I personally suck at taking photos at night so I was extremely eager to try get back to Daikokufuto during the day in hopes of capturing some awesome cars in good lighting.
We decided to head back to Daikoku PA for a THIRD night in a row, but this time I wanted to go much earlier than Friday and Saturday since we had no luck on the Saturday night.
We arrived at Daikoku at around 3PM and this is what we were welcomed with.
there must have been a Celica meet because there were tonnes of these around when we got there. Most of them just drove through and left but a couple parked up, I'm personally not a massive fan of these but there were some seriously cool Celica's there giving off major Need For Speed Underground 2 vibes.
I was still blown away by how many clean AE86's I saw getting around, I'm aware it's their home country but it's good to see they aren't a dying breed here in Japan unlike the rest of the world.
There were an abundance of wicked street cars hanging around. They all seemed to leave around the same time so I probably missed out on an insane streeto session out in the docks somewhere.
this little Miata was so gorgeous, no over the top body kits, wings or decals. Just a nice set of SSR MK2's. I really dig the dark green & orange colour combo, Never would have thought of such a mix myself but it's been pulled off perfectly.
Ah, the Hakosuka. One of the most iconic and well-known Skyline's of all time. Fun fact: Hakosuka literally means Box Skyline. Hako means box, Suka is short for Sukairain meaning Skyline. (thanks google)
This Hakosuka's sitting nicely on some chunky watanabes, Name a more iconic duo, I'll wait.
All of a sudden there was an ocean of luxury cars and all sorts of exotic supercars rolling in.
Soon after all the exotics and whatnot had parked up, a convoy of American muscle cars rolled into the parking area. I didn't know if I was in Japan, Somewhere in Europe or in America.
This R33 GT-R Really caught my attention, It was absolutely plastered with NISMO stickers and a HKS sticker/pinstripe up the side, Makes you wonder what's been done to it mechanically.
So, I wondered off to the shopping center to get myself a warm drink because it was about 8°c at Daikokufuto which comes as no surprise considering the parking area is literally just an island surrounded by water.
Me being an Australian I was freezing my arse off (I showed up wearing a shirt and shorts, what an idiot..)
As I was walking through the parking area browsing through the photos I’d just taken as seen above I almost walked into the back of a van (fucking millennials, right?) I looked up and this is what I saw:
Seem familiar? You may have seen this around Instagram or YouTube.
This is a VR38 powered Toyota Hiace.. Yes, an R35 GT-R motor crammed into a van.
Go and check out the owner's
Instagram and
YouTube if you want to see more on this van, The thing is truly wild and I'm still shocked I got to see and hear it in person haha.
After getting my nice warm beverage I headed back out to the car park and stumbled across the Hakosuka again, Couldn't help myself so I took some more photos.
Japan really changed my attitude towards Toyota Crown's, They were EVERYWHERE compared to back home, Where they're actually uncommon, especially newer models. Despite only seeing about 6 JZS171's (same model as mine) It still made me love it a little less.
Hey, Look! Another R34 GT-R.
Did you notice anything wrong with that R34? If you didn't try and have a closer look. If you can't find the answer just scroll onto the next photo.
So, uh. Yeah. That happened.
I decided to just go sit near the entrance ramp of the parking area to try and catch some nice cars coming in with the awesome backdrop of the never-ending winding highways that surround Daikokufuto. (I honestly just got sick of walking around)
You know what they say, Work smart, Not hard. I was able to get three different angles sitting in the exact same spot the entire time. Any of you photographers that are planning to visit Daikoku PA, feel free to use this spot ;)
The following four photos were taken sitting completely still in the one spot above, I've used the same R34 GT-R as proof.
Anyway, Here's a couple more photos I got due to me being lazy.
After sitting there for about half an hour I started looking for spots to get creative, Wasn't too much around to play with so I just went back to exploring.
Literally two minutes after I started walking around again I heard a real lumpy sounding V8 and what I thought sounded like Hydraulics engaging, I was instantly intrigued and went to see what was making all that noise.
The reason the poor girl looks a little worried is because she's looking at a foreigner with the BIGGEST fucking grin you'll ever see, I feel bad because she probably felt so uncomfortable haha.
(these first couple of photos came out super grainy because it was getting dark real quick and these were shot hand held)
She was nice enough to give me a big smile and a peace sign once she'd realized I was smiling at the car.
They decided to park up so I got the tripod out, Put the exposure up to about 1/4 of a second to try make it seem like the car was frozen in time and everything around it was still in motion, Got to say I'm pretty happy with the result minus the serious graininess that's visible.
I had to act quick when it came to taking photos of this since everyone in the area came swarming over to get photos of it, Really can't blame them though.
To sum it all up;
The sheer atmosphere of Daikoku is breathtaking, There is so many different kinds of cars in one area it’s honestly a little overwhelming (in a good way, obviously).
You’ve got your stance cars, supercars, hyper cars, lowriders, vip cars, vans and so much more within 200m of you at any given point.
It’s honestly the best place I’ve ever had the opportunity to take photos of.
If you plan to visit Japan, seriously don’t miss out on visiting Daikokufuto.
Friday’s are the best night to attend since Saturday’s seem to get shutdown rather early (7-8PM) and Sunday’s seem to be a more relaxed crowd. Either way you’ll see something cool no matter what day/night you visit.
Thanks for reading x