[spike021]

Japanese car culture and the community are so great. Even not knowing how to speak Japanese. It’s crazy how accepting most are.

Usually a conversation starts with me saying “sumimasen” which is basically excuse me, and then I try to mime with my camera that I’d like to take a photo of their car, if that’s on. If they give me the OK hand signal then I go ahead. Sometimes using google translate I’m able to strike up a basic conversation. They’ll pop their car’s hood so I can take even more photos without me even needing to ask. Then in return I show them photos of my BRZ on my phone just to show that I’m also a car guy, and most often they’ll basically say “wow that’s super cool” too. If they have friends nearby then they’ll come over to look too and say they like my car.

Today I purposely went into a specific parking garage that is known to always have interesting cars but I didn’t think I’d just wander into a Silvia meet up. So many different ones. And nobody was rude at all if I asked to take a photo.

Not that all Americans are rude but I’d say they’re far less welcoming at cars and coffee type events. Most of the time they’re just at the event to sit by their car and count how many stares it gets.