Japantastic (56K warning)

[Homer_Bart]

Originally Posted by maxtortheone

I know this thread is about japanese cars(and a great one at that), I have a question regarging kanji (and me not knowing how to read a word in it). What does it say on this Maneki Neko?



E-cookies to anybody who helps me out! And I'm very sorry for the OT post but I didn't want to start a new thread on it with all the Japanese stuff here.

edit: Woot! 700th post!

Yep it's actually "open" and "luck", but those words are traditional chinese words that only Taiwan (and maybe Japan) uses.

[hansvonaxion]

I saw an RS200 today, being driven, not through a showroom window. A bit like seeing a unicorn.

Also the other day I heard what sounded like a formula engine being revved so after a little checking I discovered they had an event on at the Megaweb so we headed over to have a look. It wasn't that great, they did have the cars drive up and down the carpark but we didn't hang around for that - the baby was getting cranky.









Took a couple more on the proper camera, might up them later.

More from Megaweb...

Really, Toyota? Really?




Can a guy really buy a car called a Cocoa? One this cute?

[hansvonaxion]

This is the house of a famous actor. near Shinjuku. I saw him giving a tour of his house on the TV a few weeks agon and then stumbled across it today.




There a few big/interesting houses in the area (by Tokyo standards), part of this house is an old converted storage building (or something).

[Polly]

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

Normally I wouldn't lower myself to jump on the ZOMG-HYBRIDS-ARE-TEH-EVIL-bandwagon, but still.. unbelievable those are done by the same company.

[KaJuN]

It's been a while since my last post so I figured I'd fill you in on my Japantastic adventures.

I saw this yesterday and the first thought that popped into my head was "Why?".


An oversized storage container for Matchbox cars.


Another case of "Why?"


Parking sillyness






A possible awesome thread nominee?

[KaJuN]

Now it's time for KaJuN's Kulture Klub! Oh wait, that abbreviation might need some work...

Anywho, yesterday I went to the biggest tug-of-war I've ever seen:






It wasn't a traditional tug-of-war like you might be used to. The goal is to move this massive tube of rope (it weighs about 40 tons) past a marker line. The town is divided into two teams, East and West and each team takes turns trying to move the rope to their side.

Once the battle is over the participants cut up the rope and keep pieces of it to bring good luck for the next year. That handsome fellow on the left is me sporting my spoils of war. You can see just how big the rope was and it stretched on for about 600 feet.

[Pedrocas]

I just love the randomly parked little cars.

[Kimo_SpeedSix]

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

Heres a Lutecia, this car is great in GT4.

Lutecia? Is that japanese for Clio?

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by Kimo_SpeedSix

Lutecia? Is that japanese for Clio?

Actually, yeah. Kinda.

The Clio has been sold as the Renault Lutecia in Japan, as Honda owns the right to the name Clio in Japan (being one of Honda's sales networks in Japan). A four-door saloon was developed for certain markets where sedans are traditionally preferred over hatchbacks and is sold under names Renault Clio Classic, Renault Clio Symbol, Renault Clio Sedan, Renault Clio Tricorps, and Renault Thalia. It is also sold under the Nissan nameplate in some Latin American markets as the Nissan Platina with slight changes in the front of the car to make it resemble the Nissan Altima.

[Redliner]

I didn´t knew that!

[bobo_1314]

Originally Posted by KaJuN

I like the expression on that girl's face; she's like, "I'm not going to touch you!! You're all smelly and sweaty!!"


OK, back to cars!

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by KaJuN

I saw this yesterday and the first thought that popped into my head was "Why?".


Another case of "Why?"

Why pay too much for an average American car?
I'm sure you've figured out by now that foreign is cool. Just like the guy who imports an R34 to the states and ends up paying a fortune and having wrong hand drive etc, there is a similar guy in Japan who imports the family truckster to Japan just to be different.

I think a little earlier I posted a LHD Open Corsa 1.4.

Originally Posted by Redliner

I didn´t knew that!

Neither did I really. I kinda wondered where the Lutecia name fit in.

[Icy J]

Thought I'd share some pics from my recent Japan school trip...was pretty fun XD

I went to Hokkaido and Tokyo. It was really weird, since there were virtually no nice cars in Hokkaido and Tokyo was full of them. I have a full list of what I saw on my iPod Touch, retyped here;

S63 (5)
Nissan GT-R R35 (4)
Bentley Continental Flying Spur (3)
SL55 (2)
Jaguar XKR
E55 (3)
Ferrari 360
Ferrari 599
Rolls Royce Phantom
CL55
Ferrari F430 Spider
Bentley Continental GT (2)
Honda NSX (2)
S65 (2)
Ferrari F430 Scuderia Spider 16M (AWESOME)
Audi R8
Aston Martin DB9 (2)


The inevitable ramen bowl

A zoo

Looong road

Somewhere in Hokkaido

Sapporo Tower

Nice structure

Reminded me of GT5 Prologue

Lake

Weirdest truck ever


And now, the cars
S63 AMG



Bentley Continental FS

E55

Another Bentley FS

Ferrari 360 somewhere in the back

R8 Hidden just next to our bus



Aston DB9

ANOTHER Bentley

ANOTHER DB9

[Censport]

Originally Posted by Supreme_Being

A Toyota Sports 800 from the Philippines selling for US$ 10,000.00 (More or less)

Wow, that's a BRIGHT blue. Since it has a Toyota "4K" engine, I bet they had to change out the transmission and differential too. Judging by the rear track, I'm pretty positive about it. Besides, the original horizontally-opposed two-cylinder engine rotated in the opposite direction of everything else Toyota made.

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

Here's one in Japan for $25,000!

That's more like it. Reminds me a bit of the blue '68 in the old Taiho Shichauzo anime.

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

This is the house of a famous actor. near Shinjuku. I saw him giving a tour of his house on the TV a few weeks agon and then stumbled across it today.

Which actor?

Originally Posted by KaJuN

Another case of "Why?"

..because it's roomier on the inside than a cheap apartment. Fewer cockroaches too.

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by Censport

Which actor?

I had to ask, Mine Ryuta.

[TopGearManiac]

best thread evar!!! I wanna live there!! awesome pics!!

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by KaJuN

Anywho, yesterday I went to the biggest tug-of-war I've ever seen:


It wasn't a traditional tug-of-war like you might be used to. The goal is to move this massive tube of rope (it weighs about 40 tons) past a marker line. The town is divided into two teams, East and West and each team takes turns trying to move the rope to their side.

Once the battle is over the participants cut up the rope and keep pieces of it to bring good luck for the next year. That handsome fellow on the left is me sporting my spoils of war. You can see just how big the rope was and it stretched on for about 600 feet.

Just saw that on TV. You're famous.

BTW, I've started a blog and put all the pics up there. Some of the pics in this thread don't load because I've moved them since posting but the blog is complete and pics are divided into categories. Would be good if a few of you could check it out, maybe leave some comments, and let me know if it's easy to navigate and what have you.

http://blog.tokyobytes.com/

I don't know if I'll continue to post here too, I'll probably just post the more interesting car pics.