The end/beginning of the year is always an excited time cause that means it's time for the craziness that is Tokyo Auto Salon and the entire week starting with the Pre-TAS RWB Meet.
Here's how things went
It's always a sprint maybe next year I'll go for 2 whole weeks, maybe a month. There is always so much to do. This went like the previous, I land at Narita around 3pm after not being able to sleep on the plane grab a. couple extra people that wanted to tag along and see just how crazy my schedule is (like last year I took some people with me that had never done TAS) Ok, so back to things. Grabbed the extra guys that were going with me and headed to the hotel to drop bags, then head back out to the Hard Rock in Roppongi, about 45mins away.
This was the first year the RWB meet was back at the Hard Rock Parking lot since Pre-Covid times. As much as I loved last year's RWB meet which was held within a shrine, for me the Hard Rock parking lot holds so many more cars. Walking up to Hard Rock I could tell from the crowd just how busy it was going to be. It was also time to get to work. The one thing I didn't plan on was how cold it was going to be at night. I swear I checked the weather before I left and it didn't say anything about near freezing temps at night.
Like I was saying there was a ton of people, which was going to be an ongoing theme on this trip. I saw Builders, Youtubers and Influencers that I knew from the US and Japan. The lot was definitely oversaturated with tourists (reoccurring theme) Back to the positive, the RWB Porsches were incredible. Now the challenge of shooting at night with sub optimal lighting. The night went quick and it was soon time to warm up and grab some much needed sleep.
The next 2 days were filled with running around Tokyo Auto Salon, trying to cover everything and buying all sorts of stuff.
Tokyo Auto Salon is again, crazy. I spend the Friday early entry running through trying to see as much as possible, stopping at specific booths and trying to determine if I have enough time to buy stuff or take my chances and wait till the next day.
TAS always has new cars and parts on display. Like SEMA but so much better because of course you're in Japan, where everything is better.
I ran through on Friday until they kicked everyone out, which also provided my a couple clear shots of cars since there were less people and no girls posing, which draws a ton of guys and makes it impossible to get a clean shot.
Now each of the nights following TAS were then joined by underground meets.
Again Oversaturated... Now I'm not saying they weren't cool. I was able to see some incredible cars and also bump into some friends both from the US and Japan.
The 2nd night after TAS we headed out to an Underground Meet that was hosted in the most perfect location, the lighting the space, the cars. just perfection. Oh and secret...
Kinda..
One of the nights (they all blur together, lol) we also made the run to Spoon Sports for their open house party. Spoon Sports, technically their Type One facility is where it was held had a handful of cars on display. On the ground floor they had 2 white Type R's a FK8 and a FL5, street prepped and fully outfitted with Spoon parts
Upstairs they had a handful of their race-prepped cars on display along with a DJ and a special merch swag bag (for purchase). It was setup really nice and for once the lighting was in my favor. We hung out trying to get our shots and talking with some SoCal friends that we bumped into.
I always skip the final day of TAS, just to many people and after 2 days I've seen just about everything. So on that Sunday I head out and get the rental car. I've been renting from Omoshiro now for years and each time I try and get a different fun car to drive around the rest of the time I'm in Japan. This year it was an FD2 - Civic TypeR. Which was for two reasons. The 1st there was a total of 4 people and I really wanted to drive one to see if I should consider importing one (when the time comes)
Something that was very different from the previous years was that new pop-up type meets kept changing our plans and today picking up the car was a prime example. Initially we had planned to head north and do some Initial D drives and visit some shops but instead word got out that they were having a Cars and Coffee day meet at Daikoku PA, So plans changed and we headed south.
Daikoku has been having tourist issues at the time of writing this, with tourist jumping the fence and even doing burnouts and the dumb stuff. This has caused the cops to respond by shutting down the meets quickly, which is exactly what happened to this day meet The meet was shut down within about an hour or so from when it started, granted the entire lot was overflowing with cars and people. Still there was enough time to run through get some content and talk to people.
Since we were already south why not go a little further and make the run to Hakone. This ended up being one of the coolest random add on's to our day. After hanging out trying to get a view of Mt. Fuji and doing a little touge driving it was time to head back down and head home.On the way down there is a turn in spot that is used by all the car publications in Japan and so as we turned in there was 2 R34 GTR's doing a photoshoot and what turned out to be in our favor they were from Top Rank and Throttle. We ended up hanging out and getting to shoot their cars while they finished up their own work.
This random encounter and shoot is what it's all about for me and what I enjoy the most.
Once again our plans changed last minute when we came across a post for a meetup at karting spot in Odiaba being hosted by Hana Burton (IG @hanubuu_) and Tom's Racing. So we diverted from our plans and headed out for what turned out to be a great time hanging out and doing some hot laps against our host (she was quick).While in Odiaba we took advantage that we were close to Super Autobacs and proceeded to spend more money on more fun JDM parts.
Now I forgot to mention that every night while I'm in Tokyo and I also have a rental car, that is a night I spend at Daikoku PA. It doesn't seem to matter what night you go there is always something cool that shows up with the weekends being the busiest.
Just remember you need a car to get there. Don't be one of those tourists
With one of the last "free" days we went through a couple spots in Yokohama. Hitting up Nissan Headquarters, ASM Autobacs and UpGarage which are all pretty close to each other.
For our last day, we saved the best for last. Again, a change to our original plan. I had reached out to one of the groups that I follow that covers all the time attack events in Japan (IG - Shuboxinc) and was told that a Time Attack event was being held at Tsukuba Circuit.
So all plans were switched up, since as you know Time Attack is where it's at for me and I was lucky enough that Zummy was hosting the event, the weather was great and a lot of the heavy hitters were signed up to attend.
We ended up spending most of the day hanging out, shooting some of the fastest track cars I've seen and just hanging out and enjoying the sights and sounds.
Running Time Attack in Japan is the dream.
Hopefully one day
Well, that's how the week went. It's non-stop from when I land till I get back on the plane and head home. The flight home is the first real chance I get to take a breath and sort through all my pics and vids. Prepping for what I'm going to drop in what order.
Below is a link to see what I've already posted. If you're new to my content check out out my vids and don't forget to subscribe.. Thanks!!
Enjoy!!