Tag Archive for ‘exceed japan’

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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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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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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A New Year Means New Goals & NEW PROJECTS!!…

A New Year Means New Goals & NEW PROJECTS!!…

If the title and the click-baity cover photo didn’t give it away, we’re unveiling a new build! I’ve been hinting at a new project car since the year started and I guess I must have spoken it into existence because here we are! We introduce you to our new Exceed-supported Battlecraft demo car and give you some updates on what Ryan Der has been up to with his Civic. A guest with a pretty unique build passes by the shop and more!…
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Phantom Day 2022 Coverage… Part 2…

Phantom Day 2022 Coverage… Part 2…

Back with the rest of the photos from the recent “Phantom Day” event held in Chiba, Tokyo, Japan. Though this was a smaller event, I can imagine how much fun it would have been to just walk around all day and shoot some of these builds while shooting the shit with my friends over there. Hopefully sooner than later, I’ll be able to do just that when I can head back to Japan. For now, we’ll just have to look at these great photos captured by Yasutaka Shimomukai from Exceed Japan. I’m glad he’s been around me long enough to understand what cars I’d capture and what angles I like to shoot them at. He sends them over to me and I process them the same way I process my own photos. The end result are photos that look just like mine, honestly. Only people that are incredibly familiar with my photography and level of detail will notice the differences.
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Phantom Day 2022 Coverage… Part 1…

Phantom Day 2022 Coverage… Part 1…

Admittedly, I’m a bit bummed because I wasn’t able to attend Tokyo Auto Salon this year due to the ongoing global shitstorm. I thought Yasu was going to go, at least, but I couldn’t even convince him to be inside the Makuhari Messe venue and be exposed to the plethora of possibly infected humans. I knew I was going to miss 2021 because they cancelled the event outright but was looking forward to going back in 2022. This actually marks the first time I’ve ever missed a TAS event since I first started attending back in 2013. From what I heard from friends in Japan, the event was much smaller and the crowd was definitely smaller, which was expected. I think my friends were trying to make me feel better because the show wasn’t nearly as big as it has been in the past but the thought of just being able to shoot the cars there with a smaller crowd sounded amazing. It’s usually pretty impossible to get a clean shot while the show is going on but from what I’ve seen of the photos posted online, you could definitely tell that the show was smaller. I’m hoping Japan re-opens by spring time so I can finally return and visit friends there but at this rate, who really knows?…
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The Transformation Of The IS300 Begins!!… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #14

The Transformation Of The IS300 Begins!!… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #14

Well, it’s been a long time coming but the IS300 Sportcross is finally back at the shop and we can finally start throwing all the goodies on there. The first thing we had to do right away was to put the Advan wheels back on and fully overhaul the worn-out suspension components. I was pretty excited to see the Exceed big brake go on the car finally as well but was slightly nervous about brake caliper to wheel clearance. Once that was all dialed-in, I started tinkering with other ideas and also swapped-out my interior for rare Modellista Qualitat stuff. Check it out, I can’t believe the car is actually back!!
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