A rare quiet evening in Osaka Amerikamura. One of those ‘work all day, grab a quick dinner, and go cruising with your friends’ type of nights…
Tag Archive for ‘osaka’
The Chronicles Highway Attack ‘Gameplay Footage’ in 4K…
Well, I figured there would be no better way to put a bow-tie on this fun project than to actually provide you guys with some footage of it in modern-day 4K. This has been such a fun project. After starting it one-day randomly two years ago and then rehashing it all with much more content in late 2023. It all started with the basis of just having fun and being creative, imagining an alternate timeline where The Chronicles would have had a 16-bit racing game on a Super Nintendo console. Obviously there were some liberties taken with how much I could actually make look ’16-bit’ but I think for the most part, it pulls off the feel of an old racing game faithfully. There was a lot of inspiration taken from some of my favorite games like Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Option Tuning Car Battle and some more obscure titles from Japan that I discovered over the years.
Always Up To NO GOOD In Osaka…
Well this was a fun one. After Der and Kristian arrived in Japan, it was time to get Act 2 of my adventures in Japan going. I had a lot planned but didn’t want them to miss out on anything so I waited for them first. Kristian had never been to Japan before to do strictly car-related things so it was important to provide him with the best experience. Being that it was the weekend of Osaka Auto Messe, and the boys were in town, we decided to host another late night meet. I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble again with over 300+ cars showing up to a parking area so we moved the event outside of the city to the quiet island of Awaji. The longer distance made for some fun driving and of course, any time you throw a bunch of straight-piped Civics into an area that’s supposed to be peaceful, a little bit of chaos comes into play. Let’s just say that we were up to “no good” again in Osaka…
Welcome Back To Osaka…
So, we are back in Osaka for a few days, just catching-up with old friends and meeting new ones. I had a couple of friends from America ask me if they could possibly see some car stuff while they were in town. Hearing so many interesting stories and lore over the years from Osaka, they wanted to see if it was real. Is Civic culture as big as its been portrayed to be? I wouldn’t normally try to put anything together since I enjoy being lowkey while I’m here but Sara was in town as well, so it was a good time to get car enthusiasts together again. So, a meet happened very last minute on a Wednesday. Many of us haven’t been able to reconnect since the borders re-opened so it was time to pump some life back into the car community in Kansai! Everyone be safe out there and abide by all the rules and regulations please!!
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.
Am I Really In Japan Right NOW?!…
Could it be? After two-long years, have I finally found my way back to Japan??…
No Good Racing Night Meet 2021 Coverage…
Seems like Yasu has been out and about quite a bit lately, regularly attending shows and meets in his area. I don’t know if it is necessarily the best idea being that the number of cases haven’t really gone done much, if at all, lately in Osaka but he’s being careful and selective of who he hangs out with. I honestly feel like he’s just getting a little bored being at the shop every day and going a little stir crazy so he wants to be outside again. The last year and a half has probably felt a little odd for him since he’s usually either in the U.S. hanging out with us or we’re over there in Osaka with him. Hopefully in the next few months or so things get better and he’ll be able to return in time for the Wekfest tour to start here in America. He recently attended a night meet hosted by our friends from NO GOOD RACING and asked me if I wanted photos. Of course I’m always down for Japan content so I asked him to shoot some stuff. He mentioned that the meet was happening in a brand new parking area which was just recently completed and that sounded exciting since the night meets we go to are normally poorly-lit. There wasn’t a specific reason behind the meet happening, I think everyone just wanted to do car stuff and wanted to not think about the pandemic so they hosted a gathering. Here are the photos from that evening, captured by Yasu Shimomukai from Exceed Japan. Enjoy!!…
Chasing Nostalgia…
Suspend all disbelief. I don’t think I was ever after the idea of creating an actual game more so than actually creating a ‘feeling’. It’s simple, it’s plastic—but within it is imagination, a healthy dose of attention to detail, and well—a little piece of me. Here’s a little keepsake to remind us of when we were young and how to still be a kid even after we grow old…
Can It Be Real?…
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more real—it’s definitely still NOT real, lol. When I randomly came up with the idea to create a SNES game box a few days ago, I had no idea it’d be so well-received. I honestly thought people would think it’s kinda corny but maybe that’s exactly what we need right now. A little bit of nostalgia to remind us of our childhoods never hurts, I guess. So I took it a step further and created the intro for this imaginary Chronicles video game that must actually exist somewhere in an alternate dimension. I took some old photos I shot from the past, did some cool 16-bit-style stuff to it, added some assets I found from around the web and turned on the game for the first time, haha. I’m currently in the process of producing more game boxes for those who want to have one as a keepsake. It makes for a cool collectible/art-piece for the enthusiasts who support The Chronicles. Hope you like it!!…
The Chronicles ‘Highway Attack Challenge’ in 16-Bit…
Anyone that knows me will tell you that I enjoy collecting things, especially if they are nostalgic and/or remind me of my childhood. I grew up in the ‘90s and a lot of my time was spent playing Super Nintendo. It was always so cool to go to the store and see new games come out and holding them in your hand after they were taken out from behind the display case. Just seeing all the boxes and the box art was so cool. Lately I’ve been trying to consistently be in a creative space so one day I decided to create something that had a mix of both my childhood and what I do as an adult now. I thought it’d be cool to imagine The Chronicles as an SNES Racing video game. It’s completely unrealistic because the eras don’t match-up, nor would a game ever have these types of features or graphics but the main thing I wanted to do was create the box art for this imaginary game.