A memorable Tokyo Bay boat cruise

A six-day trip to Japan last week together with other local motoring journalists from both broadcast and print media made me miss out on my column last Saturday. We were invited by Honda Motor Co. through Honda Cars Philippines to attend the 37th Tokyo Motor Show. This grand motoring event now held yearly in Japan is considered as the most prestigious in Asia and arguably one of the most attended in the world.

When I was first invited to this international motoring event in 1993, it had all types of motor vehicles in one roof at the Makuhari Messe located at the Chiba Prefecture, about an hour’s ride from Tokyo. Despite having the first two days exclusively for the media, I couldn’t find the time to be able to see all the vehicles on display. It is because of this sheer overwhelming number of exhibits that add on year after year, that the organizers decided to have shows for passenger cars and motorcycles separate from commercial vehicles, buses, trucks and the like, to be done on an alternate year basis starting in the year 2000, with this year concentrating on cars and bikes.

However, for the past five consecutive years, ever gracious hosts Honda, Toyota and Mitsubishi have alternately invited me to attend both exhibits, giving me the continued opportunity to shoot footage of various concept vehicles and "soon to be released" models from all categories and from various manufacturers, which I show to the "hungry" viewers of our TV shows Motoring Today and Auto Focus. I say "hungry" because most of the vehicles that are displayed in these international motor shows never see the light in Philippine roads.

Having been a guest of these large and internationally renowned automobile companies for the past 10 years, I have learned to distinguish the different styles of corporate entertainment that each company has a claim to. Without having to name which to what, the manner varies from formal to being friendly, to informal up to almost being intimate or very friendly and also from being lavish to practical.

To illustrate further, knowing my host for the year would immediately give me an idea of what clothes to bring – a lot of casuals or a tie plus an added dinner jacket.

But our first night this year was a unique one. We were personal guests of the former president of Honda Cars Philippines, who’s now a high-level performance auditor of Honda Motor Co. top executives, Mr. Koji Miyajima – also referred to by some local motoring journalists as the "Father of the CR-V in the Philippines".

He gained the moniker due to his steadfast stand in convincing the then president of Honda Motor Co., Mr. Nobuhiko Kawamoto to bring the CR-V to the Philippines. Although it was really a group of motoring journalists, including this writer, who first broached the idea to Honda Japan’s top executives after test driving it during the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show, it was Miyajima-san who stuck out his neck and placed his career on the line by confidently forecasting the CR-V’s market acceptance in the Philippines. And as the old cliché – goes, the rest is history – it became a top seller and is still considered as one today.

So, in the company of Ron delos Reyes, of Auto Review, Erle Sebastian of Today, Brian Afuang of Philippine Star, Raul Marcelo and Charles Buban of Inquirer, Delfin Perez of the Bulletin, Dino Directo of The Standard, Tito Hermoso of C-magazine, Ira Panganiban of ABS-CBN and this writer, Miyajima-san brought us to a memorable boat cruise to Tokyo Bay. Our group totaled 16 to include Arnel Doria, the highest ranking Filipino executive of Honda Cars Philippines and his two-hardworking assistants, Tin Tin and Sheryll plus two other Japan-based Honda executives, Horishi Mikajiri and Hidek "Harry" Kamiyama.

It was a motorized boat that could easily accommodate up to 20 people. It has a Japanese style long table in the middle where you’ll have to squat for your meal and for guest-participated entertainment, the boat is equipped with a videoke.

The ride is timed to last for about two and a half hours, more than enough time for a hearty dinner plus some karaoke singing. According to our host, Miyajima-san, this is one kind of the old traditional way of entertaining in Japan. At the most there were three people manning the entire proceedings, which include running the boat while cooking and serving dinner. We spent about two hours anchored at the Tokyo Bay while having dinner or singing English and Japanese songs or feeding a whole slew of Seagulls that stayed around the still boat.

It was indeed a very memorable wholesome night of leisure that left most of us almost filled to the brim, what with the ebi tempura at "eat all you can" and the meal capped with delicious stemming shell soup and fried seafood rice.

Being a guest I could not ask how much per head was charged our host for the entire exercise but I felt this is something we can also do locally, that is if we still are not at a very affordable price. We can have docking facilities about a kilometer from the mouth of Pasig River where tourists can embark and disembark. That’ll provide for such distance of a river ride and on to the entire length of now well-lit Roxas Boulevard for added sights before anchoring at the Manila Bay. The buffet table can have a complete array of native dishes and seafood specialties with local "tuba" or "lambanog" served as options for the adventurous tourists.

Just a thought to probably give our "Wow Philippines" campaign a little more "wow" than it appears not to have now.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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