Mr. Sato heads to Japan’s biggest tuner car event, where he finds out why one booth had its models wearing scarves.

Last weekend the Tokyo Auto Salon, east Japan’s premiere aftermarket and tuner car exhibition, was held in Chiba Prefecture’s Makuhari Messe convention center. Sadly, Mr. Sato’s application to display his itasha, covered with images of our intrepid reporter, at the event was turned down…which is probably for the best since we’d decided to repaint the whole car, with markers, following his application anyway.

But Mr. Sato was still able to attend the show, and this year vowed to take more than two photos of cars before switching exclusively to snapping photos of booth models and race queens.

Finding your way to the venue is easy. As soon as you head out the south exit of Kaihin Makuhari Station, you’ll see banners directing you towards the convention center, and after you make your way up the stairway to the network of pedestrian overpasses, staff are stationed with signs pointing you in the right direction. You’ll also pass by a bunch of scalpers selling tickets to the event, but Mr. Sato recommends giving these shady individuals a wide berth and either purchasing your ticket at a discounted price online or at a convenience store beforehand, or at the gate on the day of the event (attendance isn’t capped, so it’s not like tickets are going to sell out).

Once on the show floor, Mr. Sato quickly got to work, swiftly capturing images of two of the cars on display.

But like we said, this year Mr. Sato was determined to take more than two car photos. The question was how to do this in the most efficient matter? Being the genius that he is, Mr. Sato quickly hit upon the perfect solution: Walk to the top of the stairway at the exhibit hall entrance…

…and take photos of as many cars as possible all at once!

And with that task out of the way, it was time for photos of booth models.

Up until this point, we’d always assumed that Mr. Sato survived through a highly specialized form of photosynthesis, wherein he draws nourishment from light reflected off of beautiful women. It turns out, though, that this is not true, and he needs food, just like normal human beings, and so he took a short break to hit one of the numerous food stands at the event and scarf down some jambalaya.

Then right back to taking photos.

▼ Most race queen-style costumes don’t have a lot of coverage, but Fujitsubo, which makes mufflers (exhaust systems) for cars, also had mufflers for its models.

As he does every year, Mr. Sato also posed for pictures with the models, for the sake of everyone who feels a photograph can’t reach its maximum beauty potential while devoid of Sato-ness.

The Auto Salon’s spokesmodels are generally accommodating of such request, just as long as you remember to actually make the request. In Japanese, the phrase is “Issho ni shashin wo totte mo ii desu ka?” (“Is it OK if I take a picture of us together?”).

▼ If you want to specify a selfie, it’s “Issho ni jigadori wo totte mo ii desu ka?”

In conclusion, we’d like to thank all of the booth models of Tokyo Auto Salon 2018, and also Mr. Sato for exerting himself and doubling his usual output of car photos this year.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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