I’m definitely a ‘glass half empty’ kind of pessimist, so heading out onto the streets with no game plan in the hope of finding automotive gold is like having a child with a complete stranger. You know a birth is inevitable, but how it will all pan out is another thing.
Perhaps the knowledge that a few interesting cars might be spotted on the street in Yokohama is a little less worrying than whether your mystery child will grow up to be an upstanding member of society, but both are sure to get the heart racing at least. My chauffeur for the day was Aaron, and after parking up his VR-4 we set off on foot in search of some gems.
It wasn’t long before a huge sigh of relief was expelled from my rotund post-Christmas belly, as a Mitsuoka cruised past a Nissan 350Z and a slammed drift-spec Silvia. We had barely walked 100 metres from our parking space and already had hit peak Japan street-spotting. Maybe this was going to be easier than I thought…
A little further along from Zou-no-hana Terrace, walking towards central Yokohama, there’s a great corner for car-spotting if you’re ever in the area.
From this spot, drivers are likely travelling into Tokyo via Minato Mirai 21 and its surrounding affluent suburbs. While most people are behind the wheels of Nissan Notes and other vanilla-flavoured small cars, it’s sobering to see enthusiasts getting around in slightly more exciting and interesting machinery, even if they’re sometimes not the best suited for tight Japanese city roads.
Heading in towards Chinatown, things start getting a bit fancier with daily-driven Ferraris and other high-end Euros. This area also has some of the most interesting public toilet blocks around – if you need to make a pitstop. Given its close proximity to Chinatown, this one features Chinese design details.
Of course, for us foreigners even the taxis in Japan are cool and I could have happily just snapped them all day. There’s something about a Toyota Crown Comfort with its headrest doilies and privacy curtains that’s still cool even after years of living here.
And then, out of nowhere, the familiar growl of a classic carburetted Nissan six-cylinder cut through the burble of shoppers as they bustled along the non-pedestrianised roads. ‘That Hakosuka owner is game bringing his car down here’ I thought to myself as he turned the corner and disappeared through a crowd of people.
It’s funny how we quickly become tuned in to our surroundings. When I’m on the hunt for cars, I can spot them from across the street, through a crowd and – in the case of this Lancia Delta Integrale – tucked away in a car park entrance. It’s some kind of old banger sixth sense, I guess.
Crossing a busy road, the unmistakable front end of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX caught my eye, and when I clicked it was an Evo Wagon, I knew our quick little walkaround had been a success. I’d love one of these wagons to shoot tracking shots from, but these days I would likely have to sell a kidney and reverse import one from abroad to be able to afford it.
If you’d like to see more street Speedhunting in the future, let me know in the comments. I’ll try to keep in mind that if you go with the flow, the car universe will always surprise you. But being in Japan certainly helps.
Toby Thyer
Instagram _tobinsta_
tobythyer.co.uk
