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.
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.
Off we went, out of Nagoya armed with google maps aimed at Fukushima. For those who don’t know, Ebisu is up in the mountains about 30 minutes away from Fukushima city, which itself is situated about 30 minutes from the coast where the Nuclear reactor is located.
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.
Where to begin with this one? Without going too turbo on the intro to this experience I’ll give a brief introduction and a back story as to how this adventure came about.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been into cars, primarily Japanese cars. With the site, I’ve always tried to showcase a little slice of everything and grew up in a family full of Ford and Volkswagen heads. Let’s just say my pier family members weren’t so keen on my growing love for the Japanese car. Gran Turismo really didn’t help either.
The more I dug the more gold I found, it started with the Supra, then the AE86, and from there the hunt to find out more about this fascinating car culture led me on a long road to build a website, meet people around the world who share a similar passion, and spend countless hours shooting photos and talking about the stuff.
Japan has been good to us. This country has seen some great cars land here over the years. In almost every category we have imported some of the best. It amazes that after fiteen or more years of plucking the gold, time and time again amazing machines like this end up on the docks in Dublin.
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.
It’s no secret that we here at Juicebox have a serious love affair with the AE86. There is just something about these cars, the spirit, the reward, and the simplicity, all embodied in a very genuine very simple, honest little chassis.
Entering Mongolia during the Mongol Rally was an exciting moment for us all. We had survived police corruption in Kazakhstan..
So you are thundering across the desert in a 27 year old 1 litre Starlet you bought for a couple of hundred euro should you be worried? Of course not!
This country is incredible at surprising us. I remember the first time I seen this Laurel, probably the first time I had ever seen a Laurel… it was dark down at the infamous port road,ill never forget the angry of this screaming monster sliding sideways up the road. There was just something so enjoyable about such a huge machine going sideways four deep. It just looks badass, the presence was insane.
Im often overwhelmed by the whole idea of importing cars from Japan. Over the last few years on the website, I’ve rambled enough about just how interesting I find the whole process. This little gold Skyline is a classic case of that. Lets just take a step back for a moment, anyone of you out there that has ever built a car, put all that work into it, with friends, family, the people you have met, the people you shared those experiences with, the jobs you worked to save the money to buy those parts, the late late nights of frustration and anger, accompanied by the days of utter joy you shared behind the wheel….
