Night Meets In Japan - The New Norm During Tokyo Auto Salon

Feb 223 min read

It's been an interesting growth. What used to only be the RWB meet, which would take place the Thursday night before the start of the Tokyo Auto Salon has now turned into 3 straight nights of "Secret", "Invite Only" or last minute location pop-up meets. Over the last couple of years these have only continued to increase. It makes for a very busy TAS weekend.

This year I was able to attend 2 of the 4. Next year I'll have to rent my car earlier. The meets I missed this year were just a little too far away and harder to get to without a vehicle.

The first night I arrived I had the option of the classic RWB (which used to be the only meet) and the Hana Burton / The Low Down Meet at the TOM's karting facility. This year for the Thursday night meet before TAS it was The Low Down Meet at City Circuit in Odaiba.

The turnout was incredible with plenty of cool cars, a DJ and a back lot full of cars that were going to be sold the following day. Now for good or bad these events are super popular and have a ton of people that show up to enjoy. Which is a good thing but makes getting clean pics and vids so much harder. But, I am glad that their are so many people that come out to support the JDM car culture

For me this was a great way to start my TAS week off and a great way to shrug off the fact that I just spent 14hrs on a flight getting to Japan and its great prep for TAS the following day.

Everything about my first night in Japan was awesome. It was great seeing all the cars and bumping into people I hadn't seen since the last time I was in Japan and this was just my first night in Japan. Next year I'll probably get a car, that way I can go to this and the RWB meet on the same night. Hopefully this continues to be a yearly event.

The very next night was The Joey from the Chronicles, Sara Choi and Exceed night meet, which took place directly after TAS. Did I mention that the TAS week is a sprint. This was a meet that was spread through Social Media with a last minute address drop.

Even with the last minute address drop, there were so many people that showed up that the location was shut down by the cops. Once again a car would have been a huge help as the backup spot ended up being a PA (Parking Area) that was not too far away from the initial garage meet location. So for me it ended up being a train ride to a 30 minute walk to get to the PA. Which I was thankfully able to get into.

I was a little worried when I first got in because there were already a couple of cops at the entrance and it looked like they were going to push everyone out of the PA but they didn't or they at least waited till after I had left.

Once again there was a great group of cars, with only a couple from the night before. So it was great to see a whole new group and some really clean Honda's.

This meet definitely felt like a sprint, I wish I had been able to spend more time but between the cops, the full day at TAS, the temp and making sure I got back to the train with enough time to get back to the hotel before the trains shutdown. It was still a great time and once again I got to meet more super cool people and even a Honda guy from Manila who stopped me to say "Hi" and talk about his car club, the car culture and cars from his country. One of my favorite parts of the whole night.