Working on that ADVAN collaboration has consumed more of my life than I’d like to admit but when I’m not at home working, I’m literally on the road trying to absorb as much car culture as I can! This marks a big few months for me as I venture off into different parts of the world. My journey starts in the Tri-State area as I fly out to New York to attend the annual Wekfest East event. It’s always interesting going out East to see old friends and meet new ones at the show. Immediately after that, I booked an early flight home because I had to repack my bags before taking a 1:20AM flight to fly across the world to attend the World Time Attack Challenge. Before we get into that though, I take you around the early morning hours of Wekfest in Edison, New Jersey…

So What’s Car Culture In Canada Like??…

So What’s Car Culture In Canada Like??…

On the list of “places I didn’t plan on visting in 2023”, Canada was pretty high on the list when my year started. Nothing against the Canadians, I just didn’t have any plans to go. I’ve visited a few times before but it was never really for automotive stuff. I usually get a pretty decent sample size whenever I go to Seattle for Wekfest. A good group of cars come down from Canada for the show and I’m always pretty impressed. I’d like to think that the car community up there is kinda like how it is back at home, just slightly different, like an alternate dimension version. Recently, Reggie Mah from Nightrunner threw the idea out there that I should go and visit Vancouver. He was having his first public event at his new shop location and I had mentioned before in the past that I wanted to check-out the cars at his shop. I don’t know if he just threw the idea out there as a joke, not expecting me to actually go, but I just so happened to have a free weekend on those exact dates. I’m always down to see something new and experience car culture in an unfamiliar place so this was the perfect opportunity! I booked a trip for the weekend and spent every moment of it doing car stuff with some fellow automotive enthusiasts from Canada. It was definitely an eye-opening experience….

Doridore Japan 2023 Coverage…

Doridore Japan 2023 Coverage…

This was one of those events that I totally did not anticipate attending while I was in Japan a few months ago. I usually try to keep my trips pretty spontaneous so on certain days, we’ll randomly go to a car event that we just heard about the day before. Sometimes they’re a couple hours away so it probably isn’t ideal to plan so late but that’s just how things go. I heard about the DoriDore event last year while I was in Japan because our friend Yayo was hired on to be one of their official event models. I didn’t know too much about it before since it was still relatively new, but the concept of it sounded really cool. DoriDore is essentially a drift and dress-up event for enthusiasts who love the “Shakotan” style of Japanese car builds. Shakotan, for those unfamiliar, basically means an extremely-lowered car aka a car that is ‘slammed’. This event is catered to those who enjoy the Shakotan-style specifically and want to take their cars drifting while hovering ever so slightly above the tarmac. Most of the time, the cars competing aren’t dedicated drift cars. A bulk of them are show cars and that’s kinda what makes this event so fun. For once, the cars drifting actually look good, lol. Style is the number 1 driving force. It allows for these show cars to go out there and slide around without prejudice. There’s no pro driver on their ass trying to get them to go faster and these guys just get to move around at their own pace…

Wekfest San Jose 2023 Coverage… Part 2…

Wekfest San Jose 2023 Coverage… Part 2…

For this second portion of the Wekfest SJ ’23 coverage, I’ll actually be spending a bulk of it spotlighting very specific builds that I encountered that weekend. San Jose is technically a 2-day event for the Wekfest crew because roll-in and set-up occurs the entire day prior to the actual show. Being that it is such a huge event with over 450 cars, it takes a good amount of time to stage every car and vendor. Add to that the time it takes to build the entire booth and the hours just fly-by. The good thing about having an entire weekend of Wekfest is that I actually get to experience the show. That sounds crazy from a spectator’s perspective but we literally spend all of our time work when the show happens all on the same day. Most of it is spend judging, some of it is doing all the announcing, even less of it is spent eating/relaxing, and whatever time I can muster in-between is used to shoot content. The bigger San Jose and Los Angeles events are fun for me because I have a few hours to actually walk the show and be a spectator myself. Los Angeles is obviously a good one for me because I can just go home and not be in a hotel. There are no suitcases involved. San Jose is nice because the hotel is directly connected to the convention center. So we can just walk back to our rooms after we are done for the day. There’s no rush to leave and the people at the San Jose Convention Center gives us as much time as we need to set-up. Long after the exhibitors are gone, we can stay behind and walk the show in peace. The doors are locked, security roams the building, and we get to do whatever we want…

Wekfest San Jose 2023 Coverage… Part 1…

Wekfest San Jose 2023 Coverage… Part 1…

Man, it has been quite a while since I put together one of these blog posts. Things have been so crazy hectic here that I find myself stuck in one of the rare occasions when I actually have TOO MUCH content to show you guys. Being in Japan for most of the first-half of the year will do that I guess. I collected so much photo content during those months that there was much catching-up to do after I returned home. And once I got home, most of my time was dedicated to executing the CHRNCLS x ADVAN collaboration properly. It was such a unique opportunity that there was so way I was going to NOT give it my all. As much as I hate to admit it, everything else went on the backburner as a result of that. I wanted to leave no stone unturned. There was no way I was going to allow someone to say “that’s nice but this could have been done better”. I wouldn’t let it leave my hands if that was the case. It wouldn’t be fair to my years of hard work. By the time the collaboration rolled-out to the public, there really wasn’t a second to breathe. The summer season had come upon us and I was immediately back on the road…

Once A Year, Honda Heaven Exists In Saitama…

Once A Year, Honda Heaven Exists In Saitama…

On my last few days in Japan, I head back over to the Tokyo-side of Japan to check-out the 2nd annual “Chan-Oka Honda Meet” in Saitama. This meet is a special one for me because its entire purpose is to pay homage to the USDM West Coast Honda scene of the mid-to-late 2000s. While we spent the better part of our adult lives in America building Hondas inspired by the ones we saw in Japan, younger enthusiasts over there were studying our interpretations of their style. In the last few years, USDM Honda culture and style has developed a pretty big following in Japan. It’s become a style almost unique to itself because its an interpretation of an interpretation. Like if one person tells another person a story, and that person repeats that story to someone else, and so on and on, eventually the story becomes different. It just retains certain elements, or the core pieces, of the original story. That’s basically what the USDM Honda community consists of. It features many of the core ideologies of what we did here, but the execution is slightly different. Some parts are different because accessibility to certain brands are limited and Japan just does things unique from us because culturally, they weren’t raised the same. The Chan-Oka Honda Meet is an important gathering because it represents a big part of where the Honda community in Japan is headed in the next few years. For guys like me who grew-up during the golden age of the West Coast Honda scene, this meet is Heaven on Earth—but like, a Japanese version of Heaven 🙂