Hot Rods in Japan?

I'm sitting here at the airport terminal waiting to leave for a business trip to Japan and I thought I would ask a question. Where are some interesting hot rod/motorcycle places to check out in Japan? I know there is the Mooneyes show in Yokohama and that town seems to have a lot of car oriented stuff. Does anybody have some suggestions? I will be checking out some other non-HAMB car related stuff also.

***I just got back from my trip and added some pictures below***

 

btt

 

Happy Hernandez builds some cool stuff.
http://www.myspace.com/88happyhernandez
www.paradiseroad.net

 

Just read about some Japanese car culture stuff in a magazine. Nagoya has some hot rod and custom shops. Sounds like the big cities there have alot of tuner type rides

 

Go to a local BookBox or Tstuaya or the book kiosk in the airport and pick up a copy of Crusin magazine. It will have all the car shops and info you will need.

 

Thanks for the info guys. If I find something cool I'll post the pictures here.

When I went to Japan the last time one of the guys I work with told me about a hangout in Yokohama on Saturday night. I found it but it was a tuner crowd along with some bikes.

 

I was in Japan for the last month and managed to find a book store at the mall in Utsunomiya. I picked up the latest Cruisin' magazine as well as a Mooneyes mag and two motorcycle magazines. Nagoya definitely seems to be the place for hot rods and bikes. I decided to go there one weekend to see what it was all about. There is a cruise night on the fourth weekend of every month and that was the weekend that I went. Well I managed to make it down there but was only able to make it to one shop and it was raining so the cruise wasn't going to happen. In spite of that I'm glad I went down and met Junichi Shimodaira at Paradise Road.

 

Best looking El Camino I have ever seen.

 

Junichi is a big lowrider guy and he is finishing up his '36 for an upcoming event. He said he was going to leave the body stock and make a bomb out of it.

 

Chuck, too bad I didn't see this before you left. I know Jun san pretty well and could have showed you around. Hope you enjoyed the trip!

 

Thanks Comet. Jun is a really nice guy. He showed me around and took me back into his office area where some of his car club friends were hanging out. We talked about cars for a while and I also met his wife and two little dogs. Jun had to get back to work but his wife gave me a ride back to the train station. Really nice folks.

 

Stairs up to the retail area

 

That's it. If you guys are ever in the area check this place out.

 

Thank you for sharing I am looking forward for December to be at the Yokohama Show!

 

btt, one more time

 

Cool stuff!

 

Check this one out too. The thread seems to have died before anybody
could verify whether somebody 'built' this car, or if it was some sort of
weird, 'one-off; factory show car or engineering mule. Whatever it is, it
lives in Japan now and in my book anyway, definitely rates as a 'hot
rod'

www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459755&highlight=plymouth+japan

Mart3406
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I would try and check these guys out if you're into bikes.

http://www.zero-eng.com/gallery01.php

 

That Triumph is boss! It was in Dice magazine a while back.

 

Yeah, it turns out that one of the guys in his car club just bought a bike from them. He also said he was real good friends with the owner of Chabott Engineering here in California.

http://www.chabottengineering.com/menu.html

 

If you have some time to spend, and are especially looking for new bike stuff (any brand, any style, any purpose, any reason, any color) take the train to the Ueno area. There is a little section of town there that has more bike crap in it than the rest of the world combined. Gary

 

Great pics,thanks for sharing.Always good to get another perspective from another country.Any more pics of the Galaxion?Deadbeat

 

I regret that I have been on the road basically for the past month, would also have liked to meet with you... I return back to Yokohama this weekend, you still there???

 

Cool pix! My old hot rod '34 pickup is over there somewhere. Sold it to a classic car dealer over there last year.

 

Japan has a large scene devoted to Lowriders/customs and hot rods.
Junichi builds cars since forever and his very well known and respected in the car world. I would have loved to be there.

Check this out, its a Jap blog, on the lower right there are links to pictures, and loads of them, of all the major shows there from june this year goin back to '03.
Lowrider and Kustom paradise is in Japan if you ask me.
http://rod-n-kustom.blogzine.jp/

 

There are a number of American muscle cars and hot rods in the Nikko hot springs area in the mountains not far from Utsunomiya. There seems to be some informal cruises on weekends there (not to mention the many "squidcicle" carts if you are hungry).

Also, on the bus ride from Utsunomiya to the Tochigi factory, you can spot a shop that often has early American (30s-40s) iron out front.