Though I was originally schedule to leave Japan on the 26th, I changed my flight itinerary when I realized that there was an event I must attend. The plan was always to leave from the Tokyo-side and with a few extra days in Japan, I definitely made the most of it…
As my adventures in the Kansai region of Japan near an end, I find myself in the countryside of the Nara prefecture where I visit Real Company. This Honda modification shop is about as traditional as it gets, playing host to both Civic race cars as well as many more that have been left behind to be reclaimed by nature. It’s always interesting to see what types of gems Yasu and I stumble upon. There are a surprising amount of cars that have been out of service for years, slowly being overtaken by the elements. After that, I take you back to Exceed where I show you some pretty rare parts that both Yasu, myself, and my good friend Cody have been collecting to send back to the good ol’ USA. I came to Japan for many reasons and one of them was to secure products to send home for business as well as personal use.
This one might be one of my favorite episodes yet! Just based purely on all the stuff I unexpectedly found while in the Mie prefecture. First we visit one of my all-time favorite shops for the first time ever, Top Fuel in Matsuzaka. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when we arrived, thinking that Top Fuel had shifted their focus to other cars and hadn’t placed much focus on Hondas anymore. I thought it would just be a empty shop with a bunch of Suzuki Swifts being worked on but boy was I wrong!! After that we stopped by Voltex in Suzuka for a visit which was also very cool because neither Yasu nor I had ever been. This area is so rich in tuning history that there was so many surprises. Wait until the very end, it’s a wild one! You’re gonna love it!
Hope you watched the previous episode because this is the second half of our journey documenting Yasu and I bringing the old Phaze2 Integra from California to its (possibly) final major event at Stancenation G Edition Nagoya. I’ve personally never been to this show before but I’ve always heard good things about this event series. There are usually A LOT of cars that participate in this series, with this Nagoya event featuring over 700 cars. Yes, you read that correctly. I went in with no expectations thinking that I’d just take this event as a new experience and I was pleasantly surprised!! I take you guys on a walkthrough of the event while also simultaneously covering all that was happening with the Integra. I don’t know how many Americans have been to this show before or how many have documented it but here is a very rare look at what a Stancenation event is like in Japan. It’s so different than what we have in the U.S. and definitely features way more than just the typical “stance” builds you’d see in North America. Japan just does it different, and more importantly, better. The quality, the details, the quirkiness of Japan…
It has been quite a journey with the Phaze2 Integra. I watched the car come together, be sold, re-purchased, rebuilt, and sold once again in the span of the last 17 years. Though it has never been my car, I’ve always had a connection with it. I’d say this car is very much a part of my legacy. To this day I think the Super Street cover of this Integra is my favorite cover that I’ve ever shot. When it was sold to Yasu in Osaka, it felt like the perfect home for it. In Japan, it developed its own history. The car was maintained by Yasu for some time, sold to a friend, and returned to Yasu’s ownership. Recently, the car has been in storage and starting to show some age. The motor itself is not doing so well, and some parts on the car could definitely use a refresh, but… there just hasn’t been time. Yasu is super busy these days with other projects but since I was in town for the month and the Stancenation G Edition event was happening nearby, Yasu decided he wanted to pull the car out and make it look fancy again for one final major event…
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.
We’ve been taking you any and everywhere the last few episodes because there was so much going on during the Japanese “Golden Week” vacation period. It seemed like there was something going on every single day because people are just happy to be out and about again. But…in this episode, we get back down to business covering what we’ve come to be known for…All things in Japan, in the Kansai region specifically, related to ’90s era Honda Civics. The weekend of Golden Week, we were invited out to see the JJ Cup event at Central Circuit in Hyogo featuring a one-make style competition of time attack Civics. I do a track walkthrough of the event, show you guys some of the grittiest Hondas that this area has to offer. A day before that however, I stop by to make a shop visit to Charge in Osaka and also stop by to visit our friends at Mecha-Dock for a good old Golden Week BBQ!…
When I first landed in Osaka, Yasu mentioned that there was an Itasha-style car show happening just two days after Wekfest—at the exact same venue in Nagoya. He asked me if I wanted to go and I thought about it for a whole 2 seconds before I said “YES DEFINITELY”, lol. Why? Well, I’m here in this country that I haven’t been back to in two years so I want to experience as much as possible. More importantly, I want to see and experience NEW things that I haven’t had access to before. Itasha-style car builds are SUPER popular here in Japan and from the photos I’ve seen on Twitter, they always look to be of pretty high-quality as well. SO OF COURSE I WANTED TO GO. And if you watch this episode, you might want to go too! I think everyone experiencing car culture in Japan should try to go to one of these events at least once. Would I go back? Uhhhh….YES.
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…
As many of you may have figured it out by now, one of the reasons why I returned to Japan in 2022 was to attend the Wekfest event in Nagoya. I’ve been to every single one since the very beginning, with the exception of last year’s due to the global “thing”. It felt weird not coming back, especially since it has long become a regular checkmark on my annual travel calendar. When I found out that there was an opportunity to return, I leaped at the opportunity. This year was a bit different for me. I decided I wanted to experience the show as a spectator and shoot the event for myself. There were so many great builds that I wished there was more time to cover it all, but I had to find a balance between vlogging and photography…so, here is the video portion of my adventures at this Wekfest event…
