The constant roar of the engines

Luckily, we seem to have been slightly against the flow in the morning. So while we were in a busy train, we also had a showcase view of the people pressed against the windows in the other direction. We also discovered why Hertz only seemed to rent out Toyota vehicles in Tokyo. The place we picked the car up from didn't have any mention of Hertz and was in a dedicated Toyota car rental company.

The car we got was hilarious. It started as a Corolla. Less than 4L/100km fuel consumption for not being a hybrid. Sounded like a mosquito. On the highway, the road noise started sounding extremely similar to the constant hum of jet engines on a long distance flight. It had lane departure warning, automatic high beam, and navigation, but not even a volume control on the steering wheel or cruise control.
Oh and in terms of driving, you need to pay a lot of attention to find a car doing the speed limit. This got to the point where I started wondering whether the red circle around the numbers actually means the same thing in this country as it does for every other country. We also payed about as much for the toll roads as we payed for the rental itself … which either says something about how cheap the rental was or how expensive the tolls roads are …

Our destination, and reason for this journey, was the Honda Collection Hall about two hours from Tokyo and easier to reach by car than by public transport. Possibly partly due to the fact that it is at a race course.

The race course itself had a lot of other entertainment, including having multiple Go-Kart tracks in varying speeds, an electric mini-motorbike track, a forrest-climbing park, and … well … a Honda museum.
It's mean how they positively lined up some of my dream cars, in pristine condition. And it's amazing how they just have them standing for you to walk right up to them, as opposed to having the usual 'Do not cross' line with about a metre buffer. I mean, you're still not allowed to touch and get in, but even being able to actually get closer, and try to find a better vantage point to see some detail is really nice.
And this carried over to a few other details of the race track grounds, including that we basically walked into the pits where they were servicing the motorbikes on which they were currently conducting training. It was here that we learnt what sissies motorbikes are. Even need warming blankets to keep their paws warm.

With the Go-Karts, I've never actually had to show my drivers license before when playing with these little two stroke lawn mowers. However, these things were also apparently hitting a speed of 60km/h. And that was the limited version which I got as it was my first time on this track! I hit this limiter pretty quickly, and could easily imagine how there was more speed to go in these things.
This was a speed that was probably about double of any Go-Kart that I had driven in Australia up to now. And yet, the Australians are firm believers of seat belts at their 30km/h. The Japenese high speed version didn't even have them equipped.
After achieving the "time to beat" for every lap after roughly the seventh one, I also got my "B license", so I can go for the fast version next time. If nothing else, I got a funny souvenir out of it. Even if I had to lower myself slightly for the picture as the mount for the camera, while adjustable, was not adjustable enough.

Another long day behind us. We have something booked for Sunday which is very much an outdoor activity, and yet the forecast keeps on teasing us. Constantly oscillating between whether the rain will happen just early enough to affect us, or happen just after the activity. But that is Sunday, and tomorrow will hopefully be another relaxation day, with curry, ramen, and train squeezing, and all other manner of good things.