Demon Dave

:D now a few pics of you driving that would be funny!

The first school I worked at here had several branches throughout Yamanashi. To get to these branches the school provided what I would loosely call "company cars". More like junk heaps with wheels. Take 6 kei cars, old ones, abuse the hell out of them, wash them but once a year, fill them with garbage (mainly McDonalds paper cups and bags) and you kinda get the idea. Then there was the Toyota corsa that to everyones amazement ran for over 6 months with the oil light on permanently and never died! When I finally convinced the management it needed some fresh oil, the mechanic at the service station noticed there was not a single drop of oil in it...but I digress. Yeah - their compliment of cars included: A *cough* pink *cough* Honda Today Pochette Auto. Need I say more. 2 white Daihatsu Mira's (one with a door frame that was falling off - so much so that when one staff member accidently locked the keys in the car, all I had to do was bend it a little and reach in! The other had a fcuked starter motor and a permanently flat battery. That wasn't too much of an issue for one of my colleagues though - he just left the thing running in the carpark during classes - sometimes for upto 3 or 4 hours! It also maxed out at 60 in 4th... 1 white honda minivan - looked like it had been retrieved from a wreckers yard - all rev and no go but great for Gomi Hunting runs... And a white Mits Minicar manual - with a featherwight clutch. Half the electrics didn't work and they was loud clunking sound coming from the rear end under "acceleration". Top speed about 60 in 4th. Any more and and it sounded like it'll rip itself to pieces!

USB memory sticks available in 32 to 128MB formats... only in Japan eh!

LOL In addition to what Troy said, customers should be aware that there is an additional 40% surcharge on all orders. This is to pay for staffing essentials, in particular gastro-intenstinal lubrication via products from the above mentioned Asahi and Kirin corporations.... The remainder will be going to fund a company excursions - apparently the Kansai boys have yet to visit any of the other branches

Superb write up, superb photos! Thanks for sharing!

You mean grommets

very windy, clear skies and a few too many noisy 3 year olds sums up my day...

In my experience anything that is simple and straightforward abroad is highly likely to be a real pain in the butt in Japan...they love their paper work over here.

more details here Not good news. Felt pretty bad here in Yamanashi - things were shaking around. Worst thing was I was sat at home, alone, watching TV. You suddenly start getting all these alerts flashing across the TV and if you don't read a lot of Kanji it's difficult to understand. Bit unnerving since for all I knew it was saying: This is the BIG one, get the hell out of your house! But seriously, very bad news - my condolences go out to anyone who lost family... typhoons....earthquakes....living it Japan has it's downsides

Glad you had a great time (depite the weather ) and look forward to seeing some of those photos!

...spirited drives through the mountains and just driving in general - there's nothing I like better than exploring the region in the car. ...stop off at my local circuit (10 mins from my place) and watch the racing... Then trip's to the park with my sons... but at some point I have to work which includes: car cleaning - 3 cars to do, so one car every weekend on a rotation basis! dog washing - 3 dogs to do, so one dog every weekend on a rotation basis! and occassional gardening (I hate it, but it has to be done!) Shopping with the missus. TV, Xbox, PS2, PC and Heavy Metal/rock at 1000 decibels if the weathers bad

Not a good year at all, and the reality is it's probably only going to get worse... Yeah, beware of flood damaged cars - almost bought one a few years back - was pretty much impossible to tell it had been in a flood, and the only reason I found out was because I kep pushing the seller to say why the car (Nissan Cube) was going so cheap... Buyers beware.

First sign of a typhoon and my skyline gets wrapped up tight - car covers, ground sheets - all tied down, tucked nicely into the garage out of the rain Well, this morning the rain has stopped and like a giant hairdryer, the wind is doing it's best to blow dry the landscape. On windy days like this, I'm glad I've got a full head of hair - a toupee in the weather is not recommended

From previous posts I was under the impression Justin prefered DIY in the car park, rather than paying the staff to fit anything Wheels and an intercooler come to mind

hehe I dunno about anyone else, but by the looks of things now I'll be needing a boat to get into town later, not a car been pi55ing down for over a day now...

Several of the Jap residents have R32's - Rezz has a nice GTSt, wine red in color - though I always thought Nissan moddled the color after those little reddish things you get inside rice balls (onigiri) :)

Yeah, travelling around Japan is expensive, whether in your own car or by public transport. If it wasn't for stupidly expensive expressway tolls, I think I would have been to way more places in the last five years than I have now. So far I know about every square metre of Yamanashi (cause it don't cost anything to get around) but once you start getting on the expressway, costs can soon rise and a day trip can cost upwards of 5,000 yen in tolls alone... what were the government saying...they were hoping for all roads to be toll free by 2030...or something like that? By that time they'll probably be no more petrol and we'll all be getting around on electric scooters and won't bl00dy need the expressways!

Me neither - the previous day (when I was in the Skyline, as per the photos on the GTR Register) I got as far as that and turned back To be honest though, I was more concerned with chunks of the moutain falling on my roof!

Troy/Justin - still unsure at this moment whether I can make it across your way for the NISMO Fest. You're still planning on going, right? Mind if I ask - you got any spare car parking at your place? Perhaps it would be easiest for me to drive to you, then we all take the train to the circuit? How did you guys get there last year?

Yeah - to get around (outside of the Tokyo/Kawasaki/Yokohama area) you really need a car. There's loads of great places to check out, but getting to them by public transport will be a pain at best, and a nightmare if you're unlucky. Yamanakako isn't too bad - actually the car musuem I mentioned is right by the lake. Bit expensive to get it though.

Konnichiwa Ikeri San, Nice to meet you - welcome to the forums. I'm Dave, living in Yamanashi. I wish the guys at my local Super Autobacs could speak English as well as you....in fact it'd be great if they could speak any English! We should all hook up sometime - hope ya can make it to TAS 2005.

And a billion miles from Tokyo and Yamanashi :)

Yeah - there's no way I'd wanna be up there during a Typhoon! Usually the locals will come and clear the road within a few days, but with winter coming many of the mountain roads get blocked off - they're just too dangerous.

Superb photos Justin - Nara is a great place - I've been meaning to go back for sometime now. Unfortunately during vacation time it seems like half the population of Japan are trying to cram into every temple there - the other half standing in a line climbing Fuji

I'm north of you, in Yamanashi. There's loads to do in the Fuji five lakes area, if you like sight seeing/outdoors, plus the Fuji speedway (currently being rebuilt). There's a ferrari museum, as well as another car museum near Lake Yamanako (nice selection of cars old and new), plus the lakes themselves - water skiing, para gliding, fishing, windsurfing (Lake Motosu), camping etc etc. There's an excellent karting track in Gotemba, plus the Premium Outlets (shop til ya drop, but mostly just fashion stores). Yokohama wouldn't be that far away from you - plenty to do there, even if it's just drooling over the GTR's at Zele International...