Who wants to goto Japan with me!
 

You know, I been wanting to goto Japan for many many years!

Wondering who wants to fork out couple of grand and goto Japan for a week?? See the motherland where our cars are made and check out some shops..

Post here if you are interested!

very interested, I've been trying to talk the wife into going maybe this summer money and work permitting. Get a small little group together and might be able to get some savings on lodging/plane tickets through a good travel agent.

If you're buying, I'm going!!

I'm going in the summer of 2009 after I get back. I've actually already started planning my trip. Love to get a group to go then, but I'm sure you guys would have all of already went by then.

well I don't have a time frame myself other than I'd like to go at least within the next 2-3 years. We need to see who all would be interested, set a semi solid date and go from there. Summer of 09 might be pretty good gives people about a year and a half to know about it and be able to set some funds back. Getting there and lodging is just part of the cost, you can't tell me you wouldn't show up with a couple of empty suitcases to haul some goodies back with.

I plan on my wife and I going regardless but it would be so much nicer to be able to show up with a group of people to do things with than just me and her showing up and trying to find our way around and all. Last time I was there was about 23 years ago when I was 7 or 8 so needless to say I don't remember anything about it.

Jonathan

Cool! I been wanting to go for years!! Just didn't quite work out with the plans.. 2009 I think will give us plenty of time and get some Japanese vendors to show us around. I'll start working on that... and see if there is a BIG event that we could all attend.. and give us time to learn Japanese:)

If you guys get some pricing together my Fiance and I could possibly be interested. Someone learn the language really well so we can go buy about 20 sets of new rotor housings for dirty cheap. :)

I speak a little bit, but not enough to carry on a conversation with anyone. :D

I'm thinking about trying out the rosetta stone language learner to see how well it works and how in depth it actually gets. They offer a online version where you pay for a set number of months and can then access it anywhere from any computer. If I decide to do something like that I might be pursuaded to let a few people have the info so they can make use of it also should it turn out to be a benificial program.

I doubt it will teach you to say "I need a dirt price on brand new rotors" but might get close "I need to pay little for new triangles"

Hey, don't buy rosetta stone just yet. Give me about a week to see if I still have a hook up with it.

As far as pricing goes. I've been looking around for a while. Typically, per person, if we flew from Nashville to Tokyo in Jan., for example, prices range from ~$1450 for airfare and hotel(holiday inn) to ~$1900 to stay at the Intercontinental Tokyo Bay. If we went in October, the price is the same. Summer months seem to add ~$400-$500.

I think our best bet would be to get airfare seperate, make a plan for traveling all throughout Japan(maybe contact the vendors and see what they reccommend), book the hotel based off of that, and prob. have everyone get a rail pass.

What does everyone think?

ummmm this could be fun!! get these plans made out if it sounds good i will go!

I PM'd Carol about it since she went earlier this year. Here is some advice she had.

I've checked on this and usually the best time to go is March thru May. For some odd reasons, these are the cheapest time (and OCT) to go over seas. Thats when I used to go out of the country.. back when I did quite of travelling.

Personally, late April/May is the best time togo Asia as weather is fantastic!! Japan being slightly south (lateral location is about the same as Nashville/ATL) should be kind of warm during this time.

But I think we should pick an event and try to attend as that might give us more reasons to go. Also ATL might be a better place to depart as they have several direct flights.

COOL! Hope she can come with us!

Yeah, I figured ATL would be a better central hub for everyone to fly out of. I was just throwing prices out there from when I had searched the last 6 months or so. If you guys go March-May I won't be able to attend as I won't be returning from Afghanistan until after that.

we need to come up with a list of what exactly people would want to see while there. That way we can map out the locations and see the best way to proceed as far as hotels, transportation, etc.

I know other than just about all the tuner shops specifically FEED, RE-Amemiya, Knightsports, r-magic, etc I would also like to see ground zero and visit the Mazda factory/musem.

The beer musems sound pretty interesting too.

this would be insane! a trip to the motherland with a bunch of rotards! i would be down for this summer, or next summer! i will deffinately be watching this thread like a hawk!

me and the gf would be down to go in 2009!

Let me contact some people and see what they recommend..

I think the new JDM parts seller Nick might have somethings to point out.. I'll ask him to join this thread.

Does anyone talk to Circut Theory? I know he has offered tours, etc. I think he may have helped Carol out on her trip if I am not mistaken.

I have talked to Circuit Theorie on a few occasions. I'm sure if there was a large group of us going he would be willing to show us around. He did tell me recently though that he is trying to get away from the tour stuff due to him being very busy. I'm going to send him a link to this thread as well. We may even be able to schedule a couple of different trips as it sounds like some ppl would prefer to go spring of 2009, while others prefer summer 2009.

Ｈｉ　everybody,

Herblenny just asked me to join so here I am.

Well, I hope that I can be of nay help to you guys. I've been living in Japan for a little while now but un fortunately, because of my studies at first then my job I never really had the chance to travel a lot in the country. However I'v still seen many different places and can recommand some. It just depends on what you wanna see.

If you're looking for a traditionnal image of Japan with historical places, Nara and Kyoto will be a good start. If you want to stay close to Tokyo, Kamakur is not far and is pretty similar to Kyoto in many ways. I'll recommand this place if don't have a lot of time and also want to visit tuners or other more "modern" places.

If you have a little more time and want to see a Japan alittle bit different from the "clichés", you can try to go deeper in the countryside. I personnaly live in Shizuoka which is a "small" town of 350000 inhabitants. A lot more quiet than Tokyo or Osaka with a lot of places to see arround, but it'll maybe require a car though.

Concerning the best time to visit Japan, well I'd lke to say April. Cherry blossoms every where, not too hot, not too cold, not too wet. My favourite time in the year. People also like to have picnics under the "sakura" and this a really pleasant time. But if possible avoid the Golden week at the beginning of may because most japanese have a bunch of days off at that time and hotels are crowded.

Autumn is a great season too but prefer to come just after the typhoon season wich brings a lot of rain especially in Kyushu. In Shizuoka it doesn't really matter, weather is fine during that period usually.

For the accomodation you can also choose between different formulas from business hotels, guest houses, ryokan (traditionnal japanese hotels)... Prices my vary. There again, it depends on what you're looking for and you budget.

I think that's all I can say for now but if you have questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Sincerely,

Nick

Nick,

If you haven't been able to see much since you've been there, maybe once we get some dates locked in you might be able to join us and take in some of the sights too.

Well, it would be great but as you can imagine I'm a kind of busy guy!:D Working in a small trading company is really taking a lot of time, and I also train regulary (want to become Ju-Jutsu instructor). But if I have time, I'll be more than happy to join and be your interprete...:)

little off topic but if your taking ju-jutsu you might know some good equipment makers/retailers. Would you happen to know how high (price wise) good bogu sets and shinai go for there? Looking for high quality hand made. They run really high around here (upwards of 3k) for a .8 BU bogu set thats hand stitched, didn't know if they were any cheaper there. May have to bring some extra suitcases with me. Shinai arn't to bad price wise until you start getting into the carbon made ones then they get pretty pricey.

Hey guys,
Just got linked to the thread and registered for the site.
It is lunch time here now so I will post up some ideas and possibilities for your japan trip after I finish eating.
Thanks
Tom

;) Thanks for getting here so quickly after I literally just sent you the link!

Well, I practice Hakko-ryu jujutsu so all i need is a renshu-gi (got mine from the honbu dojo);) I usually buy my stuff at a local store. Never really checked that kind of products though...

Well todays lunch was crap so I am back early:D

Ok to start I will just toss out things that can be done and events that you could go to. After that you guys can bicker about what you want to do and what you dont want to do and what you feel so so about etc...

Please keep in Mind I am in the Kanto area (tokyo area).


Things to do:
1: If you didnt know I will inform you now, this place is RX-7 heaven, literally year round there are 7 meetings and track days all over, and I dont just mean a simple Taco bell parking lot 10 car meeting. So When coming it should not be to difficult to arrange a 7 event or join up with one

2: Time attack, December is the start of the time attack months and usually lasts until early march. There are some summer and spring time attack events but record breaking times are not set during those periods.

3: Track events. For me coming to Japan from Southern California I came here despising drifting. Mostly because so many people associated with drifting state side are mega tools and I did not want to associate with them lol. However since coming to Japan I have learned to respect drifting a bit more since it is not just young kids and fan boys doing it. A good percentage of the guys drifting here are in their late 30's to early 40`s hahaha. Ok so what I am saying is checking out a drift or a mixed drift and grip day is not as bad as it sound for you guys that have not experienced it here in Japan. I think Carol can vouch for that.

4: Used parts shopping, Retail parts shopping, Mazda OEM parts shopping

5: Tuner tours. Ideally it is best to meet the tuners on neutral ground at first, such as at a track event or 7 meeting etc... Then after meeting them once they will be much more welcoming and excited to have a group of foriegners invading their shop hahaha. I think Carol can also vouch for this.
A quick list of recognizeable shop names that could be visited:
RE-Amemiya
PanSpeed
Garage Kagotani
Amuse
Knight Sports
Wise One
R-magic
Scoot
Kazama Auto
Yashio Factory
G-corporation
PowerVehicles
etc...

6: Driving on a track in Japan. Ok so I work out of/with Wise One Auto and have been playing with the idea of setting up a couple cars for use/rental by people visiting Japan that want to race here on some of the famous circuits, tracks.
Given the right amount of time I could have a couple cars for rental and use at the track. This will take quite a bit of planning. So the more time I am given and the earlier I know who is 95 to 100% sure they want to drive here, the better chance we have at making this a reality.

7: Beer museums. Kind of a no brainer there you dont really need my help for that.

8: Track tours, tracks in the Kanto area that could be visited or driven at are:
Tsukuba Circuit TC2000 & TC1000, Fuji International Speedway, Twin Rings Motegi, Nikko, Honjo, Mobara, and Ebisu.

9: Not sure but possibly visit USS Noda (the largest car auction in the world) some cool cars there and it is also an amazing place size and organization wise.

10: Visiting the SUPER TYTE JDM TOUGE'S lol This is actually a worthwhile thing to do one evening. Both Grip and Drift cars run at night until the early morning.

You can add on or ask about other things and the chances of getting them in.
I will stop this post here and let you guys fill out some of the other ideas and answer any questions via pm or in this thread.

Thanks
Tom

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I'm going to buy a lottery ticket this weekend. Maybe then I'll have the money to finish up the FD and hang in the land of the rising sun. Keep your fingers crossed.

well we could always start a rotarycarclub lottery pool. Everyone chip in a couple of bucks a week, we will paypal it to someone in a state that has the biggest drawing that week and then all split the take. :party:

Awesome!

I would like to add Mazda museum!

The track thing sound great!!

Awesome!

I would like to add Mazda museum!

The track thing sound great!!

If we catch an Admin double posting on the "new and improved site" do we get an extra 500 posts added? I see Herblenny has plenty to spare!
lol
I will look into the Mazda museum. It is on the West Coast of Japan and would take about 2 days out of the trip or one really busy day to go there and come back if you guys were only coming for one week. Or the guys that are able to stay longer than a week could make a trip out there. We can work that out once we start gettting some more people that will definately be going and then hammer out some dates.

PS: You can tac on those 500 posts whenever you have a spare second :)

LOL! Done...

Man, this would be a awesome trip with a group of people.

That it would be. I'm definatly in if we are going to be looking near or in the summer of 09. Gives me plenty of time to set some cash back.

At least in a group we will be able to understand each other. :smilielol5:

I haven't been to Japan in about 10 years ... my father is there now at times , in Sacebo ... I've been trying to get him to shop for me over there for parts , but Sacebo is a small place , and i'm not sure of the parts availability there ... STILL trying though :)

Im sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo In on this!!!!! I have been TRYING to get to the Tokyo Auto Salon for like 8 years now. Since SEMA is like 2 months prior, I always seem to never have the money to go. Go figure, I like Blackjack! lol

Keep the info coming about pricing and what not. Im also down for going to some Togue fun! Grip and drift. Mazda factory/museum tuner shops sight seeing whatever!