drunkenmaster

Personally I find traditional Japanese food a bit tame, but what I do enjoy is the huge variety in modernised as well as westernised foods. Go to the supermarket and you can choose between 30 different ice coffees, 40 different deserts, 50 different types of bread snacks, 60 different types of instant noodles ( though no nice spicy korean or thai) etc. I really enjoy the variety in almost every isle that we dont share in Australia. Suprisingly you have to go to an international store to find and decent Chinese/Sth East Asian ingredients though, as well as any decent chilli. Also custard. I love it. Finally I have found a country that enjoys it like I do. Custard donuts, custard muffins, custard buns. Fantastic. Another favourite is the icecream filled waffle you can get in the icecream freezer at most convenience stores. Simple, yet perfectly effective. If I had to choose a favourtie japanese food it would be the "katsu" restaurants that serve all the various katsu variations (pork/chicken/mince beef/prawn) with the seeds you mash yourself and mix with the sauce. I miss vegetables though, I dont think the endless coleslaw type salad is as nutritious as one would like.

Is the C110 this guy? I might try and go again this year, depends on if anyone else is going from my work I guess.

hehe, come visit me in Toyota-city if you want proof of that How about: The roads are perfect - in a lot of australian car magazines they refer the superior roads in Japan as to why they can run stiff suspension etc. The residential roads in my experience are far from perfect and i am suprised there are not more accidents then there are. Brand new electronics are super-cheap - sure there are some savings to be made, but this is a developed country and things arent dirt cheap. It is not China we are talking about here. Akihabara - has to be the biggest load of hype I have ever seen. American tourist trap, worth a look but definitely shop around elsewhere as well. I have consistently gotten Y10,000's cheaper prices by bargaining at the local Yamada chain store in Nagoya.

That was my point more or less, but expressed much more clearly Going around blind buying/ordering random stuff may be fun on a short holiday and classed as a memorable experience, but in everyday life when you want something specific, its just a hassle. I also read a lot of other guys accounts and see a similar English teaching theme going on so I imagine they cater to some extent for fresh non speaking westerners to some extent. My account is different I guess because I work for a Japanese company, my sanity, ease of living and entertainment is not overly high on the priority list. Getting some Nihongo language under your belt will be a great help, it's definitely not impossible to live here without. Just make sure you think about your lifestyle at home, what you enjoy doing and what you take for granted and imagine if you will be able to do that here as well.

MOS burger is a burger chain here. Pretty good, but yeh, small as mentioned.

haha ok ok. I get a long just fine thanks, but then again I would like to consider myself relatiavely well travelled. As I said, I was just playing devils advocate to show the other side of the coin, as chosing to move to Japan (or any country) for years is a decision to be weighed carefully and its not all skylines and magic frogs as the rosy pictures and stories you often get told in online car forums. To people who think they are going to be buying and selling cars and getting drift lessons on every street corner without a word of nihongo, you are obviously better men than I. If I were considering to move anywhere on my own free will and not for business purposes, personally I would want as much balanced feed back as possible before I abandon my family and friends possibly under false pretences. I dont hate the place, I had the time of my life last weekend after a short train ride to Kyoto and at work I get to contribute to cars the global public will not see for years. I do have an end in sight though so I can easily tolerate any difficulties however I would have to very seriously consider all the things mentioned if I was here for a year or more continuously and justify my motivation to do so. Anyhow, I apologise for portraying less than a perfect picture of the place, actually R34 Vpec's are plentyful and cheap, performance parts are practically given away at you local conveneince store/gasoline stand, and every girl is hot and wants you to take them back to Australia when you leave.

I have thousands of photos, but here are a few recent ones. Plenty more if anyone is interested in anything specific or better resolution. There is really so much more to Japan than cars, but I tried to keep it car related

Just to play devils advocate, and by no means is this a definitaive list, but here are some of the things I deal with almost everyday that make my life difficult and most people wouldnt consider and probably still wont after they read this without staying in a foreign country. I have spent extended time in Japan, China and Germany and Japan is by far the easiest for me, but that is still very difficult. I wouldnt dream of planning to move here without putting in a decent effort in language training at home first, I only spend time here on business assignments. I try and get by and extend on my limited Japanese, but it is very tough to get what you want if you come here with no language skills. Imagine doing the following: Ordering food from restaurants with no English menus and staff who do in no way understand English. What would you do? Point to a random bit of text and hope for the best? Even when you are being seated and they are asking if you want to be seated in smoking or non smoking, for all you know they are asking eat in or take away? Reading Railway maps written in Kanji only. Luckily the stations themselves have signs in hirogana and english, but this means if you are not familiar with your route, you have no idea where you are until you are there. Asking for anything, anywhere. Looking for an item to buy? Want to know how much something is? Not sure where something is? Responding to questions asked of you when you are buying something. When you buy something in Australia, think of the interaction you have with the store assistant, now imagine you have no idea what they are saying. Do you just smile and nod hopefully or shrug? Luckily in general I find the Japanese very helpful especially if you go to the effort to use Nihongo when you can, but none the less this is not an english speaking technological dreamworld that many people seem to think from movies and car magazines.

how much you guys selling for?

Wakarimasen I saw a simple one at the train station the other night, but had me chuckling for a while, not sure why. I was starving so I went into the convenience store and saw some packed sandwiches which looked like they would do the job. Now there were 2 different packs by the same company, one with 3 sandwich halves and one with 4 halves. Aside from that physical difference, the smaller pack was apparently only "Delicious!" while the larger pack was clearly better being "Dericious!" Then again maybe you had to be there...

Good luck with that, I had trouble with even getting them to send something from one store to another.

haha...just looked at that. Who knows what would have happened on those sheets before you

Thanks guys, got it sorted. Will let anyone know how it goes if your interested in planning something similar. James

Toyota-city is boring me to tears so I am planning a couple of weekends away, one in Tokyo and one in Kyoto. Has anyone stayed in Shinjuku and recommend any hotels in particular? I was thinking Shibuya but that is even more expensive than Shinjuku from what I can tell online, although I dont do this every week so I dont mind pay for a decent place in the mix of things. Same deal for Kyoto, as well as advice on which sites are really woth seeing. I have about a weeks worth of sites to squeeze into one or two days so eliminating a few options would be a great help. Thanks guys James

haha ok, well whatever your local port is, I am sure the customs people are just as random fee/duty/tax hungry.

Palette and freight? Get a good customs broker though because Tullamarine can be a bitch.

This has been my 3rd or 4th typhoon, which also coincides exactly with the total amount of months I have ever spent in Japan, maybe the country is trying to tell me something? I was here last year when the big earthquake buckled all the shinkansen tracks etc, I didnt feel it though. Incorrect as it is, I was a bit disappointed i didnt feel it as i have never experienced and earth quake. Anyways I saw this car in Okazaki last weekend, I wouldnt mind importing it as per the topic:

Then again, after rethinking my post the same would happen in any country you might get transferred to without knowing anyone or the language very well, aside from the bureaucracy perhaps. I guess Japan is not a bad place, but I can think of more interesting places to visit. I am not sure if I would come here, over say china or germany to open my eyes to the world just because I like owning a Japanese car? I like my favourtie pair of shoes also but that doesnt mean I want to go live in a 3rd world country and work in a sweat shop

Personally I dont know how many of you guys do it. I have been back in Toyota-city for just over a week now (was here for only 3 months last year) and I am fighting off insanity and desperately craving to go home. I guess for me its the isolation and boredom more than anything. Going for runs through the farms and wandering aimlessly around Nagoya is not my idea of fun. It is what you make it I guess, and I am not here long enough (4months) to really set myself up I suppose. The bureaucracy and red tape to do simple things or make simple requests at work is enough to make me want to smash my head into the desk sometimes, but other than that I prefer the office atmosphere here then at home i must admit.

front bar to [email protected] thanks

Appreciate it :kewl:

I have just spent quite a bit of time going through the RB30 thread and also various websites and the pdf but one question which is brushed over but not directly addressed, well as far as I can see, is do all RB blocks share the same engine mount bolt pattern, that is, are all RB engine mounts fully interchangeable? I thought I would post here rather than continue the cluttering of the RB30 thread. Thanks guys

Is this for still sale or not? (I also like how the bids are getting lower, it's like a reverse auction )

I think you will find: 22680 = Nissan code for Air flow meter 30P00 = Nissan code for Z32 I had been using a database online but I seem to have lost the address.

What engine/ECU was it used for?