Your Japanese word of the week is...

"azakeru" 嘲る which is "to mock/ridicule".  No, this isn't about me mocking my students or the other way around.  This is more about the state of the car market currently.

As I mentioned last week, I went to the Vancouver International Auto Show with fellow car friends and, while lacking in truly exceptional cars, there was endless scope for us to make fun of bad ones.  We got into lots of different ones and pushed buttons, turned dials, knocked on panels, and ran our fingers over surfaces.  What did we look for?  A generally high quality feel.  A button should "press" with a dampened solid feel, not "click" in a plasticky sound.  Dials should turn smoothly with consistent resistence, not stiff at the start and sticky like it was set in molasses.  The same goes for materials- panels and surfaces should feel substantial and pleasant to touch, not feel and sound like plastic painted to look like wood.

In fact, high end luxury car makers actually spend money into research and development on what kind of pressure it should take to turn a dial, what kind of sound each button should make, and what materials to use.

So it's no surprise that the Europeans seem to do it best, with the Japanese in a close second. It's also not surprising that expensive cars tend to do it better.

What ~IS~ surprising is just how poor some cars are built, despite being expensive.  Not to sound biased, but the majority of these were American cars.  A Lincoln Navigator is, for example, atrociously put together.  Door handles have visible seams where the plastic was moulded together; the gauges are incredibly small and hard to read; the covers for the storage compartments rattle and sound cheap.

Similarly, the Lincoln Mk S is just as bad.  The materials are woeful, the gaps in the panels are consistent only in their inconsistency, and the feel of all the controls the driver touches just reeks of budgetary constraints.  The worst part is that, at $66,000 as displayed at the Auto Show, it's not cheap.  In fact, you can get the ridiculously fast and aggressive Mercedes C63 AMG for ~LESS~ money which, despite being a bit smaller in the back, is a no-brainer in terms of choice.  And if you opt out of the performance, you can buy a similarly equipped Audi or Lexus for less as well.

Then again, it's not just the Americans.  One of the most hideous cars of the show, the Porsche Panamera, is equally affected.  All the controls feel fine up front, but some of the stuff in the back seats are just awful.  The lid for the cupholder, for example, springs open with a tinny "clack" and the cover for the storage area only manages to open itself halfway before getting stuck.  That kind of stuff is unacceptable for cars costing $50,000, let alone $100,000.

Perhaps some people don't care.  Perhaps some people don't have a chance to compare.  But even so, most people should have a sense of what feels expensive to them.  But more critical than that, the upper management of these companies shouldn't settle for second rate standards.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"honyaku" which means "translate". And last week, I finally got off my butt to figure out how to get Vista to write in Japanese. It turns out it's ridiculously easy (it took 30 seconds) so now I can also write the kanji for "honyaku", 翻訳. But people more often use "tsuyaku" 通訳 even though, according to the dictionary, it means "interpret" as opposed to "translate"...... I suppose it's the same in English though...

Anyways, like I promised, I'd found some time to flesh out some awards for the Tokyo Auto Salon last week. Some are new awards, and some aren't, but here we go...

Worst Colour Combination Award

No, you're eyes aren't fooling you. And no, neither is it noise from my camera. The car really is a poo brown over-saturated with metal flake.....

What probably is fooling your eyes, however, is the car itself. When I walked up I thought to myself, "There's something wrong with this Porsche"..... I couldn't figure it out until I saw the front......

If you know what's wrong with this picture and, even better, can figure out the origins of the name, feel free to leave a comment...... you might get a prize =).....

But despite its many glaring problems, it still managed to fool quite a few people.......

Most Under-Appreciated Car Award

It just wouldn't be me if I didn't award an Evo something hehe....

But I think this particular Evo IX deserves it because while the Evo X is a good car it doesn't impress me as much for some reason.

It certainly looks nice and is technology laden (active centre diff, active yaw control, active steering, twin-clutch gearbox), but it's also heavier and I find its performance slightly underwhelming.

I also happen to like my cars rather raw and this Evo IX delivers much better in that respect. I like that journalists say the steering could be considered almost overly-sharp. I like that some find it noisy. I like that others find it stiff. I don't even mind the bland interior and a body based off some middle-of-the-road bleh-mobile.

The Evo had it where it counted and proved it could go beyond its image and humble base to be recognized world-wide. Thus, this clean Evo in the Varis booth deserved much more attention that it got...

Random interesting picture...

No room for the groom?

Best Booth

Mazda. I will say, though, that no booth was particularly overwhelming (unlike Mitsubishi's darkness-of-space booth last year) probably since car show budgets were being trimmed as, apparently, filling booths with modified cars and pretty models is not as important as preventing bankruptcy... who knew...

But Mazda had every car in their line-up on display all dressed up in the same colour and same detailing (seats, stripes, wheel & bodykit styling), and had them open for everyone to try. It really created a cohesiveness to the display admist a sea of flashy colours and outrageous engine transplants.

An honourable mention goes to Subaru who built a rally car from the shell up in demonstrations over the three days. This is the techs putting in the rear axle and suspension.

It never ceases to amaze me just how fast cars rally cars can be taken apart or put together. I didn't stay for the whole show but they only scheduled, like, 15min for this bit.....

Best Tifosi

Tifosi is the Italian word for a group of sports fans. Increasingly, it's become synonymous the ravenous Ferrari fans at Formula 1 races. Y'know, the one's who dunk themselves in red paint and hold up a gigantic flag for 4hrs in the rain...

Well, despite there being only ONE Ferrari in the entire show, this guy still came in his Ferrari hat. And jacket. And sticker'd phone...

If you must know, he was taking a picture of a Nissan...

This was the only Ferrari in the building, an F2008 that Bridgestone brought along. The F2008 was the car Ferrari contested for the '08 season. For '09, they changed the rules for the allowable wing sizes and now the cars have strange full-width (reaching to the outside edges of the front tire) front wings and extremely narrow rear wings. It's not very attractive..... there's also an option to install a hybrid system (like in a Prius) which allows the drivers to use the batteries to provide a maximum of 6.6 sec (per RACE) of extra power....

The "What The Deuce" Award

Last year's award went to the company Nate for producing the frog car. This year's award also went to Nate for producing this "chick" car......

They hatched it out of a red egg lined with tin foil...... I think that's saying enough......

Best Model

Unlike last year's award which was won by a headless, armless, and legless mannequin, this year there were lots of models worth mentioning.

But try as they might (Suzuki and Toyo in particular tried quite hard), it goes to this nice girl in the Dunlop booth.

I didn't take a brochure though... Dunlops aren't really my thing =P...

Or maybe I should just put the rest of the pictures up and have a vote instead =)...

Best GT-R

With the GT-R being the darling of the Japanese performance scene and the GT-R Spec V about to be released soon, the show was flooded with them. But the Zele GT-R wins because aside from the surprisingly becoming orange paint scheme on their cars (they had a new 370Z as well), it's a very well put-together car with lots of neat and subtle features.

My particular favourite is the carbon fibre bumper that looks identical to the stock one except with two brake ducts put in. I never liked the stock bumper's lack of ducting (a sadly increasingly common styling element) and the Zele bumper looks different, functional, and simple all at once.

Best of all is that in a recent GT-R shootout, Zele's GT-R ran the best time of the day, beating other well-known tuners (like Mine's) on the track.

Car of the Show

Unequivocally- the Mugen NSX RR Concept.

As you might have figured out, I like things that are subtle, pragmatic, functional, and thoughtfully designed/engineered. I like details. I particularly like when something is designed with a clear goal in mind and, like the Evo's quick steering or stiff suspension, isn't ashamed of what it is.

The Mugen NSX RR Concept checks all those boxes. Despite being a car that's been out of production for almost 4 years, it still managed to captivate everyone. I watched it spin around slowly for nearly 15 minutes...

It's not just the body. Yes it resembles their endurance racer, is made of carbon fibre and aluminum, and is gorgeous like a race-car should be, but some panels were moulded to the body shell and they filled in the standard car's side air intakes.

It's not just the brakes. Yes they've got massive calipers and disks, but the entire wheel hub assembly was redesigned to push the wheels out, making use of that wide-body design.

It's not just the aerodynamics. Yes it's got a big wing and a hood extractor, but it's also got relocated exhausts for better rear floor aero and it has the air intake on the roof first seen on the 2002 NSX-R and their race car.

It's not just the interior. Yes it's the same as the normal one, but it's completely redone with new gauges, new steering wheel, new nav screen, new dash/switches, and new seats, all upholstered in red Alcantara.

It's not even the engine, which is the normal 3.2-litre V6 which is puny compared to fast cars of today. But Mugen turned it 90° so it now sits longitudinally (the crankshaft lies front-to-back) instead of transversely (side-to-side), just like their JGTC GT500 race car.

No, this car impresses because it's all those things but put together with a level of quality reserved for top-level race teams with big budgets, which Mugen is. Despite Honda pulling out of F1, this car proves they still know what they're doing.

And with all-but-confirmed rumours that the next NSX will be a front engined, V-10 powered, all-wheel-drive sports car (everything the previous one wasn't), the RR Concept, like the Nismo R34 Z-Tune from last year, is a fitting farewell for one of the most enduring sports cars in Japan, if not the world.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"tsuitachi" which refers to the first day of a month. Just as how in English we say "January first" instead of "January one", "tsuitachi" is used in Japanese instead. In my case, the most important date in the first quarter of this year is March 1st. That would be, as I've just confirmed tonight, when my next grading is. I certainly don't intend on failing but it's not going to be easy. Especially because I'm determined to grade under the most scrupulous of testers, those in charge of the Tokyo area test.

To that end, in September I started training once a week at Takagi Sensei's Guseikai dojo. It helps that he's one of the people on the grading panel so I'm trying to take in as much as I possibly can in the next two months. However, it's still difficult mainly because while the grading itself only requires me to do all the basics, two kata, and two pre-set partner drills, I don't know which kata or drills I'll be required to do until the day of the test. And because they're choosing two kata out of 4 and two drills out of 10, I essentially need to know all of them....... =P

And while it sounds stressful, it hasn't stopped me from enjoying my time here. For example, this weekend I...

... went to the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon.

As usual, I'll be putting up a couple noteables in a separate post.

... took part in the Shiramizu Arukou-kai, their annual new year walk to a shrine. The name actually comes from "aruku" (to walk) and "kai" (a meet/event), hence the name "arukou-kai".

Here are some pics from Arakawa Sensei's blog.

That's Arakawa Sensei at the head of the line.

It was a cold but bright morning and about 120 dojo members (Shiramizu has nearly 450 students!) came out for the walk which was about 1.5hr each way. At the temple, we prayed and had a short 5 minute "practice". At the end of the walk some parents had hot soup ready for us so it was great fun all around.

... went again to the Kagami Biraki at the Nippon Budokan. Like last year, it opened with an exhibition showing how the head of a samurai clan was given a feast followed by martial arts demos. I managed to catch the kyudo (archery) and karate demos, both of which were quite good.

Following that was the "First practice of the year". Nine different martial arts on the main floor of the budokan all practicing together. It great fun.

These next two pics are, again, thanks to Arakawa Sensei.

That's Carl, the current intern, right behind me.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"choden" which means "super electric" and refers to what we'd call a superconductor. I bring this up because I just got back from looking at some of the interesting displays outside the Museum of Maritime Science in Odaiba. I didn't go inside but one of the displays there was of a superconducting electromagnetic ship propulsion system, also known as magneto-hydrodynamic drive, which involves applying a magnetic field to a conducting fluid (seawater in this case) to propel a ship. The Mitsubishi Group actually built a working prototype (the first in the world) called the Yamato1 and the engine (on the right) is on display outside the museum.

Of course, as much as I'm intrigued by technology, I didn't travel across the Rainbow Bridge and all the way to Odaiba just to see what is essentially a gigantic water squirter. No, instead, I went for the 2008 Tokyo Automotive Games.

But before that, a bit of info on Odaiba. Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, one of 6 originally built 1853 to defend Tokyo (nee Edo) from intruders. In the early 1990s, right before the Japanese economic bubble burst, Odaiba was slated to be developed as a showcase for futuristic residential living and commericial buildings.

Then everyone ran out of money, leaving Odaiba full of plans but empty of anything substantial.

In the late 90's, new investors started coming in and turned it into the tourist and general leisure area it now is. And indeed, there are some really cool things there like the Fuji TV headquarters (with it's odd spherical add-on), the Miraikan Museum which showcases emerging science and innovation, the Rainbow Bridge, a replica Statue of Liberty, and plenty of shopping malls, one of which has two floors of "Little Hong Kong" serving all that Hong Kong cuisine has to offer.

But I went for the Automotive Games show, which is kind of like a mid-level car/bike show. Taking place in a huge parking lot, there were lots of car and bike parts vendors, RC car racing, some stunt riding shows, Moto1 (dirtbike racing), FMX (dirtbike jumping), Drift shows, and Vespa racing (seriously!).

It wasn't anything amazing but there was a large variety of stuff going on and, since there is no Tokyo Motor Show, it let me get my fix of turbos, powerslides, and tire smoke.

And, as it happens sometimes with shows like these, the absolute best car of the day wasn't even part of the show- I found it in the parking lot. A Ferrari F40!!









Oh, and this..... "Ok son, get in there while I take a picture of you with the girls..."

OH!!! I almost forgot.......... there were Stormtroopers........

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"iro iro" which is "various" and this past week was indeed filled with "iro iro" activities.

Kita-ku Tournament

Just like last year, I went to the "Kita-ku" Karate Tournament, which is one of the oldest karate tournaments in Tokyo still running. Kita-ku is the northern region of Japan and the school I work at is conveniently a part of this, so naturally the karate club was competing. All the students competed in individual kumite and there was a Seiritsu grad (past members of anything are affectionately known as OB's, or "old boys") who entered individual kata and helped comprise the kumite team.

See above was a board breaking demo. The sensei who's arm just had a board broken over it (R side) is some 75 years old...... intense.......

Kuruucrew

On Friday night, one of my roomates was going to what he called an "experimental noise" concert. What the heck, I figured, and I went along.

The club itself played a lot of techno, but not trance or house or anything like that....... it was really bass heavy and at times strangely arrhythmic. I'm sure there's a name for the genre, but I have no idea what it is. Dancing, apparently, consisted of swaying like zombies to the "beat"..... very interesting, to say the least......

The band that was playing is called Kuruucrew, a 5-man band that play what I would considered something that borders between ultra-heavy metal and flat out noise. There was a drummer, a guitarist, a bass guitarist, a saxophone player, and a guy who played a flourescent light tube.... and I'm not joking.....

I have yet to figure out how he "plays" it, but it almost looks like he had a mic hooked up to it and then he just turns the tube on and off to generate that characteristic buzzing noise. Then he feeds the noise through some reverb pedals to make............ "music". I've also yet to figure out how he manages to turn it on and off so consistently because anytime I turn on flourescent lights, they tend to flick randomly for a few seconds before fully turning on.......... oh well haha....

As for the band, it borders on simple loud noises atop a 130+bpm beat. Upon a background of constant guitar feedback and nearly constant bass strumming and bass drumming is that light tube "guitar", almost random cymbal crashes, and that saxophone (also mic'd through reverb pedals) which I could never hear.

Beyond that, they had 3 dancers (one male, one female, one yet-to-be-determined) in skin-coloured leotards and green Hawaiian grass skirts pole dancing. They also pulled stockings over their face like bank robbers. Dancing consisted of....... anything....... from spastic jogging-in-place to interpretive arm waving...... and moshing from the audience at the front......... I didn't partake =P.....

The band played a 30min set which was, for me, an.............. experience, let's say =P....

Tokyo Motor Week

Now that the Tokyo Motor Show has returned to its biennial roots, there isn't any big car show until the Tokyo Auto Salon next January. In response to this, the Japan Automobile Manufacturer's Association (JAMA) held the Tokyo Motor Week. Held in three locations, the motor week gave the public a chance to see new models from various Japanese manufacturers, last week in Yokohama and Odaiba, and this weekend in Roppongi.

It's set up like those "display shows" often seen in malls, where the cars are more like adding to the action rather than being the action itself.

I went to the one in Roppongi, held in the rather high-end Tokyo Midtown shopping complex.

Unforunately, despite the ads claiming to appeal to younger audiences with live DJ's and guest appearances, the show didn't offer much. In fact, each "display" was a single car. And, seeing as "average" people tend not to buy cars with "uncomfortable" sport suspension, "cramped" sporty interiors, and "noisy" performance engines, it was mildy interesting at best. They did have an Evo X, but that's not anything to get that worked up over.

There were, however, a couple other neat things.......

Such as these....... whatever they are. I know they're two back-halves of a Nissan Cube welded together. I have no idea what they're for though.

And this.....

Yes, that is really the dash for the Toyota Crown Hybrid. Yes, it's a complete LCD screen, capable of displaying...... well...... anything. Including a picture of the car when you get in. Also note the little unit on top of the steering column. That houses a sensor that constantly monitors the driver's eyes in case the driver is shoulder checking (ie- not looking forward) and the car bears down on some obstacle. It then beeps at you to warn you about the impending crash.... =P

The last thing I'd like to mention is that the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo is connected to this shopping complex, and the driveway of the hotel had cars worth more than the entire show including a V-10 Audi S8 and a long wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom.......

Tomorrow I'm off to a karate seminar led by Antonio Oliva Sensei, the Spanish National Team Kumite Coach and coach of "iro iro" karate world champions. He's in town for the World Karate Federation World Championships next weekend. And you can be sure there'll more to read about that next week =)......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"jidou" which means automatic. Certainly Japan is no stranger to automated-ness what with vending machines (jidohanbaiki) or a car (jidosha). Cars are also referred to as "kuruma" but..... whatever......

And since it's been a while since I've talked about cars, I thought I'd throw in a few things I managed to see this past two weeks.

I guess I'll start off with a week ago, when I was in Shibuya. I saw this...

... the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Now, I'm the first to admit, this isn't exactly a triumph of styling cues. In fact, I struggle to think of any new Ferrari in the past 5 years that I would call truly "beautiful". Aggressive maybe, but aesthetically pleasing?? Not compared to their cars from yore. A point seemingly proven by the fact that I was the only one even remotely concerned that it was even there, the black stallion by itself on the side of the road.

It certainly doesn't look like most other cars on the road, but perhaps the appeal of the car is more because "it's a Ferrari" rather than its actual styling. But having said that, the mechanicals are worth mentioning, with its massive 6.0-litre 611bhp V12 up front, transaxle gearbox in the back, and electronically controlled dampers.

On a slightly related note, if you ever see a truly expensive car in Tokyo (and the 599 GTB is worth more than $250,000), the license plate will almost always be registered to an address in Shinagawa, there being where all the truly rich people live.

Moving on.......

On Wednesday I saw this......

... the TVR Tamora. This was almost a better sight than the Ferrari because these British TVR's were sold in America only for a very short period of time, mostly because selling overseas nearly caused them to go bankrupt. In fact, I've never seen a TVR (or heard of anyone seeing a TVR) in Vancouver so seeing on in Tokyo was truly rare. TVR is a British-based car firm known for building very light, very fast, usually scary, and often unreliable sports cars. They really do market to a niche crowd but in doing so, they often find themselves some very devoted owners.

The Tamora weighed in at a very light 2500lbs but came stocked with a 3.6-litre 350bhp inline-6. For reference, that's 100lbs lighter than my Integra but with twice the power.

Tamora is, apparently, the Queen of the Goths.....................

Next up....

...the McLaren MP4-23, the current McLaren-Mercedes F1 challenger. I suppose this is just cool in that it's rare to see an F1 car and even more rare that it's not just some mock-up with no engine.

Seeing as the Japanese Grand Prix was last weekend, it seemed fitting that Mercedes put one on display. These things are amazing to look at simply because of the detail that go into designing them. Every edge and shape is designed purely for speed and that's cool......

I should point out that the picture was taken inside Shinagawa station. As if you needed more proof that Shinagawa is where the money is...

and lastly, on Monday I finally made a stop by this...

... the Audi Forum, in Tokyo. Found a 10-min walk from Harajuku station, this building, also known as The Iceberg, houses an Audi dealership on the first two floors, a hair salon (???) on the third floor, some kind of kids-science-discovery place on the 4th floor, and a very fancy restaurant-type area for wedding receptions and such on the upper floors.

Although my picture doesn't really do it justice, it's really a very interesting piece of architecture, perhaps simply because it different from all the buildings surrounding it. It's one of those things that looks like it was built just for the sake of building it. It's not like those edges make for more floor space or help it dissipate earthquake of typhoon energy.

The inside is appropriately classy and the Audi showroom had some appropriately expensive cars on display. Some noteable ones include the diesel-V12 Q7, the $200,000 V10-powered S8, and my personal favourite, the RS4 Avant.

They also had an R8 which, despite how great it is, I still find to be visually stunted from some angles......

Not that I'm judgemental or anything =P haha.....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"shou". It means "award". Although I'm sorry about being late, it's time for the Tokyo Auto Salon awards.

But before that, this past weekend I went to a Wadokai training camp at the Tokyo Agricultural University in the SE part of Tokyo. It was a pretty good work out although the dojo was pretty darn cold. The Japanese National Team is getting in gear for the World Wadokai Championships this August in Vancouver, so it'll get pretty interesting pretty quick. There's another camp (and qualifier, I believe) for the National Team next month in Nagano.

Anyways....... on with the awards-

Worst Colour Combination

We might as well start with the bad and work our way up. In this case, I think the picture is worth more than a thousand words. I know being "different" is important, but really, when is Regurgitated Eggplant Purple and Kangaroo Hide Brown a good mix??

Most Under-Appreciated Car

The Top Secret RA25 Celica 2000GT. It's hard to tell from the picture, but this car simply oozes quality. But the most surprising part was that there were so few people around it that I could take a picture from rather far away. There was a 240Z that was rather well built next to it and it was drawing quite a crowd though. Really, for all the mega-buck supercars and high dollar mods at the show, it's really easy to overlook this simple, clean, subtle, and pragmatic approach to car building.

Best Booth

Mitsubishi, without a doubt. The Lancer Evo X was one of the most anticipated cars of the year and they were out in force at the Auto Salon. Nearly any shop worth its weight in horsepower had an Evo X. But Mitsubishi wins because it managed to essentially create near darkness within its booth (in a fully lit convention centre!) and had 15min long music/song/dance shows running round the clock. They had the biggest stage, the biggest screen, the most smoke, the brightest lasers, the most dancers, and lots of Evo X's. In fact, it could've passed for a night club if your replaced all the people taking pictures with club-goers.

Best Model

These shows are as much about the cars as they are about the girls next to them. But models need to be paid. And fed. And given breaks. But not this one! I will admit it's not going to fool anyone with its lack of arms........ and legs........ and head..... but hey, if you're a struggling tuning shop with a limited budget, you make do with what you got.

The "What The Deuce" Award

I think it started life as a Daihatsu Midget. And then I have no idea what the hell happened to it. The "frog's hand" fenders look like sleeping slugs and the "mouth" makes it look like Darth Vader's pet. But I give points for the guy dressed up to match (with dress shoes!) as well as the lily pad underneath. It's all about the details......

Most Unbalanced Ratio Award

Let's see............. that's one person interested in Tein's brand new coilover suspension for the Evo X and a billion people who are interested in Tein's brand new spandex clad model........ She was actually very attractive though......

Coolest Detail Award

This is the Mugen Civic RR Experimental Spec. It's got pretty big power for its engine and tons of carbon fibre. The best part are the pieces of carbon fibre they've put along the bottom of the door frames. It says "Monocoque Reinforcement" on it and it works by basically bracing the entire lower door area and acts the same way as a roll cage would in a race car. But race car cages cut across the door frame, which they should ideally, but makes getting in and out a pain. This one, however, is integrated with the bodyshell and low in profile which should be almost as strong yet be as easy to get in and out of as a regular car.

And finally...

Car Of The Show Award

This one isn't easy. It's not easy partly because of the number of great cars present. I mean, it's easy to pick a car with massive global importance like the Nissan GT-R. Or pick a Lamborghini or Ferrari simply because. Or even the Mach 5 for the upcoming Speed Racer movie in Yokohama's booth. Then again, even if I picked a car, the modified nature of the show means some versions of the same car are better than others, even if that is subjective.

I will be honest and admit that I really want to give it to the Lancer Evolution X. Every single Evo X I saw looked nice (including the Blitz one above), I love the entire Evo line way back to the mid-90's, and there were some really wild older generations of Evos there, too (see two posts before for a wicked dark grey one). But this time, they only get an honourable mention. All of them.

Instead, I'm going to give it to the Nismo Skyline GT-R Z-Tune in Brembo's booth.

Why?? Because this is beyond just some company tuning a car. Nissan Motorsports (Nismo) actually purchased 30 used Skylines with less than 15,000km on them. They stripped them bare and rebuilt them from the ground up with tons of exotic hardware. Things like a 500+bhp engine nearly identical to one that won them 24hr endurance races; lots of titanium and carbon fibre bits; re-calibrated electronics for its AWD and new brake system; and lots of subtle but functional aerodynamic tweaks.

But the most important thing about the Z-Tune is that this is the Skyline's swan song. It's a car I grew up idolizing and as great as the new one is (and it is very VERY good), I think it's a more than fitting culmination of the past three generations of Skyline.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kagami biraki". Translated literally, it means "the unveiling of a round-shaped mirror". In actuality, it's a ceremony dating back to the 15th century where samurai, having made a two-layer mochi (rice) cake offering to the gods for the New Year, break the mochi to share with their family and clan members for spiritual reasons and to strengthen family and clan bonds. It usually takes place between the 11th and 20th of January and so, for the past 40 years, the Nippon Budokan has held a "kagami biraki" and this year, they included martial arts demonstrations from 9 different styles as well as holding a large one hour practice after the demos. I went with Shiramizu as part of a 3 dojo group representing the karate world during the practice session.

But all that was just the end of my 3 day long weekend thrash.

It started (as do most weekends) on Saturday with the Tokyo Auto Salon. It's like the Tokyo Motor Show except it's dedicated to modified cars and the whole culture. And culture it is, because the thing is like a giant, lit night club with DJ's, flashing lights, and dancers. Cars are still the main point, but trust me when I say not everyone there with a telephoto lens is interested in cars...... Regardless, it was awesome just to wander around and take in all the cool cars and cool parts and cool (as well as uncool) ideas that people have come up with. Just as with the Tokyo Motor Show, I'll put awards for some of the more interesting sights I saw but for the sake of brevity, that'll be for another post.

After that, it was karate practice in the evening before heading back out to Tokyo to meet my friend Kay. He's a German engineering intern who lives about an hour or so west of where I am in a place his intern friends have dubbed "Bosch town" because of the engineering firm's large presense there. He does the same style of karate and I met him at the dojo, which he found because he wanted to train while was here in Japan. He had some friends who were finishing their term in Japan and they were all going out to party in Tokyo and he invited me along. I must say, those Germans really like having a good time haha.......

After some (brief) sleep, I went back to Tokyo to meet another friend for dim sum on Sunday. Well, at least, the Japanese take on dim sum, which is all-you-can-eat. But it's not like dim sum as we know it. It's mostly a self-serve buffet affair with one waitress pushing a cart around with food that changes everytime. They also have signs telling you what food they have instead of yelling. But the food wasn't too bad and certainly a welcome taste after 6 months of no dim sum haha.....

Monday was the "kagami biraki" I mentioned above. It was pretty awesome to be in the middle of the Nippon Budokan arena practicing among all the other martial arts. It was also a lot of work to be heard above the kendo group, who were easily the loudest group there. At the end of the practice, they served the mochi in sweet red bean soup. Well, I don't really consider it a soup, but it's identical to the red bean dessert served in Chinese restaurants. I'm not normally a huge fan of it but this time around it tasted great, perhaps because, again, it's been months since I've had it. Natsukashii na~..... (nostalgic)

So there you have it. I don't really know why all those things decided to happen within those 3 days, but it all worked out. I guess all I can say is sleeping on the train is a great way to maintain your alertness, especially with those one hour train rides in and out of Tokyo haha......

More structure, more pictures, more more more...

Yes indeed. Now that I have regular access to the online world, I can do some things I never got around to doing.

First off, I've added some really basic labels to my posts for easy referencing. I'll be expanding them as the number of topics increases but for now you can, for example, view all the Japanese words of the week posts in one go. Whether or not that interests people is beyond my control but the option is there =-).......

Secondly, some have asked for pictures of cars, so you'll find some more below. Including the one of the two bikes I liked the most from the show (I'm not only crazy about cars heh).......

Lastly, the "more more more" part refers to more frequent posting. I always seem to draw myself into these regular "segments" such as my old MSN "Did you know" facts and now my "Japanese word of the week" posts. I've been keeping a list of funny incidents so now that I have time to transcribe them all, I'll slowly be introducing yet another regular to my blog. It has no name yet but I'm sure one will make itself known heh........... til then, enjoy the pictures (I hope you can load them to a larger size, I haven't yet figured out what lets some pictures load up while not others).......

That's me getting out of a brand new Nissan GT-R at the Nissan showroom in Ginza. To be honest, the outside of the car is more impressive than the inside, which I found to be a bit to vertical and not very cohesive in terms of design. But if it's fast enough, I can over look fiddly little interior bits. Also, if you've been looking at pictures online, I should note that they don't do the car justice as it uses its size to make all its styling elements work.

Next up is the Ducati Desmosedici RR. Ducati's are a bit like the Alfa Romeo of the bike world. Distinctly Italian, they always seem to have styling elements that, like Alfa, only they themselves are able to pull off properly. You could probably get bikes just as fast from a Japanese company, but that's not the point. Although I will concede my second favourite bike from the show was the Honda CBR600RR- cost effective and fast?? Yessss.......

If cost were no object, the Ferrari F430 Scuderia is what I would've taken home without even blinking. What's not to love about one of the most brilliant cars in the world stripped out and jacked up on an even bigger dose of speed. In red though.......