Another weekend err...Sunday of racing and picture/video taking. This time it was held out at the Idaho Center in Nampa. A nice sunny warm Sunday much better than the last event and it showed with I believe a much larger turn out of drivers. Since it was at the Idaho Center I was able to just hang out on the grass without the need of a spotter to film and take pictures. I also brought the umbrella setup along and thank goodness I did. I definitely think it did a lot to keep me out of the sun and a good couple of degrees cooler than just being out under the sun. It may look a little goofy but it rocks like nothing else.

What also rocks is the new camera car mount. I was a little worried to be honest as after attaching it to a car and letting it sit there for a while it seemed to lose just a bit of suction not a lot but enough to make me worry just a bit but all was good and it hung on for three outings on various cars. Oh course one of the videos got messed up some how so only got three on car videos. I did try hard to get at least one video of most of the cars that were out there some I just didn't care for but I'm trying to get every one's car more than just a lot of videos of a handful of cars.

I was also taking still pictures and trying to do the whole motion capture thing so the cars look like they are in motion and all that jazz. Still working on fine tuning that aspect of my photography. I also wasn't in the best place for pictures compared to videos. And speaking of places to be for being in a relatively safe place that black Dodge Neon with a major front end plow problem came damn close on one run.

It was a lot of fun as usual. I managed to hang around all day this time thanks to the umbrella and having the day off. Found out that a lot of people are watching the videos and really enjoy them, which is always a nice thing to hear. I still need to figure out a way to cut down on the wind noise from the on car videos and I think I'll be heading to a music store to look at mic covers. You can the pictures here and the videos are all here.

I missed a good number of spins but I also got a few good ones as well. Like this one from a Corvette engined Datsun 240Z. There was another great one from a Mercedes Benz as well where the driver was able to save it and keep going.

While I was writing the first blog about Shakotan Matsuri I realized that it would be way to long if I went on about the cars as I had a lot more to say so I decided to do two blog entries for Shakotan Matsuri with one focusing on the the cars attending the show. While I wish I could tell you all the winners to be honest not only can I not remember them all they gave out names mostly and I don't know who drives what but for a handful of people so you'll have to forgive me on that part. Again here is the link to all the pictures Flickr for your convenience. The easiest way to do this would be to separate the cars into their respective manufactures including subgroups.

I just found a place that posted the official results of the shows winners so you can pretty much disregard my mubblings about who won as I think I got some wrong but I'm to lazy to fix it right now. Tunerzine

Honda/Acura: There was a huge turn out for Hondas and Acuras from run of the mill Accords to a nice black NSX. There were also some RHD Hondas as well. I saw a CRX RHD and a couple Civics that were RHD. I don't know who the runner up was but the winner for Hondas was a local autox'er that I've met before, at the Treasure Valley Mustang and Ford car show where he also took first place, Jonathan with his nicely sorted out Honda S2000. The other Honda S2000 was entered into the Drift category or else it might have been a tougher time judging the Hondas. The NSX left before judging started otherwise it might have won something also. Although I did get a good laugh at the NSX's driver's big toes which were painted with skull and cross bones.

Mazda: The rotary heads were in good form with a nice sampling of Mazda power from one Miata a handful of various generation RX-7 and my roommate's Turbocharged RX-8. Bandon was able to make it there with a borrowed alternator to show off his three rotary RX-7 followed by much joking about the need for milk. However, the car that won the Mazda trophy was a first generation RX-7 with an engine swap. Leo was runner up (with a nice piston trophy too) with his nicely done red RX-7. Maybe next year Scott.

Nissan/Infinity: Probably the second largest group of cars with everything from a very nice looking original Datsun 240Z to the two RHD Skylines (yet again both are for sale) yet for the most part it was various models of the 240sx that were in the majority. Followed by a handful of 350Zs and Infinity G35s followed by the RHD 300ZX which to be honest I really don't like and yet got some award or another. Ok if he would strip the paint and decals and redo it so that it looked cleaner it wouldn't be so bad. The winner for Nissan was the yellow 350Z and the runner up was the Red with carbon fiber hood (pictured) 350Z. I like that one because of the lil' RQ figurine on his dashboard, it's totally JDM. After taking a look for the first time at those Skylines I still have to say they are pretty meh for the prices they demand but they are interesting to look at. They did gather large groups of onlookers though.

Mitsubishi: Handful of EVO's and an Eclipse (well two if you really count the Eagle Talon) were there. Other than the Dealer EVO X MR there was one other EVO X followed by a very nice looking with lots of kit and shiny go fast parts EVO Pedobear...LOL yes another pedobear EVO. I did finally get a picture of the "V-tec this" Eclipse from the North West Motorfest car show. I don't know who won in this category though.

Subaru: Another group that had only a handful of cars entered but the ones that were there looked really nice but I know hardly anything about the cars other than changing their spark plugs are a HUGE pain in the ass. Later that night I did spy a pretty rare, I think, Forester STI sitting outside the show area. They should have entered the show. Again I don't have a clue who won this group either.

Toyota/Lexus/Scion: I find it rather odd that the two VIP style Lexus sedans didn't even enter the VIP category. There was a couple other Lexus cars there but I didn't get any pictures of them or even looked at them all that closely. There was only a handful of Toyotas again with two Supras an older MR2 and an much older Corolla which showed up much later and I didn't photograph. While the "Fast & Furious" Supra won, I honestly have to say I found a much better looking Supra sitting outside the Show area. I would have hoped that if they had entered they would have won instead. As for the Scions well I guess one of them was featured in the latest Scion commercial so that's cool, just not my cup of tea.

I believe that wraps up my small review of the cars that were at Shakotan Matsuri or atleast it's what I remember about it anyways. Yet again I just want to say that I had a good time meeting new people and seeing some different cars that I haven't seen before and here's to a much bigger and better show next year.

This last Saturday was the first ever Shakotan Matsuri held downtown Boise ID. The Shakotan Matsuri (Japanese Lowered Car Festival) is the first car show held here that is only for Japanese manufactured cars. For a first time event there was a large and very nice turn out of cars. There wasn't much there that I didn't like. I for one was happy to see a large and professionally done car show here that wasn't about muscle cars and old school roadsters for a change and I'm definitely looking forward to next years event. As with all things everyone has their own opinion of how things went and since I'm not a paid journalist (I'll gladly accept bribes though) you get my opinion instead of some white washed op-ed piece. So of course I'll bash some things and praise others. So let the bashing and praising begin.

There is actually very little that I didn't like about the show but I do have some creative criticism of how some things went down. First of all the music was a bit to loud I don't like having to scream at my friends in order to talk to them when they are standing three feet away from me. I also think the BBoy Battle thing went on way to long but that might have more to do with my opinion (definitely not my cup of tea) of it more than anything else. But here is something they really should have had for the battle...a freaking stage. More than three people deep and you couldn't even see what was going on. Just an idea for next time guys. Another thing that got me was the MC and his switching back and forth from the "oh this is a family event and I can't say that" to swearing like a it wasn't a family event. As this was a family friendly event even later at night he should have kept it g rated for everyone in attendance. I don't care if you swear but I'm sure the families with the kids probably did. That brings me to my last little quibble they needed more people judging or needed to start judging earlier and maybe a few more categories and awards. I would have liked to see an award based on participant votes.

With all my bashing out of the way all I have left is praise and I have a lot to hand out. I have to say for a first time event this was pretty well sorted out. From what I could see there were only minor hiccups so you have to give the organizers a big pat on the back for putting on a good show. The audience in attendance was all well behaved and for such a diverse group of people that really does deserve some praise even if we all take it for granted here I've heard some horror stories at other shows like this. Of course I need to show some major praise to all the folks who brought out their cars for people to look over and discuss. Without you there just wouldn't be a show.

And about those cars. This is what you really came to read anyways right. There was a large turn out of interesting cars. There was a good number of right hand drive cars including two Skylines (both for sale by the way, actually there were a lot of cars there for sale) a couple different Hondas and a Toyota Supra (who's owner probably watched The Fast and Furious a few to many times in my own opinion) this was a nice change of pace for me as I've only seen one RHD car that wasn't a mail carrier car before. There were two VIP style cars (both Lexus) but odd to me anyways neither of them entered the VIP class. Of course there were gobs of Hondas an assortment of Nissans, Mazdas and Toyotas with a small smattering of Subarus and Mistsubishi cars. All of which were looking nice, there wasn't much in the way of RICER Boy stuff and you could tell that people put in a lot of effort to show off their cars and were having a good time hanging out with fellow car crazy people. That's it for me but you can see all my pictures on Flickr and make you own judgement. Here's to next year being bigger and better.