elrodeo666

The enviroment here is super dry in winter, much much drier than say most places in oz, thats why so many aussies come here for the snow, its the driest on the planet. Car is normaly garaged ! Seeing I've been here for nearly 10 years my concern to you would be the fact A) I know the history of my car (B) most cars here sit in car lots for god knows how long without being started before they ever make it to auctions and they cop the full brunt of weather and acid rain, © most japanese drivers wouldnt have a clue where the dip stick is..they drive their cars, put petrol in , and most dont dervice their cars until they have to do rego (shakken) which is every 2 years.. Trust me, a bit of snow is nothing compared to what I've seen some GTR's go thru before being shipped off to auction.. I'd take 50cms of Hokkaido light fluffy super dry snow sitting on my car for 1 day anytime compared to harsh aussie climate.

Another thing people coming here are not really aware of is that you can be arrested and held in jail for up to 28 days no ifs and buts, the whole time going thru daily interogations which could last up to 5 hours at a time. No rights, no priveleges. For example..say you come over for TAS..get on the turps and decide it be easier to borrow one of the many pushbikes lying around to get back to your hotel. This sort of thing is and hsa been going on for ages. The cops see you riding and decide to stop you and check the rego on the pushy ( yep your supposed to register your bike when you buy new or 2nd hand) . Cops realise its not your bike so off to the station you go..now if your lucky your just going to get a lecture, but if your not , the cops can lock you up for up to 28days with no charges. Say you came in a touris visa, well after release its deportation and a black mark on your name and possibly up to 5-8 years before being allowed back in. Plus get fined for costs of jail time!! I've known heaps of crew, foreigners and japanese alike locked up for misdemeanors and had to do jail time.

hasnt stopped me in the slightest..on a 7 day bender and way things are going it probably wont stop until after Toyko Austo salon.. Yep they changed the laws couple years back.. there was a spate of fatal accidents which drink drivers were involved so japanese did their normal knee jerk action and came up with the zero tolerance laws. Before that it was usually loss of licence and 300,000 yen fine. When I first came here, drink driving was the norm, absolutely no problem with it but after numerous accidents and deaths they came up with the changes. Dont get me wrong as I reckon its great as there are already too many useless drivers on the road here let alone to have drunk ones as well. As far as reducing the amount od DUI's..definitely had an impact on people I know..no-one takes the risk now, just party all night or get raped by taxi prices but no way frive.. As far as gaijins are involved, most long termers here I know that have been here since it was a free for all to now just leave the car at home.

ah its no drama..one night of snow and light and flufffy...Was too smashed xmas too put it in the garage and we had 50cm overnight..Fairly common here..Only damage was my body..shocking hangover and hour to shovel the car out..

Try This thread.. http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/He...ng-t248378.html

xmas beers and maths dont work for me...

Bloke ..major companies here are getting hammered..Nissan took big losses and now are winding back production..Canon have dramas, Sony, Sanyo, Toyota, Isuzu, Panasonic...the list goes on and on. You got to remember they have all been here before with the bubble.. I agree with what your saying in regards to getting the US dollar back to 100yen and I think that will happen but as far as the government being able to do this, they havent been able to get the Japanese economy back on track since the recession. Property values are all time lows year by year , people are shitting themselves in small businesses but the one thing is and I saw this yesterday, the japanese consumer will still spend his/her money regardless. Yesterday was madness in town, crew everywhere buying up for xmas. The biggest players in all this are the people who have giving out ¥ loans to o/seas investors at low % rates. After the drop in US dollar they have called in loans in a massive scale and thats caning some major players worldwide. Yep japanese economy is being raped and the government should do something about it but an understanding of Japanese wa (kata) comes into play here...for good and country the people have to suffer and they will, regardless of how tuff things get. My misso is ex finacial adviser for major Korean company and she was telling me couple nights ago that something like 50-70,000 people have committed suicide in the last few months due to the economic world wide crash..crazy shit

Well after measuring the circumference and using this calculator http://www.csgnetwork.com/picalc2.html mines about 9.55cm .. so where does that leave me now....is .45 difference okay or is she going to bust apart.. Think everyone should do a measure and see what we come up with.. just measure circumference and divide by 3.14159 (PI)

Runs for tape measure....

I feel sorry for ya andrew..you had all good intentions and I was planning on buying this anywau when it popped up here on SAU i jumped all over it..hope it all pans out well and it was just 1 dud...but with suss fittings i reckon everyones a bit aprehensive...

Mine at my jap mates tuning/car shop.. http://www.do-blog.jp/i-size/article/46 yep that white stuff is snow and car is dirty as buggery..

sheeeet.... Was this 1000 rated or 2000?? Isnt there 1 or 2 guys that have installed them?? Anyone else had dramas??

What abouy a tour of Tokyo's seediest candy bars !!

Saw this up for sale.. http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b92138192

I have another mate who can source second hand parts but may take a bit of time to chase down..

Dont expect the Japanese government to do anything about the situation..an over valued yen is great for the people with yen..e.g the rich...the rest of the millions..shoganai...e.g oh well....gambarimasu..just do ones best!! The japanese government have done sweet fa since the bubble burst and wont do anything now. Plus when you look at foreign loans on yen at 1-3% its not like companies will go elsewhere to borrow money. Japan doesnt care about the rest of the world, never has ,never will, this type of intrisic thinking is ingrained in their dna... Things are getting pretty tough here and will get alot worse but the people with the money will always be sweet! If there is a return for the aussie dollar I cant see it going past 70 for quitw some time..When I came here 9 years ago the oz dollar was just 60yen to the $..it took nearly 9 years to get to where it was earlier this year so cant see it bouncing back real fast. The oz dollar was so over valued and now has been put back to what its worth.. It will come back, but not to the glory days of what it was..

Get a coke can crush it between your hands..thats what they do to cars here! Theres the odd place here and there that wreck cars for parts but few and far between... Like Baron said ..check yahoo.. I can ask a mate who works for HKS but wont be out there until after the weekend..

So whose going??? I'll be there with bells on!

Much better off piste terrain at Hakuba, just watch the ski patrol..absolute nazis!

Not much snow around these parts mr Keets...been unusally warm and raining...dont believe the snow reports from Niseko as they are over hyped bullcrap..There is some decent snow forecast for next week but!

No probs...just buy me a beer next time i'm in oz

The 14年　(nen) is the Japanese Year..eg 2008 = 20年　the 11月　(gatsu) is the 11th month So it was done 123,918km's in 2002/november

Bloody hell!!

Try driving around everyday in freezing and sub freezing temps on snow and ice..Mine squeal so much I can play tunes by pumping the pedal...Its just lucky japanese cops dont blink an eye lid when they hear it...