As the Skibeemo-Does-Japan boat continues to sail, a surprised stop was made at the suburb of Koto for what was meant to be a quick visit to the Toyota Mega Web complex. I budgeted half a day to check out this place (as well as the accompanying History Garage) but surprisingly, ended up burning a whole day here. This place is massive, with so much to see and do. As a Toyota owned venue, the facility was obviously going to be packed to the brim with Toyota themed elements but this does not detract take from the experience. The venue is a fun place to visit, regardless if you’re an enthusiast or not. There were a host of user experience activities to get involved in as well as fabulous cars to admire.

Straight of the bat, I was greeted by some lovely race cars and TRD performance parts for the ZN6 86. The LFA and RC F were class winners at the 24 hours of Nurburgring in 2015 and 2016, while the TS050 Hybrid was the infamous LMP1 car that broke down with a mere 3 minutes and 25 seconds left at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Curiously strolling along, I promptly arrived at the emerging technology and concept vehicle area. It’s always exciting to peer through the future of automotive technology and design in the form of concept cars. However, the bitter reality is that most of these cars never make it to production.

The next area involved a host of user experience activities. Despite the half-hour wait, I was keen on giving the Segway clone a go. An instructor initially shows you the ropes before you’re forced to battle it out with your next door neighbour on an illuminated led floor. Great fun.

Unveiled at the 2014 North American International Motor show, the Toyota FT-1 Concept is speculated to be the Supra of tomorrow. As of now, the car is a concept only with no specs given other then being front-engine and rear-wheel drive. There were some FT-1 themed Gran Turismo pods, with you guessed it, the FT-1 as a playable car to give keen beans an opportunity to experience what an FT-1 could drive like.

The lower floor area was home to all of Toyota’s current production models. Toyota still has quite a few Japanese-domestic-market only as well as models that are not locally sold in Australia. I really dug the Mark X, Crown Athlete and all of the different TRD variants, especially the TRD Estima (referred to as the Tarago in Australia).

For a small fee of ~AUD $2, you can even drive some of Toyota’s current production cars. Booking is done via a vintage PC running a version of Windows older than me. My poison of choice? a 2017 Toyota 86 GTS.

It would be an hour before my allocated drive time, so I used this opportunity to intake some calories. Even the cafe is decked up with awesome Toyota memorabilia (and a 1:18 Kyosho Ferrari 250 GTO that I wanted so badly). Unsuccessfully, I was not able to acquire said Ferrari but did successfully gain some Toyota 2000GT cookies.

Time to drive. The track was a small section within the Mega Web complex featuring a couple of corners and two straight areas. Speed was limited to 40 kmp/h but that was forgiven, as any faster and you wouldn’t have been able to admire the charming outdoor views of the History Garage complex.

Every time I visit a traditional amusement park or attraction, my cynic nature can’t help but feel sceptical of the inflated asking price for random junk on sale at the souvenir shops. But when it comes to automotive attractions, the notion of burning piles of cash on "souvenirs" suddenly makes sense, with the random junk now viewed as necessities of life. I came out of Euro Sports (Toyota Mega Web’s souvenir shop) feeling delightful, albeit with a lighter wallet.

It was at this point that I decided to wonder over to the adjoining History Garage museum. I’ll write a separate future post about the History Garage, as this was an outing in itself.

The outdoor Ferris wheel was completely illuminated, signalling that nightfall had arrived. However, there was one last area to visit before I could tick Toyota Mega Web as completed.

Ride Studio is located next to the entrance of the Ferris wheel and is basically an area to drive miniature electric cars. Similarly to most other purchasing systems in Japan, tickets are purchased from a vending machine (~AUD $2) and includes a laminated and printed photo license. As expected, the cars weren’t fast. However, they had indicators and the track had traffic lights. A fun way to end a surprisingly packed day at the Toyota Mega Web.

If you plan on completely exploring the Toyota Mega Web complex, budget an entire working day to do so. Did I mention that admission was free as well? If you’re looking for fun things to do in Tokyo, a visit to the Toyota Mega Web is a must. If you’re an automotive enthusiast, it’s a no brainier.