A Late Night in Osaka

I had just walked through the door of my hotel room after my visit to Osaka Auto Messe, when I received a message from a friend asking if I was interested in catching a car meet that night. “Hell yes I am”, I thought to myself. Prior to this I wasn’t aware that we would be in Osaka at the same time, but it turned out they were also going to OAM but were at Central Circuit that afternoon for a local track event, a preface to what we’d see that night.

Over the years I’ve become vaguely familiar with Osaka car culture from afar but this was my chance to see it non-neutered and in the flesh. I was informed that the night could be a complete dud, but I didn’t care; I was totally down for the adventure. After being picked up from our agreed meeting spot, we headed out via the overpasses to the nearby PA. When we arrived, however, our hearts admittedly sank a little as the police had already arrived and were at the entrance vetting all incoming cars. We knew we weren’t going to see what we’d come to see here. Not all was lost however, as we could hear the unmistakeable note of straight-piped Honda engines reverberating through the overpass around us – the exact cars that weren’t present.

We spent an hour or so enjoying the vibe at this spot before moving on to the next. It seemed promising. We came across a group of bosozoku and a lot more Civics on the way there. But this is what will always be engrained in my brain: cruising on the highway, we were passed like we were standing still by an EK Civic and EP3R who were line astern and within inches of each other. I didn’t even get a chance to turn my phone camera on to grab a shot. We drove into the next PA and it was like looking at the Google Image results for kanjozoku. I couldn’t believe it. If you like Civics, this was Civic heaven. I took a few shots and spent the rest of the night trying to lift my jaw off the ground.