Going to Toyko: Datsun museums? Historic car collections? Suggestions?

[grimlynsan]

Hi guys,

 

I'm off to Tokyo in a month and I have a day to kill. I'd really love to go to see something related to Datsuns or historic Japanese cars or at worst some boy racer tuning district or something...

 

I've done a load of searching online but found nothing except the Nissan opamma plant which has a small museum which is not usually open to the public. Not very helpful.

 

Has anyone been to Tokyo and had success with this sort of thing? Any recommendations?

 

I've never been to Tokyo before so any help appreciated,

 

Lee

[Six_Shooter]

What ever you end up finding, takes lots of pictures and post them up.

 

[Huw]

Hi Lee

 

Not enthralling but can for a reasonably easy morning trip there is the Toyota historic garage in o-daiba (island in Tokyo bay, dead easy to get to).

Has a mix of old Japanese and other cars on display - although basically a no-touching/looking under the bonnet affair (I was hoping to have a closer look at the Z432 they had there....but only got to snoop around the outside - and the resto folder that the mechanics had).  They have a car on display in the workshop which is gradually restored over 12 months - last I looked it was a VW beetle.  Mechanics are chatty chaps but I am not sure about how there English is.

 

Links are;

http://www.megaweb.gr.jp/HG/F2/HistoricCars/  (Japanese)

http://www.megaweb.gr.jp/About/en.html  (English, about halfway down)

 

Depending on the day, there are also commonly events in odaiba (last I was there, there was a large motorcycle event and a couple of other events on).

 

I took it easy over my 12 months so did not go anywhere Zed specific, although a lot of the workshops appear to be outside of Tokyo.

 

Cheers

 

Huw

 

[dat2kman]

I went a couple years back, through connections, and the fact i own some significant historic Datsuns, i got into Nismo, Nissan and Zama DNA Storage warehouse.

They are all "not for public admittance"

Unfortunately!

 

The Nissan Engine Museum is open to public, two floors f display, lots of history, and heaps of actual engines on display. It is a easy 1.3 km walk from a teain station a short ride to south of Tokyo.

 

The Toyoa museum is also very good.

The car yards, like Rocky Auto are a bit hard to get to, but worth it.

Get yourself a SUICA teain pass.

Ask your hotel concierge to write little cards for you with varios questions etc.

If you have a translation app on iphone or ipad, se wifi in your hotel do up a list of questions etc.

Forget trying to get mobile phone sim, unless you are a resident you wont get local phone, maybe try Amaysim?

 

It is a very cool place, huge in culture, visit some shrines, some old churchy looking things, graveyards are interesting.

Use a camera on your phone, take pics of words/things etc, then show the waitress/shopkeeper etc ie food !!

[Mr Camouflage]

Nissan Gallery in Ginza sometimes has a few older cars from the Zama storage facility on display.

 

http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/2012/08/10/the-origins-of-nissans-ginza-gallery-and-miss-fairlady/

 

eg:  random youtube vid (C110 GTR)

 

 

[grimlynsan]

Thanks for your suggestions guys. There's not a whole lot of info out there in English... I just assumed that as all the great cars come from  Japan that they would cater for this type of thing :'(

I suspect, as I have no personal connection, that I'll likely be dissapointed with whatever I do see compared to the pics I've seen online from historic shows. Oh well. I'll prob try for the Nissan gallery or maybe the mega web one if I can't find something awesome beyond the first page of Google.

[saxon]

where is rocky auto? Is that far from Tokyo?

[HS30-H]

Nissan Gallery in Ginza sometimes has a few older cars from the Zama storage facility on display.

 

http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/2012/08/10/the-origins-of-nissans-ginza-gallery-and-miss-fairlady/

 

Only the small Nissan 'Galleria' ( on the Ginza Kosaten / Crossing ) is left now. Only room for one or two cars at the most, and a bit hit and miss as to what will be on display on any given day. The main ( old ) Nissan Ginza office and ground floor showroom / display space round the corner is now empty as Nissan has upped sticks and moved into its new Yokohama HQ building.

 

There's a whole floor at the new Yokohama HQ that's dedicated to displays and special exhibitions, and you'll often see cars from the Heritage Collection at Zama on display there. It's worth a look. Yokohama is only a 20 min train ride from central Tokyo.

 

NISMO have just moved out of their old Omori ( Tokyo ) HQ too. You used to be able to see something interesting there as they would rotate displays of old and current race cars quite often. Now they've gone to a new purpose-built facility in Yokohama too. This was only over the Christmas period, so no idea if they will display anything there...   

[d3c0y]

I was going to suggest Nismo Omori too, they had a Z33 JGTC car and let me go in the workshop when i was there and take photos. But if it's moved then as Alan said who knows?

 

Rocky Auto is in Okazaki which is a 40min train ride from Nagoya so no chance of going there with only one day in Tokyo unless you plan on sitting on the Shinkansen/JR Trains for most of the day. You do go past RUF on the way though fwiw.

 

I would suggest the MegaWeb on Odaiba too. The historic garage there is pretty good and has things like:

• Toyota GT1
  
• Castrol Celica GT4 WRC
  
• Mazda Cosmo
  
• Z432
  
• 2000GT
  
• Bluebird Coupe
  
• A couple of  Levins and Turenos
  
• KPGC10 GTR
  
• Bellette GT
  

Just to name a few. It also has a Euro and US section in addition to the Japanese section. The Cafe where they restore the cars changes all the time too, they had a Dino in there when i was there last. In that area there are various race engines on display too. F1, CART, JGTC etc.

 

In the main massive 2 level Toyota show room there was a JGTC Supra you could sit in, there in July when i went this year.

 

If you can go on the weekend the MegaWeb car park is a common place for car meets and even walking through the car park, you will find some pretty cool stuff.

 

Odaiba is where they filmed so of Tokyo drift so if you stay late enough you may see some modded cars driving around the island, meeting up etc. This all happens around the streets near the statue of liberty looking back at Tokyo. http://tinyurl.com/bgklazj

 

There is also a Super Autobacs just off the same train line you use to get to Odaiba, Shinonome station.

http://tinyurl.com/acqwqzn In this map Autobacs is the brown building just to the right of carsSHOW at the top of the map. It's like 2 blocks North of the train station.

 

The crazy busiest intersection in the world in Shibuya often has cool cars driving through at night and worth a look regardless as its such a famous location!

http://tinyurl.com/bhndtj3

 

 

StarRoad, RWB, Power House Amuse and Up Garage can all be seen in Chiba too. You can probably see about 2 of these places in one day of travelling around, but they take a bit of find and a lot of trains to get to as they are out in the sticks a bit. Let me know if you want any help finding them but you will have to be comitted to get to them.

 

Dont forget to get a Tokyo Metro day pass for Y1000 if you are going to be going exploring! I didnt go anywhere without my Lonely Planet phrase book too. You can get plenty of useful sentences out of it!

[grimlynsan]

Trekked out to odaiba and went to mega web. Guess what? Their one and only z was being serviced and wasn't there! Gutted! For future readers, yes, there are some pretty cool old toyotas etc there though that were well worth a nosey. And I now have a photo of me sitting in a pretty crazy looking race supra.

[aussie240z]

Hi All, old topic but am re opening to see if any updated suggestions.
Am going to be in Japan in a couple of weeks for around 10 days, skiing in the north for a few days, then the tourist thing around Tokyo and likely south and was researching a  few nissan/datsun options while over there. I have found a couple of places but if anyone has any suggestions etc., would be appreciated.

Cheers

Ian