355 F355 30th Anniversary Japan

We snake our way out of the togue road and eventually arrive in Shizuoka. This is where many F355 owners are gathering for the party the night before the event.

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I must take a moment to confess something to you.
Even though the entire purpose of this trip is to go to this one specific event and, I had been spending all day inside one, I may have ever so slightly in the back of my mind forgotten that I was here for the F355 30th Anniversary. That is how good of a time I have been having.



So imagine my surprise when we go from driving to rounding the corner of a normal looking parking structure to immediate wall-to-wall F355:

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I would say up until that point, throughout the whole trip, I was saying "wow" about once every 60 seconds. Japan is that incredible.

Now, I am so stunned I can't even talk. My brain is struggling to comprehend what I seeing.


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Some GTB.
Some GTS.
Some Challenge.
My pulse quickened.

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It was here in this parking garage that I first met I met Mr.S (S-san). He greets me warmly. It is fulfilling to meet him in person after spending so much time conversing with him over email. There will be more time to speak tonight, because right now we are running behind.

We have to shower immediately because at 6:20pm we are to go next door to an Izakaya for drinks and dinner. We say goodbye to I-san and K-san and I are so distracted with the people and the cars that we didn't go upstairs right away. And I need to shave. I worry that I will cut myself doing so. I must take the risk. First impressions are important and this is important to me.

Finally I got upstairs after checking in. The room is of course small but nicely appointed. I really appreciate my own room. I take a nice shower but do not linger. I shave only lightly drawing blood.

The Izakaya was upstairs and again we take off our shoes. We all sit on bench and I am introduced to a number of passionate F355 lovers. They are all so warm and kind to me. I am in heaven. Total and complete heaven. I don’t want this to end and I deeply regret not speaking Japanese. I want a deeper connection with them. S-san mentions me to everyone that I have came from America for this event. I am the only foreigner to attend. People are impressed.
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All of them made me feel so welcome. I wish I could post pictures of the party but some things should remain private.

I meet T-san and his girlfriend. They are both wonderfully outgoing. His English is excellent and I come to discover he has a red Challenge car. T-san just got even cooler!

Then a man hears my name mentioned. “Paul?”

It was M-san! The man who originally posted the 25th Anniversary pictures that sparked my original obsession with getting over here. I have came full circle and now have met him myself. Super nice guy and he was so happy that I was there. This whole thing is a dream!

Eventually we have to leave after many courses of delicious Japanese food and conversation. I have one beer with K-san in his hotel room and we talk a little about America and Japan. After that it is time for bed. K-san says to be down for breakfast at 6:30.
However I have other plans. I have to take more pictures of the car park.

I just have to.

 

Back at the hotel room I anxiously cleaned my camera lenses. Most of these lenses are from when I was a teenager. I wanted to be as period correct as possible. I could hear the familiar shriek of an F355 slicing through the walls of the hotel. I daydream for a moment that it's coming from some far corner of Japan; it's owner driving all day and night to get here.

It took way longer to clean my lenses than I expected but, if there was ever a time I was going to NOT get enough sleep on purpose, it is going to be for this.

After, I went to bed... but I didn't sleep one for one second. I was just so excited about tomorrow- I felt like a child on Christmas eve! So long as it doesn't rain.


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5/19
I wake up and look out the window. The first thing I notice is the three F355s up on the top parking deck and Mt. Fuji looking over all of us. It looks to be clearer at the summit than yesterday. But the ground is damp. Fingers crossed...

We eat breakfast at the hotel and I made some mistakes- I got too much rice and no seaweed for my sashimi. But the food is delicious and nutritious. There are some what appear to be, Americanized items- like this sort of scrambled egg that is more loose, and mini hotdog sausages. Not to mention french fries.

After breakfast it's now time to leave the hotel. The cars fire up one by one and, suddenly this once sleepy parking garage is now very awake. You can smell the fumes overpower the air and feal the noise thundering inside your chest. We begin to line cars up in a sort of convoy and we end up behind a black Challenge. It was a real treat to see these cars on the road, each with that distinct melody emanating from the exhaust. It was like being in a rolling symphony.

We couldn’t as a matter of practicality, get them all in one giant line but we will have all of that and more very soon...

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Thank you very much. It is my pleasure. I am having a lot of fun going back and reliving the experience!

 

When we arrive there was constant exhaust thrumming and the fumes from the exhausts reminded me of my car without catalysts.

They are very detail oriented and had them all arranged by color. Unlike pictures of the 25th, these are in two rows, with the red stretching far down the line. I meet many people who want to learn more about me and my car. There are many familiar faces from the night before whom greet me warmly. I still can’t believe this is happening. They keep comming and coming and coming and coming, almost like a 355 invasion! K-san is working directing the cars into the parking lot. There are a lot of helpers. People are all over looking at the cars. And the cars keep coming.

S-san is all over. They are checking the alignment of the cars, with some of the cars having to move back or move forward to getting aligned with the twine taped to the ground.

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At last... The event I waited five years for is finally here.

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White F355 Challenge

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Still setting up.

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Iding Power full kit.
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We finally begin the opening ceremony. I don’t think it was the opening ceremony but at one point we were gathered around and S-san asks me to say a few words. I do the best I can in english and T-san thoughtfully jumps in to translate after. I am glad he does it because if K-san did it would probably be a little weird translating praise for yourself.

Scuderia magazine was there and wanted to confirm who I was. They take my picture. Many people want to have their picture taken with me and I do of them. I can’t stop grinning from all these 355s. Yet it's the people here who truly make this incredible.

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F355 art car. Very cool!

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We do another ceremony before we break for lunch. I was given a recognition for “world” and was the very first recipient. I am deeply honored.

We eventually break for lunch which was just kitty-corner to the event. We had bento boxes and they were worried about me getting sick because this isn’t the diet that I am used to. But I love Japanese cuisine so I was in heaven.

At the end S-san says he has another gift for me. It was a DVD of another drive and also a model of his car. It was all so wonderful. I feel that I have made friends for life. These people love the F355 just like I do and will go through great lengths for it… just like we would.

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The shot used in Scuderia magazine. They kindly let me replicate it.

But all good things must come to an end. K-san drives me to the train station. Notably, not the one in Shizuoka, but in a neighboring city about 30 mins away. The reason is because he feels its a better and more direct route- which it is! We pull up in the Ferrari- it is just such a sight. It looks great in any color and this Blue Le Mans might be my favorite. It is so classy and subtle yet when the sun hits the paint it sparkles. Saying goodbye is hard. This man has done so much for me it is unreal. I am so lucky to have met him. He never once suggested that he was bored or was tired of hanging out with me, or that I was a burden. He is a class act the whole way around- just like the F355.

This is also my niece birthday. It is very fitting that she was born on the same day as this car.

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In closing, I look back on this day as one of the best days of my life and it was made the most special because of everyone I shared it with. I regularly keep in touch with the organizer and K-san and how they and everyone else has treated me will never, ever, be forgotten. I truly am lucky and honored to attend such an event with so many like-minded people. This event, much like the car, was a dream that came true.

Now, I have to go back. I just have to...

 

Thank you! I can't say if there were any RHD cars there but I can say for certain that I didn't see one RHD 355 over there. When you think about it, their country is all about purity and since Italy is LHD I suspect that is why, but I am only guessing. Also it is just plain more exotic over there if your car is LHD, just like we all go WOW when we see a RHD car over here. I would say a good portion of those cars aren't even Japanese market 355s. Everyone I spoke to imported theirs from europe.

The target was 50 cars if I recall, and 70 signed up. Due to the weather there were some cancellations. I think there was 65 in attendance.
Spiders are very rare over there, which I find fascinating. Here, spiders are the most common. Although interesting fact for you: there is one US market F355 Spider over there. It's owner used to live in the USA and brought it over when they moved.

You are very welcome. It's grin inducing to go back and revisit all of this. As for how things are coordinated the organizer regularly emails the owners in his database and also I believe most are on Minkara which is a Japan-only car website.

 

It's funny with that event it felt like everyone with a 355 was there. It's hard to imagine that many more cars but it makes sense.

I suspect the reason why there are so many GTBs (including the japanese ordered cars) is because this is a land of intense passions. If you're passionate, you're going to want the GTB, GTS or, challenge. There were quite a few challenge cars there in all kinds of colors; black, white, blue, red, yellow. It was neat to see because I've never been able to see one before in person.

 

That would be really cool!

Not sure how you can even say that about Japan. You are practically tripping over yourself with interesting culture, architecture, history, food, ect.