Rezz

Just dead links all around the place. Not a big operation I'd imagine, but yeah, some kind of tuning Garage. I believe they got involved in motorsports (including motorcycles) and did some minor sponsorship of an event or two.

No I didn't, I said: I was actually referring to the people who are like me - at a crossroads - but decide to stay in Japan knowing full well that there are things that make them uneasy that have to go ignored in order to continue living there. I can name 3 guys in my social circle right now who are like this. I don't condone that course of action, they are indifferent to it, so I leave it at that. Keep digging mang because I've never had an IT career LOL! In fact, I came to SAU almost 3 years after I arrived in Japan. By that stage I think I was totally brainwashed to the 'good side' of Japan, the complete opposite of how I feel about it now. Being 30 years old doesn't help either. The Anpanman theme song. Period.

I believe it's a club of some sort, as opposed to a workshop. They *did* have a website but it has since been taken down. Just some GT-R club... and yes, during it's first 3 years, your car has probably been thrashed within an inch of it's warranty

It's funny, the moment I hook up with someone who *actually* gets out and drifts regularly in Osaka (ie: Streeter), I suddenly have no inclination to go to any illegal drift. I've been there a few times and... well... yeah. It maybe hard for you guys in Australia or wherever to understand, but Japan isn't 'all that' as far as I'm concerned. ^^^Hehehehe... I'm starting to sound exactly what most Japanese students say when their motorsports-mad English teacher first asks them about illegal drift and drag in Japan: Teacher: "Hey Yuki, do you know about do-ri-fu-to?" Student: "Do-ri-fu-to? Ah yes... are you hashiriya? HAHAHAHA!" Teacher: "Yeah, I like Japanese sports cars." Student: "Heeeeeee.... are you yanki? HAHAHAHAHA!!" Teacher: "Well... I like drift." Student: "Do-ri-fu-to? Heeeeee.... ano... why you like drift?" Teacher: "It's fun and it tests my skill as a driver." Student: "It's not cool YO!" Student: "Are you yanki? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!" :Oops:

lol, try 'every time' mang... well, when considering my future that is...

Are you Australian born and bred? What stupid laws are you refering to? Not the vehicle importation laws surely??? If so, I couldn't care less about that.

Lol, I was going to continue this diary thing, but theres too many replies... messes up the 'flow'. Anyways, thanks for all your advice, but really, I *have* thought long and hard about this, and I know Australia isn't exactly the place for cool tax systems and logical laws... but it's home, thats where my immediate family lives so thats all there is to it. The guys that have decided to stay in Japan indefinately generally all put blinkers on to the bad side of Japan (not ignore, just... not aknowlege) and yeah... thats what you have to do in order to stay there indefinately as far as I'm concerned. As for the guys that constantly complain and don't leave, well they are as stupid as they sound. So I'm not going to change my mind, Japan is not for me anymore. Sure, they've got some good things going, but there are as many bad things aswell. If I have to choose a place to live and get screwed by the government, I'd rather be in a place where I could at least understand the language and not have the indirect racism and other asscociated bullsh!t.

Today, Wednesday 15th June, 2005: Came to work to day wanting to pick up my much needed salary (having just come back from 2 weeks in Germany) but no dice... this is hopeless. All I want to do is just make a budget, plan an exit date and stick to it. I think thats one of the reasons why some foreigners stay in Japan WAAAAY past their 'used by date' so to speak, it's because they just can't bring themselves to ultimately change their lives *again*... I mean, they've already done that once by coming here. The salary being late is just making me more curious as to our schools real financial position aswell. Hmmmm. Is it just me, or has the number of hard-tuned cars decreased in Osaka??? Haha, I can't believe I asked that, because any Japanese resident in their right mind would know mini-vans rule the show now. To be honest, thats why I skipped the Tokyo Auto Salon this year, I just couldn't justify the expense of going all that way just to see the Makuhari Messe filled 80% with modded mini-vans, SUV's and other FF paraphenalia with hydraulics and huge stereo systems. And besides, I really don't think theres much of a future for 'decent' affordable performance cars anymore. Honda, Toyota and Nissan can do their best, but the vibe here in Japan (where I am) is like the life has been sucked out. Hearing that (originally) TBO, Buddy Club, SSR and even Bomex going bankrupt doesn't give me much hope. I know the Japanese car industry is huge, and as many new companies are opening up as the ones that are closing down, but it just demostrates the fragility of the industry now... although no Japanese guy worth his weight would admit it. Oh, I also handed in my notice today, so the guys at work are a bit suprised, I'm like the 'veteran' teacher here and some of the less experienced guys might get cold feet as a result. "Had enough of Japan have you?" asked our accountant. "No... well.... aaaaah...... ye......s...... kinda".

Fast forward, Monday, 13th June, 2005: Snniiiiifff.... whats that smell? Summer in Japan, well, extremely humid 'rainy season' first, then an extremely humid (and hot) summer. Yeah, just makes you wanna bust out with some Beach Boys tunes on the way to *cough* Suma *cough* "beach". Not looking forward to it, although I do prefer summer to winter thats for sure. Why do seemingly intelligent students ask that 'ol chestnut "are there 4 seasons in your country?" How can you reply to that??? "Aaaahh, yes, we have 4 seasons, in fact we actually have 5, if you include the silly season...", to which they reply "Heeeeeeeeeee! (pronounced 'heh')" in utter disbelief. Haha. Speaking of students, I had to teach a 'travel class' to one, she's quite cute actually (shes going to Canada you Canuks! Vancouver lads be on the lookout from August) and it just involves doing role-plays at Immigration, Sucurity check, customs etc... nothing special. The odd thing was is that she can't speak A WORD of English, and she's never been out of Japan!!! Now she's going on a 3 month study abroad program to Canada. Geez I hope she's ok over there. I'm not saying our Canadian friends are untrustworthy, it's just that Canada is so different to Japan. I don't think she realizes what she's in for... 21 years old too. But I can't feel responsible for these guys anymore. I think thats part of my problem. After 5 years of 'looking after' the students, I just don't wanna be involved anymore... not in this school, not in any school. I just don't care anymore what they do.

Read on guys, all will be 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrevealed'. Friday 10th June, 2005: Got into work at 11am (usually start at 12 - 1pm *sigh*) for a meeting. Not just any meeting though, the owner of our schools wants to sell up everything and offer 'after-support' (sounds like Japlish doesn't it?) at 20% of monthly takings. Hmmmm. He wants to get out too... a bit of that going around then. Funny though because the schools are doing really well, all posting decent monthly profits - which increased for 12 consecutive months during 2004. I'm not implying that the private English school industry is about to falter (hence the owner wanting to sell) but that the industry - in Osaka at least - seems 'stale'... whereas we used to get alot of serious students all wanting 850+ TOEIC scores etc, now it seems we just mainly teach English for students 'as a hobby', with no real impetus to do anything with it. Damn, I really should take my camera out with me every day now... I missed a golden oportunity tonight: a huge crowd of people, maybe 200 or more, have just reached the top of the steps having just got off at Umeda (Midosuji subway line). Enter an extremely drunk 'salaryman' - his suit and tie all scraggly and slightly dirty, he must've fallen down a few times already - walks to the top of the staircase just as the 200 people are walking the other way. Then we stops, crouches over, then BARFS his 15,000 yens worth of sake and okonomiyaki at the top of the stairs SCATTERING people left and right, all wanting to avoid getting vomit spashed on them. The odd thing was is that some people did indeed get splashed, yet they didn't even flinch, they just kept going their merry way. Some other people who were about to step in said vomit patch just stopped, and stood there staring at the vomit, wondering how to negotiate such an obstacle... 'go around it' maybe??? NAAAAAAH. To logical... lets just stand here and look dumbfounded instead. But as all this was going on, people from the back started pushing and shoving, ending up in the dumbfounded people who failed to react in time being pushed into the vomit patch, ruining their generic Hikari Shopping business shoes. The above story just reiterated the Japanese term 'hito gomi' literally meaning 'people trash' but in use it means 'crowds'. That term always made me chuckle, but it really does - in a sad but true way - describe the situation in Japan where masses of people gather... anyone remember the 50-odd old people and children who were crushed to death in the Akashi end-of-summer fireworks displays back in 2001? Those people perished solely because people were in a hurry to get back to their cars or the train station. 'Hito gomi' may not be used in everyday Japanese, but it does exist, and it's one of the things that I'd rather not be in close contact with.

Hi everyone, here's my blow by blow report of the dreaded 'Sayonara Japan' saga I'm about to go through. Thursday, 9th June, 2005: Today was just the same as every other day for the last 6 months... or years? I had a 2 hour break between classes today, so I was able to just reminisce about what I've done in the last year or so - went to Central Circuit, went to Osaka Auto Messe, went to Ti Circuit for the Nismo Festival etc etc etc. But what about everything else? Besides motorsport and car culture events, I'm basically just teaching the same old students the same old English lessons... hardly what I call 'interesting'. At home, it's just watch all the English channels on cable. Who needs Japanese TV? Even if I could understand everything, it's still whacky and dare I say - annoying? Going out at night isn't actually a babe goldmine either. Once your beer goggles are off, the girls that you *actually* want to speak to (ie: intelligent) are few and far between... the 'cutesy J-girl' thing is as overrated as Star Wars Ep III. I've got to get out of here...

For Sale: 1x Nikon D70 body, battery, 64meg mem card , PC software (Picture Project 1.0) and cables 1x Nikon AF Zoom Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6 lens 1x Nikon AF Zoom Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens 1x Nikon battery charger (100-240v) and adapter plug (JP > AU) ok for Australia, no transformer necessary. 1x NiCad/LiIon battery pack adapter, possible to use readily available batteries (CR2 type) instead of Nikons battery included. 1x LowePro camera bag, possible to fit the camera, both lenses and all accessories in except tripod. 1x VF aluminium tripod and bag, extendable to 1.5m high Everything you need for professional pics in any situation. A$1,200 (plus shipping) All equipment was bought new in March this year, need to sell as I'm moving back to Australia. If your interested, please PM me or email me at: [email protected] All equipment is as new and priced for a quick sale (no offers please). *Edit: This camera combo was bought in Japan, but the camera itself has all English menus. The manuals and software are in Japanese though. The 64meg memory card is just something I threw in to the deal, it's a Canon card actually.

So if it's not the final product, why are you criticizing it? Did you know that the 'test mule' for the V35 Skyline was actually a long-wheelbase R32 4-door? You can see it at the Nissan Prince Museum. So going along with your assumption, you could've said that the V35 looks sh!t because it's too much like an R32? lol

LOL... that pic is a TEST MULE! It's about as far removed from the final product as you can get.

ROFLMAO... check out the Japlish on the Sunline site: "Urban Spraw, you've probably never!" Yes, Bori's Factory are pretty well known in Osaka, they deal mainly with NA cars, and have a good connection with the street racing scene. I might head out there soon to have a look. Sunline on the other hand are in Okayama prefecture... near Ti Circuit kinda. Okayama is in 'Chugoku' region I think, the furthurest west Kansai goes out to is Hyogo prefecture.

SkylineBnr34: seriously, ask one of your Japanese friends, it'd be quicker than dropping scant details on here... thats is if you are indeed in Japan as your location says.

R Supo = Rear Spoiler Btw Andrew, all the places where you put 'outside' is actually 'Aftermarket'.

It's in Fu*kuoka Prefecture, Dazaifu City... I've never been to Fu*kuoka (damn swearing filters - just discard the '*') so I'm only reading of the map that M&M supply... check out this link for details: http://www.mapion.co.jp/c/f?el=130/29/59.9...33&size=500,500 (Japanese)

Btw, it 'Yoshi-DA-ya'... Couldn't find anything useful really, but I got an address: ガレージよしだや (Garage Yoshidaya) Ph: 082-927-3836 広島県広島市佐伯区利松2丁目121-3 (Hiroshima City) And this link: http://www.l-co.co.jp/times/log/04/040312/08.html to a page that just explains what they do at the garage... basically he prepares cars for club circuit events (rollcages, harnesses and other track duty equipment), general servicing and soft/medium tune modifications... nothing hardcore. In fact, he's the owner/mechanic! Only a one man band it seems. **Edit: It also seems that he's only been open since June 2003, so I dare say he *might* have records of what was done to your GT-R, but I seriously doubt it as he's such a small operation... probably does 'cashies' lol.

Was that pic taken with the worlds first 1 pixel camera phone?

I think 'per capita' (I say this having lived in Japan for what seems like an eternity) Australia has an unhealthy amount of sportscar/import lovers... with NOWHERE to go (compared to Asia/Europe) to drive their cars they way they'd like to. In Japan it's soooooooooo easy to rock up to a local skidpan or mini-circuit and pay bugger all to have an afternoon of fun, and the avenues to advance to higher levels of motorsport are plentiful... it really depends on how... big... your.......... wallet............ is. ^^^I think I just hit the nail on the head. Heheheh, as Australians are known the world over as being 'cheap', I'm not suprised that every Tom, Dick and Harry would rather take a chance with the Police than part with $30 or whatever to go down to the dragstrip or pay much more to go to the circuit... So there you go! Australian Government! Do something for the young people of Australia and open up cheap motorsports venues (mini-circuits/skidpans) where people can enter for $5!!!! That'll stop the hoons!!!

lol @ Richard... it's 'SAN-ju ni'... close though!

Btw, the stop sign with the 2 in it is just a registration sticker

Yeah, like the RAC... no mysterious stuff

Hey I'm here! I've just spent the last 2-and-a-bit weeks in Germany.