Well, it may seem like I just got back from Japan but here I am, back on a plane again to Osaka! The Wekfest event out in Nagoya is an event I try to attend every year so there was no way I was going to miss this one. There’s been some major changes this year with the event itself but the biggest, most obvious, change is the brand new venue! This place is huge! Before that though, we had some prep work to do and some adjustments after landing back in Japan. Enjoy!
As I near my return to Japan in just a few days time, I’m reminded that I still have photos from my last trip that I still have not posted yet. It’s not for lack of trying however, I’ve just been a tad bit on the busy side. I also probably took like an entire month off just to recover and re-adjust my body clock, only to get right back into packing my suitcases as I head back to Japan for Wekfest in May. I actually had gone through and processed all these photos on my laptop while I was in Japan but after I got back home, I looked at them on my office PC where I typically do all my editing and was unhappy with how they looked. My Lenovo laptop is brand new so I had no idea what the color calibration was like compared to my PC so there ended-up being a drastic difference between the two. The color grading on the Vlogs isn’t terribly different, since I was already using previous settings I had imported from my PC. Photos are a different story though since I pull them directly from my camera and different settings, time of day, and what I’m shooting are big variables in how I edit. Often times now I find that the photos that I post on Instagram while I’m in Japan are very different than the actual photos I process and keep for my own catalog…
This photo set came out pretty decent so I decided to host them here on the site even though I post a majority of them already on Instagram. I figured you guys would appreciate seeing them in a larger format than a small Smartphone screen. These are from our weekend doing car activities in Southern California. First, I woke up at an insanely early hour to bring the Battlecraft x Exceed GR86 over to Art of Attack to celebrate their 2-year anniversary. I was originally going to drive the GR86 over the weekend anyway but Kristian messaged me to see if I could get there earlier since the guys from Art of Attack had wanted it in their display area. Premium parking never sounds like a bad idea so I grabbed my camera gear, hopped in the GR and got there just in time for the festivities. It was a chill day and great to see all the usual suspects. After, I sat in traffic for an hour so I could go back to the shop and do absolutely nothing until the NBA Playoffs started, lol. Here are the photos, enjoy!!…
While I was in Japan back in February, there was a week gap where I didn’t have any other visitors with me. Sara had gone home, Kristian and Der wasn’t set to arrive yet, and there was some free time to just recover. January had been pretty crazy so this was the week where I’d sit down finally can create some content. Creating meant chillin’ inside Yasu’s office at Exceed with the heater blasting while inhaling nonstop second-hand smoke. It’s now April and I can still smell the Seven Stars cigarettes every day, I swear. I put a couple of Vlog episodes together during that time while Yasu caught-up on work at the shop. By the end of the week, it was time for us to resume our adventures and the event I was looking forward to was the AF Fest car show hosted by my friends from Autofashion USA. I’ve known these guys since like 2004-ish so I always appreciate what they do and try to show my support. These guys were doing big things back then and allowed a young scrub like me to tag along and occasionally show my Accord with their fleet of VIP cars. I don’t know why but they me chill with them. Maybe it was a San Diego thing where you just look out for one another, who knows. But it’s been almost 20 years now and I’m happy to say that we are all alive and kicking while still remaining pretty relevant in the scope of the automotive tuning industry. Bascailly, I fuck with these dudes. They’re homies. If they’re doing something or hosting an event, I always try my best to go and every year when I used to do my anniversary meets, the guys from Autofashion would be out to help DJ even though they were dead-tired from building SEMA cars. They are good people and I think their accomplishments translate worldwide because they’ve also created a pretty cool event series in Japan over the last few years. Cool cars, good people, I don’t have to be there all day…that sounds like a fun day to me, lol…
After the Zummy Racing event ended the day prior, we had dinner and checked into our hotel for the evening. There wasn’t a whole lot to do out in Ibaraki so we decided to just rest-up. I edited photos, went through some videos for a Vlog episode and called it a night. We got up pretty early to head to Tsukuba Circuit since we anticipated a pretty busy morning. This was Attack’s 10th anniversary event and as such, was planned to be their biggest event to date. With the borders finally re-opened to the world, foreigners like us would most definitely want to attend this incredible event. We stopped to grab breakfast and by the time we arrived at Tsukuba, there was already a really long line to get inside. Thankfully, we were able to get some pit passes the day before and were able to drive right in…
I will start this off by simply telling you the sole reason why Attack Tsukuba is one of my favorite events to attend anywhere in the world; Everything about this event represents the evolved version of everything I loved about the Japanese tuning scene growing-up. There isn’t another place, other than Tokyo Auto Salon, where you’ll see all these democars from famed tuning shops together with some amazing privateer builds you’ve never seen before. I mean, where else will you see some of the cars from the infamous Mid Night racing team out and about in the daylight? It’s overwhelming to be quite honest. There is just SO MUCH to consume all at once. This is my third time attending Attack here at Tsukuba Circuit and I still find it to be complete visual overload. You know how sometimes you go to an event and can’t wait to leave? Well this is the complete opposite of that. There actually aren’t enough seconds in the day to see everything…
How about we get back to looking at some good old fashion photos, huh?? Yes, yes, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted any photo sets on the site, but there’s a huge reason for that; I simply haven’t had the time to. The YouTube channel has been jampacked with videos the past few months because it is so much easier for me to churn out new Vlogs while I’m on the road. Editing video is a much easier process for me than processing photos because I’m much more picky about how I want my photos to look. I still shoot a lot, probably more than I have before, believe it or not—I also take more time going through the photos now because my tools have expanded as have my skills as a photographer. At the core of it, this site has always been about both the written content and the photos that accompany it. That’s still my focus. It just takes a lot of time to go through the photos, organize them, write copy, and post them here. I don’t know if you guys have ever done any type of blogging before, but it is incredibly time-consuming. I used to be able to post so much more simply because I wasn’t doing anything else. As I’ve gotten older, there is just so much more on my plate now. The Chronicles started-off as just a side project for fun and now it’s my main source of income. As such, I dedicate so much of my time to everything involved with making it sustainable…
Alas, my Japan journey comes to an end. It”s been an eventful 40 days here but it is time to go home! I’ve had a blast but I do have to remember that I have a life at home to live so it is time for me to depart. Before I go however, I did have one more event to go to; Nostalgic 2 Days in Yokohama! I’m always trying to see new things and expand my horizons in the world of Japanese automotive tuning so this is the perfect event to cap-off my trip! This show is specifically catered to the Kyusha, or Japanese classic car, community and there’s always something rare or unique to see here. Whenever I dive into the rich history of the Kyusha car scene, I always find myself learning new things. And this event was no different. Join me and my friends as we walk through Nostalgic 2 Days and let’s all appreciate these classics together…
The age-old debate continues…which is better? Tokyo Auto Salon or Osaka Auto Messe? Both parts of Japan are so different in so many ways that it always brings about this question—but can the two really be compared? Tokyo Auto Salon is a much larger show in terms of scale and relevance, but there’s just so much character and style that Osaka has to offer. Since I went to both shows this year, I am able to provide a first-hand account of the cars that were showcased. Join my friends and I as we explore the wonderfully colorful annual car show mega event that is the one and only, Osaka Auto Messe!! And decide for yourself which one you prefer. Let me know what you think in the comments!!…
If this episode proves anything, it’s that nothing ever goes as planned. Originally we had decided to help Sara get acquainted with drifting a right-hand drive car while she was here in Japan. We managed to find a car for her to drive, a track for her to practice at, and were fully prepared for the day—that is until an unexpected surprise came and changed everything. Instead of being discouraged, we just made a (really) stupid, fun, adventure out of it. After that debacle, we stopped by famed Japanese drifter Naoki Nakamura’s workshop for a quick visit in Nara before attending the Autofashion AF Festival event back in Osaka. I’d hope to get some more footage at the show since there were some pretty interesting cars there but again, things just never go as planned…
