Taking up space in my modestly-sized room is a white plastic suitcase that I bought in Akihabara, Tokyo, on my last night in Japan. For some reason, this is the souvenir that stood out to me the most out of all of them, though the size definitely plays a factor. Another is a blue button down shirt that I bought from an outlet, since I hadn’t the time to get back to my hotel and change before a nice dinner, a few evenings prior. Maybe it’s the fact that they were impromptu purchases, things I needed anyways, and things I still use day to day.
To rewind a bit, Japan had been on the top of my travel list for a good ten years, ever since I became a petrolhead off of watching Top Gear and Initial D. I had my own JDM phase that I never truly outgrew, and that, along with my upbringing around lots of Japanese culture in Hawaii, had me feeling a magnetic pull towards that archipelago for the last decade. It had always seemed a bit of a far off dream, though, something that maybe someday, sometime would happen. In reality, I was missing the right excuse. I had mentioned in my previous blog about THE ICE that I had met a fascinating gentleman by the name of Shin Ekko, and I could never really forget that conversation we had. On a whim, I looked up the Concourse of Elegance he was talking about, and poured through the website. I kept it on the backburner for a while, opening the tab every few weeks and dreaming, but never really doing anything about it. It was only about a month or so from the start date that I finally got the kick in the pants to reach out, and it was my best decision of this last year.
You see, it wasn’t just the concourse I had wanted to go to, but the tour de elegance after as well. It sounded like a fairytale: a whole week of driving through the heart of Honshu, each night in a different historic hotel and hundreds of miles of mountain roads. It was, of course, even better than I had imagined, but I think that’ll have to wait for the next article. For now, the concourse.
I had reached out to Alex, a real cool dude and one of the main organizers of the event, about media credentials for that weekend and the tour after. After a few exchanged emails, I got a ping on my phone at work that made me nearly jump out of my ergonomic office chair: I was on the list! Giddy with excitement, I spent the next week hounding Skyscanner and every Japan guide on social media I could find, scrambling to book a hotel and flights in time. It ended up costing a pretty penny, but it was worth every single one. Before I knew it, I was off, getting on a flight to Korea, then Osaka.
It was a bit surreal, getting out of the airport for the first time, activating my Suica card and hopping on a train into downtown Osaka, since it felt almost like taking a Budapest metro, but still so different somehow. Some of it was the jetlag for sure. After I checked into my accommodation, a small room in a hostel near the city center, my first order of business was to shower all the airplane grime off. I made my way downstairs into the men’s washroom, and ahead of me was a large tiled room, zero privacy, just some stools, soap, and showerheads. I honestly thought I would be a lot more shy in this public style of bathhouse I’d seen in many films and shows before, but for some reason that feeling of shame or embarrassment wasn’t there. After a refreshing wash up, I headed into Dotonbori!
Walking the streets there filled me with a really strange sense of deja-vu, having spent dozens of hours playing Yakuza 0, part of the game taking place in that very same part of the city. It’s like I knew where I was and also I didn’t, at the very same time. I had some takoyaki and wandered around looking for some extra batteries, before loading up on tons of convenience store snacks, and (!!!!), a genuine, honest-to-god spam musubi. What a night!
The following morning I finally made it over to the Yakushi-Ji temple (after several missed and wrong trains), and quickly got to work. The parking lot in the back was loaded with several million dollars worth of cars, and although I had seen similar caliber of vehicle at THE ICE, something about them casually hanging around a parking lot made them feel a lot more real. After getting a few shots, I made my way over to the main temple area and signed in, meeting Hayato, another of the main organizers and a very down-to-earth guy. I had the great pleasure of getting to know him and Alex better on the trip, so more on that in my next blog.
The day went by in a blur: I shot, culled, edited, posted, shot, culled, edited… then had a break for lunch in a nearby cafe. It was definitely the most focused I’ve worked (up until that point, the Andermatt event pushed me even past that), but I was determined to get out the images I had promised. I made sure to pace myself as much as I could, never shooting for too long before stepping back into the shade to sort through my shots, since I didn’t want to end up with 3000 raw files by the end of the day. I met several really interesting people, from owners to other photographers, videographers and even J.P. Rathgen of Classic Driver, who is just as well spoken off camera as he is on. Some of my favorite shots of the trip came from this day, and while I did burn a roll of film by accidentally tearing it as I was rewinding, I still ended up with more than enough.
After we moved over to the main temple area, we had the privilege of witnessing a traditional Shinto prayer and dance, before dinner in the main building. Being a UNESCO world heritage site, I was one of a few photographers allowed in to take photos, since I was one of the few not doing any of it for commercial purposes. Or maybe just because they liked my vibe. The dinner and orchestra performances were wonderful and gave me a chance to catch my breath to the tune of Merry Go Round of Life, as we finished the night off with the red carpet drive. Each of the cars came down the runway, with J.P. Rathgen announcing them one by one, and Hidetomo Kimura as the master of ceremonies, as well as the CEO of the concourse.
Tuckered out, I headed home for the day and packed up my stuff, since this would be the last night I stayed in my Osaka hostel, the next stop would be a much fancier accommodation in the Brighton hotel in Kyoto! Before that, however, we had the closing ceremony and awards. The winner was a fascinating prototype Bentley coming all the way from India, and the trophies themselves were works of art.
The concourse seemed to have come and gone in the blink of an eye, but I wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot. Still, I’ve taken enough of your time for today, so let’s pick back up next time! Until then, check out my vlog series over on my Instagram, for a day by day breakdown of the tour.
Ciao for now,
Nick