Tag Archive for ‘Spoon Sports’

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…

Exploring Down Under For World Time Attack Challenge…

Exploring Down Under For World Time Attack Challenge…

I was gonna say “Spooning Down Under” but people might get the wrong idea, lol. So right after New York, I flew home for a few short hours to repack because I had to hop on another flight to Australia. Yasu and I had always talked about going but just never got down to actually planning it. When he told me he was going, I gave him my word that I would meet up with him in Sydney but kind of got carried away with time–per usual, I didn’t book my flight until late. Like two weeks late. After I saw the prices of the flights, I was kind of hesitant on going but then I found out that Spoon Sports would be attending WTAC as well. Spoon, both Japan and USA, were heading down under for exhibition runs with the legendary Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada behind the wheel. I wasn’t going to miss that so I bit the bullet and booked my trip. It was so expensive that I managed to find another flight that would take me to Japan after for just an extra $100. So why not just make a big adventure out of it all, right? Let’s kick things off by exploring the two-day event that was the World Time Attack Challenge. If you’re looking for racing action, there is none of that here, lol. I spent my time walking around the event and studying car builds as I always do…

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….

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…

Why The WEST Is BEST Part 2: WEKFEST SEATTLE!!…

Why The WEST Is BEST Part 2: WEKFEST SEATTLE!!…

I originally assumed after this event that I hadn’t gathered enough footage for an entire vlog so I totally neglected to put this episode together. The San Jose event was looming and I had already decided that I would try to combine the two shows into one vlog. But, after I came back from San Jose, I went through the content and there was quite a bit of footage from Seattle. As I started adding clips to the timeline, everything that I managed to collect while in the Pacific Northwest was just the right amount. You guys know I love long-form videos so obviously I wish I would have captured more. There were just so many good builds at this event that I really wanted to spotlight. I simply ran out of time. I do so many different things at Wekfest events that I definitely wish there was more than one of me to go around. Seattle truly brings out some of the best in the west coast and we also get a good collection of custom cars from our neighbors in Canada. Sometimes I think I take what we have out here in the West Coast for granted so I thought now would be a good a time as ever to show you exactly what we’re all about!!…

Why The WEST is BEST: WEKFEST SAN JOSE!!…

Why The WEST is BEST: WEKFEST SAN JOSE!!…

Crazy that we are already at the 15-year anniversary of Wekfest! It just seems like yesterday when we were surprised to be at year 10. What a ride it has been. Northern California is the birthplace of Wekfest so we always try to bring out the top-tier builds. It’s understood that expectations are high and all eyes are on what’s happening in the West Coast so no amount of energy was spared in planning out this entire show. As busy as it was, I tried to vlog the entire weekend and put something together for you guys to enjoy. I apologize that the quality of the video inside isn’t the most spectacular. The lighting isn’t the best so I had to use a mounted flash to add some extra light wherever I could…

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 🙂