Tag Archives: life

Cruise through the streets of Tokyo circa 1970

Seeing old cars is one thing, but how about an entire city-full of what are today rare classics? A portable video camera would have been very expensive back in 1970, but luckily someone had the foresight to get one and … Continue reading

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EVENTS: The inaugural Kyushu Kei Car Meeting

On Sunday April 25th the inaugural Kyushu Kei Car Meeting was held in Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture. I see a raised hand in the back there. “Inaugural” means, like, the first one? Well, yeah. Due to a glaringly obvious oversight, … Continue reading

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NEWS: Honda reveals production-ready RWD electric hatch

Honda will reveal a rear-wheel-drive electric hatchback at the Geneva Motor Show next month. Named the E Prototype, the car appears to be a very-close-to-production version of the first-generation Civic-inspired Urban EV Concept that was shown at the Frankfurt Motor … Continue reading

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VIDEO: The Honda Collection Hall takes a Prelude, F1 racers, and a ton of bikes out for a spin

It’s been a while since we checked in with the Honda Collection Hall and its regular exercising of vehicles in its massive collection. The museum much pride in the fact that, unlike many automotive galleries out there, everything in its care … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 Kiryu Classic Car Festival, Part 01

The Kiryu Classic Car Festival holds a special place in the history of JNC. Back in 2006, long before any other English-language sites were interested in kyusha, it was the first show we covered in Japan. That also happened to be the first time … Continue reading

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VIDEO: More drives from the Honda Collection Hall

Honda has uploaded yet another set of videos of vehicles from the Honda Collection Hall at Twin Ring Motegi taking spins in the museum’s backyard. Enjoy the sights and sounds of old motors motoring, just as Soichiro intended. 

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GRAND TOURING: Tohoku, Part 02

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the twin disasters — a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and devastating tsunami — that struck Japan off the coast of Tohoku in 2011. In remembrance, we are re-running a series of stories that relate to the event’s aftermath. This … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 New Year Meeting, Part 03 — This is Japan

A life-size Gundam robot towers above the trees. Giant windowless shopping centers operate like small cities. In this snapshot of a hyper-futuristic metropolis floating on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay, tradition comes in the form of a parking lot teeming … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 New Year Meeting, Part 01

The New Year Meeting is Tokyo’s premiere classic car show and it takes place at the end of January. You’ll likely never see a gathering of J-tin so diverse anywhere else, and the magic begins with a line of cars at the … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: The Onsens of Yamagata Prefecture

Having toured Aomori and Iwate Prefectures previously and discovered many interesting sights along the way, we decided to again return to the northern coasts, this time to explore the Prefecture of Yamagata and the Sea of Japan Coast Road. 

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ART CORNER: The illustrations of U井T吾

For this installment of JNC‘s Art Corner, we feature another artist from Japan. U井T吾, 27, is a Kyoto-based artist whose day job is in character design for board games and social gaming. Fortunately for us, he’s also an enthusiast of old Japanese … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2015 New Year Meeting Part 07 — Compact Flash

Today (no pun intended!) we take a look at the classic city cars that showed up at the New Year Meeting. Some, like this happy red Honda Today, are kei cars, but not all. As you might remember, the Today was the star car in You’re Under … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: Boso Hanto, Day 02

On Day 01 of our Boso Hanto tour we visited visited hallowed ground, a Skyline specialist shop, and stopped for the night with some curry and a bit of Honda tourism. Welcome to Day 02, where we continued through the peninsula in the … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: The Ise Peninsula, Part 02

In Part 01 of our journey to the Ise Peninsula, we crossed Ise Bay by ferry. While our navi plotted the quickest route to our next destination via a number of linking bypasses and expressways, we chose a twisting road designated … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: Shio no Michi, the Salt Road — Part 01

Having not been away in a few weeks, we decided to take a Monday off and spend three days exploring Nagano Prefecture and some of the less traveled valleys near the Northern Alps. Using our usual form of taking the main … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: Kanto

Since the opening of the Yamate Tunnel, provided traffic is light of course, traversing Tokyo to join the out-going expressways has become a lot easier. In ten or fifteen minutes, you can join the Joban for a quick run out … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2013 JCCA New Year Meeting, Part 02

In Part 01 of our 2013 New Year Meeting coverage, our photogs arrived on the scene in Odaiba, Tokyo. Nihon steel was shot, the swap meets was perused, and legends of Japanese motoring were admired. We see no reason not … Continue reading

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EVENTS: New Year Meeting 2011 Part 01: Honda is the Featured Marque

Happy new year to all our JNC readers on the lunar calendar. Although modern Japan officially considers January 1 their starting point for another orbit around the sun, some Japanese still have a nostalgic feeling for the lunar calendar. Thus, … Continue reading

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Unloved Cars of Tochigi

Location scouting North of Tokyo, we were surprised to pass a yard not filled with the usual rural kei cars — or farming implements — but one filled with an enormous range of nostalgics.

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Saitama Air-Cooled Yard

Students of automotive design and history advise us that the death of the rear-engine air-cooled car was dictated by a number of changing fashions and requirements. Pollution and noise requirements ensured two-strokes, with their oil-burning lubrication systems, were phased out … Continue reading

Posted in honda, mazda, mitsubishi, subaru, suzuki | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments