Meet Your Heroes – Daikoku Futo
This was such a surreal evening. You know when you’ve watched someone on YouTube forever and you meet them in real life for the first time but you already feel like you know them? Just me? Anyway, rolling in to Daikoku was just like that for me. I’ve read so many blogs and seen so many pictures there, I feel like I was already acquainted before I had even arrived.
For those of you who don’t know, Daikoku Futo is a popular spot for meets in Yokohama. When you see the photos no doubt you’ll recognise the overpass in the background, even my wife was like “I feel like I’ve seen that place before”.
Getting to Daikoku was easy, I just hopped in a cab and showed the pleasant taxi driver where I wanted to go. He was super confused though, why would someone want a taxi ride to a truck stop? I was so ecstatic when a super clean, super loud, super Hakosuka flew passed us. The sound was gorgeous, so unbelievably gorgeous. As we approached, the hairs on my neck stood up, I got goosebumps and butterflies in my stomach. I had never been this nervous before, even when going on a date.
Arriving was, uhhh a bit anti-climactic. I was super early. Suuuuuuuper early. Luckily being a truck stop, there was a convenience store. Even better, about a million vending machines serving hot Ramen and Green Tea. As the sun began to set, the JDM heroes I used to fawn over started to arrive. Everything you’d expect. FD RX-7s, S2Ks, GT-Rs and Silvias. I was in paradise.
The highlight and definitely unexpected was seeing the cult classic Blackbird. I mean there were better cars, more coveted cars, faster cars but seeing the real life version of an animated hero was magical. I was completely starstruck.
I did leave early, after all I was there for a while but something you might want to know if you plan on going to Daikoku. Organise a lift home. There were literally no cabs, and why would there be, everyone shows up in their own cars. My solution was über, which cost an arm and a leg, but I guess it was totally worth it for the experience.
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