I mean, where else can you twist your head one way and see a cool little Japanese kei van with old school wheels and an external oil cooler… I think that’s really the thing that’s made this event so well known. When it started two years ago, the idea was to have a meet that was open to all genres of cars – a place where you’d see tuner machines, USDM style cars, VIP cars, pickups, vans, classic cars and everything else all in the same place. I often have to pinch myself and ask if this is really happening. Perhaps it’s because it always follows a long day of shooting at Osaka Auto Messe and extends deep into the following morning, but I always feel like I’m in a bit of a dream state while I’m there. ![]() ![]() To me, the M&L Party is still the largest, most diverse and most unbelievable car meet in the world. While I was told that the number of cars was in fact smaller this year, it was really hard to tell. It seems the M&L Party has become such a thing of legend in Osaka that once it was announced, everyone immediately knew when and where it would be. So what was the result of this new style of promotion? Would the meet be smaller and more manageable than before? Well, it seems word travels fast in Osaka because I couldn’t detect much difference between this year’s party and the 2013 version. The time and place would be the same as before, and if one wasn’t able to deduce where and when the meeting was, they probably didn’t need to be there anyway. It really didn’t sound like a bad strategy to try to keep things under control. They simply posted across social media that the 2014 event was on – with no details about the specific time or location. So when it came time to announce this year’s meet, it was decided to purposely leave out most of the details. For the Team Madame family, the M&L Party is anything but a relaxing evening. Last year there were well over a thousand modified cars that squeezed into the Sakurajima Parking Lot outside of Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan, and needless to say, the local authorities weren’t too pleased with the traffic and noise that came with such a gathering.Īside from that, there’s also the immense amount of work that comes with hosting a gigantic car meet like this. In just one year from 2012 to 2013, this night-time meet had almost grown too big for its own good. It was there that he confirmed that the M&L Party would in fact happen this year, only the group would use a slightly different strategy in advertising the meet. The response I got was not particularly definitive.Īfter I arrived in Japan, I met up with Team Madame’s Masashi Kameoka when he came to visit Yokohama in January. Even before I left for Japan, I asked my friends from Team Madame whether the event would happen this year. In the past, the guys and girls from Osaka’s Team Madame did everything they could to promote to the meet, publishing the details well in advance and trying to gather as many car enthusiasts as possible for a wintertime night meet on Osaka’s waterfront.įor 2014, details were a little more obscure. I’m talking of course about the M&L Party – one of the world’s most insane car meets and an event I’ve been covering since its inception in 2012.īut this year, there was a sense of mystery that came with it. Auto Messe is always one of the highlights when I visit Japan in the winter, but to be honest what I look forward to just as much is the action that unfolds on the Saturday night after Auto Messe closes. I hope you guys have enjoyed the 2014 Osaka Auto Messe coverage I posted last week.
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