Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck, Part 2 (S8E16)

Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck, Part 2 (S8E16)

From Storied: San Francisco by Storied: San Francisco

April 16, 2026 · 24 min · Season 8 · Episode 16

About this episode

In Part 2, Todd continues his journey of importing Japanese fire trucks, exploring the auction process and the subculture surrounding cars in Japan.

In Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. Todd has just learned the process of importing automobiles into the US. He had one under his belt. He was ready for more. He'd learned about older Japanese fire trucks and set his sights. He was still going to Japan frequently, and began to make "car friends" over there. As could be expected, there's quite a subculture around cars in many countries, and Todd had found his in his home away from home. He found a tiny Japanese fire truck on an auction site, but the going price went out of his range of comfortableness. Normally, he'd need his family's backing to make a move for another automobile. But this time, they were let down that he didn't get the car. And with that, Todd decided to skip auction altogether and instead work with an importer in Sacramento. We sidebar a little here for Todd to talk about how Japan incentivizes exporting its slightly used cars all over the world. He brings this up to mention that, when shopping for a Japanese car to import, thanks to a robust selling market, you have a good idea of what you're gonna get. Working with that importer, there was another fire truck that caught Todd's eye at auction, but…

Topics covered

  • importing cars
  • Japanese fire trucks
  • automobile subculture
  • auction process
  • car importing
  • Japan

Keywords

  • importing
  • Japanese fire truck
  • Todd
  • auction
  • automobile
  • subculture
  • Japan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sacramento

Products: Kiri, Japanese fire truck

Places: Japan, tiny mountain village

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