Tag Archive: Mazda

SEVENS ON THE BAY: 7/7 at Umihotaru

As some of you may know, the day before yesterday being the 7th day of the 7th month, was RX-7 day! I knew that there was going to be a big meeting at Daikoku Futou parking area, so I waited until the peak hour traffic and torrential rain died down before getting out onto the Shutokou and Wangan to head down to Yokohama.

Unfortunately, right when I was around Haneda Airport, I saw that dreaded information sign. “Daikoku Futou Parking Area is Closed”.

Seriously, the last two or three times I’ve headed down to Daikoku, they’ve shut it down at about nine’o’clock, before I even get there. Usually, it’s because of the kyushakai and kids on bikes that we all know and love making too much noise and generally being annoying to the police. That was usually on a weekend though, but since it was a weekday and I was earlier than the usual closing time, I figured it should be OK, even if they did close it.

I made a quick phonecall to Dino Dalle Carbonare, who was also covering the event for Speedhunters. He didn’t answer, but I figured that everyone would probably head out to the Umihotaru parking area in the middle of Tokyo Bay. I didn’t want to waste the three thousand yen toll (that’s $38 Aussie and $33 US) going there if nobody else was though, so I slowed down behind a truck and called Dino a couple of more times.

I got through to him literally as I was passing the off-ramp to Umihotaru, and just barely made it on. It turns out that so many cars showed up to Daikoku that they were blocking the on-ramps and causing trouble for the truckers and bus drivers who are the usual attendees of expressway parking areas, so the police kicked them all out. A few minutes later, I was at Umihotaru, which was only populated with a few dozen groups of people out on a night drive. They had no idea what was soon to decend upon them.

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