Tom Evans in Tokyo writes:

The Lexus LF-A is an impressive-looking piece of kit, and now here at last in production guise, after many years of concept appearance.  I had long assumed it was going to be pitched into 911 country, but Lexus have other ideas and the new car will be around £300,000.  This sounds… courageous, as Sir Humphrey might have said. 

Lexi are more usually associated with making comfortable and reliable saloons and SUVs for America’s suburbia; can the Lexu badge really cut it in the hypercar arena? We shall see.  It does look awesome:

and the triple-pipes are quite fun:

Along with the Leaf – the electric car for Joe Sixpack – the car is the star of the show and it proved a total nightmare to get anywhere near the car after it was first unveiled such was the throng of hacks, video folk and snappers.  I managed to get some shots when it was quieter later on however, and after I had done so a nice young Japanese man approached me to interview me for a Japanese TV channel, a moment witnessed by Kyle:

He wanted to know what I thought about the fact that so many European car firms hadn’t turned up this time around, and what the future of the show was.  I replied that the economy has forced many harsh decisions on car makers recently, and that at least Tokyo is having a show, unlike the next London show in 2010 which has been cancelled… 

Japan remains one of the world’s biggest car markets, and I said I was sure the big Europeans would be back in 2011 when presumably the economy will be better.  After our chat ended he said he lived in London for a while as a reporter, which he enjoyed.  I observed that the UK and Japan were similar in being small islands with big populations; not an ideal prescription for happy driving…

The night before the show

Sampled the fabled Tokyo metro last night with my old friend Greg (below left), who lives out here with his delightful Japanese wife Hitomi and young son Ricky, and Olly (below right), a Dubai-based video-man come businessman come reporter who is out here with the middle east journo contingent. 

None of the famous people who help to push commuters onto packed trains, as it was well after rush hour.  The metro is quite astonishingly clean:

And there is no litter, anywhere.  The Japanese strike me as a highly polite and assiduous people who have far too much self-respect to go around dropping litter all over the place.  Having said that, they are not all saints; the metro also has signs stating in moral tones that sexual harrassment and so on on the train can leave mental scars on the victims.  Indeed, this is such a problem that at rush hour there are female-only carriages.

We head off to Tokyo’s ‘East end’ to a restaurant in the sumo district:

En route, I see that even Tokyo has its own version of £1 stores:

Greg tells me that they are very popular in Japan, which has been in a state of virtual recession for nearly 20 years…

After we arrive at the restaurant we discover we need to book many of the dishes a day in advance, which is tiresome.  Luckily Greg can speak the utterly impenetrable Japanese language and was able to navigate a solution:

A fun night had by all:

Tom