How do you summarize a life changing weekend 5,500 miles from home after experiencing possibly the most intense three days of your life with 3,000 pictures to prove it? I don't know either, but here is the tip of the iceberg. Many of you are familiar with the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show in Japan and some have even attended, but there is no way to convey its full magnitude to someone that hasn't seen it in person, just being in Japan for the first time is enough to flip your lid.
Well, as usual, Shige and the rest of the crew from Mooneyes both here in the USA and Japan put together a great event with guests from here in Southern California like Billy Gibbons, Gabe Griffin, Harpoon, Mark Drews, Kutty Noteboom, Tom Foster, Cole Foster, Roland Sands, Matt Davis, Hard 9 Choppers, and the '32 coupe and '55 Chevy from American Graffiti to name a few. There were 650 motorcycles and 250 cars inside the convention center with at least another 500 choppers outside in the parking lot and another 500 in the basement garage! It was almost more than your brain can process.
The Japanese are still very rooted in respect, tradition, and hospitality and the Mooneyes staff took every measure to make us feel welcome in Yokohama. On our day "off" on Monday, a few of us took the train into Tokyo and met up with our friends Mochi, Okun, Haji, and Gak. The next 10 hours were a head first trip/tour through the chopper shops in the city. We were packed in the back of Gak from Hogholics shop van on folding chairs for most of the day and I even packed double with Okun on his Shovelhead to shoot from the back through Tokyo for a while-more on this in a future issue of STREET CHOPPER.
Thanks again to Shige and the Mooneyes staff-for more details on past and future shows visit the mooneyes.com. Even if you only get to go once in your life, it's just that-a once in a lifetime trip! SC