0:00
/
0:00
Japan Trip Week 2 - Part 2. EP.14
Japan Trip Week 2 - Part 2. EP.14
0:00
0:00
0:00
0:00
About this episode
Exploring the second half of their Japan trip, the hosts dive into their adventures in Yokohama, including a visit to the iconic Moon Eyes shop and a memorable night at Daikoku, filled with stunning cars. They share their experiences with local cuisine, including trying wagyu and conveyor belt sushi, while navigating the vibrant car culture. The episode captures the excitement of car meets, unique parking experiences, and the thrill of being immersed in Japanese automotive culture, all while racing against time to catch their flight home.
Topics:
moon eyes
daikoku meet
wagyu dining
conveyor belt sushi
car culture
japan travel
car meets
parking experiences
Cars:
Acura NSX
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Impala
Honda S2000
Nissan GT-R
Nissan Leaf
Nissan Skyline
This week, we round out our Japan trip coverage with the final 5 days of our trip!
Follow us
@rhdguys
Filter:
|
Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
"... first thing they have is like in the garage is a Camaro drag car. But it's also next to a beetle and then..."
Car
Chevrolet Impala
"... that's what it reminds me of or like an old, old Impala something like that. But yeah, so that was a real..."
Car
Nissan Gtrs
"Like, there was just so much stuff. Like just GTRs for days. Like all beautiful cars."
Car
Honda S2000
"...g up the stairs because the windowyou can see the S2000, but you walk in that placeand it's like, oh shoo..."
Car
Nissan Leaf
"...this guy that works for top rank,pull up a Nissan leaf and like back it up to the baywhere our car is li..."
Select text to request an explanation
[Music]Hey and welcome back to Right Hand Drive Guys.
This week we're at episode 14, big time.
Oh yeah, 14.
And so this week is part two of week two in Japan.
So we're just going to kind of bust through all of what we did, like on the second halfof that last leg of the tour.
So yeah, I mean pretty much where we left off, we were headed back to Tokyo, right?
Right, right.
It was in the weekfest and yeah, heading back towards Tokyo to have some action.
Yeah, so we thought we were waking smart.
So we parked over there at a daikoku and left our rig at Daikoku.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got a mint parking spot.
Yeah, like literally the closest to what we thought, being our first time there, what wethought was going to be the open rest area.
But really all that closed down at a certain time and there was a loss and you ended uphitting on the other side.
But still cool.
So yeah, we parked there and we head out and you know, I'll let Aaron talk a little morejust about what what Moon Eyes is and what the deal is with it.
But that's where we headed after that.
Yeah, yeah, we went to Moon Eyes right there in Yokohama and if you don't know, Moon Eyesis like a, I don't know, reminds me of like a 60s, late 50s, 60s, 70s, like hot rod shop.
Yeah, definitely American, you know, just like all the hot rods, you know, they had, youwalk in there and the first thing they have is like in the garage is a Camaro drag car.
But it's also next to a beetle and then right outside that garage are two Toyota dolies.
Yeah, like, I don't know such a weird vibe, but it's definitely a popular place over thereand people.
It was bumping, heavy, they even got like their own security parking people and everything.
Yeah, yeah, it was legit.
You know, they had like a little cafe beside it and like the place was crowded.
Oh, for sure.
And it was just the middle of a day on a Wednesday, I'm pretty sure and you know, it was justkind of wild to see and you know, seeing all this Americana type stuff and I don't know,you like walk up to the people that work there expecting to speak English, but obviouslywe're still in Japan.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
It was definitely cool to see and that place is definitely a cool vibe and they definitelyhave a lot of merch.
Yeah, their marketing is absolutely on point as far as understanding what their core likebuyer wants.
Like I've heard of the place and everything, but I had I wasn't really into it.
We saw Yoh had gone on a spree there and I'm like, how'd this guy go on a spree there?
Right.
And sure enough like find out.
Yeah, yeah, I left with a pair of bands for my daughter, a bunch of stickers, you know,some shirts like it was all just like super fresh and like even though it was kind ofstyled like older, it still was super relevant.
So, right.
Yeah, it was they definitely got a timeless look and yeah, it's just a cool place and a lotof people use their steering wheels.
Yeah, I know to say it a whole wall of them.
Yeah, yeah, their steering wheels are very popular and yeah, I can see why.
Yeah, I mean, they were cool, maybe not like my style, but definitely I could see.
So it in your bass boat.
Yeah, yeah, that's what it reminds me of or like an old, old Impala something like that.
But yeah, so that was a really, really cool place to just really check out even if you'renot into the old Americana style thing.
I guarantee you end up at least finding a sticker that you think is sweet.
Right, right.
And it was kind of cool to see the random American Americana type stuff they had there like upstairs.
They had just like random parts off of random old vehicles for sale.
Yo, they did Cadillac tail lights.
I was like, what?
Right, right.
Or like a Ace Hardware aprons.
Yeah.
Where did you even find these?
Yeah, what that is going on to think that like, but people buy it, right?
Because it's like some people style their stuff like Americana, like let's just say their,you know, game room or whatever they style it like that.
And so that's cool.
Our influence is like awesome over there.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
So we shopped till we dropped out Moon Eyes and then we decided like, yo, we worked upsome hunger.
Right, right.
So we tried to find a place to eat, right?
Like some wagyu or some good, good offering.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Maybe we tried to find, I mean, it's hard to find bad food over there if you have an openmind in that sense.
So yeah, that night we definitely wanted to get some wagyu and I think we were tryingto find an all you can eat spot, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Because we had seen something that was like, oh, what?
You can do that.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, for sure.
So, yeah, we went up in this place and we're like, well, hopefully there's some seating, youknow, we're kind of, it was a Wednesday night.
We were just hoping, right?
But yeah, we walked up and they had these little lockers to lock your like shoes and stuffin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You had to take your shoes off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sad down.
Sad down, which is like traditional, I guess.
Yeah.
Because it was like the recess seating style where like we are like, we are like, we'redown in like a little cave.
Yeah, yeah, it was pretty cool.
Like, and they had the grill on top and I don't know, that was just so cool.
You don't have places like that in America that not not like that.
I mean, you can find it.
Especially taking off your shoes.
I don't know if you would want people to take off their shoes here.
Probably not.
That's true.
The hygiene may be a little different.
So yeah, we were sitting there and, you know, it ended up not being all you could eat.
And like, some of these places will have a tablet that also has English and some ofthese places have a tablet that's not English at all.
So we have to be trying to translate the words to figure out what we want to order kindof a mess.
Yeah.
It wasn't too bad.
I mean, like I said, if you had an open mind, you would probably order something you didn'treally mean to, but it would probably be great.
Yeah, for sure.
And I think by the end of the night, we would both try to cow tongue.
Right.
And that was delicious.
Yeah, and that wasn't something we had wanted or necessarily planned on, but we're likescrew it.
Let's just do it.
Right, right.
When did you plan, right?
Like, my as well.
And so we didn't really know what it was, but like the tables across from us, there was threeof them in a row and they were packed and everybody knew each other at the two tables and like,we're laughing and we were kind of getting a kick out of them because they were so pumpedand thrilled.
And then all of a sudden, everybody, one by one, starts standing up and like talking tothe three tables.
Right.
Well, we and someone's birthday party for something like a little more.
Or like some company outing.
I couldn't tell, but it was just so funny because we have no clue what they're saying, butwe're like kind of getting energy off from it.
Right.
Dude, I was laughing having a good time with them.
I didn't even know what they were saying.
Yeah, seriously, it really was like a drinking, you know, whatever.
Yeah, whatever it was.
Yeah.
And so we were, you know, kind of happy to be able to, of course, have super good food, youknow, but also to kind of witness a celebration of some sort.
Right.
And because no one else by the end of it, no one else was in there except for us in thosethree tables.
Yeah, yeah.
It was kind of like we were watching from the outside.
So after that, we were like, all right, we need to beat feed.
We need to get back to Daikoku.
Right, right.
Because we're not missing this.
Right.
So yeah, we'd already missed out on one night in the first week.
Yeah.
We were out, but this was right, the Wednesday of Golden Week.
So yeah.
So a lot of people were out.
I feel like, right, right, because the whole place was packed.
The second half of Golden Week, that's when a lot of people have the days off and like theirvacation, like Wednesday is almost the first night that the next day you'll have a right.
Right, right.
So, yeah, we got back there and it was packed.
Yeah.
It was just full of just, we just like split up and just like hardly set a word.
We just like went our ways and started checking everything out like immediately.
It was just like boom, boom, boom.
It was everything you would see.
Yeah.
Like just CTR, like everything just one after another.
It was like just like you see in the videos.
It was the dream.
Yeah, we were just like Wednesday night.
Like just, yeah, I was sending my buddy back home just pictures of all these cars.
Like I still got him in my photo roll and I'm just like, damn, man, like there was somesweet cars there.
Yeah, for just a random meet, you know, Wednesday night.
Yeah, just everybody getting out and then we met the motorcycle photo guy.
Massey?
Massey, yeah.
Yeah, Larry chended a little video on him and how he shoots these cars on a Harley prettymuch.
He has like a rig set up with several cameras on his mind.
Yeah, they say five.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's pretty wild.
And then, yeah, he's just taking pictures of all these cars and like really beautiful carsand right.
And they look amazing.
They look, they're really good shots and they're unique shots because of the angles andstuff you can get because he's on a motorcycle.
Right.
And there's no rigs.
Like if you'd have to have rigs coming off the car in order to even get those shotsnormally.
Yeah, I'm going to, when I go back, I'm booking a little shoot with him.
He was like a static to shoot the car.
So I was like, yeah, let's do it.
So I'll be excited to go through that experience for sure.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, beyond that.
I mean, Dicke Og who was just crazy.
I remember we were standing, we were actually talking to him and it was right next to one ofthese like little speed bump walkway things.
And someone just totally ramped their car right up over it.
That's why some of them took it like slow and delicate.
Like they were delivering a baby.
Some people like dumpster fire just like just straight up up and no angle, no nothing.
Bumpers scraping everything.
Everything's great.
Yeah, upper control arms probably scraping.
Their ass is probably scraping.
So, you know, about like quarter to 10, 10 o'clock, the police come in with their bull hornand start like almost like, I don't know, like a robot like talking like saying it, waitinglike a minute, saying whatever they're saying, waiting a minute.
And I was just like, holy crap dude.
Like what's what's going to happen here?
Right.
What's about to go now?
Yeah, like we got no clue.
Yeah, luckily, I mean, they didn't really shut it down right then and there while wewere there.
Yeah, no, we left because we were headed to a hotel for that night.
So we could wash our armpits and you know, shave and do all that, you know, maybe, no,I don't know.
That wasn't, we didn't even worry about the laundry that night because we were so burntout on like laundry like.
And dude, yeah, just burnt out from the day and just like trying to take in like everythingthat we saw in that sense.
Yeah, we're checking in at like, you know, 10, 45, like 11 o'clock at night.
Yeah, I think it was really like close at midnight.
Yeah, probably what.
Yeah, like, and so this was the West in Yokohama.
It was a beautiful hotel like everything about it was pretty awesome.
Yeah, it was weird though.
You had to go to the 23rd floor to check in.
Yeah, yeah, it was so, but then back down to catch another elevator to come up to your room.
It's like, what is going on?
It was like navigating the train stations.
There's something.
Yeah, man.
I was like, I need a coffee for this.
What's going on?
So yeah, we stayed there because the next day we were going to kick it with Albo.
So we wanted to just make sure that we were fresh for that.
So yeah, we knew we had to get up early too because we wanted to, again, like get with Alboon time, which was 9 a.m.
At Abina is where we were meeting him.
And we left this whole time.
We've left the camper at Daikoku.
Right.
Yeah.
So it's still chilling there.
It's like a landmark at this point.
Everybody's like, hey, it's a camper.
I actually spotted it in a few people's videos that were there that day.
Yeah.
It's pretty funny.
I'm like, hey, that's our camper.
Right?
Yeah, we're there.
So we left it there.
Like I said, we stayed at the hotel and then we're meeting Albo in Abina at 9 a.m.
And so we ended up hitting some traffic and whatever else.
And then he ended up hitting some traffic.
And our original start time was like 10 a.m. we moved it to 9 and ends up just being 10
at any price.
Yeah.
But so then he shows up and he's like, hey, let's go and get some food.
And this is where we'll pick up when we hit the Abo episode.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
So that's definitely a whole episode.
That's a whole episode.
Just know that we had a blast.
And if you are interested in, you know, some assistance in Japan, hit them up.
And I'm sure he'll work something out with you for sure.
Super go to yeah.
So you know, we were with Albo till like 10, maybe 11 and 10.
It was pretty like.
Yeah, like all day, all night.
But then he had told us that he heard that Daikoku got shut down and we were like, well,maybe it's like not, you know, because we yeah.
How can they shut it?
How could we literally said this?
We were like, they can't shut Daikoku down.
We pull up there.
They shut Daikoku down.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, the parking area for cars was completely blocked off.
Yeah.
By like crazy, like barricades with raised lights on like it was like, when we pull, comeover this hill.
And if you've ended Daikoku, you know, you come down over this hill and you can like seethe whole thing.
And I was just like, oh, shoot.
And it was empty.
Empty besides the camper.
Yeah.
So that's the only thing and I'm like, dude, how are we even going to get this?
Like, I start kind of like getting a little anxious because I'm like, we need like the camper.
Yeah.
We got a guy's either way out of it.
Yes.
That's what Albo told us to do.
So I pull over for a second in some of these few spaces.
I pull over for one sec.
But like he said, it's all trailer truck parking left in like a few cars like splatteredaround that are at Lawson's or whatever.
So I just pull over in these parking spots and man, like this truck just like, bam, bam.
And I like put my arm out and I'm like waving and buying.
He's like, bam, bam.
And I'm like, dude, and then all of a sudden the cops blow in the whistle.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, I almost like dude, we're gonna get murdered seriously.
Like they're all like kind of sprinting at us.
Like blowing the whistles.
The guy's like literally on top of our car and the trailer truck.
I just put in first gear and just I just go.
I just got out of there.
Yeah.
So that was like, you know, a little stressful, but you know, we're like, well, let's just goahead and find somewhere else to park anyways.
Right.
That's when we went back to where we met Albo.
At a bean.
Yeah.
It just made sense at that point.
So we went and we took that, you know, to a bean.
And nice parking area.
Yeah.
It really is.
We ended up actually kind of spending like a decent amount of time there.
And it's it's right outside the city.
I'm sure, you know, if you've been there and you probably saw it by there.
And so we kind of just chilled.
Obviously it's late.
The next day we were like, dude, let's just take a chill day.
Right.
Let's just rest a little bit.
Let's sleep in a tiny bit.
Let's catch up on, you know, stuff.
So we ended up recording an episode, which if you've been listening live from a beanand that's literally that was that day that we took the rest day.
But you know, by the end of the day, we're like, damn, we're in Japan.
Like, well, how are we doing?
Right.
We're chilling in Japan.
We're just hanging out.
Sweet.
So one thing that we had had on our list on week one that we didn't really end up achievingwas Shibuya.
Right.
That was just something that, yeah, we, you know, and we had wanted to bring Amber andwhatnot, but like it didn't work out.
So we still had to hit it and so we jumped into GTR, headed over.
So our first, like, parking situation where they just take the car.
The conveyor belts take the car.
Yeah, like, we didn't really know we were going into this, but then like, it's time to pullin.
There's just, yeah, these conveyor belts and they're like, yeah, just park on there and pullyour ebrake and stuff.
Okay.
Right.
And all of a sudden the car is like, like, go sideways, like we could fast and yeah, itwas kind of crazy.
But it's cool.
They had like a camera setup so you could watch your car, like leave.
Yeah.
And, you know, get into the elevator and go wherever it goes.
I'm completely clueless to how that type of parking garage works, but I'm very interestedto now.
Like, that would be so cool to see the back end of that.
Right.
Where they end up going like once you lose sight of it, so to speak.
Right.
Yeah.
It was definitely an experience and, you know, in Tokyo drift, obviously, bow out his carcomes out of, and that's what I was picturing like the carousel style.
I don't think so.
No, no, no, because this, wow, that's really funny because they were by Shabuya for that.
But yeah, no, it was, that was a carousel style and this was conveyor belt style.
So like, I didn't, I'd never seen either.
So that was a really cool thing.
So obviously if you've been to Shabuya, you're like, you know, it's a mess kind of like,it's just while then people trying to get pictures in front of all the people walking andlike, so we picked out this Starbucks where like, dude, there's got to be a view from there.
Like we literally could not find where to buy the Starbucks, but we got our, we got ourvideo.
We were trying to get Starbucks, just couldn't do it.
Like, literally good.
No clue where that was.
Yeah.
To this day.
No idea.
Clueless.
So we got our Shabuya video, you know, we checked it out and we ended up walking downa side street and grabbing some food.
Yeah.
Another, you know, kind of translate the menu and type deal.
Right.
Really?
Oh, man.
This thanks.
But.
We, we had our grub and then Aaron had been talking to one of the guys that we had seen afterweek fest with a blue LM 33.
No, it's a guy with R34.
Oh, it was with the 34.
So either way, he's talking to one of the boys and they're like, hey, come out to the Tokyounderground.
Yeah, yeah.
He pretty much whenever I tagged him in that picture, he had sent me a DM saying, yo, thanksfor the shot.
That's cool.
So, there's this pin we're having to meet Saturday night.
You know, said so a few people were going to be there.
Said it was going to be like 50 cars.
And yeah, we showed up, dude, and it was.
It was pretty well.
It was insane.
It was pretty much like the best cars from week fest plus like the cars that the dudeswere two were beyond week fest.
All came.
Like, that's it.
And that's it.
Yeah.
Like a group of NSXs.
Like, there was not one car there that was subpar or like WAC or anything.
Like they all had their own flavor.
Like the EG Civic.
It's like the famous car from Japan, this EG Civic.
That's like the Kawaii Fitment.
Yeah, the Kawaii.
Yeah.
Like, there was just so much stuff.
Like just GTRs for days.
Like all beautiful cars.
I couldn't believe it.
Yeah, yeah.
It was insane.
And it was kind of surreal just being at like a normal type car meet, I guess you could say.
It was like a lead car.
Well, yeah, but it wasn't like a car show in that sense.
It was just like, you know, everyone.
Yeah, everyone knew each other for the most part.
It seemed like.
Yeah.
And yeah, the caliber of cars was just insane.
Yeah, it really was.
And so there was even a Tokyo drift or X7.
Yeah, there was.
Yeah, there was a Ville-Sike.
I think that was the first one we saw on them.
Like, oh, wow.
Yeah.
But like they're sick though.
The rollout was insane.
Yeah, because the exit had like this little kicker up to it.
Seeing all these slammed cars, like trying to get out of there and, you know, multi-point turnaround to get parallel with the curb.
Yeah, try to get out, dude.
Which that was a red S14 that I saw initially whenever we pulled up.
He was trying to get out.
Yeah.
He's like back and forth, back and forth.
That same car was on track, not even two days later, drifting.
Right.
Yeah, that is cool.
Yeah, that he was like, his car is so well taken care of that he can track it and kindof show it so to speak.
And like he maintains it to that point.
And was that the same one that was on the carrier?
Yeah, yeah.
So that's the thing.
These dudes love this so much that they bring their car on a carrier, unload it, park it,load it back up and bounce.
Like, because they could have just left it home, but they wanted to be there to that point.
Right.
Where like they're not going to drive it, but shit, they'll carry it and like show up.
Yeah, yeah.
Because I mean, this is like what's on the bay, but it's in Tokyo.
Like, yes.
For sure.
It's not all nowhere.
It's in Tokyo.
Yeah.
Like in an industrial like space in like a loading dock area.
And you know, we have pictures of this on our Instagram at right hand drive got or at RHDG Y S and you can see this stuff.
But yeah, that was definitely a great experience as far as like you said, the organic like thetrue tuner guys in walking up on that and just seeing like all these guys with amazing carssharing that same thing.
Yeah, that was an experience.
It was like really.
Yeah, it was cool.
Yeah, I feel thankful that we got to do that.
But at that point, like I said, we kind of showed up like in the last 20 minutes of it.
So kind of like week, we had enough time to see everything, but like not enough timeto necessarily fully enjoy it.
You know, but still thankful to have been there.
So we headed back to Abina that night for a camper night.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And so, you know, we we want to make sure we got our rest.
We didn't really have a ton of plans for the next day because it was going to rain.
Yeah.
Well, actually remember when we got back to Abina, it was like, it was like a whole othercar.
Yeah, like we pulled right in and there's a row of like 20 or 34s.
Yeah.
And then like the same amount of stages.
Right, right.
We go down a little farther where the camper is and we're actually the camper is blockedin by a few stages.
And then there's like other 260 RS stages.
Like it was just crazy.
Yeah, there was all text.
Yeah, it was it was sick.
It was like, damn, okay, this is kind of crazy.
Like, but damn, I'm trying to sleep.
Yeah, like that was kind of the thing, right?
Like we were kind of beat and so at that point, like we checked out all the cars.
Cars are awesome.
But like we have to like sleep and like it's not thick wall camper.
No, no, you're hearing these RB's whistle and all.
Just lighting it up.
Yes.
So all night, like you think, oh, I'd be cool to go to the sleep to the perv and RB.
- No, not a lot of dudes are in there.
So, but whatever.
You know, we had to take that with a grain assaultin the sense of like, we're lucky to even be here.
We're lucky to have all of these cars in this parking lot.
- Could have been worse, could have been through 50s.
- Or BMW or something.
Yeah, so the next day,again, we were just kinda chilling.
It was raining.
We weren't really gonna be doing much car stuff.
We did, I think, what we hit like a few upgrades.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You know, just the stuff we could do indoorsand since a lot of stuff was closed for Golden Week,we were kinda limited to like more corporate style placeslike that, you know, like a Mori factoryor anywhere like that was all closed.
- Yeah, sadly it was, we did.
- Yeah, everything.
So, but whatever, like, we have a day in Japan.
So, we just hopped around and then, you know,we were hungry, so we decided to hit someof the conveyor belt sushi.
- Yeah, that was dang.
- It was like a sweet thing.
We had also done it earlier in the week with Albo,which we'll get into in that episode,but this time it was different.
It was a different place.
It was like a different setup.
It had two tracks instead of one.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, we had no clue.
- Yeah.
- It had one that was like, you could grab whatever you wantedand it would charge you by the plate or something.
- And it went slow, yeah.
- Right, and it was a slow one.
Then it had the upper one, the shinkansen,was the stuff you would special order.
- Right, so if you ordered on the screen,then it's coming on the shinkansen.
And on the bottom, it's just slow ride,Metro, like, grab what you want.
And so there's a little slot where you put your plates.
And so, when you order that counts as a plate,so it knows you're gonna put that plate in there,but then when you grab something off the Metro,that's all 115 yen.
So like, then that just adds,with every extra plate, it's 115 yen.
Well, they have this little game.
And we didn't start playing it at first.
And then Aaron's like, well, what's this?
And like, it starts playing it.
And once you get every five plates,you get this opportunity to win a prize.
- Right, and it's not really like a game.
It's not really interactive.
- No.
- It's really just like a...
You don't get to choose or do anything besides E-Sushi.
- Right, right.
And shove plates in this little pocket.
- Yeah.
- Which is fun.
- Yeah, it's super cool.
- But so Aaron somehow gets his lucky try.
And right on this first fifth plate, boom.
He gets a prize.
And it goes what a little eraser, like a manga type race.
- Yeah, yeah.
It was some anime character.
- Yeah.
- It was, yeah.
- And so I'm like, you know, of course,you know, I got two daughters and I'm like,oh shoot, like I really don't have enough,like little gifts for him.
I'm like, yeah, I'm about to win me one of these erasers.
- Dude, with 15 plates, deep 15 plates, deep no eraser.
- This man could see the look of disappointment on my faceand considering going for 20 plates.
He saw me thinking about a 20 plate.
Gives me the eraser.
That's real fun.
- But do you, you earned this?
- Yeah, that was real.
I did, and I just, I got my five in and hit the button.
- Yeah, but you know, he did end up doingwhat almost nine or eight plates.
- Yeah, plus I had some bigger oneswhen you were fitting the slots.
- Right, yeah, and each of those had like three on it.
Yeah, so you know, it was like,I give it to my daughter and she's like,oh, when did you get this?
And I'm like, well, to be honest, Aaron got it.
He won.
I tried, I really tried.
I told her the truth though, I let her know that you won.
But yeah, so compare about Sushi.
It was definitely just a cool experience and like fun, right?
And like cheap, like super cheap.
- So cheap.
Like, we're in everything.
- To get this type of quality of sushi in America.
Like, and this amount, you're spending hundreds.
- Yeah, and we were spending like 20 bucks.
- Yeah, if that.
- It was so cheap, it was crazy.
And they had like self-serve beer.
Like you just had to put your moneyin the little vending machine to get a cup.
Like it was cool.
We weren't drinking the beer, though,'cause there is a zero tolerance drinkingand driving in Japan.
And we are absolutely not going to riskin R34 GTR being towed in Japan and getting a DUA.
- Yeah, no way.
- Anyways, so.
- Everyone in the car gets in trouble.
- Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, Aaron would have also gotten a DUA.
(laughing)- That would have been crazy.
So, you know, after that, we're like,all right, like we gotta kinda, we gotta pass out.
Like we gotta get some sleep.
We, did we head to that night, that was Sunday night.
Or was, that was Sunday night.
- That was the last night.
- Full night, yeah.
So, basically the next morning we knewthat we needed to return the camper and the carand see type one.
We had all these plans.
- Right, right.
And that's all over the place.
- That's all over the place.
- So, you know, we're, we wanna do a hotel.
We wanna get some good sleep.
We wanna shower, you know, before the plane,you know, all that.
We wanted to just make sure that we were on point.
And so we stayed at, you know, some hotel in the Disney areabecause that was the farthest eastthat the little points that I have took us.
So, we hook it up and stay there.
It was whatever.
It was a hotel, you know.
You could see Disney, but it was pouring still.
We weren't even concerned about that.
So, the next morning, you know,we gotta get that camper back.
- Right.
- Nine-eighth.
- And we left it at a Venus.
So we had to drive back there to be able to.
- From the Yobama ish area to the Venus.
- Which was not like horribly out of the way.
It was just another like stop.
So, you know, whatever we, we go,we get to the camper place.
Well, I get to the camper place and I'm like,where is this guy just saw him?
- Oh yeah.
- Yeah, but I had also reminded you kind of last minute,like, hey, this thing's gonna like have some fuel in it.
- Right, right.
So, as soon as I got off the interstate,I was like, all right, gotta get gas, put it into my phone.
It was like, turn around.
I'm like, okay.
So I turn around, find a gas station, fill up,go to go back to the camper place.
And I can't get back there because it keeps,the maps keeps trying to take me through these tunnels.
- Oh yeah.
- They're limited hype.
And there was two or three times where I had stopped,got out, looked at the height of it and was like,no, this ain't happening.
So I ended up wasting a bunch of time,having to go way back around to the main road and like.
- He's lucky, he's getting out, he's surveying the,because if we, because here's the thing, right?
We literally paid a deposit, the same amount as running,there's a little more than running the camper.
- Yeah, which was part of wild.
- Yeah, for seven days, right?
So this deposit was important because like,we need it back.
- Yeah, and I wasn't trying to,- Yeah, he wasn't doing anything.
Especially on the last day, like,had it been careful and was cool with it the whole time.
- Yeah, we'd done good.
And so, you know, whatever I get thereand it's a different guy than when we picked it up.
And he's like, who are you?
And I tell him and I say, my buddy will be here.
And eventually Aaron gets there and, you know,dude kinda, I don't know, like, what does Dio was?
But he thought we were cool or something,'cause he just like, breathed right through it.
Assess if we trade some like ripped US bills for some,- Yeah, for some not ripped ones.
- For some not ripped ones.
- For like, new ones or something like this?
- This guy's scamming his ass.
- Yeah, I know, but he gave us like,mad discounts on like the cleaning fee and the bedding feeand like all that.
So I was like, all right, that's a Polish guy.
- Yeah, he's Polish.
I had no clue.
Like, he was cool though.
Like he was, he was whatever, right?
So, Polish guy in Japan.
- And so, if you are looking for a camper,it's called Japan camper vans.
It's like the name Japan camper vans.
It's like way out in East Bum, tight roads.
Like, you really can't even fit a camper through there,but you're forced to.
- Dude, it's crazy.
- Here really is.
And so, Japan camper vans, look him up.
They were straight up.
I mean, we could pay US money like everything was cool.
Like, they didn't taxes on anything.
So, we returned the camper.
Now, we need to hit type one because there is no waythat we're not hitting type one.
Like, that was the one place that came to my mindwhen I'm like, where do I have to go in Japan?
Because it's iconic the way that they have set up.
So, we found some free parking somehow.
I don't know if it was free, but we didn't pay.
- Free.
- Well, it was dirt, not tar.
So, there should be free.
But, yeah, so we found some parking and we had over there.
And we come in downstairs and like direct viewto the motor building room.
Like, all four walls are glass.
- Right.
- Well, three out of the four, including the onein the front of the place.
- Yeah, that was wild.
- No one is building motors, but it's still cool.
- Right, right, right.
And you could see it was all climate controlledand just everything was clean and neat.
And everything had its spot.
- It was meant.
- Yeah, it was cool.
- Like, they do it right.
And so, you turn around and you know,there's the lift that goes upstairsand then there's like two regular lifts.
And there was also, there's three regular liftsand an alignment machine.
Like, all in a compact space.
Not like here in America where they got milesin between some of the equipment.
- No, they use their space very well.
- Yeah, so there was a mechanic working on a DC2in Tiger Type R.
And we had heard later on that it was like just a race only caror whatever and the guy was getting his maintenance done.
But like, I was like right on that guy.
Like, and you could have been literally handing him tools.
I felt like it was crazy.
I was like, I never have I ever been anywhere.
- Where you can just walk through.
- And just be literally next to the mechanic.
Don't bother him.
Don't be rude.
Don't bother him.
But you can literally look over his shoulderand it's all good.
It was so cool.
So you have to go upstairs through the outside.
Which we're like, where's the epsilon?
Oh, shoot, okay.
So we head up to stairs and you turn the corner into the place.
Really just walking up the stairs because the windowyou can see the S2000, but you walk in that placeand it's like, oh shoot.
- Yeah.
- Like they are legit.
They're up there working on the Civic Type R race carthere's that a bunch of different guys, you know who they were.
They've raced it, you know what I'm like doing.
- It was it was an American car actually.
They did the, I think like 24 hours of Willis Springsor something out there at West in Dio Chihara,Tarzan Yamada and a few other driverswere the ones driving it.
And you know, they still had their names on the windowand all that.
- Yeah.
- So they were doing a service on it.
It looked like a brake service while we were there.
And like we're literally close enough to this guyto have him hand us the brake pads.
Like it was nuts.
Like I'm still mind blown in the fact that they A insurance wisebecause America's all about insurance, insurance insurance.
- Right.
- And it was like a B, just like none of these dudes were gettingannoyed and they're having to walk around.
At one point there was like 15 of us up there, like at least.
And so.
- Yeah, it was more of like a, it had like a,like a homie hangout in a garage feel rather than,you didn't feel like you were in spoon in that sense.
- Right, no.
You felt like you're at a homie, yeah.
- You think of this like a laboratory in like,- Yeah, super serious development.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you know they got doors and glass everywhereand all this, all this rope, right?
But no, it's zero rope, not a single rope.
- Hey, welcome, check it out.
- What's up?
- Right.
- We're not selling anything.
- Yeah, we're not even selling a decal today.
Like it's, - They had no type of anything.
- They didn't want to sell you nothing.
Like unless you wanted to order maybe a special order stuff.
- Yeah, all I saw was a pamphletfor something and I was just like,wow, this is nuts.
Like they don't even have like no merge,no trinkets, nothing.
- Right.
- Which like props to them, whatever they're letting all of thesepeople walk around knowing that 90% of themwill never have worked on with them.
- Right.
- Maybe they'll order their part from even a vendor,whatever, but that's like props,like for them to even allow that.
That was a sweet experience.
- Yeah.
- So at this point, like our minds are blown from spoon,you know, and we're getting kind of overrunwith a bunch of other dudes.
So we're like, let's get out of here.
- Yeah, it was, two, three of them.
And so we're like, we gotta go anyways, right?
We gotta return the car.
Like we gotta figure out how we're getting from top rankto Nareeta, like we got stuff to do.
So we get on the road, head out, and you know,it's a decent little drive hour, hour and a half.
I think it was something like that.
- Yeah.
- And so we get there and we meet up with the boysand tell them how much we love the car,that we get some pictures with them.
And they say, yeah, no, we'll get you over the train station,like no stress there and we're like, cool.
So, you know, we kind of know what time we need to leave by,but we're like, well, they definitely know.
So like, you know, we just start combing the lot.
Like, and there's everything in this lotthat was there for PDI, like everything.
Like, I don't know what you see.
- A few S15s, it were really nice.
There was an S13 Sylvia that was mint.
That was pretty much all original.
It had maybe some wheels on it and maybe a wing,but it was mint.
There was a EVO, EVO seven or EVO eight wagon.
- Yeah, that was, it was very cool.
Any type of R34 in whatever spec.
- Yeah, they're an M-specner.
Like, just out in this parking lot.
Yeah, like I had to take a bunch of picturesand looking at them now.
Yeah, there was a Ferrari, a bunch of super turbos,EVO fives, you know, DC five type bars.
Like, just, you know, yeah, everything, V-spec, V-spec too.
Like, this is all just chilling in a parking lotthat we're just walking around, right?
Like, they're like, oh yeah, go ahead.
You know, whatever, and we're just combing through these carsand all of a sudden I look at the clock and I'm like,oh, dude, like, we probably should have left like 15 minutes ago.
- Oh, yeah.
- And like, you know, 30 minutes before that,we saw it, we see this guy that works for top rank,pull up a Nissan leaf and like back it up to the baywhere our car is like sitting.
And I didn't think nothing of it at the time.
Like, oh, they must be doing something, whatever.
No, that's when the dude was ready to take us.
But he didn't speak English.
So he was like kind of too nervous to say anything to us.
- Right.
- But literally, so he was there,we would have gotten there 15 minutes or whatever.
We didn't, we got in the leaf,we headed over the train station.
It's like a super small rinky dink one.
And we never really bend to a super small rinky dink one,but we're like, all right, whatever.
Hop on this train.
All right, well, maybe because we had to have like two stopsand then like two transfers to different trains at train stationsand then our final one to Narita,which supposedly would get us right there.
Anyways, things are taking like longand all of a sudden they're in these delaysbecause they were some track workand we're like, wait, what?
There's not another one of these flightsuntil tomorrow at two.
So I'm like, okay, maybe I can get a new oneor maybe we can do this, do that.
- Kind of scrambling.
- Scrambling hard, but there's no uber there.
There's no getting a hold of a taxi.
Like we're looking for taxi stands in between train rides.
So we're like, all right, whatever we gotta do this.
So it's time to get on the last transfer to Narita.
And there's, and it says track three and four or something.
And we're like standing at three and like foursays you have to have an extra ticketif for the skyliner and like all these thingsand we're just like, no, this must be it.
The train pulls up on track three.
We jump in, we're sitting there.
- And yeah.
- This feels weird.
- Right, right, we looked at each otherand we like, dude, are we on the right train?
And I had looked up and I'm like, I saw it said a local lineand it didn't say anything about the airport,but it was there at the correct timeand it was on the correct track.
So I was just like, yeah, dude, I don't thinkwe're on the right one.
- And I was like, oh my god, we're not on the right one.
And I stood up and we're like running outin my suitcase breaks, like the handle breaks off itand like, I'm just like, oh my gosh.
And the thing closes right behind us.
Like it's gone.
And we're like, this lady could tell that we're frantic'cause she's like, you looking for airport?
Whatever, yeah.
- Whatever.
- Like, yeah, is this it?
And she's like, yeah, right here, for airport, right?
She's like, yes, right here.
And we're still not waiting here.
- Right, right, and I'm like, for Nareeta airport, right?
(laughing)- She's like, yes, dude, right here.
- So, you know, we dig, end up getting on that train.
- Yep.
- We pull into Nareeta, you know,and like, our plane is like boarding in five minutes.
Like, when we're getting off the train in Nareeta.
So my suitcase handle is broken.
This dude's carrying some of my stuff.
We're just like running, like, trying to figure outwhere to go, right?
We got our boarding passes on our phones.
Dude, it was wild.
Like, we literally got off this train.
Like, anywhere in America, we had been screwed.
Like, screwed.
Like, we got off this, like I said,five, maybe eight minutes before our boarding.
We literally run, go, through all this,get through security, run, literally get there,with a little snack, as we can walk on the plane.
- Yeah.
- Like, stop just long enough to take off our sweatshirts'cause we're sweating.
- Yeah, dude, I was, yeah, we were running.
- Yeah, we were running through that area of the park.
- He's like, dude, I didn't see me run like this before.
I'm like, I haven't seen me run like this.
(laughing)- We took the elevator at one point, dude.
And every time it's, we had to go up three floors.
It stopped at every floor, and every single floor,we just jammed in the butt, you know, close the door.
Like, no, we're full, we're full.
- Yeah, it just doesn't want another guy looking at us.
Like, we're crazy.
- Yeah, but.
- But, hey, we made it.
- We did, it was like--- We got a little time to spare.
- Yes, and we got upgraded to first class.
So we had the lay down seats for the bag.
So like, 'cause we're like, dude, we got upgraded.
We cannot miss this.
- Right, right, dude, it's the one time, like, come on.
You know, so, yeah, it was stressful at the end,but like, you know, I wouldn't have traded for anything,even though like, it definitely got stressful.
I was like getting frustrated.
Because I'm like, dude, I gotta get back.
Like, it's been 15 days, like, I gotta get outta here.
Like, I gotta work to do you too.
You know, so, but we were definitely very thankfulto be able to have this trip and, you know,be able to experience everything that we did.
A lot of people, like I said, they say,"Wow, you guys packed a lot in."
Like, yeah, it was the dream tour.
- Yeah, I mean, it wasn't easy either.
- No, it wasn't.
Yeah, and sometimes, you know, like, right,things wouldn't go right, or one of us would get frustrated,or whatever, but we just kept it moving, you know?
And that was the beauty of the trip, was that,we had looked forward to this for so longthat there was nothing getting in our way, like nothing.
So, yeah, again, like, we're blessed.
We're thankful, like, absolutely,wouldn't take any of it back.
But that definitely completes this episode,number 14, Japan Trip, week two, part two.
Coming up next week, our UpGarage/AutoBox episode.
And if you don't follow us on Instagram, it's @rhdgus.
And of course, you can find us streamingon all the major platforms.
I'm Bobby, this is Aaron.
- Yeah, we up.
- See ya. - See ya.
[Music]
Request an explanation for:
7 cars
Scroll for more
7 cars featured
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
Help improve this episode
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark. Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
Report incorrect info
Suggest better explanations
Flag missing cars