Saturday morning in Tokyo…. Good morning!

This is my drive for the weekend! wowh! what a car! For those of you not familiar, this is an ultra rare 1953 Dannenhauer & Stauss Coachbuild car on a VW platform! Thank You to Flat 4 for granting me seat time!!

Preparing for the trip…  This is Japan famous cartoonist Tomy Kezuka preparing his 1957 convertible he owns already over 24 years!

My co driver for the weekend, Larry Dustman from the Thingshop in Arizona,

Ready to Go? For sure! I was, driving behind Tomy’s car wasn’t a punishment at all!

Our friend Shin Watanabe, photographer of Let’s Play VW’s,  and recently also editor for Hot VW magazine, sticking out in the back… camera’s are always ready when Shin is in the back of the car!

Tomy had Tony Moore (from Wolfsburg West fame) as a co driver, Tony sold this car about a mere 30 years ago to Japan to start his business. So it was a real nice get together for Tony and his old car!

Every stop was a blast and was a mini show on its own, I let enjoy you the cars and hopefully You can feel the atmosphere….

This is what seems to be a popular car in japan, You see many of these on the roads…. I call them Mini Big cars, as inside the feeling of space is just big!!

Barndoor participant!! respect!! very beautiful bus!

Now this is what I call an educational concerned way of raising your kids… doesn’t they look cool in the back of dad’s Oval window convertible???

Suitcase on the back, let’s go baby, its time to rock and roll!!

Mr Shin from Toa fame, Japan’s absolute Type 3 specialist and recently also the owner of HOT VW magazine brought out is incredible nice 1958 ragtop to participate the cruize!!

After a couple of hours being on the road we arrived at the host hotel, cars were lined up properly on the parking lot!

Mr Komori drove his 356 to the show this year, gorgeous car!!

Woeps, that’s a dealer badge we do recognise!! Stavelot is one of the communities where the race track of spa Francorchamps drives through…. a belgium car spotted in Japan?

You bet!!

This is a funny story! In 2011 this gentle man asked me to draw a beetle on his rear window, what i did with a marker… to him it was so holly he hardly washed the rear window, after 6 years it was still there, but almost faded away…. now he brought a glass paint marker and asked me to draw the beetle again… what I did with all pleasure…. a die-hard fan you can’t refuse anything, do you?…:)

Zoom in to see my art work!

Small swap meet took place already….

What a beautiful car the Dannenhauer! wowh??? still thrilled!

Welcome to the evening dinner party!

Great food, great atmosphere, a lot of speeches and thank You’s even a (small) word from me… Thanks to Shin to translate…

what a great day we had!! beautiful drive, i met a lot of my Japanese VW friends, had VERY interesting conversations with several persons, and a dinner party to die for!

Evaluation of Day 1? just PERFECT!!

Can’t wait to wake up to start Day2, the real show! The real reason we’re here…:) I will try to feature tomorrow, in between i wish a good and lay back Sunday… stay tuned!

Invitations to drive a vintage Volkswagen in the land of the rising sun don’t come to me every day. So when Nao from Flat4 asked me, I booked my tickets right away!

Maybe I should have thought twice…. what direction shall we go???? Thanks God, I was in a bus from the airport to the hotel and the driver… was Japanese…:)

Buildings and buildings and… buildings…

For sure yeah!…. eu… yes or no?

First stop after check in Hotel was Flat4 ..based in Meguro part of Tokyo a very nice street with a lot of cool memorablia shops and …a lot of VW’s!

Always good to see my old Rometsch back… Mr Komori and his team take really good care!!

Flat 4 shop is very impressive, every time over and over again!

and I was not alone! We had some very important visit from the USA. Larry from the Thingshop and Tonny Moore from Wolfsburg West fame also came over for the weekend! All three of us white gringos before the camera with Mr Komori, big chief of Flat 4!

ok after a splendid afternoon take the train back to the hotel… can you read the signs? I need to go to Shinagawa station…:)

This morning I woke up with a tremendous view from the 37th floor ….

We left pretty early for the cruize to the show… fore cast looks good, so we’re all happy, try to update You as soon as I can…stay tuned!

Already available for a while through our shop we decided we would offer these fine tow bars in our wholesale program from now on.

Don’t doubt about the quality as we deliver these tow bars with TUV approval, German necessary quality control label! This means that these tow bars are officially licensed and You can pass any automobile inspection in Europe and tow officially either behind you beetle or bus!

Get yours now!!

4850-100 Tow bar – Beetle, KG (with TUV Approval)

4850-210 Tow bar -Bus -07/67 (with TUV approval)

The BBT FPU team wish you a wonderful weekend!