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You're friends with this guy? I sure hope he's not going to screw you over. Check out this link, pretty interesting read about japimportsusa http://forums.skylinesdownunder.co.nz/show...ight=japimports

Yeah that's about what my wife said as well, something along those lines. Seeing that tach gave me flashbacks to my old Cefiro

I've driven quite a few, mostly loaner cars. One loaner Suzuki Alto from Autobacs died on me in another Autobacs parking lot, got a free ride in the managers LanEvo III out of it. All the others I didn't have a problem with at all. For the most part they suprisingly had a lot of pep, they were all little death traps though and I was scared sh!tless to take them above 100. I'd still love to have one as a daily driver though, awsome gas milage and I would love to drive something I don't have to care about and can park anywhere without fear of someone screwing up the paintwork.

I'm actually in Zama, one of Sagamihara's neighboring citys. I guess the best way to describe which part is on RT 42 right off RT 16. Machida eh? my J-Wife wife always drags me over there to go shopping.

Sagamihara, right around 15km from Yokohama. Of course it takes around 30-45 min to drive those 15km's. I kinda miss living up north where it wasn't so crowded, I envy you guys living in remote areas...sometimes.

Been sleeping on a futon since I got here, my back is really screwed up and it's pretty much the only thing I can sleep on these days. It's the same reason I put a nice stiff Recaro in the car, the factory R33 seats were killing my back on long trips.

1: The inability of the vast majority of Japanese to be able to “think outside the box”. 2: Text message zombies, meaning people who write emails on their mobiles wherever they are, be it in their car while driving/causing traffic or walking aimlessly down the road almost getting hit by myself. 3:Traffic lights, very very poor timing. 4: Staring, yes this does get annoying at times, sometimes on the train I seek out people staring at me and do the same thing right back at them. It's funny watching their reaction. 5: Racism, of course this exists everywhere in the world but me being a white male from a predominantly white area of the United States who has never experienced racism against my own kind made this a real eye opener. This really is just scratching the surface of what I hate, after nearly ten years in this country I've found many things to dislike, however there still is no other place I'd rather be in the world.

I love those wheels, a guy I work with just got a set in bronze for his White R33 GT-R. Oh his didn't come with center caps either and he bought them new, not sure if that's an option or not.

A couple bad photos I took with my mobile during lunch, I really need to take some newer pics of her with my digital camera. A photo of my old Cefiro thrown in too, kinda miss it

Nice car man, I so much wanted to get one of those but I couldn't justify the price to the wife Here's a few pics I snapped with my mobile of a 4 door GT-R I saw a little while ago.

A good bit of that went towards replacing the airbags and everything related to them, the passenger airbag ripped the dash pad and broke the windscreen when it went off also. New parts for a SII Skyline from Nissan aren't cheap, no junkyard parts for me when I'm not paying Honestly those pics don't really show the amount of damage that was done, took about a month for the shop to get her back on the road.

I just dropped it off earlier today, the estimate is 353,000 Yen. For new parts they will be replacing the bumper cover, bumper braces, bumper support, taillamp assys, taillamp center panel, boot lid, and a bunch of other misc stuff. The parts list was almost two pages long :blah: I should get it back in 5-7 days. I ended up taking it to a Nissan dealership, the place I wanted to take it to is closed for remodeling now I really dont trust any of the other bodyshops around here to do the job right on collision damage like this so the dealership was the next best option, I'm sure I could have gotten it done somewhere else cheaper but I'm not paying so....

Yes it does, but considering the alternative it's a better option. Any type of discounts you may have gotten from your insurance company are pretty much gone anyway once you've made them pay out money so really there is no point with staying with that company. I'd much rather start out with zero points than than renew my current policy in the negative.

You're right, if you know where to go getting the odd panel repainted here and there really isn't too expensive. However since I'm going to take advantage of my full coverage insurance I'm taking it to the same place I had my front end damage repaired, really expensive but the quality they do is top notch. Just like last time I'm going to demand that new parts from Nissan are used, that's going to bump the price up. One bit of advice for you guys that don't know is to change your insurance companies when you're up for renewel after you've gotten in an accident, the Japanese insurance companies don't have a "blacklist" going around or communicate with other companies so they have no way of knowing if you have made any claims or had any accidents. That's exactly what I did after my first accident and actually ended up getting better rates with my current company. That's a crazy ass story Evo, hopefully that guy got some kind of a ticket. But then again Japanese police can be kind of lazy about giving out tickets sometimes, back when I was living up north I got pulled over for doing around 120 in a 50 on a country road in the middle of nowhere. I faked that I couldn't speak any Nihongo so he got frustrated and pointed at my speedo and said "safety driving, ok?!?" to which I replied "ok!" with a thumbs up He then hopped on his bike and drove away

I'm pretty sure it's going to be a pretty high bill, the insurance company is going to love me. The lady who actually caused the accident said she would pay the repairs for both cars out of her pocket, but seeing as how she is too cheap to buy insurance for herself I'll have my insurance company go after her. This isn't the first time I've gotten hit by an idiot driver, about two years ago I got hit by an old man who came into my lane while trying to pass a car. 800,000 Yen in damages, had to replace the dash, windshield, airbags, Trust oil cooler, 1 rim, and a bunch of other stuff besides the obvious front end damage. Lucky for him he just missed the FMIC. I'll let you guys know how much it costs, here's some pics from my first accident. I'm sure you all know what I think of Japanese drivers now

While we're on the subject of driving skills in Japan here's what happened to me a couple hours ago. I was stopped in the left lane waiting to pull into my driveway on the right side for a good ten seconds when a car decided to hit the car waiting behind me which caused them to run into my rear. Here's the good news, neither of the drivers had any insurance and one of the cars shaken had been expired for two years! Looks like full coverage is going to pay off. The boot lid wont stay closed now, gotta duct tape it down....... :cuss: Both of the drivers got rides home from the police and their cars towed away since they had no insurance/shaken so that made me feel a little better. I'm looking forward to driving/beating a rental for the next couple weeks. Sorry...just had to vent..

Looks good man, I'd like to know as well. Looks like a really easy install. I'm seriously thinking of getting this half mask for my R33, only 28,000 yen and since the company is in Yokohama I can just go pick it up http://www.big-win.com/main_f-aero_ecr33.html Opinions? it's either this or I'm going to try and find a factory SII front lip.

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned the scooter/moped drivers who seem to think laws of the road don't apply to them. I managed to take one out a few months ago at the expense of a door mirror and a Buddy Club rim. I was taking a left turn in the left lane with my turn signal on well in advance into a parking lot and this little bastard decides he wants to try to pass me by going all the way over to the left side, it didn't work out and I got to see him flying through the air and land on the sidewalk. Luckilly for both of us he was okay with the exception of a cut up finger so he grabbed his scooter and hauled ass, on the bright side I talked the wife into letting me get a set of aero mirrors to replace what was broken off. I'm suprised I hadn't hit one of them sooner, I've had plenty of close calls with these idiots since I've returned to Yokohama, never really had a problem with them up north.

I'm still in the Navy, it's a good stable job and I have a family I need to support. That and it's given me the chance to stay in Japan for so long Yeah my rents pretty damn expensive, we love our house though. Our neighbourhood consists mainly of old people as well and a few young couples, we've done our best to try and get away from all the other Gaijin in the area. I wish I had a garage ah well at least I have my own driveway, some people don't even have that.

That's very true, the Japanese are famous for jacking the price up for Gaijin, when I was living up in northern Japan the usual price increase over a Japanese was an additional 20,000-30,000 Yen. Down here in Yokohama I'm paying 169,000 Yen a month in rent on a new three bedroom house. Cheap housing can be had though if you look around, of course you usually get what you pay for though. My employer reimburses me the money I pay for rent so I wasn't overly concerned with finding a cheap place to live, rather I found the nicest place I could for the maximum price they would reimburse me for. As far as food if you know where to shop you can get by quite cheaply, my wife is an extreme penny pincher and knows when everything is going to be on sale at whichever markets. Buying certain fruits and vegetables out of season is a big no-no. Transportation for me is pretty simple since I'm only about 5 km's from work, the screwed up thing is that it takes me 5-10 minutes to drive there in the morning(leave at 5:30am) and about 20-30 minutes to get home depending on what time I leave work. I should probably just ride a bike but I'm too lazy, that and I'm a late riser. When I was living in Yokohama the first time(got here in '95) I'd either take the bus or sometimes use the train, either way it came out to around 700 Yen for a round trip since I really didn't live too far away. What made me come over here? no choice really. I joined the US Navy in '94 and got stationed in Japan in Jan '95, hated it at first but then I met my wife and decided to stay. I spent my first four years in Yokohama and then I moved up by Aomori in northern Japan, I just moved back to the Yokohama area a little over a year ago. I'll probably be leaving here in '06 or '07, not by choice however.

-Boot is way too small, I can fit a stroller in there and that's about it. -Plastic lenses on headlamp assemblies tend to yellow with age, I ended up replacing mine since they were yellowing on the inside also. That's about all I can think of, anything else I didn't like I ended up upgrading anyway. All in all it's an excellent car, I've had zero problems with it. I needed a newer replacement for my "family car" A31 Cefiro and a SII GTS25t 4-door fit the bill perfectly.

Here's my 25t with 17" P1's

I lived up in northern Japan near Aomori for three years and they never salted the roads, hell we were lucky if they actually plowed the roads. As a result most of the roads were covered with packed snow and once it starts to melt it's like driving on a road covered with potholes, great way to screw up your suspension I like most people just got a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks thrown on junkyard Silvia alloys and never really had much of a problem getting around. I'm just glad my old Cefiro had an LSD, really made a difference.

That would be http://www.engrish.com Here's another site that I frequent a lot, lots of news and a BBS where all the gaijin can bitch about Japan. Yeah the URL makes it look like a porn site but it isn't. http://www.****edgaijin.com *edit* the swear-filter removed f u c k from the address.

They exist, not in too great of numbers but I have seen them out there. A friend of mine had a low KM completely original green R32 GTS four door, I looked it over top to bottom and it was a factory paint job.