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…
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Limited Edition Osaka Prints Are Now Available!!…
I’ve been wanting to do some prints for a while now and finally pulled the trigger and two of my favorites photos and cars from my recent journeys to Japan. The first one is of Tsuyohi from NO GOOD RACING’s two Civics during heavy rain on the Osaka Kanjo and the second, one of the best of all time, the Car Mark Across EK9 parked in front of a Family Mart on a night after Joe took @ryan.der on a touge run in the mountains. Both are 24×36-inches (2×3 ft) in size, printed on high-quality durable 100lb. gloss cover paper in a matte finish. Limited to only 200 each, all will be individually numbered and labeled like my previous prints, and can be signed upon request. Super happy how these came out and even happier that these will be hanging in some of your garages or homes. These are now available over at our official storefront, NORIVALNOEQUAL.COM!!…
Read MoreThe Long Lost Touge Footage Re-Emerges…CHRNCLS Vlog 2020 #9
This Vlog was originally uploaded and then immediately deleted on May 14, 2018. Watch for an explanation as to why and why it has been posted again now in 2020. Original description: “Being that I didn’t have anything specific planned before the Wekfest Japan event, my schedule was completely open […]
Read MoreAn Insanely RAW Night In Osaka…CHRNCLS Vlog 2020 #8
After Osaka Auto Messe, we had some free time to spend in Japan so I decided to take the boys over to Trial to see a shop that I’m familiar with, but they have never seen before. We take a short tour of their facility, grab some dinner, and head […]
Read MoreOsaka Car Culture is NO GOOD…CHRNCLS Vlog 2020 #7
On this episode, we jump right back into all the shenanigans that happened in the following two days of the 2020 Osaka Auto Messe event. We wanted to do something fun during that weekend outside of spending all day at Osaka’s biggest car show so Yasu and I decided to […]
Read MoreOsaka Auto Messe With No Good Racing…CHRNCLS Vlog 2020 #6
We’re back in Japan people!! After taking a short trip to Hawaii for the Wekfest event, I went back home, did my laundry and repacked my suitcase so I could go back to Japan for the annual Osaka Auto Messe car show. My good friend Ryan Der even decided to […]
Read MoreThe Chronicles in Japan 2020 Part 8: AF Festival Japan…
After we left Central Circuit at around 11:30 AM, we hopped in Yasu’s Civic and headed back to Osaka. The Autofashion Festival event had started already but we knew we’d have plenty of time to see everything since it didn’t end until 4. I missed last year’s event since it […]
Read MoreThe Chronicles in Japan 2020 Part 6: Impact Magic and TRA Kyoto…
The next morning after an epic visit to Car Make ACROSS, Yasu and I hopped into his FK7 Civic so we could head out to Kyoto. We were set to meet up with Kei Miura from TRA Kyoto to discuss some future plans but when we arrived, he was nowhere […]
Read MoreFinal Day in Japan at the Autofashion Festival…CHRNCLS Vlog 2020 #5
It’s been a blast in Japan but all good things must come to an end as I wrap-up my adventures and head back home. In the previous episode, you saw us at the Central Time Attack Challenge event in Hyogo. Around 11:30 AM, we hopped back in the car and […]
Read MoreImpact Magic, Time Attack and We Find Kei Miura!!…CHRNCLS Vlog 2020 #4
After we realized that Miura was nowhere to be found, we decided to take off for a bit to kill some time in Kyoto until he woke-up. Luckily our friend Tsunoda from Impact Magic was nearby so we stopped by for a visit. It’s been some time since I had […]
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