DaiOni

zerosports is another big subie tuner

This one is a 310km/h car too (done in NZ??)

a wrx is not a particularly good car for 0-400m - most japanese accept that fact. A little bit different in australia, where it is more popular (per capita), and workshops need to sell themselves very, very, very fast

Also, I think the liberty (legacy) takes a fair chunk of their potential market (4 door performance sedan/wagon) - they're a very, very popular vehicle. It's one of those cars where the older hoon can fit the family in and still drive at light speed when he wants to - outshining the rex in terms of size and equipment (and it's not much slower).

...and I'd say they have a bigger level of hype in places like australian and the US due to competition - in the new import market in the US, there hasn't been that much to choose from. Likewise oz - s14 and (to a much greater extent) the wrx dominated the ('cheap') sports market in the mid to late 90s. But japan - do I really need to state what is (was) available? (you've already listed a small sample).

They are. It's just your perception.

you can also bash around in the links section (it's a sticky) - there's lots of skyline owner links down the bottom (including the SWAT link that rezz provided) - there's bound to be something in there also - learn how to use the car sales sites that are listed (car sensor, etc) - there you can check for new stagea sale listings and so on

If it was me, I would put a nice curve in the tail, and put the kanji inside that space - but it it would take a bit of work to do it right

okay, re: kanji - apparently the one I posted is a simplified form - somewhere down the line they decided it was easier to make a 10 stroke kanji (as opposed to continually writing a 17 stroke one). This is quite common - having an original ('difficult') kanji, and a later, modified version ('easy')

Bl4cK32: that IS one kanji - thus can only be written that way As far as I know, this is the more common kanji - But both have the exact same reading 'ryuu' (dragon) Just guessing (I'd have to ask), but perhaps the one you posted is a chinese character that was directly copied (and in use) by the japanese (I personally think the one you posted is more elegant) the pics you have been posting are modern designs - taking the traditional and given it a 'tribal' makeover - they are relatively common though (and easy for any decent tattoist to do - no shading required, just outline and fill-in) chinese vs japanese? haha, not my area of expertise - I'd have to ask him. The japanese have a story (maybe it comes from the chinese, I'm not sure) - something along the lines of a carp who swam back up a river and, to climb a waterfall, was changed into a dragon - which is one of the reasons that carp are often used - and often the carp and the dragon are merged (transformation pose) myself, being a keen fisherman in australia, I could never get a dirty old carp tattooed on me!! but I've been trying to think of a way to incorporate a dragon into the side of my oni tattoo (though, to be culturally accurate, it should be a tiger, not a dragon)

He could do whatever you wanted - my design is primarily based on a noren (curtain!) that a friend had in his house. I took a pic of that, along with some pics I had of local demon drummers - he whipped me up a sketch, then that got carved into my arm with big frickin' needles I wanted something unique, though. If you didn't want to do that, or make your own sketch, there are plenty of traditional images to choose from

my tattoo artist has been to quite a few conventions overseas - he told me a story about one guy he met who had a kanji tattoo - he had to sadly inform the guy that the meaning of the kanji wasn't quite what he may have thought it was (can't remember the exact kanji, but it roughly translated to 'menopause' or something similar!)

btw, the guy I know does fantastic traditional dragons - he did one of the nicest dragon tattoos I've ever seen (and it was on a gaijin) - including a section near the tail which had an amazingly intricate temple (sorry, don't have a pic - should have taken one though) like any tattooist here, his main source of income is via the yakuza - so he is a master of all the favourites - dragons, carp (+carp turning into dragons - which is how the story goes...), cherry blossums, geisha, and so on does a pretty good oni too

peace ('heiwa') is two kanji - but they're instantly recognisable - I think the meaning would be obvious I quite like the kanji, too

it's funny you should post that tsunami print (which is by hokusai, btw) - I toyed with the idea of using that as the background for an upper arm sleeve - didn't end up going that far though (kinda wish I did) if you want some real japanese work done - I can hook you up if you are willing to come all the way here! I can see why rezz added that disclaimer - japanese is a language that relies heavily on context - if I saw that on you, I'd interpret it directly as 'inner self's strength' - which would make me think WTF? But that's partly because I've seen more than a few dopey kanji on gaijin (some hilarious ones, actually) If I were you, I would look for something with similar meaning (to you), but which could be expressed in a single kanji (though nothing springs to mind). Thanks for posting that btw, rezz, nice to learn a little new vocab (inner self - naimen) I actually considered a kanji tattoo - and went through about 800 kanji trying to find something that I could relate to (failed!) - but was finally discouraged when my tattoo artist told me that kanji tattoos are seen as a little silly in japan - of course, they love seeing all the gaijin who have complete babble carved into them. On the flipside, if you go through the tattoo mags here, they are full of baka nihonjin with really bad engrish tattoos tibetan kanji is quite popular here atm too (not sure what the tibetans think!) I will get a small section of kanji done before I leave - but not now - don't want any of the locals laughing at me!

$16 million??? It's nearly A$70million atm and, yes, I've already looked.

off the top of my head, the degree is one of the things req for a specialist visa - though you might want to look into that

An area in my prefecture was recently (during the rainy season) hit by some of the worst flooding in recent history (in japan) - I know of people who literally had to swim out of their apartments. So it's a bit of an ongoing issue this year - the downside, is it will probably result in more rivers and mountainsides being coated in concrete - even where it is not needed - which is an even bigger problem here. A friend of mine picked up a great bargain due to the floods - he paid next to nothing for a very nice chevy (suburban - it's massive!) - unfortunately it was a bargain because the previous owner had to sell it recoup losses from the flooding (he lost several other cars) - natural disaster insurance is optional in japan, and a lot of people will get hit hard.

here we go again...

it's supposed to hit my area between 11pm-3am tonight - with winds well in excess of the last one (!)

what's next? perhaps the coldest winter in 50 years...

btw, was amazed to see how small the toyota was - which is what got me motivated in doing some reading about it

Yes, I do know what they are worth - I did a little research after I saw it - as I wasn't familiar with the history of the car. I actually thought it was a z car at first - but I was right behind it, so there is no doubt. They go for well over A$100k here. I see a much more expensive 360 modena all the time - so I guess it's all relative. The 360 is by no means rare or old, but it's sure as hell a weird car to see cruising by the rice paddies in the middle of nowhere. This is another oddity I saw (just two weeks ago, rolling off the car ferry) - again, not rare, or old, but a sight to behold: mitsuoka le-seyde