DaiOni

You never know what you'll find around the next corner, in the next grove of trees, or hidden just about anywhere. There are temples, shrines, ruins, statues, graves... all sorts of things. For someone like me (who loves that sort of shit), it's a great place to live.

Yes, it's a cave in a cliff face. It's also a fridge! Some of the locals here (who are lucky enough to have their houses next to such facilities) have some unusual beer fridges Most date back a looooooooong way. Something you probably won't find in tokyo or osaka...

Hotaru (fireflies) ...are one of the most amazing sights in the natural world (that I've seen, anyway). They're a bit of a rarity these days (as they require a very clean water environment to prosper).

The following couple of pics get included simply on the basis that they are already in my gallery folder Firstly... rx7 + tunnel = lightspeed (no pshop trickery, just a slow shutter speed) there are a few nice tunnels about - I'm not sure why, but as soon as I enter one there's always a strange urge to hit the accelerator and open the window...

and here's an example of that snow! It got a lot heavier too. On days like this, getting onto the road requires a snow shovel and plenty of time! Though I don't drive the FD in winter (17x9" snow tyres are a just a bit too expensive...). I'll find a nicer pic of her later. Behind the FD you can just see my wife's old r33 4-door. Fantastic car, really (even if it had a slug-like rb20e), probably the most hassle-free car I've ever owned. I bought it a couple of days after arriving in japan (for the princely sum of around A$4k).

I guess I should add my 2c with a photo thread. I'll try to throw in a mixture of arty crap (which is what I tend to do with my cameras), cars and ordinary life. Hopefully, within the chaos, there will be something of interest for everyone. Most of the regular japan locals at SAU live urban or semi-urban lifestyles. My life is a little different... If you look at a map of japan, find the main island (honshu) then look off the north-west coast (in the japan sea), you will see a large-ish s-shaped island - that's where I (and 70,000 others) live: Sadogashima. It's apparently the 5th largest of japan's many islands, so it's not that small. However - it is rural! The main occupations being rice-farming and fishing. In the summer it often hits the mid-30s. Unlike eastern australia, the climate is very humid (if you've ever been to this part of asia, you'll know what I mean) - like taking a permanent shower. In the winter it gets cold - often dipping below zero. There's also a lot of snow (apparently it is one of the snowiest places on earth in this latitude), usually there are several knee-deep snow falls every winter. And it can also get very windy at times - either from passing typhoons, or the pre-winter gales (blowing over from siberia - russia is only 700km away). To start off, here's part of the view outside my front window. Shows off one of two mountain ranges (a couple of peaks over 1000m + great roads!) and some typically interesting roofing. Japan loves overhead wires!!

if you're still getting squiqqles - (in explorer) try 'view' > 'encoding' > 'japanese'

here's a couple of pics I took of the real thing (and junior!)

I'm not familiar with all those cars, but most of them predate the ae86 significantly

I recently spent about a month in england and france - audi TTs everywhere. When you see them everyday, the similarities are definitely there

350z = TT

When everyone does it, then it isn't such a problem. Yeah, it's illegal and bad and all that - but you're always aware of it.

ParagOn: maybe it's a regional dialectical thingymabob - but I've only ever heard atashi used by girls (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Full points for honesty though. btw d0p3y, I don't know if you've seen it or not, but the apex d1 FD actually has it's own model on the dash - pretty cool I thought

so did the skyline badge wouldn't surprise me in the least if they chose to use that badging - perhaps to steer away from the 'boy ricer' appeal that the skyline badge currently has (to some). On the other hand, given the select (small!) market, maybe they would try to tap into the racing heritage side of things. who knows!? given some of the marketing decisions in the automotive industry, it could go either way (or not at all)

https://online.mugen-power.com/b2c/ there's fifty million second hand wheel sets in japan - how you are going to get your hands on a set is another matter

the start and finish dates are clearly listed on the right side

see also: www.impul.co.jp/products/ complete/y31.cima.htm www.evolution.co.jp/exclusive/v2/y31/ www.evolution.co.jp/exclusive/v1/y31/ www.wald-japan.co.jp/wald/exchange/nissan/cima2.htm www.tmautoparts.co.jp/tm2/tm2.html www.yamato-bit.co.jp/ style/vip_style.html

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I've seen a few small diecast v35s - they've all been crap though

One of my first impressions of japan was switching channels on the TV - and discovering that baseball was on 4 or 5 of them! I only started occasionally watching baseball after getting into 'the baseball 2002' on xbox - cool game (for 400yen!). I still think it sucks though.

I was still scratching my head at those instructions until about 5 minutes ago - I didn't realise there were 6 or 7 different monorail lines in the greater tokyo area. Doh!

retired after a dismal season.