|
This trip to the Tokyo Auto Salon was one of the greatest learning experiences
for us at the Drift Session. We got to see the homeland of drifting, meet big
names in the performance world, and experience the culture of someplace
completely different from Hawaii.
Before going to Japan, you have to get a passport. Luckly for us, our secret
contacts in the passport agency reminded us we need them and expedited our
processing through their system so we could be on our way on time.
Flight 75 to Narita International Airport was excruciatingly looooonnnng.
About 9 hours. We watched 2 movies and ate two meals on that long flight. We
left Honolulu at 10:45 am on Wednesday morning, but by the time we arrived in
Tokyo it was 3:30 pm on Thursday afternoon.
Once we arrived in Tokyo we didn't have to worry about anything. Don't speak
Japanese well? No problem. No place to stay? No problem. Need a guide to take
you around the show? No problem. We're very grateful to our friend Fumihiko
Okuyama and Akira Ishikawa who picked us up, drove us around, and led us around
the show. Okuyama-san is the editor of Best Car magazine, the largest car
magazine in Japan and Ishikawa-san is an ex-formula car driver who now owns a
race shop.
On day one of the Tokyo Auto Salon, we saw the largest car show we'd ever
seen. It was about the size of 8 Blaisdel Exhibtion Halls put together with a
super high ceiling and gigantic parking lot. When walking the half mile through
the parking lot to the hall, we noticed that even the parking lot looked like
the show; and not in an American car show kind of way. Cars in the lot looked
really good. Skylines, Silvias, Celciors; you name it and it was there.
Once inside the show we were amazed at the gigantic and elaborate displays
that the vendors built in their booths. Many displays were multi level with
spotlights, music systems, and even small conference rooms for conducting
business.
And lots of business transactions were going on at the show. In comparison to
shows in Hawaii where everyone just tries to make their booth louder than the
next, the presidents and executives of the largest names in motorsports products
were all there meeting and greeting their vendors, sponsors, and customers.
Once again, much mahalos to our friends Okuyama and Ishikawa whom everyone at
the show seemed to know personally. They introduced us to the top dogs in the
industry and let us talk about what we're doing and conduct business on our end.
It was great to finally meet people who we've only seen in magazines and bought
their products from afar like, Daijiro Inada, the guys from Option Magazine,
Amemiya, E. Yamada, Signal Auto, the team at Bride Seats, Flat Engineering, and
my personal favorite Keiichi Tsuchiya. Next
|
