Its been a long 2 weeks as we had a regular work week leading up to TAS. I basically haven’t had a day off for the last 2 weeks and am ready to just sleep a lot. I was a cheapass and didn’t want to pay for internet at the hotel so I am doing a week long recap. Oh no pics either because I was too busy working. I will post some up once I get some from the other guys who shot a shit load of pics.
TAS was a reflection of the global economy as many shops either downsized their booths or cancelled all together. I was surprised to see the introduction of sitting gardens as there weren’t enough booths to fill all 3 halls. I spent the first day mostly in doors talking to different companies and doing English explanations at the Bridgestone booth. I felt bad cause the rest of the staff was stuck outside in the rain and cold… well I felt bad for them and good for me. The next 2 days were spent all outside as we had to do D1GP demos. It was DAMN cold. Everytime the wind would blow, it felt like you stuck your head in a subzero freezer.
Once the show was over, I hooked up with the Honda Tuning crew to go shoot photos. We made our way first to Spoon/ Type-One. Since its easily accessable by train in the greater Tokyo area, some foreign customers ended up showing up while we were there. Its strange to me because in all the time that I have been in Japan, we have never once had a foreign customer show up at the shop. I guess thats how it is when you live in the Fresno of Japan. The shop lay out is really modern and they make really good use of their little space.
The second day we went out to M-Tec in Saitama. It was pretty cool to see a parking lot full of cars with everything Mugen, but they barred us from looking in the factory. I literally begged them to just take a peep and they said(in the most polite way) It ain’t happenin’ captain. Bummers.
My final day in Tokyo I went with Henry out to Bridgestone’s headquaters to shoot the Prodrive-Japan GRB. We ended up going out to Odaiba, only to get barred at every parking lot we entered. I was bummed because we wanted to shoot in the lot that they have the Tokyo D1GP event. The backdrop is Fuji Terebi and would have looked dope. We ended up going back and shooting in the Bridgestone private underground garage.
The last 2 days have been spent in Nagano shooting our demo cars and one from ARMS. It didn’t help that the day before we shot, it dumped a foot of snow. I had to dig out the parking lot and wash the snow off the cars. The best part is that I had a bucket of warm water. By the afternoon this bucket turned into ice and water. Radical. In the end the shots came out good, so it was worth it. (you magazine dudes should come in the fall when its warm)
Next week is just basically finalizing some paper work and packing up to go back to the states. By this time next week, I will be officially a student. So there will less car related posts. Thank goodness.
