Car Heaven is Daikoku P.A.

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In the port city of Yokohama just southwest of Tokyo, there’s a manmade island called Daikoku Futo filled with warehouses, lined by ocean freighters, and encircled by elevated highways. Smack dab in the middle is Daikoku P.A. serving as a rest stop or ‘parking area’ for the Wangan and Bayshore Route of the Shuto Expressway highways.

Daikoku is also the greatest car hang-out location in the world.

Daikoku P.A. was originally opened in 1989 and immediately became popular with the hashiriya or street racers. The location made Daikoku P.A. the ideal meeting point for street racers about to loop the Shuto, trying to set new records in the illegal pursuit of speed that made groups like Mid Night Club famous around the world.

Thigs are different today as Japan’s ruthless traffic camera system has slowed down street racing on public highways, but Daikoku P.A. remains the place to meet and show off your ride. There’s actually a police station inside of Daikoku P.A. which makes breaking up unruly gatherings efficient; very Japanese.

There’s also a light tower for the port area, and the actual rest stop area with a variety of food vendors, 24-hour vending machines and the cleanest restrooms on the highway.

Just look at the incredible architecture. Daikoku P.A. looks like a gearhead’s vision of the Roman Colliseum, with rings of elevated highways encircling the parking lot. In the centre are 300+ parking spots for travelers, and on the outside edge are separate parking areas for big rig drivers to chill before they continue to criss-cross Japan delivering goods.

Every night of the week, Japan’s diverse car culture is on full display at Daikoku, and the diversity is astounding. Of course JDM sports cars like the Toyota Supra and Nissan GT-R make up a good portion of the vehicles. But for ever lowered Subaru there’s also a supercar rolling through; Lamborghini, Pagani and the occasional Misuoka Orochi cruise through Daikoku P.A. to show off what a couple hundred grand buys you.

As the sun sets on Daikoku P.A. the custom car show commences. A wide-body Mazda RX-7 FD with VeilSide body kits parks next to Liberty Walk customized Ferrari. An RWB Porsche 911 with underglow and massive fender flares tailgates a Honda Civic painted up like a Spoon race car. Car clubs organize meets at Daikoku P.A. too, and it isn’t uncommon to see bosozoku cars with their cartoonish proportions gathered there, or American lowriders that crossed the Pacific now scraping the the pavement

Car enthusiasts from all over the world visit Daikoku P.A. and many nights, foreigners even outnumber Japanese. It’s such a cliché to say this place is the Mecca of the car universe, but there is nothing like it in anywhere, especially not in Toronto. Over here, a bunch of gearheads in a parking lot is just reason for the police to interfere. In Japan, you can rent a sports car and go on an tour to Daikoku P.A. during your vacation!

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