Rezz

Had this sent to me by my sister in law: This is 'Yamanba' style. The meaning of Yamanba has it's roots back in early times in Japan when cannibalism was rife in certain places due to food shortages, and an 'old hag woman' or 'Yama uba' would draw people out of the village so she could eat them. Actually it was just a story cooked up so that the villagers would fool themselves (and their children) into denying their own cannibalistic ways. The term used nowadays points more to the 'old hag' meaning rather than cannibalism of course lol... Yamanba are generally looked down upon (it would take a very particular person not to) in Japan and the style also extends to the guys aswell, although not as prevalent as with the girls. There are magazines dedicated to this style, and of course clothing shopsetc dealing solely with Yamanba/Ganguro fashions and accessories. I've seen foreigners stop dead in the tracks and get a video camera out and film some Yamanba in Shinsaibashi in Osaka one time, with the Yamanba thinking they were a foreign film crew, so they did all these hand signs and poses right there in the middle of the mall... the foreigners were chuckling and just saying 'WTF! haha'. The Yamanba style is an extention of 'Ganguro' (light hair colour, dark tanned skin) which itself is an extention of the 'bronzed/bleached hair look'. In most major cities in Japan you can see these sorts of girls getting around, but in Tokyo it's the worst. In fact that picture above is the worst I've seen yet, and my sister in law reckons those yellow stones under her eyes are actually PIERCED ON. I did see a show one time on Japanese TV where it was a kind of mini-documentary following the 'sobering up' of an ex-Yamanba (who incidently had 2 kids). The biggest thing she had to overcome was taking all the Yamanba clothing and accessories and throwing them in the trash. They dealt with it like it was a disease or something, like a blight on society rather like unemployment or anti-social behaviour. I think in the late '90s this style hit it's peak, but you can be sure to see these interesting creatures come out in summer in Japan these days aswell.

Terry!!! Shoot me a PM or email [email protected] mate I wanna catch up.

Without going on about how blurry and almost unreadable the 1st two pics are (considering you want us the read them), - the first one is indeed an oil change ('oil' is circled in red) sticker, but they didn't change the air filter yet ('not yet' also circled in red) - the second one is your average registration sticker which expired on the 8th May 2004.

I have a Cusco 1 way. I've found that when under hard acceleration then suddenly step off the throttle, the nose of the car darts to the left somewhat (not swapping lanes, just neccessitating a slight steering correction). Is this common for 1 way LSDs going from accel to deccel? I bought the car with the Cusco in it already so not sure if it's still healthy or not...

Heres a place called 'Yodobashi Camera'. It's a huge multi story department store mostly based on electronic/digital goods but also selling clothing/accessories, shoes, toys and much more... also a whole floor full of restaurants. Definately worth a look if you are in Umeda for a day or 2. One of the entrances. Outside another entrance. You can tell by the movie how old this pic is. You can also tell by the look on that guys face that he wished he'd brushed his hair for the shot first. Just one half of the semi circular LCD TV section. It was so noisy with alot of TVs with their volume up and with the guy announcing specials and whatnot (stupidly catchy Yodobashi tune) over the PA system. This Sony NAS A1 was pretty cool when it was introduced. It's a 'Net Juke' 40GB hard drive based system, which connects to Sony's 'Anymusic' server and can download any song that takes your fancy. It can also show all song information from songs played on radio stations and if you want you can record the song even after it's played on the radio. Basically it does away with disks... Random shot of my Silvia at Superautobacs 171 getting some Tein adjustable strut tops installed.

If you ever wondered what a Japanese paint shop looked like... This is 'Jam Body Service' http://www.jambodyservice.com/index.html in Nishinomiya, Hyogo. I had to get some rust fixed on my HCR32 aswell as get the drivers door repainted etc. I found this place advertised in the local paper, and was pleasantly suprised to find that they had fitted body kits and painted cars for the Osaka Auto Messe previously. Just looks like any other paint shop anywhere else doesn't it? Myth busted... My poor R32. I say 'poor' because there was quite a bit of rust around the rear wheel arches and up on the passenger side C-pillar where a previous owner had successfully botched a rear screen replacement. I wanted to spend the extra and have the quarter windows taken out aswell while they were at it. Because side skirts were eventually going back on, I left the little bits of rust on the black section and the rails under the car to be fixed another time (which turned out to be almost 2 years later lol) And the finished car. The owner of the shop was very helpful and even kept the shop open late on Saturday evening so I could pick the car up. I was stoked to see the old R32 looking new again :PBJ: Another car in the shop. I didn't know what they were doing with this one, either it was going to get painted, or had just been painted... or maybe just a new coat of clear? Who knows... anyway this car proves that even with the 1000s of lightweight quality wheels available in Japan for reasonable prices, people still go for the old fugly chromies...

Well imagine it was your grandmother then think of what you would say...

I was there for over 5 years in total, with a one month holiday separating the first and second years. After that it was 4 years continuous. I was pretty much teaching English the entire time. The way I did things was not ideal, if I could do it all again I would go for some Uni degree first (Japanese language major), get a 3 year working visa and take things easy and see if things fall into place, if not, leave. Japans a great place in certain aspects, in other aspects it is pretty sad... in my opinion I think in order to be super successful in Japan you have to be fluent in Japanese language and NOT TEACH ENGLISH. The reasons for not teaching English could fill an entire thread, but having said that I know of one successful guy who runs his own English school and is doing great. For the majority of people though, teaching English is something you do to supplement your funds while in Japan, not base your entire stay on it. I don't want to spam my own thread with more of this stuff, so please everybody else refrain from typing out essays in response and just leave it be. Thanks

Cogs thats 'Project Mu' http://www.project-mu.co.jp/ As you can see they mainly do braking hardware etc. From the original post it sounded like a proper garage did the work on stealth01's car, with ECU tuning etc. stealth01 can you post up a pic of the sticker?

Yes mate, it's a BoMeX item. I thoroughly endorse BoMeX aero parts... the fit is almost like factory.

Hey Yukio, where have you been?

コイル = coil 6気筒のみコイル = coil for 6 cylinder only

Heres my good friend Akihiro standing next to the J's Racing S2000 circuit car. If it wasn't for Akihiro, I would've benn thrown out of the venue because (little did we know) this was a closed session for Option Magazine and their crew doing features on some of Kansai's finest garages: Nagisa, Auto Select, J's Racing, Stillway and Trial. I think the only original parts are the tail lights... Mitsubishi GTOs are a rare sight in Japan nowadays, and even rarer to see them tuned as much as this one. V35 Skylines *can* look good with the right body kit and wheels. I'm sure this Civic put in decent times, but when it was out on the track at the same time as the Nagisa GT-R and the Trial/Stillway Evo's, it just couldn't keep up... just made alot of noise. LOL OMG! OMG! OMG! Hay-chi Row-kewz!!!! Seriously, I like them for what they are (small, lightweight RWD cars) but the 'legendary' status far exceeds it's worth. Akihiro has one so I have to be careful... haha. These 2 'panda' AE86's were there on the day going for their club racing licence. Nice number plates

Heres the Nagisa Auto BNR34 GT-R again for a closer look: This shot could've been better but I mistakenly took it with 1600 ISO. Theres that Auto Select strut brace again. Hardcore circuit racing spec No mucking around here either... You can see clearly the increased track at this angle. An awesome circuit BNR34 just sitting there, it was the fastest on the day too around Central Circuit. The only real competition came from this car... The Stillway Evo 7 Set up like a front wheel drive, the front was soft with the rear wheels really stiff so that it would scrape it's nose under brakes and lift the inside rear under hard cornering and braking. They really are an awesome circuit car (the late model Evos) and I would not say no to one if I came across one at the right price. That ARC radiator is worth $$$$. Not sure how much boost it was making, but power was up around 550hp. Those rear doors are 100% FRP... including the painted windows.