Rezz

MOS Burger = Mountain Ocean Sun Burger. Seriously.

Myth: Japanese sellers are honest people, they will never do anything dodgy. TRUE and FALSE... While Japanese society is stooped in tradition and Origami and Kimono's and cute stuffed animals, with salarymen bowing and apologizing uncontrollably in order not to offend, the reality of the matter is that they've made 'outward appearance' an artform, and can easily throw foreigners off. Japanese people are no different to anyone else when it comes to selling. They want to profit as much as possible from a sale just like anyone else. They'll sell things for as much as the public can or will pay. Because a Japanese seller spews out "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" (kind regards or treat me kindly, depending on the situation) 10 times in the first 5 minutes doesn't mean you're in their best interests... it's one of the great ironies of Japanese language. And that 'bargain' priced immaculate S13 Silvia being sold by a shy 28 year old office lady doesn't mean it hasn't been thrashed within an inch of it's life by her boyfriend/husband the week before... Appearnces, appearances... Just getting back to the comment above off 'They'll sell things for as much as the public can or will pay', that pretty much sums up the 15 year old or older cars in Japan... they are shite. Everybody thinks they're shite. No one can sell a '93 R32 GTS-t for more than A$8 -9000 because they're not worth that much... literally. Nobody cares if it's got a sunroof or **electric windows all round!!!** (LOL @ used car dealers in Australia) or 4WS or a turbo. It's OLD. Therefore it's BUGGERED. Hence ZERO value. Car ownership is viewed in Japan I guess as a luxury item, something that really, you can do without and if you do have one, it shouldn't impede on your lifestyle at all as far as maintenance is concerned. Bear in mind that this plays a big part in Used car prices in Japan, and hence a big part in percieved (constantly falling) value in Australia or wherever. Australia needs cars, Japan doesn't... well not as much. So this in turn affect the lengths that people selling cars will go to in trying to finalize a sale. If you're buying in Japan, just beware and GET THAT CAR CHECKED before purchasing!!!

Streeter: albento = 'O-Bento'... if I'm not mistaken or just 'bento'. I know it's not very Japanese but I could eat Cream Korokke forever... that and the old classic: Oyako-don! (chicken and egg on rice) Sounds very simple but it's a good'un. As for drinks, I'm sure Gojira can vouch for the 300 yen pints of Kirin Ichiban shibori at that salaryman place in Umeda

Certainly Myth: Japanese people do not have a lot of places to drive to, therefore all japanese exports have low kms. FALSE. There are 2 things to keep in mind here, 1) Performance cars and 2) non-performance Passenger vehicles. As for performance cars, rarely will a **3 year old or older** genuine pristine low-kilometer example pop up at auction or at a dealer. They ARE out there, but they are definately the exeption. What you'd class as 'low kilometer' has a bearing too, and for arguments sake lets say less than 40,000km. The truth of the matter is that enthusiasts buy the more expensive performance cars in Japan, they are not cheap to run or maintain, so they generally GET THEIR MONIES WORTH by driving them whenevr they can. This is a fact. Modified performance cars in Japan can almost be guaranteed that they would see 1,000s of Kilometers being clocked up on weekends and at night, with even the occaisional visit to the local cicuit... sounds not unlike an Aussie driver does it? I would go as far to say that Japanese performance car drivers would clock up similar amounts of K's that an Aussie or Canadian would. The difference though is that not alot of these performance car owners would use there car as a daily driver - in the cities anyway. But that doesn't stop them from driving every other time. Such is the culture of Performance car ownership in Japan, you buy it to drive it like it was intended to. Non-performance passenger cars on the other hand more often than not get 'limited use' compared to a driver in western countries, and trips are often made out of necessity or convenience, but probably not before considering public transport first. Low kilometer Toyota Kluger anyone? Winding back odometers was one of the 'must-do' pasttimes in Japan before putting a used car on the market right up until 1996 or so, so buying a car before then would almost definately be wound back to some degree... whether interior wear supports it or not. And just to rub it in, odometer tampering still goes on today albeit not as much... and the fact that cars with digital odometers are the norm now. "But Japanese people don't drive because the traffic is so bad..." You gotta be kidding me. The REASON WHY the traffic is so bad is because too many people drive!!! Yep, come what may, Japan is one of the top automotive producing countries and they are gonna drive cars no matter how bad or expensive it is.

I see there are a whole buch of people in the SAU J-forum contributing regularly now... it's phenominal to think that this forum was created to "kick me out of the General Discussion area" back in 2003 because of my ludicrous (sic) amount of posts regarding Japan... and now it's grown into something which - not suggesting anything here - could break away from SAU and become it's own site ( because it's so big). So, now that we've got so many contributing, lets mythbust Japan Ok, ok. Theres so much info on this forum that you can pretty much get an accurate picture of what you would get into if you decided to come to Japan. BUT... since I've been back in Australia, I've noticed theres still alot of people who cling onto old J-stereotypes and misinformation that could easily be explained away. So go for it... name the myth (or misunderstanding) and say if it's true or false and give an explanation ------------------------------------------------ Myth: Skyline GT-Rs/Supras/Evos/NSXs etc are common in Japan. FALSE. Apart from the fact that some of these cars (especially the Supra) are getting on in years now, in reality out of 100 cars that passed you in a big city center like Tokyo or Osaka, around 10 of them might be one of the cars mentioned above. There are alot of variables at play here, and depending on where you are, what time it is, and even the time of year affects how many Japanese sportscars you'll see on any given day. One person I remember remarked how easy it was to spot 'Hashiriya' (car freaks or enthusiasts depending on if you ask a J-girl or J-guy) out in the country. Obviously the ratio of sportscar owners would be higher in the country, given that parking is often very cheap or even free, and that the proximity to race tracks and some larger tuning shops will attract car enthusiasts more. I know if I ever go back to Japan to live, I'll definatley check out some of the more regional centers. -------------------------------------- Myth: All Japanese girls are attracted to foreigners FALSE. Walk in to any foreigners bar in Japan and you'll walk away thinking that God made Japanese girls for over confident American/Aussie/Canadian University rejects... but you'd be dead wrong. Although it's common to hear Japanese women remark on how cute Japanese/foreign (usually caucasian) mixed babies look, but then J-girls think ALL babies/small animals/aliens/Kei cars/colorful hats look cute... Getting back to foreigners though, the truth of the matter is that this myth stems from the English teaching industry, and it's probably fair to say that a great deal of Japanese girls study English because they like foreign guys over the local lads. Japanese guys do the same thing. But, if you leave the classroom and venture out into the REAL WORLD (ie: the beach, a theme park or other place where a big cross section of the population gather) the hot-shot foreigner becomes somewhat of a novelty token non-Japanese entity... and thats it. I even conducted experiments with a very eager foreign friend of mine on a couple of successive Saturday afternoons where we tried to pick up as many girls as we could (speaking Japanese of course). And out of the 40 - 50 girls we approached - all in their 20's - between 10 and 12 were genuinely interested, and we got 3 phone numbers!!! Ok, my ugliness might've been a factor but the results show that just being a foreigner isn't enough by a long shot outside of the classroom or foreigners bar. ------------------------------------------ Myth: Everything is so expensive in Japan FALSE. I would go as far to say that a fair amount of goods are actually the same price or cheaper than anywhere in Australia/Canada (AU and Can have similar exchange rates). Obvious exceptions would be Houses, movie tickets, haircuts and local city rates and charges... and of course highway tolls, but things like airline tickets, mobile phones, cosmetics (I've been told this ), internet, electronic goods in general, alcohol and many more can be had at the same or even cheaper prices than what you're accustomed to if you a) know where to look and b ) make use of the 1000's of coupons and campaigns that are on offer in Japan daily. The prices overall in Japan are coming down, and the old bubble economy stereotypes are finally fading into history. The only problem for the ex-pat resident really would be having to spend (quite a bit of) money to have a good time. Please add to this!

Bart: I dub thee the "Royal successor to The REZZ". Hahaha lets see what else you can come up with I see you went to C-West but did you get the guided tour? Funkymonkey: Your knowledge of US fanboy speak worries me... nay... astounds me and almost convices me that - in actual fact - you are indeed a US fanboy

If no ones mentioned it already (Masahiro types too much ) I can't stress having a back up plan enough. Give yourself an amount of adjustiment time (however long you think is enough) and make sure you can leave with no strings attached if things don't go your way... Theres one thing I hated most and that was winging Uni dropouts who came to Japan for whatever reason, then only to tell everyone in ear shot that they're just here to make enough money to 'get back home' because it wasn't what it was cracked up to be! Strangely enough most of them were women!!!

No excuses Andrew... "do it.... DO IT".

It's likely that the ECU was tuned for: Aftermarket exhaust, aftermarket air cleaner/filter, larger injectors and 'boost up'. I say this because I've seen alot of ECU's for sale in Japan (second hand ones obviously) and most of their descriptions were along the lines of what I typed above. To be honest most of the guys selling them have long since forgotten what they were tuned for as some of them are many years old now. The 'sealed' ECU's from Mine's with the serial number on them would only be for warranty purposes AFAIK, and I don't think Mine's would waste their time helping you out becuase a) the things out of warranty and b ) your not even in Japan... although you could get one of the J-residents on here to call upo and fake it and say that your car is theirs... but at the end of the day, I seriously think that they'll not be so helpful.

I would get an R32 GT-R... soley because I was one of those 16 year old who was scarred for life after seeing the Godzillas eat everything in the '91 - '92 Aussie Group A touring car seasons. The R33's only look good (like *really* good) in GT-R form anyway. And you can't go past the RB26 can you?

Heres the website: http://excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_...&wb_dis=2" target="_blank Btw, the company is called 'Auto Strada', and they make all sorts of racing style wheels and are top quality obviously. I've given a link to a translating website for your 'ENGRISH' viewing pleasure :lol: As for buying a set... well I hope you've got $4000 plus (thereabouts) to spend... They still make them, but as has been mentioned they're forged magnesium so they're a premium wheel by any standards.

Get real? Maybe you should say 'get screwed'? Because thats what would be happening if you paid 10k. These cars are the bottom of the barrel in Japan. Worth 2 or 2.5k tops. By the time they arrive here they might sell for 8 or 9k... and thats with sub-100k odo reading...

Shouldn't you be telling us what they're like seeing as you've delt with them already? Or have I misunderstood your post? ... oh yeah it's "have recently taken"...

Anything over 6k for that car would be a severe waste of money. The fact that there are people in Australia who wouldn't lose sleep over paying 10 - 12k for that 'lowest of the low' R33's is testimony to what salespeople can get away with in this country... wake up people! In Japan these cars are looked upon as *shit* so why shouldn't we?

About the rims, they're about 13 - 15 years old. Ok they're 2 piece or whatever, but Ieven though they're quite rare now (due to age if anything else) I can't say that they're that valuable to anyone except people who are into vintage rims like those. As for getting them polished, I say yeah, do it. They suit the car in style and vintage aspects, so it's a good match IMO.

Haha... no def wasn't me. That wine red Skyline is now on a ship to AU.

Why couldn't they at least give us proper scale drawings instead of this stylistic crap? In my mind it's no better than the hundreds of CG rederings that the Japanese mags have been spewing out for 4 years now. Nissan... give it up it's not funny anymore. At TMS they're still gonna be tight lipped about the final spec etc. Thats the beauty of speculation really, out of the 100's of articles that have been written for the next GT-R, you can pick bits of info out of all of them and at least get a general picture of what the thing will be like. But then the day comes and everything is revealed... and people STILL say it's crap/gay/awesome/mediocre/not-a-real-GTR/whats-the-chassis-code... So Nissan? Just tell us whats going on and get it over with?

Nope, the Skyline and Silvia will arrive in Fremantle on Thursday.

Meh, it's just the culture here... pay alot for not much. Guys wanna profit by doing as little as possible, that means offering some services that aren't labour intensive and still charging a bomb. The trouble is people just accept it here and don't vote with their wallets... mind you I don't see many alternatives? What can you do? Open your own cut price machanical shop? Hmmmm... thats got me thinking... Have you tried Wilkinsons Suspension Center? They deal with King springs (plug for Brett... haha )

I'm not sure if I live in an estate... I'm near the Woolworths sevice station just up the road (Nicholson) from the shopping center aaaah... yeah... you know? It's on the cnr of Nicholson and South. Actually theres this bloody big Muslim temple thing across the road from me...

Yeah theres always some tuff cars at Fu_kuoka AS, but it's definately not on the same scale as Tkyo, and even Osaka is bigger. I'd go to Fu_kuoka for sightseeing first - Auto salon second. I'd go to Tokyo for the Salon first - sightseeing second...

What a mess... the car and the auction sheet! Can't remember what 'R' on auction sheets means, it's crashed or something? Anyways, theres quite a bit of damage right the way around, but on the good side it's got a fair few aftermarket bits stuck to it, multiple guages, suspension, aforementioned exhaust, induction pipe and some other stuff I can't read... can you get a bigger scan? Some, nay, most of the kanji is illegible.

As Predator said it's not a priority for Nissan (as long as Ghosn is beancounting/cost cutting). Nissan enthusiasts have to get it into their heads that: a) Nissan had a near-death experience in 1999 b ) Ghosn was called in to 'revive' Nissan and to put the Co back into the black - not much more than that... he is a professional CEO, and he does what is *needed*, not whats wanted. The fact that he's had great interest in Fairlady Z/350Z and the next GT-R is a bonus... to expect Nissan to just carry on with the same motorsports driven financial arrogance as in the 1980's and 90's is just stupid. c) true Nissan enthusiasts will give Nissan all the time in the world to release an R34 GT-R successor. There has been 'breaks' in the Skyline GT-R lineage before, and theres no reason why anyone should get nervous because it's taking 6 years or more to bring about the next GT-R. Rest assured, the Japanese are still in control at Nissan, Nissan is still Japans 'trophy' carmaker (despite lacklustre model lineup) - in spirit at least - and Ghosn will not be at the helm forever. d) What we're seeing is Nissans evolution into the 21st century way of doing business. For 20 years from the early 70's to the early 90's, Japan was in an unprecedented economic bubble that put them at the top of the world financially. That kind of wealth seriously 'scewed' reality in that Japanese car makers were going around releasing fantastic cars that put the maker deeper and deeper into the red... but on the face of it everything was rosy... in my experience this is typical Japanese 'inward protectionism' (as I like to call it) where they kept failing businesses afloat with extraordinary amounts of money - not to learn new ways of business in changing economic climates - but more to *save face* and not bow to defeat and apply for bankruptcy... which Nissan came dangerously close over 5 years ago. Sorry for the long winded post, but thats kinda what I've learnt from 5 years in Japan and researching car industry matters there. It's very brief and theres alot more to it than what I've just posted, but you get the idea.

You see, now according to a 998 scoring TOEIC J-nerd who heads the 'English Department' at Hiramatsu Co (who make those wrappers for sandwiches) 'Jyaponeeze peepr can understand DERICIOUS... I know it's wrong but if we spell it the right way, only a limited amount of people can 'get it'... most will think it's some other inconsequential word...'

Guys just wait for the TMS... what a letdown that schetch is.... and the accompanying text.