THE annual Tokyo Auto Salon, whose 2013 edition opened last weekend, is the place to be if you want to see the most outlandish cars on the planet, the Japanese after-market/tuning scene having mastered automotive customization to a degree likely unmatched anywhere else.

What show, for instance, would feature the works of students from a school dedicated to tuning (Japan Automobile College), like a Toyota Mark X presented by Spider-man? And then there were the animal-print Lamborghini Murcielago, a couple of Swarovksi crystal-embellished Mercedes-Benz convertibles, a classic Toyota 2000GT with an electric power train, and a Toyota 86 that has been transformed into a real-life Choro Q car, among the hundred others exhibited. Motorbikes were as wildly costumed, too. Well. and so were the women.