The organizers of Japanclassic.ch – THE one Swiss meeting for classic Japanese cars, have decided to change a few things. The location of the event in recent years was always a bit small compared to previous used locations, so often not all vendors and visitors could attend. Also catering and other things were a bit of an Issue. Usually the annual Japanclassic used to be in Spring, but this time they decided to combine it with the “Japanese Car meeting” at the Motorworld in Kemptthal. An event that just appeared last year and which I’ve attended. See photos here. The combned event is now in September, but in a large…

Day 8: Car spotting & GoodbyeWhile some extended their stay to visit some friends and family, my time in Japan ended on the 8th day early in the morning with a healthy and delicious Japanese hotel breakfast: Once I’ve said goodbye to everyone, I headed through the Nissan Gallery passage one last time in direction Yokohama Shin station, where they were showing a video of the Z development (and other cars), which was quite fitting for the end. I took the Airport Limousine express bus to the Airport, which gave be a hazy but nice view of the Yokohama Bay Bridge: I made sure to grab some nice magazines before…

Day 7: Photoshoot / Nissan Zama warehouse / S30.world development meeting Welcome to another part of our incredible S30.world Japan expedition. After another great breakfast in the Hotel, the whole crew took the subway, train and bus to a far-away part of Tokyo. The reason? We wanted to recreate this iconic Press photo print that Kats had brought to the Car show. After a bit of googling, some of the team were actually able to figure out the original location which this photo was taken at: So the idea was to take similar photos in front of the building. But, we didn’t really have a photo shooting permission, and the…

Day 6: NISMO / Autech Omori factory Presentation and meeting, Dino DC, RS-Watanabe / ProtecThis day was definitely one of the most memorable for me personally. Packed with so much goodness and some unexpected plot twists which just made it all better. But let’s start in the morning. We took the public transport from Yokohama direction Oppama. I think this location will ring a bell with some of you. After a 20minute walk from the train station, we recognized the world famous NISMO logo on top of their Oppama Headquarters. NMC Is the merged NISMO / Autech operation for Nissan Motorsports (NISMO) and customizing (Autech). They basically do everything from…

Day 4: Shinkansen Bullet train to Yokohama / Nissan HQ GalleryAfter our very busy days in the Nara / Kyoto area, it was time to say goodbye and head to the Yokohama area. After a healthy Japanese breakfast, the whole team took the bus to the Kyoto main station. There, we proceeded with the JR-Line Shinkansen Bullet train direction north to Yokohama. After another quick train-ride, we ended up at our Hotel, just next to the Nissan Headquarter tower in Yokohama. After a quick lunch break and a stop at the nearby Yamaha Music Instruments flagship store, we went back to check in to our rooms. Once that was done,…

Day 3: Fairlady Z test drives & Honda Dealership visitAfter the incredible turnout at our S30.world meet and rollout, with some of the best S30’s in Japan, day 3 was planned to be a bit more relaxed. Our Japanese S30.world team member Endo-san brought out his private collection of stunning cars, but after a healthy Japanese breakfast in the Hotel, we went to pick up the last one from one of his garages – An absolute mint and unmolested Nissan 180SX S13 in all its original glory: I was given the honor to drive the car through Nara back to the Hotel in Kyoto, which was a great joy in…

If you follow some of the bigger S30 specialized accounts on social media, I’m sure you’ve seen photos of the S30.world Japan expedition. Over the last 10 days, we spent time in Japan exploring the local S30 scene, culture and cuisine and nothing could have prepared me for what I’d witness during that time. What the Team put together was truly incredible, with many dreams of mine coming true in a short time, and that all in the company of some of the world’s leading S30 experts. I’m still trying to process it all and have thousands of photos to go through.Due to the sheer volume of impressions and things…

The “Japanese car meeting” is a new event, held in the cool Motorworld at a former plant around Winterthur, Switzerland. The “Open Air Tours” organizers hold a variety of (non-japaense-themed) car events there, and the Japanese is just one of them. But a very cool one, I have to say. I didn’t really know what to expect. I showed up early, and the queue was quite long already, but once inside it was all still quite calm. I brought my EK9 to have a last roll-out of the year and got placed in the center somewhere between an MX-5 and some Imprezas: After that, I started to wander around and…