You guys have probably seen our #Festivalof86 coverage, which spanned 5 articles in the end. As a result of that, DS was fortunate to be invited to Japan to cover Tokyo Auto Salon for Toyota Australia! Over weeks of build up and excitement, the morning finally came for us to take the Japan trip, which we have come to refer to as #DSdoesJapan on social media and amongst ourselves. Get ready for a full 7 days of Tokyo Auto Salon and Japan-related coverage!
We were collected on Tuesday afternoon by a gentleman in a suit driving a Lexus LS460, with a V8, rather than a hybrid. Trip was starting well! After hanging about the airport for an hour and flirting with some extremely bored store girls (hot tip!), we made the short jump to Sydney during a gorgeous sunset and met Blake & Steve from Toyota and Matthew Everingham from SpeedNation.
Our red eye flight was uneventful and uncomfortable, but after I got a bit of coffee into me for breakfast an hour out of our destination, my levels of excitement started rising again. We were heading to the land of the rising sun to do car stuff for a whole week!
Touching down at Narita Airport, we taxied in and the muted landscape immediately betrayed that it was winter.
On the cards for the day was sightseeing in Tokyo, so we jumped straight into the Narita Express, and 2 hours later were delivered straight to Shibuya Station and the famous crossing – the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world.
Checking in at the Cerulean Tower Tokyu was an experience in 5-star service and charm. The views are on another level, even from a mid-floor of the giant high rise. I was particularly impressed with the bidet and that you can set the shower to your exact desired temperature in Celsius. None of this mixing hot and cold water through arbitrary taps! How do we not have this everywhere??
After a quick shower we jumped back on the train and headed down to Akihabara, electric town.
I managed a rolling shot of the beautiful shinkansen en-route.
I love the little details like this that abound in Japan. Someone has obviously spent a lot of time designing this, and taken pride in it.
Electronics and IT and geekery of all types, descriptions and severities abounded here, but the quality, quantity and variety was just on a whole other level.
We spent quite a bit of time in a shop specialising in model cars and trains and planes, played arcade games, ate donuts and spent some time in a collectible/toy store. It’s the kind of place where adults go when they’re actually still a big kid on the inside. Good times!
We also got a little bit of car spotting in. Nothing mindblowing… Yet.
Rad little Honda Zoomer.
Later on, we headed back to Shinjuku for dinner and a show. The Robot Restaurant was just next-level. I’ve straight up never seen so many flashing lights and chrome and sparkly stuff and robots and lasers all in the one space in so little time. There’s really no way for me to overstate the insanity in words, so I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Totally over the top and well-worth checking out.
Tomorrow, we head to TRD in Yokohama!
