I'll start posting them in day-increments since there's a lot to explain. I've been typing for almost three hours and I'm about 65% done. Obviously you can tell I type slowly but here it goes anyway.
For those of you that saw the Tokyo Auto Salon pictures and thought that would be the highlight of any trip to Japan I thought I would enlighten you to the REAL automotive fun stuff. We went to the Auto Salon our first full day in Tokyo but spent the remainder of the week visiting some of the shops and sights around Tokyo. Even though Tokyo is huge, many of the premier Japanese tuners aren’t located in the city, some like Top Secret are just outside of it while others like Vertex and Top Fuel are hours away. We spent our time in and around Tokyo, vowing to see more of the country next time.
Since the Auto Salon was our first day spent in the city and those pictures have already been posted in a specific Auto Salon thread I figure we can pick up just outside of it. Much to the delight of those present and the dismay of anyone still reading, it starts off outside the convention center with (quite possibly) the world’s smallest cement truck!
After the Salon we had the munchies and stopped off for some ice cream. For those of you who though Baskin Robbins had the market on ice cream flavors, they don’t have anything like this!
Our first shop stop was the (Mr.) Alex Motorsports shop in Tokyo. Once we were within sight, we found ourselves staring at three serious rally cars!
Don’t let the pink fool you, these cars are race machines ready to get dirty!
The Evo was especially menacing since it was toned down and looked like it could have been at home at the any street race.
Believe it or not, Tokyo is so limited for space, this is the size of the ENTIRE Alex parking lot. I don’t think you could fit anything other than one more car and that would still be in the way of the guy working on those cars out front!
Here’s something that comes as no surprise to anyone who lives and works in a shop, they aren’t always tidy. This one was clean, but cluttered. You may be able to use this as a defense against cleaning your room/dorm/apartment. If they can make millions working like this, then surely you can, too!
After Alex we decided to do a little shopping and found ourselves at a Super Autobacs. Nothing too exciting here unless you want to get your oil change while shopping for Recaros and coilovers. Yup, they offer service as well as retail on regular and performance parts. Little did we know but they also showcase a car from time to time. This one happened to be the Top Secret S15 Silvia!
Yup, imagine this car right smack dab in the middle of your local Autozone or Pep Boys instead of a bin of shop towels, hand degreaser, and sale-priced oil.
A night walk around Tokyo:
. . . and we found ourselves at just one of many UP Garages. For those of you who don’t know, the “UP” stands for Used Parts. As you’d expect they deal with used automotive parts, but not in the traditional junkyard sense. This is where people trade in their used performance parts or auto accessories for whatever reason. If you’re lucky, you can catch some great deals here. Unfortunately they depend on the tuning climate of the neighborhood but one thing remained constant: almost everything for Nissan (Skylines especially) and almost nothing for Hondas.
