Yupiteru presents Odaiba Itasha Heaven

Itasha are cars whose bodywork is covered with characters from anime, manga and games. The word means a painful car, which is a joke about the sight of it and about what the work costs the owner. This event gathers them at an open-air site at Odaiba in Tokyo for one day, and it is one of the largest of its kind in the country.

About a thousand vehicles are shown. They are entered in three classes and each has its own area: cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. Places are given out in the order the entries come in, and they go early.

Cosplayers come to the event as well, and are photographed with the vehicles. Anyone who takes pictures beyond ordinary snapshots registers as a photographer.

The sponsor, Yupiteru, makes dashboard cameras and radar detectors, and takes a stand of its own for Hagoromo 6, the character trio it uses for its products.

The stage programme and the list of companies taking stands had not been settled when this was written, and the organisers will publish both on the event's site.

Some rules are worth knowing. Nothing may be smoked in the venue, electronic cigarettes included, and nothing may be drunk. Photographing the vehicles as they arrive or leave is not allowed, at the instruction of the police, and that includes standing in the central reservation of the road outside to do it.