It's difficult to say which I enjoyed more – the hustle and bustle of the Tokyo Auto Salon or the crazy, ear-splitting antics of the Bosozoku gang members outside in the car park. I also didn't know whether to cheer or cry when seeing some of the gang's super-rare machines butchered with outlandish body kits and painted in the sort of glittery colours I'd normally associate with a Seventies beach buggy. And as for the antennae-like exhaust systems, well, let's just say the drivers aren't exactly known for conforming to health and safety regulations. But what the brief Bosozoku parade laps showed me was a side of Japanese culture which is normally hidden to Western eyes. From my research it seems that the gangs' antics in previous decades – particularly when they used to terrorise neighbourhoods on motorbikes – haven't been forgotten. There is a stigma attached to the Bosozoku name which will take many more years to fade from people's memories.

Nowadays it seems their greatest crime is cruising around noisily, setting off car alarms within a two-mile radius. However, I reckon that unless you lived near a gang hangout, you'd probably never know these people existed. Their antics aren't normally publicised in the domestic media, perhaps because the government is afraid that a new generation of people could become interested in what they think of as a rebellious culture.

Personally, I felt no negative vibes being surrounded by this group of people. They may choose to express their individuality in a more outlandish way than the conservative majority, but at the end of the day they're as enthusiastic about their cars as the rest of us. And when they saw me with a media badge around my neck, camera in hand, they couldn't wait to show off. Make up your own mind about the Bosozoku by reading the feature on p48. Every time I look at these photos I smile because I recall how other-worldly it felt to be there. So I couldn't resist putting a poster of a couple of these cars in the centre pages to help me remember.

Joe Clifford, Editor