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You fellaz would be paying for the risk of being involved in a crash more than theft though. Where i stayed in japan there was a spun out rice patty grandma crash every second day, well with roads as wide as a foot path u'd expect so aye. They were pretty honest where I stayed. I asked and no1 i knew had ever had their car broken into. more than i can say 4 my freinds in oz.

Yeah, having an accident is probably the main reasons insurance premuims are as high as they are. Theft is extremely rare here, but having said that there are numerous organised gangs who go around targeting certain types of cars (mainly celsiors, landcruisers and of course, GTR's :P)

Yeah, having an accident is probably the main reasons insurance premuims are as high as they are. Theft is extremely rare here, but having said that there are numerous organised gangs who go around targeting certain types of cars (mainly celsiors, landcruisers and of course, GTR's :D)

LOL Osaka is the worst place in Japan apparently... Only took me TWO WEEKS of living here to have my Bride seat, my jack, and ALL my tools stolen :rofl: that was roughly 100k yen worth! so I dunno I dont feel as though my car is that much safer than back home.

Dave....yeh ok lets swap....insurance bills that is. 9000 Yen a month....you don't know how lucky you are!L:D

Mr. paizuri(nice name!)....nothing to do with theaft...they don't steel cars in Ibaraki, they crash into them! 285 year old farmers with kei car pick ups driving like they were the only people on the road. Mothers more interested in answering mail messages on their mobiles rather than driving their 2 ton MPVs properly(well actually thats 80% of drivers in Japan!). More old people driving their NC300 or Celsiors at 30 km/h everywhere while sleeping at the wheel...or just general ignorance once behind the wheel! Sometime its shocking what you see people do on roads!

Theft is not a problem, where I live at least, I leave the car open with the keys inside half the time. The only stuff they steal around here its bicycles. Cars are stolen in Tokyo and other cities.

Dave is consistently extolling the virtues of country living... I'm almost hooked on the idea.

You know you want to ;) ;) Forget fast paced and hectic city life, where people fight over standing space in trains, traffic moves slower than a car without wheels and rents are astronomical! :D :D

re: insurance - I'm thinking of changing to a "low usage" insurance premium - I've heard "low usage" is usually under 10,000km/year so I should fall way below that. In the 14 months I've had the R34 I've just about racked up 7,000km!

Country living was way less hectic. plenty of pros and cons but if u want a car then surly country (not too country) would be ideal. I wasn't that interested back then but come to think of it there were so many good drif spots where i was. actually being a foreigner in a country town in a sports "drift" car u'd be recognised and busted in no time, oh well theres always the next town over...

Daytime, very, very rarely. I do draw a lot of attention though - a foreigner in a rural area driving a bayside blue R34.

At night it's a different story - I get a lot of people trying it on. Trouble is, though I hate to admit it, my car is more show than go (essentially stock N/A R34) so I'm not the fastest thing on the roads by any means ;)

Having said that, I can honestly say I've never lost a race yet...though this might be due to me picking races very carefully ;)

Don't really get challenged too often. There is this guy with a silver M3 I seem to meet a few times a month on the same road....still hasn't learned not to bother after being humiliated! I get people on the fast lane of the Joban expressway trying it on often...I had a hell of a race with a 355 once...that was so much fun...proper hooligan driving but in the end I got him....no way that asthmatic V8 can pack speed as fast as the RB!!:) He didn't look too happy:D Other than that its either S500/fast Mercs or Celsiors with Shinagawa plates that usually drive fast.

Apart from this I tent to find that most people with tuned sports cars drive rather sensibly on the roads. Or maybe most people know not to bother against a GTR! You never know what people have done to their engines here

just a bit off topic, you won't see many speed cameras there; At lease in Nagasaki / Sasebo, while I was back there visited my in-law, there is a express way not far from house, at night, you can hear those hight speed passing, and I have a chance whore in my brother in law's Cefiro, and got challenges on the Expressway..that was very exciting experience..

You never know what people have done to their engines here

That's true. Last weekend I went upto my local circuit to check out the action. On the way there, I was cruising at a steady (but quick) pace along the country roads when this minicar (Suzuki) blasts past me. Right, I'm not having that and figured I'd blast past him just to show him who's boss like :(

But damned he was quick! And not just around the twisties - even on an uphill straight he was rocketing along, and all this from what should be a 660cc turbo motor...I got him in the end, but I have to hand it to the guy, he's got one quick minicar.

  • 3 weeks later...

Just to add another direction to this thread... :rofl: ... what's the ratio of performance/sports cars to family/normal cars in Japan? Is it like australia where's there's oodles of falcadores or are 80% of Japanese complete car nuts? :rofl:

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