A flood of Toyota memories—and more

By Al S. Mendoza 

TOKYO—After nine days in this massively huge, complex and challenging city that has a governor and not a mayor as the leader of 14 million or so of its inhabitants, I am heading for home.

The trip was a bit tiring as I went to Nagoya, staying there three days before coming back here.

But I can’t complain.  Almost, every travel is tiresome.  You get to condition yourself, physically and mentally, before you embark on a trip to survive the daily grind that lies ahead.

Usually, it’s the rising from bed early, the somewhat long hikes while sightseeing and doing bus-train transfers that take the starch out of you.

On board the world-famed bullet train that can travel, no, fly, at 200kph, Mt. Fuji gave me a feast to the eye once more.

I saw Mt. Fuji first in 1978 in all its splendor and glory sitting beside a lake along a Sierra Madre-like ranges, its half body from the waist up wrapped almost eternally in snow, glistening in the bright sunshine.

As I was saying, I was in Itoo City in 1978 covering the Asian Chess Zonals with the late Florencio Campomanes, writing chess combat daily for almost three weeks for the Bulletin.

The Bulletin was my first newspaper where I worked 13 years before I moved to the Inquirer in 1986 upon the invite of Eggie Apostol, the Inquirer’s revered original owner, the best owner ever of any newspaper ever put up in the country.

Did I say here that our Eugene Torre and Ruben Rodriguez (may his soul rest in peace) tied for the title in the Itoo chessfest, and Rodriguez won in the tiebreak?

Well, passing by Mt. Fuji, twice at that last week, brought back a flood of memories of my Itoo City Chess Zonal coverage.

For one, it was in Itoo that I learned to speak a little Japanese.

For another, it was in Itoo that I fell in love with sushi and sashimi.

After 1978, I was back in Nagoya in 2001 and, again, in 2005, both as part of my coverage of the biennial Tokyo Motor Show, as guest of Toyota Motor Philippines through its president, Michonobu “The Rocker” Sugata, and Lexus Manila Inc. through its prexy, Danny “Sir John” Isla.

If you go to Nagoya or Itoo City (Japan’s summer capital like Baguio) from here by bullet train, you will pass by Mt. Fuji, Japan’s version of Mt. Mayon.

It gives you a view that takes your breadth away.

It gives you a view that makes you want to love Mother Nature forever, unconditionally.

It gives you a view that lasts for eternity, seemingly.

Of course, it was not just Mt. Fuji and Nagoya and Itoo City that make my Motor Show trip memorable each time.

Equally unforgettable are visits to Toyota’s state-of-the-art assembly plants, training and service center, museum, display area of its car history, racing circuit where I drove four new hybrid models among them the ’86 sports car and the iconic Crown—all right-hand drives.  And will I forget that exquisite cruise on board Ponam, Toyota’s world-class yacht, along Nagoya Bay?

On the side, I went to a bar named Abbey Road on Roppongi Hill with Sugata-san and Sir John, among others, to watch bands that play—you guessed it right—only Beatles songs from 7pm to 12 midnight.  It’s been a rite Sir John and I have been doing since 2003.

Oh, my, every travel affords us the luxury of recreating rituals as well as experiencing new things.

I also bumped into Rene So, the major owner of Toyota dealerships in San Fernando-La Union, Baguio and Dagupan the city of my youth, and was I glad I had exchanged pleasantries once more with a guy so exceedingly humble and oozing with joy etched in a face that is forever in a smile.

Till then, Tokyo Motor Show.  Sayonara.

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 (My deepest condolences to the loved ones of the late Eulalio J. Galvez, a dear brother of my dear friend Kuya Leonie Galvez who is based in Los Angeles, CA.  May God shower graces to the soul of Eulalio.)

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