DCD

Great transformation there. Love how the black wheels look against the bodycolor. Excellent choice. Also very impressive how you fixed up the interior..looks bloody new!! Are you going to paint the front lip? Leave the mirrors black...looks really nice like that

I did a 3 car test about 2 years ago. Mitsubishi EK-Sport, Nissan Moco and Daihatsu Copen. All fun little cars to drive, Nissan the better built of the 3 but the less sporty. The EX-Sport was actually pretty damn fast!! Cornered very well for a toaster on wheels. Copen was also pretty cool but I looked like a right idiot driving it. Imagine a 190cm 95kg gaijin driving round in a Copen and you get the idea:D

yep great day hear too today...pity I've been catching up on work all day:(

Thanks Rezz:) Parag0n...I use a 10D, most of the pictures were taken with a 70-200 IS

you can see more pix on the next issue of HPI:)

A few snaps...

Although remote areas of Japan take a strong person to endure I'm still glad I don't live in dirty polluted cities like Tokyo anymore. I picked up a car from Subaru in Shinjuku yesterday, it took me 50 minutes to get to Roppongi, thats 9km. I arrest my case! You city folks can keep those places to yourselves! I'll keep my rice fields and crazy mummified retired farmers driving round in 3-ton Crown Majestas on the opposite side of the (empty!) roads:D:D:D

Nice snaps dave...wouldn't want to drive through that with the Skyline

he he, last pic is cool:D Animal porn;)

Naka-machi, Ibaraki-ken. Bumble fcuk in the middle of rice fields and about 110km from the outskirts of Tokyo.

did anyone else go? I ended up going for a 50km cycle...can't feel my balls and my legs this morning. Maybe I should have gone to Ryugasaki instead:D

What about sh1t squatting? I personally don't like people sitting like monkeys smoking yannis and drinking coffee. I guess it must be a thing to do with the Japanese anatomy as I certainly can't do it without falling over like a bowling pin:D

I was at Nismo for a business meeting today and forgot to ask info on the Nismo festival. To tell you the truth I don't think they will have anything special to show? I mean all of what Nissan has, has been shown before in past years. Maybe they will get a parade race with the most famous Nissan/Nismo cars with a good driver lineup but thats about it I think. Unless they will parade around in the production version of the new GT-R:D...but I seriously doubt that!

The fact that I can wear shorts most of the time until November:D But I guess thats nothing special to you Aussies! Also love the smells you get in spring/autmun....there is a popular plant around my area (can't remember the name) which makes tiny orange flowers and they smell incredible! Thats all you can smell in the air for 2-3 weeks! But now the farmers have started burnng rice fields so smells are changing....gas mask anyone?

I know a few guys that shave their arms!! Ok so they have 3 hairs on them but male grooming in Japan is a bit too camp IMO. And whats up with all the guys getting hair cuts like women?? You know all those stylish Tokyo rich boys? Look like a bunch of pillow biters to me:D

LOL

Same here...just can't get in the bastard things!

I came to Japan in 93 and finished school in Tokyo. Thats where I got subjected to extreme car culture like I had never experienced before! I had lived 9 years in th UK prior to that and I remember reading about the R32 GT-R in a few magazines and hearing about its success downunder and in Japan. I started seeing 32s around and I fell in love right then and there. Then in 95 a friend of mine got an R33 GT-R for his birthday (b@stard!) and thats when it really got to me that there was no better car for myself. I got to drive it many times and it just made me want one more and more. I started attending the various meets and races in Tokyo and got totally sucked in. I dreamed about owning my own GTR for so many years and gradually modding it in my own way ...and now I'm doing it! Couldn't be happier:) So I would have to say I fell in love with the GTR after seeing it in action, trying it and obviously witnessing its tuning potential. Its success in racing was just a bonus for me and I still rate it as the best car in the world!

LOL this list is growing really fast! Rezz...what about that weird smell on larger trains, a concoction of rice crackers, obentos, mothballs, BO, that nasty old people smell....creates one disgusting fragrance! I'll add a few more 21)The Yakimo seller waking me up ever saturday morning when I want to sleep in!! 22)Middle aged men walking around in their wives shoes at the supermarket 23)The small portions of food at the restaurants 24)having to stop at train crossings...why????? Or how about after you have been waiting in line for a train to pass cars in front of you still stop and look left and right just to make sure a stranded wagon is not on the loose! Pathetic! 25)People having absolutely no regard for the environment. On one road I use as a short cut I have to slalom through plastic bags (neatly tied) left in the middle of the road. Filth b@stards!

On top of what Dave has mentioned: 1)Superb customer service 2)Everything that should work does work 3)Honesty of most people 4)Gadget heaven for people into gadgets and also affordable by most. By this I mean that compared to most people in europe people in japan can potentially afford many more things that would be luxury in other countries. 5)Overall sense of safety. I mean not having to worry about stuff like crime, security and such stuff. But its really the small things that are more evident to me. To this day after 11 years I still get surprised by stuff & attitudes of people. For the moment I really wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

Try my old school in Tokyo. St. Mary's International School in Setagaya. They pay really well (seriously well!) but I have no idea if they have vacancies. Plus I haven't really been back there in ages to hava a chat with my old teachers...Great area of Tokyo though, very quiet.

I'll add a few from personal experience: 1)Japanese road and traffic system. People have no idea how to drive, they are cocooned in a system that lets hardly any decision up to the driver. Just look how people act once they are faced with a junction with no traffic lights or have to merge into a main road...total confusion and they always make people brake and overall do stupid sh1t! Traffic light heaven, I wish I owned a company building the things as I would be loaded! Traffic is too slow. Roads are too soft and actual tracks form on roads with heavy traffic. Not enough roads! Expensive tolls. Traffic. 2)ATMs ...like many said...why not allow people access to their money 24/7? It's not like there is a lot of crime here so I really don't see the problem? 3)Stupid ass rule at my pool...you can swim from the hour up to 50 past and then have to get out for 10 minutes while they check the water. Result, you freeze your ass off, your manhood shrinks and you can't be arsed to go back in the pool to finish your laps! 4)Stupid closing days at my gym. They close Wed every day...they are totally overstaffed so why the hell not keep they thing open all the time!!!!!! 5)My local Shell station. I get out and pay but I cannot pump gas myself and the idiots there never ever ever ever fill the tank to the max like I would. P1sses me off!! 6)People turning into main roads always take the outside lane. If you are turning from the opposite side they will always make you brake because they go on the outside lane. And why? Because thats how they were taught in driving school. God forbid they would do something outside the rules and use their brains! 7)98% People have absolutely no conceivable spec of common sense 8)Giggling school girls 9)Feticism....they are a bunch of dirty b@stards! Oh wait...that could be a positive thing:D 10)The bastardization of Italian (and most foreign) cuisine. Not saying that all restaurants are like this as they are not but most will make some disgusting stuff and call it Italian food. 11)Staring. I've gotten used to this now and it was much worst 11 years ago when i first moved here. 12)The fact that foreigners will never be accepted, ever. The best they can do is tolerate us. 13)Silly laws. 14)The "if in doubt jump off your bike syndrome" what the hell is that about then? I bet they were taught this in school and they will keep doing it until the day they die:p 15)Arrogant bachans on trains 16)That smell on trains. Don't know what it is but tis just rank 17)The way companies cover sh1t up and then go on TV and cry while apologizing. 18)Loud trucks that spit out the blackest clouds of diesel 19)TV channels...1,3,4,6,8,10,12,BS5, BS7,BS11...what happened to the numbers in between?? 20)How people giggle and laugh when put on the spot or faced with a hard situation. Makes them look like idiots. But I love Japan. Like any country it has its negative aspects but the positives would be so many more. If I start listing all the stuff I hate about Italy, my home country, I would need 10 times the space!

Great vid Yukio! Shots at the end were great. Any chance we could ever replicate those shots with other cars? That would be so cool!

not an option as I wil just make the rubbing much worst. Plus I'm not going to bang on a couple of spacers just to ft center caps...I'll just changeceter cap type or take them off all together:) Dave that Skyline thing souds pretty cool. I hope I can make it as I have yet to visit that Skyline museum!

No idea Dave. Doesn't Works make any center caps? You should try asking at your lokas Works dealer if they can source a set. My problem is that I can't get the flat type caps (like I have in the rear) to fit in the front as the driveshft end pops out too far and touches the caps. Funny thing is Rays keeps insisting they should fit!!?? Regarding the meet. I know what you mean. I usually never know when I'll be busy. I have just worked 2 weekends in a row now and I only found out a few days before I had to cover the events! But we should try and pick a date nonetheless....hopefully the weather will stay warm for a bit still!