When I was planning out my 2016 Trip to Japan, a few events popped up.

Stance G Nation in Odaiba, Tokyo and All Japan Estima Meeting in Shimizu, Shizuoka were happening the same day, same time. I made a mistake thinking that one was on Saturday, October 15th and the other was Sunday, October 16th. (the information I got was for setting up the day before). So I doubly committed (cardiology term) to these events.

This short map is just to show you the distance between the events if you took the Shinkansen. They are in different Prefectures.

I wanted to go to the All Japan Estima meeting because I own a Previa. I am also an extension of Van Kulture and so the VK Japan crew was going to be at Stance G Nation.

What made it even more complex was that Kyouhyou, Sano, Mie and Yukio said they were going to be at Stance. So I wanted to see my leopard family before I leave. Also, Hideya and I did not take a picture at the meeting, so we planned to meet at Stance. Here is the link to that – F31 family at Stance G Nation.

So I committed to follow through on both events. I planned to hit the All Japan ES meeting for 3 hours and head back to Tokyo and spend a couple hours at Stance.

The logistics was horrible. Both locations were 2 hours apart using the Shinkansen (in each direction). But also the distance from the station to the locations, was also a logistical nightmare! LOL.

Cue the maps!

What I had taken to get to the All Japan ES meeting.

I stayed in Shinjuku that night. Shinjuku Station to Tokyo Station:

Then a Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Fuji Station in Shizuoka:

Which was great because I saw Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji and yes, I took this picture.

Once I got off at Fuji Station, I had to wait 20 minutes. I then got on a train from Fuji Station to Shimizu Station.

Finally, once I got to Shimizu station, I had to take a taxi to the Shimizu Marine Park.

Once I got there, I met with Mr. Kosaka (event organizer). He showed me around and introduced me to a few owners. I told myself, I have a 3 hours to get this event done and head back to Tokyo. I started to snap pictures and then video the event with my Action cam. I then met with my Facebook and Instagram friends and gave them gifts.

While I did see TCR10w Estimas (Previas in North America), I was surprised there was no TCR10Gs, Estima Emina and Estima Lucida. It was mostly an ACR and MCR Estima crowd.

This isn’t all the pictures I took as I have over 400. Just a sample.

: Shinkansen ticket

: Mr. Kosaka

: Mitsuaki

: Hologram hood

: Hologram hood

: Wide body

: Gulltima

: That fiberglass work!

: deep dish

: Shimizu Marine Park

: Masuko

: Gulltima aka Takumi

: Kouichi

I then started to head back. Since the taxi did not stop at Shimizu Marine Park, I jumped on a bus. Now reverse to get back to Tokyo station.

Once I got to Tokyo Station, instead of jumping on the trains to save money, I just paid a taxi cab to take me there. This was the route he took me.

I didn’t know exactly where the event was held at, but it became obvious where the cars were coming from.

The whole time I was in Japan, my phone was broken and didn’t charge. It is also a Samsung phone and nobody there has Samsung or fixes them. So had to use good old human communication. So I couldn’t text Mie or Hideya. I couldn’t contact Toshiaki from Van Kulture. I did tell them I would be there via Facebook when I was using my laptop at the hotel.

Once I arrived, I immediately looked for any of the F31 family saw Kyouhyou. He told me where Mie, Yukio, and Hideya were. I went in that location. After meeting with them, I went to find the Van Kulture Japan guys.

These were the photos I took before my DSLR camera battery died.