Better Late Than Never: Daikokufuto P.A.
BAD THREAD WARNING!
This thread contains some shocking photography, taken half heartedly, forgetting to get all the cool cars. Theres a lot of NOISE in these pictures.
I apologise for this
Going to post it anyways because it fits with the Japan theme Ive been on. Plus theres some advice in there somewhere. Have fun!
SO. Following on from my MoonEyes thread (the pictures are available again now, photobucket ticked over the month and gave me some more bandwidth
) you may remember, we departed the Mooneyes cafe in a cab heading for Daikokufuto.
Now, you may have no idea what I'm talking about but the chances are that you have seen photos from this place. Its basically a Japanese motorway service station. Its like an automotive stitch in time where people just turn up, any time any day (so we were told). Obviously... evenings are better.
So, the cab driver had no idea where we wanted to go (a common theme of our trip!) and HARDCORE was feeling not so good. We had no form of tripod and it was dark. Add to that that this place is located HERE, we had no plans for getting home (we hoped there may be a pedestrian walkway on one of the 3 bridges to the place.... HA) and we also had no idea if there were going to be any cool cars, or whether it would be the Japanese equivalent of South Mimms full of boring modern chuff. Thats a whole sackful of unknowns.
So the confused Cab driver drops us off, we can see the services! YES! But he didn't bring us in on the Expressway so we are behind a very large mesh fence in an industrial no mans land. We were feeling pretty good at this point, we are here! We can see cool things happening inside the mesh! Now to find a way in....
We followed the fence alongside roads with no real pavements until it was clear there was no entrance, just high mesh and a big ramp coming off the expressway. Hmmmm. Lets try the other way! A LOT of walking later, pretty much up an off-ramp at one point soon brought us to the realisation that the ONLY way into this place was off the Expressway, there were no cabs, we didnt speak the language and....... oh feck.
Trudging back towards our starting point we noticed a barrier in the mesh had been left slightly ajar! YES! Wondering in, we soon realised all doors from the little staff parking area we were in were locked. BLAST. Oh hang on..... a low bit of wall in some bushes..... this could work. So there we are loitering in the bushes when we realise we are actually stood next to a (rather busy) Japanese police station. Meep. We waited for the opportune moment and leapt over the wall! No coppers looking. WE ARE IN! It was a moment of relief tempered by the fact we knew we had to work out how to get home at some point (while traipsing around the edges we had noted that NONE of the bridges were in any way passable to non motorised traffic).
SO lets have some awful pics (you might be better off just googling Daikokufuto really.)
A nice pair of Z cars started us off...
Cute little unassuming thing had a cage and buckets.....
Skyline with slightly iffy fitment....
Strong MX5 contingent
Only none blurry pic I have of this RX8..... it was cool though. With how cheap these things are I'm expecting some mad engine swap goodness happening in the UK soon
Told you!
So many MX5s
We saw this later in Akiba hanging out with a load of other cars, all wrapped in large Manga characters. Only HARDCORE got pics of that event.... I was too busy being distracted by er..... nothing.
As is customary with any Daihatsu spot I shall mention Dan
Now I think about it..... there were a lot of Mazdas
Love the family four door skylines
Ebisu broke me with big Toyotas
Toight
Satin Strawberry
LHD.... real? All I can say is.... YERS
Chod lovers unite! Wheres KFW again?
A lot of moody Japanese luxury
See what I mean?
Lexus was just right
w00t! Starlet!
On the beat
haha! Awesome among the super low contingent, just made it look higher
Modern Lexus was on hydraulics. The serious owner seemed to like Gaijin taking photos of his car though.... kept showing us around it.... silently... smoking
Nice done Lancer estate (Do they make these as an Evo?)
R32s still get me. Love these things.....
Oh hello
OH HELLO!
There were 2 of these in the same colour and now I cant remember which one is which. Ahem
Or were there 3? oh who cares. FBs/SA22Cs are awesome
haha THIS GUY. One aspect of this place I should explain, the off/on ramp circles the entire place, so you hear when interesting stuff arrives / leaves as the sound resonates around the entire place. This guy came popping and burbling in, and kept flooring it around the car park, hamfistedly bouncing over speedbumps and nearly mowing people down. Idiot?? Well... he pops his bonnet and he is street driving a peripheral port rotary!!! INSTA-HERO!! I couldnt get a money shot of the engine, too many people crowding around. But yeah, they look every bit as hard to drive in a 'normal' setting as I have been told.
Its a thread about cars in Japan.... did you REALLY think there wouldnt be an AE86 in here?
More moody Lexuseseseses
Backlit numberplate is awesome
YAY a vanning van!
So at this point, we still didn't know how to get home..... so when we heard some english being spoken we jumped right in. Meet Parker's ride.....a Toyota Chaser. Parker is a Navy guy stationed in Japan who is basically living Fast'n'furious: Tokyo Drift in real life as far as we can tell. His ride was slightly down at heal, due to some dori-fun. We described our plight and he explained the car was full of wheels. We said we didn't mind being crushed if it meant getting to a train station and he kindly had a go at shuffling parts around. His motor was cool as feck too, only a basic tune but it felt strong and sounded super lush. Cruising at night on a Japanese highway in something drifty was an epic moment for me.
Dropped off, we got the train back to the hotel KNACKERED, remembering cool cars, cool people, and a Vending machine that films your coffees progress through the machine and displays in on screen while you wait. I love you Japan.
So there we go, next stop Ebisu Spring Matsuri.
Daikokufuto..... you have a rental car? GO THERE. Taking a cab? NOPE.
BAD THREAD WARNING!
This thread contains some shocking photography, taken half heartedly, forgetting to get all the cool cars. Theres a lot of NOISE in these pictures.
I apologise for this
Going to post it anyways because it fits with the Japan theme Ive been on. Plus theres some advice in there somewhere. Have fun!SO. Following on from my MoonEyes thread (the pictures are available again now, photobucket ticked over the month and gave me some more bandwidth
) you may remember, we departed the Mooneyes cafe in a cab heading for Daikokufuto. Now, you may have no idea what I'm talking about but the chances are that you have seen photos from this place. Its basically a Japanese motorway service station. Its like an automotive stitch in time where people just turn up, any time any day (so we were told). Obviously... evenings are better.
So, the cab driver had no idea where we wanted to go (a common theme of our trip!) and HARDCORE was feeling not so good. We had no form of tripod and it was dark. Add to that that this place is located HERE, we had no plans for getting home (we hoped there may be a pedestrian walkway on one of the 3 bridges to the place.... HA) and we also had no idea if there were going to be any cool cars, or whether it would be the Japanese equivalent of South Mimms full of boring modern chuff. Thats a whole sackful of unknowns.
So the confused Cab driver drops us off, we can see the services! YES! But he didn't bring us in on the Expressway so we are behind a very large mesh fence in an industrial no mans land. We were feeling pretty good at this point, we are here! We can see cool things happening inside the mesh! Now to find a way in....
We followed the fence alongside roads with no real pavements until it was clear there was no entrance, just high mesh and a big ramp coming off the expressway. Hmmmm. Lets try the other way! A LOT of walking later, pretty much up an off-ramp at one point soon brought us to the realisation that the ONLY way into this place was off the Expressway, there were no cabs, we didnt speak the language and....... oh feck.
Trudging back towards our starting point we noticed a barrier in the mesh had been left slightly ajar! YES! Wondering in, we soon realised all doors from the little staff parking area we were in were locked. BLAST. Oh hang on..... a low bit of wall in some bushes..... this could work. So there we are loitering in the bushes when we realise we are actually stood next to a (rather busy) Japanese police station. Meep. We waited for the opportune moment and leapt over the wall! No coppers looking. WE ARE IN! It was a moment of relief tempered by the fact we knew we had to work out how to get home at some point (while traipsing around the edges we had noted that NONE of the bridges were in any way passable to non motorised traffic).
SO lets have some awful pics (you might be better off just googling Daikokufuto really.)
A nice pair of Z cars started us off...
Cute little unassuming thing had a cage and buckets.....
Skyline with slightly iffy fitment....
Strong MX5 contingent
Only none blurry pic I have of this RX8..... it was cool though. With how cheap these things are I'm expecting some mad engine swap goodness happening in the UK soon
Told you!
So many MX5s
We saw this later in Akiba hanging out with a load of other cars, all wrapped in large Manga characters. Only HARDCORE got pics of that event.... I was too busy being distracted by er..... nothing.
As is customary with any Daihatsu spot I shall mention Dan
Now I think about it..... there were a lot of Mazdas
Love the family four door skylines
Ebisu broke me with big Toyotas
Toight
Satin Strawberry
LHD.... real? All I can say is.... YERS
Chod lovers unite! Wheres KFW again?
A lot of moody Japanese luxury
See what I mean?
Lexus was just right
w00t! Starlet!
On the beat
haha! Awesome among the super low contingent, just made it look higher
Modern Lexus was on hydraulics. The serious owner seemed to like Gaijin taking photos of his car though.... kept showing us around it.... silently... smoking
Nice done Lancer estate (Do they make these as an Evo?)
R32s still get me. Love these things.....
Oh hello
OH HELLO!
There were 2 of these in the same colour and now I cant remember which one is which. Ahem
Or were there 3? oh who cares. FBs/SA22Cs are awesome
haha THIS GUY. One aspect of this place I should explain, the off/on ramp circles the entire place, so you hear when interesting stuff arrives / leaves as the sound resonates around the entire place. This guy came popping and burbling in, and kept flooring it around the car park, hamfistedly bouncing over speedbumps and nearly mowing people down. Idiot?? Well... he pops his bonnet and he is street driving a peripheral port rotary!!! INSTA-HERO!! I couldnt get a money shot of the engine, too many people crowding around. But yeah, they look every bit as hard to drive in a 'normal' setting as I have been told.
Its a thread about cars in Japan.... did you REALLY think there wouldnt be an AE86 in here?
More moody Lexuseseseses
Backlit numberplate is awesome
YAY a vanning van!
So at this point, we still didn't know how to get home..... so when we heard some english being spoken we jumped right in. Meet Parker's ride.....a Toyota Chaser. Parker is a Navy guy stationed in Japan who is basically living Fast'n'furious: Tokyo Drift in real life as far as we can tell. His ride was slightly down at heal, due to some dori-fun. We described our plight and he explained the car was full of wheels. We said we didn't mind being crushed if it meant getting to a train station and he kindly had a go at shuffling parts around. His motor was cool as feck too, only a basic tune but it felt strong and sounded super lush. Cruising at night on a Japanese highway in something drifty was an epic moment for me.
Dropped off, we got the train back to the hotel KNACKERED, remembering cool cars, cool people, and a Vending machine that films your coffees progress through the machine and displays in on screen while you wait. I love you Japan.
So there we go, next stop Ebisu Spring Matsuri.
Daikokufuto..... you have a rental car? GO THERE. Taking a cab? NOPE.
) Bloody thing probably "idles" at 3000rpm and needs 2/3rds throttle just to keep ticking over. He's done well to make it down the ramp, let alone park the damned thing 
