Finally, the Toyota Alphard has passed its inspection, gotten registered and is actually insured. After a few long weeks of it being dutifully parked in my garage, it’s finally time to actually start enjoying the van that Dylan and I purchased for Checkpoint on Feb 26. Although we had to wait a long time for this moment to happen, it was all definitely worth it.
After getting the van properly insured we headed to Jake’s parent’s place where he and Karly were working on getting his freshly painted aero fitted on his JZX90. We used the opportunity to start styling up the van and added a few character pieces to it. Once we wrapped up there we headed to SerialNine to meet up with a couple JDM Toyota homies and their awesome cars. Sean with his JZX110 Mark II (complete with a fresh, 0km, R154 manual transmission swap) and Tanner with his twin-turbo Vertex edition Aristo.
We loaded up the van, and with our Toyota pals in tow, we headed to Richmond for our next destination. Right away we were seriously impressed with how comfortable the Alphard is. Even with six people, a bunch of camera gear and a bin full of parts everyone was still completely comfortable and Dylan was able to film out of the van with complete ease.
We took the scenic route to Richmond and eventually wound up at E-Spot, a super rad arcade filled with all sorts of modern and vintage arcade machines. E-Spot is a popular arcade with car enthusiasts locally and they almost always have at least a few cool cars parked outside. If you’re looking for a place to hang out with friends who have rare Japanese cars, then this is for sure the spot to be. We played some arcade games, ate some onion chips, and then shot some photos.
After leaving E-Spot we headed back to “Toyota Sedan Headquarters” aka Tanner, Jarret and Taylor’s house in Delta, to pick up Jarret’s nearly completed JZX100 Chaser. After grabbing the Chaser we headed to the ferry terminal to shoot some pictures of the van with all of its new friends. The weather (which has been absolutely wacky this June) would cooperate one minute and then dump rain on us the next, but even the rain couldn’t wipe the smiles from our faces. We hung out, blasted some shots and then took off. Tanner and Jarret headed back home but we had one more location in mind for the van so Sean came with us on one final trek to essentially the other ferry terminal in town about an hour away.
We are so stoked to finally be done with the logistical hell and paperwork nightmare of trying to get this van imported, inspected, registered and insured. It’s finally time to start adventuring with it and using it to create more amazing content.
See you soon.
Checkpoint Japan 