For any car nut, a visit to Japan would not be complete without a trip to Daikoku Futo, the mecca of Tokyo’s car scene. It’s a vast parking lot situated on a man made island surrounded by sky high expressways. And every Friday and Saturday night the place is beaming with life from all walks of the car scene in Tokyo.
Daikoku Futo is a challenging place to get to without a car but it can be done with a little will power or the right connections. The island has no public transport access so you need a car to get to there so your options are:
- Rent a car – with a rental you can drive right there but make sure you check what the rental companies policy on tolls are as they can add up sharply in Japan and you’ll need to use the express ways to get there which will run you a few yen in tolls. Don’t forget to get your international driving license before leaving either.
- Taxi – extremely expensive and you do run the risk of being stranded. Uber has yet to catch on in Japan in a big way too so don’t count on that as an option.
- JDM Tours – This is the option that we went with, jdmtours.com. You get picked up, chauffeured around and dropped off at your residence when finished for around 12,000 – 13,500 yen by Kace, an Australian living in Tokyo who’s the man behind JDM Tours.
On arrival the first thing you’ll notice is the atmosphere is quite different to car meets in Australia, it’s a real family event with all walks of life attending and no superficial snobbishness because you chose to modify your car a specific way. Everyone there loves their cars in their own unique way and it shows with many different styles represented.
The night we were there was just after the D1 Grand Prix drift event held in Odaiba throughout the day so that night everyone was in town and it was set to be a big night that unfortunately got shut down by the police as every single parking spot was full. When the police arrive it’s all very orderly, everyone just moves on and there’s a mutual respect between the police and citizens.
Let’s check out the cars from the night:
This Toyota Estima had more neon lights than Blade Runner and was effectively a rolling disco.
A relatively new style in the form of zombie survival, definitely turns heads wherever it goes.
Slammed and stanced with enough audio cranking out the back to deafen the senses.
A wall of sound, all playing different music and the engine is pretty much only there to power the stereo.
A super clean JZX100 Toyota Chaser, 1JZ-GTE power and so tidy your could eat off of it.
This Toyota MR-S was sitting on Work Meisters and was rocking a complete widebody to house them.
Sitting on hydraulic suspension this Chevrolet Impala stood out from the crowd in a good way.
Itasha style is a little different but still pretty popular across Japan, expect to see quite a few of these around the Akihabara (Electric Town) district.
And of course the reason we had to move onwards.
Spotted this Suzuki Cappuccino with an absolutely humongous wing hanging off the back while we were heading off.
