Streeter

not sure if its already been said but tattoos are kind of frowned upon here. Alot of the onsens wont let you in if you have tattoos coz they think its bad character!! I dunno maybe coz yaks always have tattoos and shit. LOL Atleast thats the way it was in Kochi. But I notice in Osaka alot more of the girls and guys have little ones like back home, so I dunno. maybe its not so bad in bigger cities. Any input on that Rezz?

lol sound just like me. I was in IT for about 6 years before nearly dieing of boredom and making the jump. My only regret is that I didnt do this 5 years earlier! As for accomodation as previously mentioned most organisations will set that up for you. If you are only staying for a year or so its *usually* better to stay with them, for reasons already stated ie. key money, having to furnish the apartment, no giagin rules etc. You will be paying more than the normal rent for the area with a company apartment though (atleast with Nova anyway.) I had the missus and was moving city so didnt have their accomodation as an option. I had to arrange the accomodation while passing through Osaka to Kansai Airport on a trip back home. I have spoken to other ppl in the area and it seems that I am just RIDICULOUSLY unlucky. I have been here for only 5 months and have had alot of problems, while other people have been here for 20 years with no issues at all. I think its the same back home though, if you have something that other people want you will have trouble sooner or later.

Sumiyoshi ward, Yamanouchi. Apparently the neighbouring ward is Nishinari which is famous for being one of the worst and the crime spills over here a fair bit Ofcourse when you have 4 hours in a city to organise accomodation its pretty tricky to sus this kind of stuff out AND score a good deal lol

sorry off topic - they want revenge after what he was doing/did? If you ask me he should have been tortured to death. He got it too easy. I am so over spineless cowards who prey on weaker ppl... they all deserve a slow painful death. Atleast the woman got the satisfaction of killing the bastard! on topic - Sciby, yeah if you are even vaguely thinking about it, you have to come over!! I first came over because I was interested in the drift scene and wanted to have a go in the real place with the real guns of the sport. Now I am married and cant see myself returning to aus anytime soon, aslong as no more nasty surprises (ie crime) pop up.

lol no joke... they will be scared. If I wave at little kids they some times burst into tears!! hahahaha I dont think you will have to worry about muggings etc but I wouldnt leave anything lying around in Osaka thats for sure!

Umm to tell you the truth some pretty horrible stuff happened just recently and I would prefer not to go into it I feel safe as I am about 6 foot and about 75kg... LOL I know that aint big but it is for here, plus being a gaigin you are labled as a bit of a looney. But yeah lets just say my wife doesnt feel safe at all anymore. not to mention I have had a heap of stuff stolen from my car, and before you assume I was leaving valuables in the car I am talking about unbolting and stealing my bride seat!!! RRRRr also my scooter got its ignition key all mashed coz some prick was trying to pick the lock. Luckily they failed but still now the ignition lock is all screwy worst thing is all of the crime I have experienced is with in a 200metre radius of my house! the car and the scooter where parked at home! And yeah Osaka has the highest rate of theft etc in Japan... or so the cops say

I started in Kochi on Shikoku Island about a year ago. Its not such a bad place but as I think you mentioned in one of your other posts about country towns/areas it is really dead during the week and to get any real action you need to head to a big city (which is easier said than done when you are on a small island!!) lol but I am now in Osaka and have been for the past 4-5 months. Alot more fun here but must of really lucked out with the area as crime is pretty bad here

I asked to be placed in Osaka, greater Osaka, Kobe, Nara, Kyoto anywhere near Kansai. I end up in Kochi about 6 hours away on another furken island!!! edit* BTW I forgot to mention they didnt tell me this fact till one week before I was leaving and had already quit my job and booked my airline ticket. NOT HAPPY JAN! I also have work mates who wanted Tokyo and are in Osaka. I think your preference is pretty far down on their list of whats important. You can transfer though but it usually takes some time. Akeenan you were damn lucky!

OK just to be a little different from every one else posting... I live in Osaka and find that this whole dont lock doors and no crime thing just aint the case. I used to live in Richmond Melbourne which is pretty bad for crime. And I think its about the same here, if not worse. Nova will employ you as part time IF you have atleast one year of tertiary education, that is either uni or TAFE. As for Nova and your preference Pffft put down where you DONT want to go coz that way you wont end up being there!! LOL

Revhead - exactly, but didnt think it would have to be spelled out quite so blatantly... obviously I am mistaken. LOL @ Bendertiger, took me a good 10 mins to figure out WTF he was talking about. Starting of calling me a piece of shit and then saying that police shouldnt concentrate on speed!?!? Maybe I am becoming too Japanese or something but when I hear road "toll" I think 700 yen for the express way not the number of deaths on the road or maybe its just that I am not seeing those lovely TAC ads on the tv every 10 mins. 4150 - 800k for that little bingle at the front!?!?!? god dammit why doesnt anyone hit me! I could really use some cash for mods atm. I put the sil into a cliff wall about 6 months ago and wrecked, tension rod, lower control arm, rim, 1/4 panel, front bar, headlight, bonnet, sump, indicator plus various other bits. Back on the road in 6 hours and for 15k yen (4k yen of that was oil I had to replace when I fit the next sump). 800k DAYEM they must coat things with gold or something or perhaps I am in the qrong business, how much does a panel beater make here!?

No.17 B110 sunny

Meh you guys are a worse bunch of whingers than even me!!! road deaths arent THAT bad... I find it really interesting that the shocking amount of brain washing the australian government has been doing has actually even got car enthusiasts believing!!! Pffft speeding fines... what a joke, man if you cant see that is just a blatant revenue raiser you got issues I LOVE driving in Japan! its SOOOO much more relaxing knowing that you arent going to be pulled up for doing absolutely NOTHING and given fines and defects from power tripping cops. You need to keep a look out for a little more "unorthodox" driving styles from time to time but you also dont have to worry about road raging ****heads either. So yeah give me Osaka roads any day of the week over Melbourne roads. 4150 - OI! leave us scooter boys alone! we can only do 60k odd so we need to make up for the lack of top end by making sure we never slow down! TonyGTST - Generally the "wog" element isnt nearly as bad here. Japanese seem to prefer actions over words so generally (at least in terms of drifting) they are light years ahead of aussies, they have had a fair bit more practice though.

Ahh yes but Im cooo Gaigin drifter with leet skilz Nah but seriously they seem to be pretty interested if a gaigin rocks up with a sil and can actually drift... In Shikoku there was NO other gaigin drifters at all! Even in a big place like Osaka I have only ever seen one other white guy drifting and he is uber noob.

As I am a completely shit drifter compared to him and the rest of club tinker I thought I would play it cool when I talked to him... Saying shit like "Oh really you are D1? What car do you drive?, I dont really watch much D1" and never asking for photographs etc coz when he is out at the street meets he seems a lil agitated by constant picstures and nobodies coming up to talk to him. The only reason I have really got in with the group is coz I have been talking to / hanging out with one of his old students Keiske.

I think I have got my contacts pretty much sussed now... took me a lil while. I am currently hanging out with Bai and his mob. Bai is the D1 Orange Signal 180 driver. Funny guys too. Still extra track hoes cant hurt :aroused:

BOVS are ghey... best thing I ever did was throw it in the bin.

ummm yeah thats about right... but your forgetting that both the 180s here would be better than the one back home LOL

heh I stacked in Kochi mountains a while back and the car was undrivable anyway the others continued to drift and eventually the distant sound of cop sirens could be heard EEek My girl friend was in the car and my car was off the side of the road kind of in a run off area so it wasnt easily visible from the main road. The cops eventually came flying past after the other drifters who had left a few minutes beforehand. PHEW BUT about 10 mins later we see headlights coming back... oh crap! and sure enough it was the toyota crown patrol car that went past earlier he saw us and pulled over. My japanese is totally rooted so I just handed over my International license (that they had never seen before) and my girlfriend said that I was Gaigin and was star gazing and didnt see a turn and thats why I crashed. They didnt have any proof? so they said please be careful and dont make too much noise when you leave, good night! I LUURRRRV jap cops. Cmon, s13 with cage and mismatched rims pranged up on a notorious drift mountain and they reply with please be quiet when you leave and good night!!! Hahhaah At Nanko (industrial drift spot) the cops regularly come and have there lights flashing but I am yet to see anyone fined. Last wednesday I was in 2nd gear doin choku dori up the road when a toyota echo cop car pulled out from a factory!!! I thought furk now Im gonna get it... I stopped drifting but kept driving and the echo didnt even follow!? WEIRD Just a side note I came back to Aus in Feb for 2 weeks. After 6 days of driving I get pulled up driving UNDER the limit doing nothing wrong. (car was a lowered 180 though) and I end up with about $400 in fines and a defected car! Dix to ever coming back to Aus again! Japan is the best

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 that was roughly 100k yen worth! so I dunno I dont feel as though my car is that much safer than back home.

Oh Italy... where the men like men and the women have moustaches! yeah I think I know the place The point I was trying to make is that no one uses it BTW :jk: means joke doesnt it?

Nah I drift badly so dont really care about the paint job... the more shiny and clean the car is the more guilty I feel when I put another dent in it. I do have a soft spot for white cars with vented carbon hoods though.

Enough so that a poor arse like me is just really careful around other cars Hitting a pole or wall is ok coz my whole car cost less than 5k aud

What is Italian? Oh yeah does it go something like this?? "Fully shick coolah re`, Ma cuzz haz one cept bigger on hish VL" Hrrrm maybe thats Greek, So who speaks Italian? hehehe :jk:

If you could donate a video camera maybe I could do something about that... most of the areas are really dark so cameras arent much use

Yeah I was talking to a couple of people about this "lockdown" doesnt sound too pleasant. Apparently it is treated as tresspassing (20k yen fine) because the road is closed plus its marked on your permanent record (I dont know how much people will care about someone being on a closed road though!?) Not sure on this logic as I would have thought they would have preferred drifting to stay on closed roads rather than open public ones?? but I guess they need to sting you for something. Then they check the car to see if its blatantly out of Shaken spec. (I should be safe there) I would be all for taking it to the track but am seriously low on funds at the moment and I came to Japan to drift so I see it as a calculated risk that has to be taken or whats the point of me being here at all?