Tokyo would be our final destination on the road trip, I was a little sad knowing this once in a lifetime adventure was coming to an end, lucky for us we were staying in Tokyo for three nights and had the Van which would give us the freedom to explore the surrounding area. Butterflies grew as we edged closer to the beast.
Koguchi power was a such an unplanned part of this journey. I was briefly trying to find this place but was completely overwhelmed by our Japanese markers on google maps and gave up.
Fukushima already seemed like a strange distant dream, we were rolling along a country road heading for N-style. This was a place we had wanted to visit for a long long time. A lesser visited shop, N-style have always been churning out some of the coolest Japanese builds.
It was the next morning, we were just about to hit the road but the night before had seen a cheap JZX100 back up in Fukushima so we decided to go up for a look. I didn’t really know what to do with a lot of these photos as I didn’t want there to be a mega feature for the next one, so our exit day has its own little article.
We were exhausted but once again the recent activities had the adrenaline flowing and we fought off the tiredness. This may very well be the last time we see these places so we figured there was no point crashing and going asleep pure stubbornness.
So if you have been following these Japan features so far you get the idea they have been pretty in-depth. Each has about 40-50 images. I found it extremely difficult to scale it back any further, I’m always the guy that’s eager for more shots…
An hour had passed and I had started to feel like things were going sour. It started to drizzle so we stood in under the 24-hour vending machine area as we eagerly waited to see what would next.
After a day of car hunting, we had to make our way back down to Himeji. We would be pimping out the van with some ordered parts in Up garage the following day.
So for the people who have been following our trip to Japan so far, quite a lot of this will be car related (as you may have guessed). This holiday was planned out as a car holiday, so it’s going to be an automotive heavy story throughout.
On a rare sunny evening we a few months back we got together to appreciate this JZX90 Mark II. A fresh enough import into the country it was one of the very few x90 Mark II’s that really grabbed my attention.
Ireland has gone crazy for the Japanese four-door sedan. A little over ten years ago many of these big six cylinder machines were unattainable to the Irish man. Back then, still fetching insane prices in Japan very few of these were snatched up in the boom years and any that made it here were something of legendary status.
Almost hidden in the corner of the Toyota gathering a few months back was this AE86. The owner was a little taken back by my interest in it. I tend to obsess over cars with a little character; cars we wish could only speak and share their tales, with faded team stickers, dents holes and scuffs.
As most of us tend to stay in our circles amongst the scene, a lot of cars never really come out of hiding for us to be exposed to here at Juicebox. This little B series is stunning.
Being away for a few years I really didn’t know what top expect at Japfest this year, if you were following the nonsense on the Instagram story, we went a little over board but it was with no regrets. Japfest an end of year calendar for most of the stuff we are into and most of the cars either come off of the road or go into hibernation for the winter.
Isn’t it nice to be able to stand back and admire an inanimate chunk of metal? It has always fascinated me how these pressed pieces of metal can evoke certain emotions in us.