We had high hopes of getting something completely unlike anything available in the US as a rental car today, but our hearts sank as we saw the Toyota Vitz (Yaris) waiting for us at the parking lot. They sank further when we saw it was bright purple.

Nippon Rent-A-Car employee #1 to Nippon Rent-A-Car employee #2: Let’s give these gaijin the fruitiest car we have!

Despite an engine that rattled like a 20-year-old diesel at idle, we managed to get to Twin Ring Motegi without incident. If you don’t count getting lost a half dozen times, that is. Apparently, the locals pronounce Tochigi “TOACH-iggy” and not “toe-CHEE-geey”. Who knew.

Honda’s race track Twin Ring Motegi is in the middle of nowhere. These narrow streets made even a Vitz seem like the Titanic.

If it weren’t for the occasional futuristic-looking kei car, some of these villages would look right at home in a Kurosawa samurai film.

Finally, after three hours, a sign!

There’s the hall. Hondas lie within!

There’s hundreds on Hondas in the museum. Most are bikes, since they take up less space, but there’s a great assortment of cars as well. We took hundreds of photos, but here’s just a few from Ben’s lame point-and-shoot camera. Dan’s the real photographer, and the ones he took with the SLR will be downloaded and edited after we get back.

After another long drive back to Tokyo, we’re exhausted and glad to be rid of the magenta Vitz. We’ve gotten only about 4 hours of sleep in past 48 hours, but tomorrow’s the New Year Meeting!

For our first few days in So-Cal, we found ourselves, lamentably, in a PT Cruiser. A rental, obviously, but not the most ideal mule for vast concrete expanses beginning with “The,” as in “The 405″ or “The 110.” It had plenty of cupholders but the trunk space was limited, much like it’s ability to accelerate. Turning radius? More like turning orbit. Quite a handicap when getting lost on unfamiliar streets and making lots of U’s. Our rental Chevy HHR for last year’s SEMA had better fit-n-finish and, in our opinion, a much better execution of the retro two-box motif.

After three days of such nonsense, we went back and up-downgraded for a 2006 Toyota Corolla. The color? Cactus Mica, duh! When this generation first debuted, much hubbub was made of the fact that Toyota now built the lowly Corolla to the same tolerances used on the original Lexus LS. Excessive, perhaps, but the difference shows. Nary a rattle could be detected, despite the fact that LA radio doesn’t really give dead silence much competition.

Snazzily upscale Lexus-like illuminated gauges were fine and dandy, but what we really enjoyed was discovering that even in one of the cheapest, lowest grade cars in the Toyota lineup we could reach speeds of 90 mph without even realizing it. Likewise, we could actually make swift illegal U-turns without throwing it into reverse, and the trunk could devour enough luggage to please a yakuza hit man. Maybe the mob should start using Corollas, especially if they need to cruise incognito on the way to the landfill. And despite hauling around our gear and our butts in spirited driving with A/C on full blast, we got about 29 mpg compared to the Chrysler’s 21. Neato!

Photo courtesy of Shige Suganuma.