More driving - this time the weather was dry!!!

Saturday 14th June.
A picture says a thousand words:
Hakone (Toyo Tyres) Turnpike










Pretty view from Izu Skyline - looks like Monte Carlo!









New Nissan GTR on Izu Skyline










R31 Nissan Skyline









Ashinoko Skyline









Ashinoko Lake, Hakone









Mt.Fuji from Fuji 5th Station Car Park












Fuji Speedway enterance

Time for some driving!

Saturday 7th was nothing too exciting again, the only thing of note was that having not bought any CDs in ages I went into HMV and bought 3! I went to buy the new Coldplay album but it is not on sale until next week.

Sunday I went for a long drive. Jamie Maclean from work rented a MX-5 and I went in my Silvia. Started at Atsugi and headed along to Atusgi-Odawara Expressway to... Odawara. Then up the Toyo Tyres Turnpike (or Hakone Turnpike, it is currently sponsored by Toyo Tyres), then along the full length of the Izu Skyline, back up the Izu Skyline, to the Ashinoko Skyline, Route 138, Route 147 up to Mt.Fuji 5th Station (at 2000m), back along Route 138 to Yamanakako lake, past FujiSpeedway and then home.

Unfortunately the weather was foul all morning with rain and mist. The afternoon was still misty but now the visability was a few miles rather than 50m.

The highlights were:

*Getting told off by the ticket booth guy at Izu Skyline because I left at the same point I entered but bought a ticket to leave at the other end. I just had to say "wakarimasen' (I do not understand) but I knew he wasn't happy from the tone of his voice!

*Doing some 'team' driving - in the faster car I would overtake a slower car and then keeping Jamie in my rear view I would flash my warning indicators to show him when the coast was clear, we made a lot of progress.

*Standing at Fuji 5th station and not being able to see the end of the car park!

*Trying some powersliding up the Fuji road was a lot of fun!

More rain...

Nothing much to report for weekend 31st May/1st June. It rained most of the weekend from memory. The only thing of note was that we went to Costco again. At least this time Emi had her new American Express credit card so we could actually spend some money to pay folr things. We were a little concerned when we arrived at the car with the trolley it looked like there was no way it was all going to fit but we ended up with plenty of room to spare. The Silvia's boot is much bigger than it looks!

Baking time

Emi and I have been talking about buying a bread making machine for a while and on Saturday 24th we finally bought one. We were not going to buy it on the day but Yodabashi Camera had a bit of a sale so we took the plunge. So far we have used it 8 or 9 times and the bread is really tasty.
Sunday 25th was another quite one. I took Emi to her mothers appartment in the car is get some things. In the afternoon I played a little PS3 and then we went to read in the park.
In the evening was the biggest race of the F1 calender, the Monaco GP. I was a pretty good race with Hamilton coming in first despite having hit to Arnco early in the race. He was very lucky but then you always need a bit of luck. Kimi looked like he was sleeping when he ran into the back of Adrian Sutil in the Force India car - not supprising the guy was in tears.

Picnic in the Park

Nothing too exciting to report this week and no moaning to do either, going to struggle to write much!
Saturday the highlight was going to a park near to Miyagase Lake for a picnic. We arrived late for lunch, it was as others were packing up to leave. It was just as well, they were making quite a racket! Once people had starting leaving it was nice and quite. We sat under a tree as we ate our lunch and then had a read.
By the way I'm reading a book by Kate Fox called "Watching the English". It is about the defining characteristics of English people and it is very interesting. Some of them you can probably guess and others not. One example, she did an experiment - purposely walking into people to find their response. In England 80% of people said sorry even though it was not their fault. In most other countries people ask if you are ok and in Japan the experiment was difficult because at the last minute a sixth sense meant they would almost always avoid you! In my experience they might miss you but you are more likely to be on a crash course in the first place - when Japanese walk up the stairs at work they never look up between each flight so normally have to take evasive action at the last milisecond.
Sunday again was not particularly note worthy - cleaning clothes and the appartment followed by another reading session in the local park.

Hear her roar!

Saturday 10th Emi and I sold ours souls to the devil - we went to Costco in Machida. I don't like the idea of handing my money over to some giant all-consuming corporation - I've a dislike for shopping at Tescos in the UK - but somehow the promise of saving a few Yen won over.
To start with it was 1 hours drive away. If you think that is a long way this is 1 hour driving in Japan so about a 20-30 minute journey in most parts of the UK under normal circumstances. When we got there it was clear that the town officials were too busy rubbing their hands at the thought of the all those dollars and yen in their pockets - they had build Costco and a number of other large UK retail park type stores on this long narrow road. This meant that the road was just rediculously busy. And you could only enter the carparks of the stores if you were on the correct side of the road so we had to drive past, turn around in the carpark of another store and join another queue. 20minutes later we were parked up in the Costco.
Next we had to get a membership card. This involved 5 minutes of Japanese banter, Emi signed something and then the Costco representative whipped out some American Express Credit Card information. They chatted for about 15 minutes and then Emi started to fill out the form. I was like "wait up, why do you need an American Express Card?". Apparently we got air miles, discounts at blah blah blah. "What about your other credit card discounts?", apparently these were different. "Is there a membership change for the card, this is one reason why they are not popular in Europe". Well guess what, there was a membership fee of 60 quid a year yet the women selling the card hadn't told Emi before she had started filling out the form. This would result in the person loosing there job in the UK as she was mis-selling something. Eventually after much discussion between myself and Emi and Emi and the Costco representative Emi signed up as the benefits would be worth more than the 60 quid membership fee. It was also at this point that we discovered that Costco in Japan only accepted American Express, Costco Mastercard and cash as payment. Had we know this before we went there would have been a visit to the bank, we only had 50 quid between us. This ended up taking 1.5hours - and we hadn't even entered the shop yet!
Wandered around picking up as few things as possible. The problem was we didn't have much cash and although things were "cheap" everything is in bulk so it is not so cheap. As it was our first visit and the place was very busy it ended up taking about 3 hours to walk around and get through the checkout. Now most of you that know me know I am very intolerant of bad road manors and people doing stupid things (particularly in shops - badly parked trolley etc) so by the end of our shopping trip my blood was at boiling point!
Sunday was much better. Car modifying is very big in Japan, most vehicles have something non-standard fitted to them be it an exhaust system or some alloy wheels. Because of the expense of these parts there are a number of shops that sell used car parts. This isn't like some scrapyard in the UK, these are like a small Autobacs or Halfords selling mostly used parts. I had seen an exhaust system the previous week and decided I wanted it and today was fitting day. Dropped the car off, popped into some nearby shops while we waited and 45 minutes later the car was ready. I paid 150 quid for a full stainless steel exhaust system fitted, the original new price was 420 quid not fitted. It had a dent in the centre silencer, a small dent and a few scratches on the tailbox, otherwise it was as good as new. Not bad me thinks!
Now when I put my foot down I get a subtle roar from the car rather than a mechanical racket - Nissan's strong point is not making tuneful exhaust systems.