Long time no see! I’d like to apologize for my absence. I broke my trusty Nikon d60 and have been AWOL since then, but I’m back! I recently purchased a Sony Nex-3NL, which is a pretty cool mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses that is about the size of your average point and shoot.  I bought it after missing the whole art of photography, and some good convincing by my friend Patrick Lu who is a seasoned photographer. 

 

Since I’ve been gone we have been up to a lot of different things. I’ll take this time to let you all in on our latest craze… 2 wheeled machines. Some of us here love motorcycles, others are scooter heads, but regardless of what we ride, we all have a blast. There is nothing like a motorcycle track day, adventure, or even just rolling out to the nearest In n Out (Thank you Austin for now having 2) with your friends. All in all, we greatly enjoy modifying, restoring, and riding 2 wheeled machines. Let’s take a look at what we’ve been up to!

We all know Cody has a Ruckus. He’s been modifying it a whole lot lately and, as you can see, he has it’s stance dialed.

 

Recently, Billy also picked himself up this awesome 1986 Honda Spree. It’s a 2 stroke scooter with oil injection so you don’t even have to mix the fuel! Technology has always been cool…. even in the 80’s

The family photo of that day

 

Needless to say, our scooters are not the fastest things on the planet…. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t eek every last bit of performance out of them that we can get. Checkout Cody swapping out weights to get his variator belt as far out as it would go!

 

But really, what’s left other than to bring the Ruckus!

 

I myself have managed to pick up a Honda Passport (c70 cub) from Thaison’s little brother, and have managed to get it running, break it, and get it running again. Typical Natsukashi Garage style….

On top of that, last weekend I managed to ride my bike over 600 miles round trip to Harlingen, Texas to visit my grandparents. The ride was long, and yes my butt did hurt after a while, but still it was enjoyable nonetheless. Traveling by two wheels is by far my favorite way to travel these days.

At the end of the day, 2 wheeled vehicles have brought me closer to family and friends. To me, this is what our community is about so enjoy it while it lasts and cherish every moment!

 

 

The Eat Sleep Car Meet is a local Houston car meet usually held once a month. A lot of cars come out to the meet and there are some pretty legit cars that attend. I happen to go after eating seem grub with my homies and rolled together to the meet. 

 

 

 

 

This was one dope FD and still look clean from the ice storm we had a day before this meet.

 

 

 

Stanced Subaru Wagon, thats something you done see everyday or even a platform to build too. 

Manny’s bagged TSX, got the King of The South award from Wekfest. 

 

This was a sleeper M3, had a supercharger under the hood. 

 

 

This car is running -15 camber, and its daily drivin too.

 

Lam again always photo bombing

 

The twins

 

 

The Houston car scene is bigger and more legit than the Austin car scene since I moved here. There are lots of meets in Houston and usually there is a meet almost every weekend. Usually you can meet random people and just talk about cars. Of course every meet has their dose of ricers (not the good kind) but whats a meet without ricers???

It was nice beautiful Saturday, and the day was just to nice to be spending it at my studio. Luckily the Houston Auto Show was going so I washed my car got my camera ready. 

 

The newest models where out and the show was packed. Im not really into these kinds of show because it mainly OEM stuff. Show like these are for people that are trying to look for a car, and see the latest car designs from the manufactures. I like more of custom car shows because you can see different cars with character.

 

 

 

I do like that license plate. 

 

The new MK7 GTI, Im already sure someone is gonna bag and stance it this year.

 

 

 

The Scion IQ, similar to the Toyota IQ in Japan. Not sure if there is a big car market for super small compact cars like IQ or Smart in the States but I can see this car useful in the city.

 

The Nismo Juke is a a unique looking car.

 

The 2014 GTR, not much style changes but has more power. 

 

 

 

Everybody was all over this Nismo 370Z.

 

 

I love wagons and I can see this one bagged with some dope rims. 

 

The SUV for the well off. 

 

Some car manufactures were fancy by using iPads and interactive interfaces. 

 

 

Not gonna lie, but the front bumper of the new Infiniti looks very similar to Lexus.

Fitment on point with this bagged Lexus on Work Kiwami 

 

 

The new Ford focus looks way better then the first Focus that came to the States many years ago. 

 

 

 

This guy was all over this Lamborghini

 

 

Vossen wheels were on display

 

 

More wheel whoring from ADV.1 wheels

 

Aston Martins…. One of the most beautiful cars out there.

 

 

The lightweights

 

Hey matching shirts. 

 

 

Dodge and Jeep showing their off road capabilities. 

 

The old Buick still better than the new ones. 

 

 

Another sexy car, the Jaguar XKE.

 

Big wang

Open headers back in the day

 

 

A lot of money in one place.

 

 

 

 

Long nose

 

 

The BIsimoto Genisis looks very clean and well executed with all the custom work done.

 

After the show, I chilled with some friends, and there was a another car meet going on that night too. More of that to come later. 

While my GTI is at the shop waiting for a new heart, I started turning my attention to my Miata. While browsing the interwebs, I scored a good deal on these BBS RM and I had to scoop it up. The BBS is the 3rd set of rims on this car. Yes I am a wheel whore, not gonna deny that. The rears are in the 10.5″ wide and negative offset. I just pulled and rolled the fenders, and maxed out my camber on the stock camber bolts. Even with that though, the Miata rubs on hard turns and bumps. I still need to add more camber and possibly change my coilovers to stiffer ones. I can do over-fenders but I noticed over-fenders were 2013 since Liberty Walk, Rocket Bunny, and RWB made them popular. Over-fenders would be my last resort if I still rub. I do get the love and hate, but for me I just love the fitment game. Im all about the stretch, toke, slam, poke lifestyle. I do respect other car styles, except rice 🙂

Chillin at the tea house. This pic was shot by my homie Bun, one of the photographers for AutoModia.

First post for 2014 and on my first day off I took some shots in the concrete jungle. Me and my homie Lam from Proper Garage mobbed the streets of Houston at undisclosed locations. Some cops passed by while we were taking shots but fortunately they didn’t’ stop us. I think Houston cops have other things to worry about besides two photographers.

Some of the spots were not dump friendly at all. Driving with our hazards and thankfully not many cars around the area, we managed to get some shots.

As usual Lam would get in my shots.

Those eyelashes

Practicing my long exposure, unfortunately the first shot would have been perfect but the camera moved. The 2nd shot I got it right but not many cars passed by, so I couldn’t get more of that moving light background

Pretty tired from driving around, we hit up a tea spot and called it a day.

I had some time on my hands today and I drove around the winding roads of central Texas. I just picked up my keys and headed straight for Lime Creek Road, and other hidden twisty roads. The joy of just simply driving takes your stresses away. I felt like the guy from the ORIGINAL Italian Job, in the intro the character is driving a Ferrari Miura around in the French Alps. Except I didn’t crash into a bulldozer. Surprisingly I didn’t run into traffic or cops, I had the roads all to myself. 

 

Of course I took a couple of pit stops just soak in the hill country and central Texas. Something I missed ever since moving to Houston. 

 

 

 

I did ask my friends if they wanted to drive with me but unfortunately they were all busy. Forever alone T_T

Advan SA3R matches the era of the car in my opinion.

 

Status seat and OMP harness getting their workout today

 

 

My water mark covered the car hahaha. Just before I took this shot, I met a M5 owner and he was running the roads.

Grrrrrrrrr

 

Even though it was freezing outside, I still drove top down and listened to my exhaust notes. I saw scenic routes, and enjoyed being exposed to the elements. Its just something about about driving a car with no aides make you more in tune with your car. Every once in a while you just have to pick up your keys and just drive. 

 

 

Wekfest is one the best car shows to attend. I remember last year when it was held in Austin, the rollin itself was awesome. Just passing through the prescreen is an accomplishment already. I know I wasn’t gonna win shows but just making it was dope. Honestly its one of the few shows I would register my car, and request time off. Wekfest showcases top quality cars, awesome builds, which some are built in shops and others built in garages. Wekfest Texas was held this year in Houston for the first time and was bigger than last year.

Rollin in time for our team was 9am which was better because at least I had time to take shots before people came in and to detail my car. It gave Thaison to do some last minute Wekfest prep which was to put the Lexan windows in.

Everybody was preparing their cars for the show. This guy had two sets of MUGEN M7 and MUGEN MF-10

Creamy bokeh

One of the cleanest S5, and bagged. Big balla

Roll in chaos

CHOPS

Super rare Work Equip steering wheel

Being a VW fan this was one of the nicest build I’ve seen, a lot of custom work done and by the owner too. This MK1 Golf took 2nd best VW.

Dat license plate

The sea of cars getting into Wekfest

Those clear tails bring back the 90s.

Iforged fabuLOUS

Sorry ladies and gays, he’s taken

Lam always getting in my shot

If it aint a Type R it aint a tight car

JDM freshness

Fitment check

Another clean miata, slammed on OZ turbos

Congrats to my homie, Thaison for taking 2nd place best Toyota, and his girlfriend Allison for helping helping and putting up with his build hahaha. A lot of sleepless night has been put into this car, but hard work pays off. His car is a true garage build, and great person too.

On a side note, I was reading Stickydiljoe comment on The Chonicles website, “I sometimes wonder where some of these car crews get their Japanese crew names from; like, does it actually mean something to them or did they just decide to pick whatever Japanese word they saw at the moment and attached “garage” or “crew”, etc. to the end of it. It’s a little odd if it just doesn’t mean anything… I think if it was to be a “correct” Japanese club name, the more appropriate order for it would be “Garage Natsukashi” which actually flows a little better, but what the fuck do I know, haha… sorry, just rambling on…”

To answer that, we didn’t choose a Japanese name and slapped garage and called it a day. Natuskashi means, a longing of the past, a nostalgic feeling. Having fond memories of the past. 2010 is when we formed Natsukashi Garage and I’ve been friends with some of them since high school and college. We blog about our builds, talk about cars and capture the memories about the car culture. Its a life journey of our passion for cars.