On to Tokyo

By Al S. Mendoza

BY THE WILL OF GOD, I’ll be in Japan when you are reading this.  I wrote this piece two days (Thursday, Oct. 18) before I boarded a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Nagoya on Saturday, Oct. 20. 

Minutes after my arrival in Nagoya, I’ll be whisked off to Numazu, in a four-hour road trip by my hosts from the Toyota Motor Philippines led by Danny “Sir John” Isla and Elijah Sue Marcial.    At Manyo-No-Nu, its spa time, Japanese style, lasting almost two hours.

From the spa, I’ll be brought to the Numazu Tokyu Hotel, just 15 minutes by car from    Manyo-No-Nu.  After a 45-minute rest, it’s dinnertime.

The following day, it’s on to the Fuji International Speedway near the foot of the famed Mt. Fuji, Japan’s version of the near-perfect cone Mayon Volcano.  I’ve been to Mt. Fuji several times but I never get tired feeling thrilled each time I am there, where time seems to stop.
 

At the Fuji Speedway, I will test-drive the new Toyota hybrid car, which is known as the car of the future.  As everyone now knows, Toyota invented the first hybrid car in 1997 – the Prius.

On Oct. 22, I’ll be toured at the Tsutsumi Plant, one of Toyota’s biggest manufacturing plants in the world.  Dress code for the tour: No sleeveless shirt, no open-toed footwear (my Birkenstock is off-limits).

After a tour at the Toyota Techno Museum in the morning of Oct. 23, I will hop into a bullet train that will whiz me to Tokyo almost 400km away in one hour and 45 minutes.

The next day, Oct. 24, I will finally achieve the meat of my trip as I join some 2,000 journalists from around the globe at the Press Day of the 40th Tokyo Motor Show.

This will actually be my 8th visit to the biennial Tokyo Motor Show since 1993. Each trip is always a thrill as I get to gawk at close range at the newest car models from the world’s biggest car makers on display at the Makuhari Messe. I even ride on each of them if I can as they are all paraded like beauty pageant contestants in one large covered hall, including futuristic cars commonly known as the concept vehicles.

An 18-hole golf event will spice up the trip on Oct. 25 at the posh Izumi Golf Course.  I expect Rene So, the amiable owner of Toyota Dagupan, to wager some bets and next play diplomatic golf with me so that I could win some of his yen for shopping money.

Then it’s farewell dinner at the famed Imperial Hotel with the Toyota Motor Corporation bigwigs led by TMC president Watanabe, the world’s most powerful man in the automotive business today.  A five-minute interview with Watanabe will cap the affair.

If plans don’t miscarry, I’ll be home on Oct. 26 – my life enriched yet again by a trip filled with memories that both nourish the spirit and charge the so-called batteries of the soul.

As they say, it’s not the destination, it’s the trip.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ Readers may reach columnist at also147@yahoo.com . For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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