omg

I've ended up with a pair of nismo afms (part # 22680-RR580) which are pretty much useless to me so are sitting in their boxes doing nothing. I'm thinking $720 would be a bit more useful to me so if you could do something with the afms give me a yell. In nsw but happy to ship anywhere.

Within the power fc itself it won't do it however from what I've seen you might just see some cheap acessories for the power fc which will do this (among other things) hitting the market in the near future

Hmm, didn't realise it was this weekend, I think I might pop down for it

Hasegawa is the best of the secondhand places I've been to in tokyo, fair bit of stuff with decent prices sorta a bit similar to an australian wrecker, much cheaper than the "it's secondhand parts but we'll lay the shop out like it's new parts" upgarages. Excellant for turbos (especially big ones), good for brakes, fair bit of driveline stuff, lots of suspension bits (though the coilovers are almost all crap), fair few seats, exhausts etc, very very few electronic parts. soop, if you can't find aoto station you're going to be in bother Follow the Toei Asakusa/oshiage line out to where it hits the keisei, thats aoto. 22nd is a bit late for me unfortunately, I'm only really free for the next couple of weeks

I've actually got a map from mapfan with everything written in english which is a bit easier for non japanese speaking people to follow, means you can walk (about 15 mins, it's a short stroll) from the station. Kato will give you a lift back to Aoto after you've finished shopping as well. Hmm, actually, soop if you're going to be there in the next couple of weeks speak up and I can take you out there myself

True, border is a fair way out and we've only gone there when we've been going out to Jun. soop - they are discount performance parts shops which sell just about anything and generally have a better range than super autobacs (for the performance stuff). Personally I'd recommend nagano, I get almost all my parts through them, they give a good service and have very good prices. If you're there for only a few days try to get out there first as if there's anything you need ordered it will give you time, then you can either pick the parts up on the way to the airport or they'll send them to the hotel you're staying at. If you send me a pm with your email I can send you a map.

Of the cheaper places on your side of tokyo you've got Howars (about 20 mins on the seibu shinjuku line, bit under 1 km from the station) or Border (a bit further out, bit more of a hike from the station). Running around Tokyo (but staying in the 23 wards) you've got Hirano to the north (about 20 mins walk/short bus from nishiarai station on the hibiya line) and in the east carshop nagano which is about 15 mins walk from aoto station (take the yamanote round to nippori and take the keisei line from there). These places on average will be about 20% cheaper than super autobacs

We've used australian cb's in japan a bit - climbing fuji, at the jgtc etc - however I've no idea whether we were allowed to or not. There wasn't any traffic on the frequencies however that could simply mean there were a whole lot of confused ambo drivers. I guess the thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to get in trouble for using them it's not going to be hard for them to figure out who it is. re the phones, in japan it's w-cdma. The first phone I've seen available in aus (there are a few in japan) which can handle w-cdma and gsm is the nokia 6630 which is either just released or about to be released. Getting it to work in japan is the next challenge, vodaphone would probably be the best people to speak to.

Plucking a few places from my notes UpGarage Get the JR out to Chiba (airport line) or Chiba Minato .From here either catch the monorail or simply walk along underneath following where it goes. Once you get to the stop one from Chiba Minato station alight from the monorail and head north up R16. There is a Red stage Nissan dealer on the right and a couple of petrol stations on the left, Up garage is just after these on the left hand side Crystal The other option is to head into Chiba and take the monorail from there. Alight at the Sports Stadium, head down the escalators to your left (away from the stadium) then head north (turn right at the bottom of the escalators) up the R16. Crystal is 10-15mins walk on the left hand side of the road. Look for the McDonalds Golden Arches, and you should be able to see Crystal just after. See map for Super Autobacs Naganuma Top secret 45min walk up R16 from Crystal (there is a bus service running). Alternatively if you are coming from Katsutadai station on the Kansai line you can catch a bus from there. It's just on a side street but heading west from R16 however is pretty easy to spot (particularly if you're coming from the south). There will be a heap of modified cars, mostly GTR's, out front and if you go around the right hand side of the building past the multitude of shop cars there is a small office. See map for Super Autobacs Naganuma

The same sorts of places you'd go to in aus, the smaller (sometimes not "smaller" at all, just not a large chain) discount performance parts retailers. Oh, and I've never had huge problems with japanese addresses either. While it would be nice if they had a consistant way of numbering the buildings on a block but for the structure of the roads/alleys/narrow bits between buildings the japanese system works better than the western system. Oh, and some friggin consistancy in the maps wouldn't hurt, how hard is it to put north at the top!

mr craft is Tokyo-to Shibuya-ku Ebisu-nishi 1-7-4 Very easy to get to, the station shown in the map is the JR Ebisu station on the Yamanote line (not the subway station) and following that great japanese tradition they have randomly selected west to be at the top. Rotate the map 90 degrees to the left and it will make sense.

Lots of places really, Hiroshima, Himeji, Nara down around the kansai, nikko just north of tokyo, hakone/fuji just south etc It all depends on what sort of stuff you want to see. What I would say is don't try to see too many places/areas, pick a few that you're really interested in and see them well (if you get what I mean)

Definately get the JR pass, I wouldn't bother with the green pass though. The standard seats are too comfortable and the trips too short to justify the extra expense

Tell him to find it himself on goo and give you the details of where it's and then you'll see if you can get there. You've got a limited amount of time there and the trip is costing you a decent wedge of cash. If your mate isn't willing to spend a bit of time trying to find it himself (via websites like goo, forums etc) then you certainly shouldn't be expected to give up part of your trip on a wild goose chase.

Poida - they say they can/will but I'm yet to see them ever check a passport. So basically, yeah, I'd be sweet talking visitors to get them to leave the pass. I'd say that sweet talking would include their ticket on the NEX as well Ait - a trip down to Kyoto/osaka is definately not a waste of 2 days! It only takes about 2 3/4 hours to get to Kyoto (osaka is another 15 mins) so if you leave early in the morning and come back later at night you lose sod all time travelling. For classic touristy sort of stuff Kyoto is fantastic, quite a bit more interesting for this sort of stuff than Tokyo IMO (though Tokyo has it's own appeal) As for the hotel, I think ibuya is a better area to stay but it does depend on how close you actually are, do you have an address for the hotel? Ueno IMO is a bit of a hole (it's sorta like a rundown "downtown" area say like around central in sydney) and I don't think akihabara lives up to the hype. In terms of having fun places close to the hotel where you can go at night shibuya and shinjuku are my pick