From Japan With Love

Time in Japan

I spent the summer of 2016 in Japan. It was truly a dream, I’ve always admired Japanese culture from afar and had always wanted to visit. In 2016 the opportunity arose for me to go there for work and I was beyond excited for countless reasons, the food, the sights, the culture, and of course, the cars. Japanese cars have always had a special place in my heart. For a few years I lived in the Bay Area, and I worked predominantly with South Eastern Asian communities. A lot of my love for Japanese cars was heightened during that time. There was a huge community of Datsun 510 owners. That was my dream car. When I found out I was going to Japan I dreamed of this mecca of Datsun. 

Japan was everything I expected and more. I can’t even tell you how amazing it was and how many dream cars I saw, and what’s more interesting, how many cars I saw that I never knew about. One day I remember roaming the streets with my friend Jake and passing by this garage that had these tiny two door coupe that was in pristine condition. I had never seen anything like this car. I leaned in and looked all over this car to find out what it was; a Nissan Figaro. That was my first brush with the Pike Factory cars. It looked like a mini version of a euro-sports car. It reminded me of all the small euro cars that I also loved. I grew up watching Michael Caine’s Italian Job (the only one worth watching), those classic mini’s they were something special.  The Figaro piqued a similar interest in me. 

What is this car?

About a month later, I was on my way to Fuji driving on the freeway when pulled up next to mewas this sort of sea-foam-green/blue mini cooper looking hatchbacky thing. It was dreamy. Immediately I whipped out my camera, what is this thing? It looked like a datsun and a classic mini had a baby. We passed by the car so quickly I really wasn’t able to figure out what it was but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I spent the next month or so searching the internet, trying to look up “Datsun Hatchback Mini Cooper” or “JDM Hatchbacks”, until I found the name, The Nissan Pao. In all it’s glory, I found it. 

After getting back to the states I was still thinking about that car. I made plans that, that car was going to be my future car. I was thinking some day 15+ years from then when I actually had disposable income and was responsible enough to make irresponsible decisions like buying a 30 year old Japanese car. It was tough though because 2015 was the first year that the Pao could be imported to the US, so virtually no one had any here. As far as I could tell there weren’t any; I mean nobody knew about this weird little car. So I kind of gave up on the idea.


A Match Made in Kei Car Heaven

Well one day I went to lunch with a buddy who always had his finger on all the car sales going around where we’re from. He was a car dealer, and fellow car lover. The conversation went on and I thought, hmm maybe I tell him about this car that no one has ever heard about. So I say, “oh dude, you’ve gotta see my new favorite car, the Nissan Pa..” and before I finish he replies “The Pao!”. To my surprise he already knew what the car was. He proceeds to tell me that not only does he know about that car, but that someone imported one just a few miles a way to sell that very week. You can see the writing on the wall by now. 

It wasn’t but about two weeks later that I was driving back home bringing all 52-horsepower of a Nissan Pao back with me to my college apartment.  This little car I saw all the way across the earth that I made some sort of cosmic connection to found me in my little corner of the universe. And here we are 4 years later.