Introduction!

Hello everyone! My name is Roger. I started to see a lot of collaborations and meetings of VK family and I thought that IS amazing. I know Paul has been busy, so I asked if I could help with the blog. I felt that these events need to be documented so we can look back and see how far we have come, but also how we all finally meet each other in other cities and countries.

So who am I? Just like many of you, I've been in love with tuning cars. I like to consider myself an enthusiast and with an inclusive appreciation for vehicles. I have always loved vans. Coming up in the 2000's era of tuning, Honda was the brand to tune. While it was common to build Honda Civics, CRXs, Accords, Preludes...etc, once in awhile, someone would build an Odyssey (pictures below).

Background: In 2014, My 2nd child was coming. I was choosing between the 3rd gen Sienna or to get an older van, such as a Toyota Previa or 1st/2nd gen Honda Odyssey or 3rd gen Nissan Quest (the curvy one) and rebuild it. After much contemplating, I went with the Previa because of the captain's chairs and dual sunroof. I completely rebuilt the engine with OEM Toyota parts and the transmission with added shift kit.

My first taste of vanning came when I went to Vancouver BC for an annual car show called Boom 2K (which was that year). I lived in Seattle at the time and frequent Vancity almost weekly.

*These are not my vans.

A shop called Rev built one!

Then at Nisei Week 2001 in Little Tokyo, LA, I met RJ De Vera (of Superstreet) and his mom. She had built one as well!! (check that previa too!)

In the early 2000s, I traveled to Japan and saw some of the vans that really inspired me, Those wild Toyota Hiaces!!!

I met a few guys at a parking lot one night and they gave me their placard as an honorary member!

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I have been following VanKulture and loved how the guys really made the connection with family and cars/vans. How the appreciation for vans inspires people to enjoy them rather than ridicule. When I met with VKNorcal at Blox 2016, it was amazing to see the vans in person.

Conversing about the vans and ideas was something I personally missed from my early years in the Import Car scene. (Nowadays many people criticize, talk swapping in RBs, JZs and LS and drifting, mostly).

This carried over when I returned to Japan in 2016 and 2017 as I met with Taguchi-san.