A few minutes ago Guardian photographer David Levene sent me this link.
Just made my day!
I will blog more later about the use of audio recorders and taking shots for slideshows, but for now I think I’ll just chill out and smile.
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Buying a Car in Japan – Stage 2
Once you have chosen the car you need to do some paperwork…
First the car dealership takes a photocopy of your Japanese driver’s license and, in my case, my gaikokujin toroku shomeisho (certificate of alien registration – a.k.a gaijin card).
You then need to get an inkan (personal seal) made, register it at the city office, then bring the inkan and the inkan toroku shomeisho (certificate of name stamp registration) to the car dealership.
Also bring your gaikokujin toroku genpyo kisai jiko shomeisho (certified copy of registration) which shows your official address.
Fill out the parking application paper, drawing a diagram of your local streets and the exact dimensions of the parking area at your house or apartment. If you are not the owner of the house you must also produce a piece of paper from the housing office with their official stamp to show you have parking permission. Parking applications must be taken to the local police station for processing although your car dealer may do this for you. This is all done to get a shako shoumei (parking space certificate).
Then fill out the ininjo (letter of guarantee) and you are almost done…
unless you are dumping your old car with them, and then you will also need a second ininjo, a second inkan toroku shomeisho and the cars shakensho (vehicle inspection certificate), the jibai seki hoken (compulsory third-party automobile liability insurance certificate) the road tax certificate, and the recycle fee certificate.
Finally give them a wad of cash to hold the vehicle. The balance will be due when you pick up the car. Now all you have to do is wait for the paperwork to be processed. I am told this can take around a week or longer.
While you wait for your new (or newer) car you may still need to get around, and in my case my previous car no longer has a valid shakensho. I was lent a Suzuki Kei, so for the next few days I will be pootling around the island in this little 660cc car.
The loaner a Suzuki Kei 660cc
After only driving through town and back up the expressway to my home I have discovered some interesting things about these 660cc kei jidosha.
The steering is really light. They are a great city car, able to squeeze through tight spaces. With only a driver there is plenty of power, I imagine it would struggle if there were an extra 3 large passengers but I had no problem accelerating or cruising along the expressway.
However, kei jidosha are limited not only in their engine size but also in their width and length. K-cars must be less than 3.4 metres long and 1.48 metres wide. There is no regulation for height. The narrow width makes them great when parking or escaping from the police down narrow alleyways, but there is a reason why sports cars are wide and low. At the extreme end of the spectrum you have 4×4 off-roader K-cars such as the Suzuki Jimny and the Mitsubish Pajero Mini, these look like they are going to roll-over at any moment, and at least one of Seiko’s friends had to extricate herself and her 4×4 k-car from a ditch in Hokkaido. Driving back on the expressway, and with a bit of a sidewind, the Suzuki Kei felt decidedly wobbly. Overtaking trucks caused a sudden change in the wind, making the car skittish. Things are not helped by the fact that the tyres are not much wider than you would find on a mountain bike.
As I do both a lot of expressway driving, and because I don’t ride the bicycle during wind and rain, and as Okinawa is hit by several typhoons each year, I am now sure I made the right decision of the Swift over the Cervo.
Buying a car in Japan – Stage 1
Stage 1 – Find a car
The first thing you will notice when trying to buy a used car in Japan is that almost nobody sells their own car. Old cars are scrapped or tend to be given away to a friend or relative. Cars that still have some value, are usually traded in when purchasing a new (or newer) model.
Outside of the foreign community, there seem to be very few private sales. You don’t see cars with the Japanese equivalent of FOR SALE signs in the window. Used car magazines and even internet auctions are almost entirely filled with cars being sold by dealers rather than individuals.
Having to purchase from a used car dealer makes things more expensive, but does mean they can help you with Stage 2 – the labyrinthine process of producing and filling out the correct paperwork.
I browsed through the various internet sites and a few cars caught my attention. These are a few of the cars that were of interest, but not quite what I wanted:
Honda NSX
1991 Honda NSX 133,000 km ¥1,980,000
Advantages: Aluminum (The world’s first all-aluminum and aluminum monocoque chassis production car) so doesn’t rust – perfect for the salty island breezes. Designed with the assistance of Ayrton Senna. Looks fantastic.
Disadvantages: Almost no luggage space. The cheapest cars are still 2 million yen, and these are high mileage automatics with dodgy black leather seats. If I wanted an NSX it would have to be the type R which were all manual with non-leather seats, but the cheapest examples are over 5 million yen.
Nissan Skyline GTR
1996 Nissan Skyline GTR 51000km ¥1,750,000
Advantages: Speed and power that make other road users (or other competitors in motorsport) tremble in its wake. Nicknamed Godzilla, the GTRs are brutish supercars.
Disadvantages: 80 KPH speed limit on expressways in Okinawa, 50 KPH on main roads. You would never be able to unleash Godzilla. Four wheel drive, four wheel steering, dual turbos, titanium exhaust systems and the like are all fantastic but I’m pretty sure will cost a fortune when they need to be fixed or replaced.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
2003 Mitsubishi Evolution VIII GSR 43000 km ¥1,780,000
Advantages: Rally car thinly disguised as a basic family 4 door sedan. A technological marvel.
Disadvantages: Rather thirsty. Not too many rally stages in Okinawa. (Would seriously consider this however if I was living in Hokkaido where 4WD and things like Super Active Yaw Control might come in handy.)
Suzuki Cervo
2009 Suzuki Cervo SR 7km ¥1,550,000
Advantages: A new car and therefore 3 full years before shaken. 66occ engine means it is a Kei Jidosha and will be have cheaper road tax. Turbo charged engine gives it some power (64PS) while the CVT gearbox means it can do 23 km per liter. Gearbox has a “manual mode” allowing you to select from 7 gears. Small cars are perfect for Okinawa’s narrow streets and tiny parking spaces.
Disadvantages: The small engine means that you would be thrashing it to make any progress. I’d prefer a manual gearbox rather than an automatic gearbox with a “Manual mode”.
Finally I found what I was looking for:
Suzuki Swift Sport
2009 Suzuki Swift Sport 98 km ¥1,650,000
Advantages: An almost new car. A manual gearbox. Very similar to a Mini Cooper, but without the exorbitant import charges. Fun to drive, but still quite frugal at 15km/L. This car also comes with the Japanese set options of Recaro seats and HID lights.
Disadvantages: The standard Suzuki Swift is perhaps the most common rental car on Okinawa. You may therefore struggle to find your car if you visit the aquarium or Shuri Castle. The luggage space is quite small when the rear seats are up. Never had a new car before so will probably go through a stage of new car paranoia where I am afraid to let dogs, people or dirt anywhere near it.
So the decision has been made. Time to move on to stage 2.
Organ Donation Miata to Miata
Tomorrow my little Mazda Miata will make it’s final journey down to a garage in Itoman where I shall say goodbye. It is not long for this world, but its passing will allow other Miatas to live long and happy lives.
This afternoon Keith Gordon of Ryukyu Underground
It was great to help out a friend, and to see some use come for the various still functional parts of the car. I do, however, hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow as my driver’s side window is now permanently open.
Sefa Utaki – World Heritage Site
In 2000, Sefa Utaki, along with Shuri Castle and several castle ruins from the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, was listed as UNESCO world heritage site. Sefa Utaki is the holiest place in Okinawa where the kikeo kimi high priestesses would perform rituals. There are several places of worship hidden among the trees, but the most famous is at the triangle shaped opening. Water that dripped from stalactites hanging from the rock faces was thought to be sacred. Pots were positioned on the ground, and remain today catching the slow drip drip drip of holy water.
Sefa Utaki World Heritage Site Okinawa Japan
Tourists rather than priestesses are the main visitors to Sefa Utaki now. I had to wait a while before I could get a tourist free wide angle shot.
Sefa Utaki World Heritage Site Okinawa Japan
A second chance
When I get a roll of film back from processing, I use a loupe and lightbox to check the images. I then scan the best shots, sleeve, label and file them away in humidity controlled cabinets. Bad shots get thrown in the trash, but there are quite a few which are either too similar or don’t quite make the grade for some reason. These get put in a big box, and pretty much forgotten about. Occasionally when putting new shots in the box I spot an old rejection and on further inspection decide is deserves a scan.
Edinburgh Tattoo
This shot is from the amazing Edinburgh Tattoo. I had a press pass so that I could get right up above the spectators among the floodlights as well as taking shots at ground level. Initially I think the movement in the Union flag on the top of the castle was the reason I rejected the image, but on further inspection I think the shot still works. You can even see the muzzle flash from the cannon in the top left of the castle.
Lab Report – Bear gets her 9 vitamins and iron
Got up this morning went into the kitchen, ground some beans, stuck them in the coffee machine’s little gold filter funnel, filled the reservoir with water and swtiched it on. Normally I have granola, but today I grabbed an unopened box of Frosties and popped it on the kitchen counter. I went to turn on the computer and check the news while the coffee machine did its magic.
Five minutes later, having read that a North Korean ballistic missile was about to be fired over (or possibly into) Japan, I returned to the kitchen.
I was greeted with the smell of fresh coffee and ….
There were two suspects.
Pudding was fast asleep.
Bear was racing around the kitchen with a mad gleam in her eyes.
I picked up the trash, then had my cup off coffee with a piece of toast.
Time to say goodbye :(
First some background…
Although I learned to drive when I was 17, I didn’t have my own car. I would pootle around in my mother’s Rover Metro. It got my climbing buddies, Stewart and Jack, and me out to places like Stanage Edge and the Lake District on weekends. It did exactly what my dad said a car should do – get you from A to B.
At university and for several years after I never owned a car. It wasn’t until 2001, a couple of years after moving to Japan I got my very first vehicle.
My 1987 Toyota Hilux Surf
For 70,000 yen (US$ 700) I got my very own monster truck. The Toyota Hilux Surf as demonstrated on Top Gear is usually one of the toughest vehicles on the road. My aging Surf, however, was on its last legs, the old turbo diesel engine would whine as it slowly built up momentum to it’s top speed of 80 kilometers an hour. The limited speed was however a bonus as the worn breaks, knobbly tyres and spongy suspension meant that the only thing it did slower than accelerate was decelerate. During the 7 months I owned the beast my dive buddy Hiroshi and I went to nearly every dive spot on the island. Sure the exhaust fell off twice, I had to jump start it more often that not, and it once tried to throw itself off a cliff, but every drive was an unforgettable experience.
After 9 months of being without a car in Hokkaido I returned to Okinawa and found myself a new ride. For the princely sum of 150,000 yen (US $1500) I got myself possibly the greatest sports car in the world.
My 1989 Eunos Roadster ( Mazda MX-5)
Already 13 years old, and with nearly 90,000 kilometers on the clock, the little silver roadster was sitting outside an Okinawan junkyard. Over the last six and a half years we have travelled about 80,000 kilometers, cruising Okinawa’s coastal roads and expressway, and enjoying fantastic late night, top down, blasts back up the 58 after watching a movie in Chatan. (The car doesn’t get to see the movie, but waits patiently in the parking lot.)
Now twenty years old, the car is a little worse for wear. Similar to a worn and disheveled teddy bear it has clearly been well loved. The air-con died a couple of summers ago, the steering wheel is disintegrating, the paint is flaking, the canvas top is no longer waterproof and the electrical system is somewhat unreliable. These however are minor ailments I have been able to live with. Recently, there has been a more serious problem, white smoke when I accelerate hard.
This month my shaken is due. Shaken is the car inspection (similar to a M.O.T. in the UK ) that must be done every two years. It is comprehensive and expensive. The reason why used cars in Japan are so cheap is that shaken are so expensive. The last three shaken for my roadster came to around 150,000 each time (the same as the original cost of the car). A couple of days ago the local Mazda mechanic took a look at my car and gave me the bad news – it would need an engine rebuild, a new alternator, new tires and that was before the shaken began. I would be looking at around 250,000 yen to keep it on the road, and something else might, and probably would, go wrong not long after. Plus I would be facing another Okinawan summer with no air-con. The Mazda mechanic pretty much said, it’s time to say goodbye.
So for the next couple of weeks I am both looking for a new car and savoring the last few drives in my old one. Hopefully we will get all the way up to Cape Hedo on a sunny day, but all too soon it will have to disappear, perhaps in a cloud of its own white smoke.
24 hours with David Levene
A couple of years ago I met David Levene a photographer for The Guardian. It was 5 in the morning and we were both waiting to get in our respective hot air balloons while photographing the Bristol Balloon Festival. We had a good chat for an hour, and I said it would be great to meet again if he ever made if to Japan. I then got in my wicker basket and had my first (and only) balloon ride. It was a great experience and I got a few good photos.
Hot air balloon pilot David Fish fires the burner
Bristol Balloon Festival
A couple of months ago I got an email from David saying he was coming to Japan to get shots for the newspaper, particularly the two page center spreads, which are an amazing showcase for a photographer. Check out this short video to see the kind of work David does. (Then come right back!)
David is in Japan for two weeks and came down to Okinawa for 24 hours to get some images of Churaumi Aquarium I talked about in a previous post which you can find here. I spent the entire time with David, escorting him around the island, recording some sound for slideshows, and learning a huge amount simply by watching him work. We had a great time at the aquarium and David got the shots he wanted. You will have to go out an buy copies of The Guardian to see his work in print, but I’ll finish this blog with a few pictures of my own.
David Levene -showing that even better than having one Canon 5D Mark II is having two.
Dave & Me
Lab Report – OAARS Okinawan American Animal Rescue Society
The Okinawan American Animal Rescue Society OAARS is a fantastic program whose main goal is to find homes for stray and unwanted animals on Okinawa which would otherwise be euthanized ( a polite way of saying killed). I am writing about them here (in a blog that is meant to be predominantly about photography in Japan) because my friends Theresa and Michael saw that there were some labs that needed homes and hoped I’d be interested. As much as I would love another lab, or two or three, Pudding and Bear are quite enough right now. Hopefully, however, there is a reader out there who would love one of these beautiful creatures, and make the dogs, the people at OAARS, Theresa, Michael and myself extremely happy. As an added bonus adopt one of these dogs and you can then come and hang out with Pudding and Bear at the beach!
Sam a gorgeous one year old yellow labrador retriever
Samantha (Sam's sister) another gorgeous yellow labrador retriever
Lola a gorgeous 9 month old cream labrador retriever - present owner has allergies and can no longer keep her 😦
Labrador retrievers are quite possibly the best dogs in the world. They are loving, smart, sensitive, beautiful, playful and have great temperaments (although Bear has some issues). But…..
until they reach Pudding’s age (13), and especially when they are young, there is more potential energy inside a labrador’s body than in a nuclear power station. You must be willing to vent that energy with regular walks, a home they can explore (destroy) and plenty of attention. Labrador’s love to swim so Okinawa is a great place for them to live.
I also read that labradors make great family pets, however if you have small children a young pup will treat them like bowling pins. Bear is 30 kilograms of solid muscle with a low center of gravity, and the ability to accelerate, decelerate and turn in a fraction of a second.
Also consider your budget. Labradors are big eaters. Pudding has cans of regular senior dog food, while Bear (because she has skin allergies) has Super Gold Fish and Potato dried food. Also budget for the costs of vaccinations, check ups and all the various ailments that dogs can get. There are many other things to consider which I am sure OAARS will explain to you, so please please adopt a dog, but don’t make it an impulse action.
Before I forget, there are of course many other dogs and cats available for adoption through OAARS. Please check them out, it might be the best thing you do today, and possibly the best thing that will ever happen in an adopted dog or cat’s life.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 