You know that I am avid of almost anything asian, especially Japanese. I find these people mysterious. The Japanese truly have a different culture than westerners, and it’s fine with me. I like to see different things. Otherwise it gets boring.

While I am in no way an expert in Japanese culture, I thought I had a fairly good basis. I was wrong.

You know how some people who modify their car in a cheesy way, especially those with neon framed licence plates, or neon glow lighting under the car?

Well, it seems our Japanese friends don’t like to be as discreet as these people. They like it bigger, flashier, uglier.

How could I miss such a shoutingly obvious cultural reference? Such a colourful, unmissable social phenomenon? It doesn’t matter now.

These trucks that look like Christmas trees, or like Vegas slot machines are called Dekotora, which means “Decorated Truck”. The name, though appropriate is way too dim in my opinion for what it represent.

As weird as it may seem to us North-Americans, these trucks have all been approved by the highway and transportation authorities to make sure the modifications are safe and by the rules. It really puts things into perspective when you know that in here, if your headlights have too blue a tint, you can get a ticket. Tell that to them now, police dude.

What launched this phenomenon is a Toei movie released in 1975 called Trucker (torakku yarÅ?) where the main character drives such a truck throughout Japan.

You can watch the intro to the movie by clicking here.

Although there were dekotoras before the movie, they weren’t as widespread than after it was released. In those days, all parts were then custom made from sightseeing buses or US military vehicles.

All I can say is that I learned a new thing about the Japanese today, and that is pretty cool too.

A whole gallery of dekotoras and links to other galleries can be found on this page. Click here.

Enjoy!

brem

Thanks Pag!