Tokyo – Day 7

Today Alexi of Nori Yaro took us on a grand tour. We’ve been psyched for this, and he sure as hell didn’t disappoint! The guy is such an amazing tour guide and you get a lot more than just visiting stores and workshops. He’ll talk to you about anything you want to talk about, in our case, Japanese culture. The conversations we had in the van between stops were just as awesome as the places we visited.

rays_custom
First stop, Crystal. These blue Rays Gram Lights were fucking amazing!

work_custom
So too these custom order Work Kiwamis.

crystal
This beast was sitting pretty upstairs.

fuelstation
Love that they have a place for you to put your fuel cap in Japanese fuel stations, so thoughtful!

topsecret
Next stop, Top Secret. Unfortunately they were shut!

topsecret_outback
Spotted some rad rides up front and out the back though.

superautobacs
Next stop: Super Autobacs in Tokyo Bay! It was huge, and a lot like our Supercheap Auto but with quality parts mixed in with all the cheap stuff (like a whole isle of drink holders and air fresheners!).

soundchanger
TRD sound changer for the new 86. Very cool!

alexi_autobacs_fans
Alexi was spotted by a couple of the staff who stopped him for a photo!

mooneyes_tokyo
Next stop: Mooneyes in Yokohama!

buggy
Loved this buggy!

mercury
This Mercury was pretty special too.

moon_outfront
And this sled!

mooneyes
Mooneyes on the inside. These guys must have more branded merch than any other automotive brand I know of. Downstairs they had lifestyle products.

wheels
Upstairs they had an amazing range of car parts.

diner
We had lunch in their cafe, which looked and felt a lot like a retro American diner. Even their regular customers dressed in the right attire which was pretty impressive.

drunk
Doubt you’d get away with this beer’s description in Australia!

moon_burger
We all feasted on burgers which were totally satisfying.

pinstripe
Evidence of pinstriping in the workshop. Mooneyes is the kind of store where your eyes just can’t settle on any one thing. It’s packed with eye candy. Culture plus!

crown_2door
Spotted out the back. Alexi exploded over this very rare 2 door Crown.

alexi_crown2door
He wanted it, bad!

pussywagon
Pussywagonesque! This is the same model car as Alexi’s mini-van, but done Mooneyes style!

nismo_hq
Next stop: The new Nismo HQ.

nismo_flowers_30th
Unfortunately they were also shut as they were about to host their 30th anniversary party (which explains the flowers), but Alexi sweet talked our way in and we were able to snap a few shots of the cars on display.

nismo
Inside was the 2014 Nissan GT-R Nismo which holds the record for the fastest-ever time for a factory GT-R on the Nürburgring.

nismo_gtr
Jaws dropped. Nissan GT-R JGTC Nismo.

nismoz
Super GT Z.

stiffpipe
Stiff Pipe!!!

badges
On the wall they had a big collection of race badges dating way back.

r35
The 2014 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 car stole my heart.

carbonlight
Carbon headlights for extreme lightening. The car costs $500k, which isn’t too much to ask IMHO!

bee_r
Next stop: Bee-R!

bnr32
This super tough BNR32 was parked outside.

comps
Tough stickers, for reals.

bmw
Also outside was this tough BMW.

doubletrouble
Yellow Peril! Then we saw these beasts and got all excited like little school girls.

popbonnet
Alexi was given the go ahead to pop the bonnet on the B80R.

2j
Whoo 2J!

acquiredtaste_b80r
Inside was all business bar the Hello Kitty clips. Boss man Imai stuck an Acquired Taste sticker on the dash which blew the boys away!

b80r_allopen
So fresh, mind-blowing. What a work of art.

alexi_imai
Alexi was playing translator with Bee-R boss Kiyonori Imai who was such an awesome character.

magazine
Imai showed us his 180SX (which looks like a R35 GT-R) in a magazine, with Option Boss’ 180SX (which looks like a 370Z).

d1_chaser
Bee-R’s current D1 drift car.

chaser
Super wide chaser, the sunken rear door handles give it all away.

accord
This new accord looked out of place in the workshop.

supercharged_accord
Until we saw the custom supercharger setup!

trophies
Spotted inside the office. Winners, obviously!

track2
Next door to Bee-R was Racing Paradise, an RC shop with a huge slot car circuit.

racing_paradise_track
View of their circuit from the top floor.

dragstrip
They even had a massive drag strip!

cpw_owner
Next stop: CPW Skate Shop. I’ve been following their blog for a while and they were the inspiration for the Zen Garage funny bike.

cpw_owners_bike
The owner Motoyan was working on a customer bike outside (his own personal bike is on the left of this picture).

decks
Motoyan is the same age as me, so it all makes sense! Old school skate decks galore… I was right at home.

cpw_banannasaddles
These guys have probably bought up all the Banana saddles out there.

cpw_inside
The shop was tiny and jam packed of amazing stuff.

stickers_honda
Motoyan is into cars as well! He pulled out his EF Shuttle just for us.

cpw_honda
It sounded offensive, and yup, that’s static.

cpw_skate_shop_outside
CPW Skate Shop from the outside. So rad!

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2 Responses to Tokyo – Day 7

  1. lemmiwinks says:

    Epic!