After a few weeks of planning, we finally made it to Vancouver Island, British Columbia to film a shoot with our friends from Garage Tanoshi and Moistboys. Dylan, Sandra, and I loaded up the Alphard and caught the first ferry over. If you’ve ever watched their videos on YouTube, you know that these guys love small wheels on old Japanese cars, obsess over quality parts, and are super friendly people; making us feel like they were the parallel universe Vancouver Island version of us (let’s just ignore the big wheels that a few of us run). We linked up with Kiera in her S15 to drop off the INGS+1 collaboration Rays wheels that we brought over for her, then headed to Ben’s property.
The guys were so kind and welcoming, the location was a fever dream of what every car enthusiast aspires to have, and we really felt like we were on an adventure despite only being a few hours (and a ferry ride) away from home.
Thank you to the boys at Garage Tanoshi for hooking us up with some old Option magazines from Japan, their own branded Patlite, and their soon-to-be-released branded wheels spacers. They even let me toss the Alphard on the lift and fire the spacers on so we could roll around the island with a tiny bit more style. We were also super spoiled with a truckload of Moistboys swag and were surprised with some hilarious sunglasses, a rad pink cupholder, and enough air fresheners to make a garbage dump (or cigarette palace Alphard) smell awesome.
We went out and shot our feature video on their cars and ended up spending a bunch of time around Hatley Castle on the Royal Roads University campus. One of the best parts about Vancouver Island, for creatives, is the fact that you’re never more than a few minutes away from beautiful locations and incredible sights.
If you’re ever on Vancouver Island, hit these guys up. But for now, we hope you enjoy the after movie.
One last thing, we want to express our gratitude to everyone who has been supporting us. Whether you’ve been watching our YouTube channel, buying our Japanese good goods or own merchandise, reading the blog like you are now, or sharing our content on social media, we seriously appreciate all of the love and encouragement that we’ve received and can’t thank you enough.
As mentioned at the end of the video, our new ‘Enjoy Good Taste’ shirt and hoodie are now available in-store, alongside our first ever key chains.
Visit the store here:
https://checkpointjapan.bigcartel.com/products
See you soon!
Checkpoint Japan 