Tokyo Motor Show - Day Four

This was our last full day in Japan. It was also the only day with lousy weather. Fortunately, we had planned to check out the Tokyo Motor Show which turned out to be a good indoor activity. The show is only held every other year and is one of the biggest car and motorcycle shows in the world. I didn't know about it until it was mentioned on CNN in Taiwan a few days before we headed for Japan. Clearly it was fate that we'd have to check it out. The show was held out in Chiba which is fairly boonie. Chiba is also the location of Tokyo Disneyland so I got to see the Disney castle for the first time as the train drove past.

The show itself was enormous. The scale didn't really sink in until we got there. Earlier I had checked the web site and noticed the motorcycles were all in a separate relatively small building. Kind of disappointing. But once we arrived at the main entrance we walked into a huge hall filled with motorcycles... wow, this is going to be a really big show. As things in Tokyo tend to be, it was also really crowded. Apparently about 1.4 million people attended this year and it sure felt like they were all there at the same time. This is the show where the Japanese car and motorcycle makers really strut their stuff and it shows. It was chock full of all sorts of cool concept cars, bikes, Japan-only vehicles, and giant booths filled with booth babes.


The best booth babes are motorcycle booth babes



Honda CBR600RR race bike with RCV211 grand prix bike in the background.



Smart Cabriolet.



The Smart Car is cozy, but reasonable.



Daihatsu Copen is pretty neat even without the booth babe. It's like a half scale Audi TT.



The Smart Roadster is pretty cool, but a really tight fit.



Mazda Ibuki concept car with astrobabes. It looks a lot like the original Miata and has a hybrid drivetrain.



Right hand drive Miata. Feels so familiar and yet kind of weird. This one comes with a factory turbocharger.



The coolest production car at the Tokyo Motor Show was probably this Ford GT -- not your garden variety Taurus. All yours for only $150k.



Honda Formula1 race car.



Honda boothbabes.



Probably the wackiest concept car at the show. Somehow this hydrogen powered minivan converts into a mobile picnic table.



Suzuki convertible.



Multiply this scene by 20 or 30 and that gives you the Tokyo Motor Show.


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