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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#152029 2018-12-09 13:46 |
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Wet Weather & Road Trip Testing
Finally got some time to write again, IRL projects has had me wrecked both physically and mentally for last 2-3 weeks.
I'm glad it's all over! And oh, I've got myself a new laptop, soo starting from next update expect for some slight pic quality upgrade!  (no not this one, this one's captured from the old one) Now let's jump into the update! [26 Nov 2018] Paycheck time! Now I'll be receiving V$565/week after all the hard work I've done. Ahh, it's really satisfying seeing your hardship worths in the future. And hopefully this will help me on upgrading the Evo (which, as a reminder, only had to receive engine upgrades to go). For now though, I'm going to save it for a very, very good reason.........
[30 Nov 2018]
......because finally it's raining here! "Wait why rain's good for your wallet, Smoke?" You see, since I haven't installed advanced engine upgrades yet, this means the Evo is still controllable (sort of). I also still use my Potenza RE002 on my WedsSport wheels, which actually doesn't really like wet surface that much, so I'm afraid if I rushed the power upgrade now it'll kill me and my EVo at speed. But this also mean I could pull some cheeky slides everytime I go somewhere and drive back to my crib without worrying about tyre wear Well to be fair I already have a set of all-season tyres (Dunlop SP Sport 5000), but since I order them to fit my steelies instead of the WedsSport wheels, and I haven't bothered (read: I can't be arsed) about changig the wheel at the moment, I'll switch to those when the rain becomes more frequent or it's escalated into a snowfall. I've managed to snap some pics of my Evo in the middle of the rain. It looks fitting and majestic sitting on the wet road, though the picture snapping process is quite challenging because since Tsukuba is located on a hilly area of the Ibaraki Prefecture, this means (a)it's quite cold outside, and (b)higher chance of lighning strikes happening. I still want to live in peace, man. 
 (uh, excuse the craptastic edit please)
I wonder how long is it going to be until the first snowfall here? [03 Dec 2018] Yet another paycheck time! Another V$565 landing into my account. And with end of the year holiday closing in, I hatched a holiday plan. Aaaaaand here it is!
I'm going to Tokyo at around 18 or 19 December 2018, and I intend to stay there until the end of the first week of 2019, so I'll be back to Tsukuba at 5 or 6 January 2019. This way I could also celebrate my birthday at Tokyo (4 January, which is also my IRL birthday. As of the original Big Smoke from GTA SA, idk when is his birthday). I'm going alone with my Evo and some stuff, since Rantaro will be off to Okinawa with his GF for the rest of the year, while Ryuji and his sister is going to go to Australia for their end of the year holiday. As of the accomodation, I'm looking for some info over cheap motels or apartment room for rent at the suburban area. Or I might be as well contacting Muza (Niatross), seeing that he has had two additional crew on his place (Marc and Rifky (Macaron_moon and Shez, respectively)). I wonder if I can stay at their garage......... [07 Dec 2018] While I was finishing my translations at 3pm, someone phoned me. Turns out it was Hinako, one of the girls (I'm not in the mood to address the girls as thots currently) I met back then with Rantaro when Rantaro introduced his Merc II. I still remember giving her a crash course on photography while eating sandwich near a sunset. Though, I wonder why she's calling me at the moment?
"Hello, Yuan Edo's residence" "Oh, Mr. Edo, is that you?" "Yes it's me. Hinako-chan, yes? What's up?" "It's me, Hinako, sir. Can I ask you a favor?" "Uh, yes? What's the matter?" "I and my sister is going to visit our auntie tomorrow, but my sister is not so well right now" "Does she need to be taken to hospital?" I responded with a huge concern "Uh, she said no, but she's afraid it'll affect her driving. Can you drive us?" "Ah, I see. I've got a lot of free time tomorrow so I'll join both of you" "Yay! Thank you Mr. Edo! Can you come at 8am tomorrow?" "Okay-wait, where's your house? I don't think you've told me about that" "Ah yes sorry Mr. Edo, I'll send you the locations of my house and tomorrow's destination after this call" "Okay good. See you tomorrow, Hinako-chan, can't wait to see you tomorrow" "See you tomorrow, Mr. Edo" Post the phone call, I continue my work. At the night time, I prepared some snack and drinks for the following day's trip, as well as getting an early sleep. I think it's going to be a long one. [08 Dec 2018] I woke up at 6am. The early sleep was quite worth it, I've never felt this refreshed. I got myself some breakfast, got a shower afterwards, and dress up while doing a final preparation before going to Hinako's place. It is located at a luxury residence region near the western part of Tsukuba. Originally I was going by bus there, but since I want to go there rather quickly, of course I use the Evo instead. I grabbed my hoodie and backpack, then I set off to Hinako's place.
I arrived at Hinako's place at 7.50am, 10 minutes faster than the intended time. Time attack is life, after all After I stopped at the house, I called Hinako for confirmation and informing my presence.  After the call, I grabbed my backpack which contains snacks, drinks, map, basic tools etc., stepped of my Evo, and walk towards the house while wondering what kind of car I'll have to drive later. Moments later, I arrived at the doorstep and rang the bell. The one opening the door was......looks like it's Hinako's sister.
"Good morning, my name is Edo and I'm ready to serve." I politely introduce myself. "Ah, you must be the driver Hinako talked about, yes? Please come in and let's have a talk for a while." Hinako's sister welcomed me in calm and friendly manner. "Thank you very much, now if you please excuse me." I said, while entering the house. It was huge and wide, with a lot of memorabilias. Ah yes, Hinako's sister name is Sera (26). She works as a high-rank employer at a well-known attorney office here, "Kanzaki & Associates co." which is led by Shinjiro Kanzaki. Sera & Hinako's dad himself is also a law attorney at Tokyo (AJ (RBS13) might have a look for him I guess?), while their mom died when Hinako was in elementary school after a severe tour bus accident, leaving Sera to act as the mom of the house. After Sera has graduated from university and accepted at Kanzaki & Associates, her dad gave the full responsibility to look after Hinako to her so he can fully focused on his job at Tokyo. Even so, at weekends and holidays he's still able to spend his time with them. After I exxplained my own background story, Hinako arrived at the lounge and served us a warm Earl Grey tea. At this point Sera asked me and Hinako (which felt like an interrogation) how we met each other. To avoid suspicions (heheh) I and Hinako had to cover our meetup story like this: I was pointed as a reserve English teacher at her school last year, and Hinako found me friendlier than other teachers due to my age and demeanor, so after I left the school Hinako still came in contact with me. Thankfully this convinced Sera quite well  When all preparations has been done, we stepped outside to get in the car. Sera spotted my Evo and asked: "Excuse me, but are you also a street racer? Or do you race either professionally or not somehwere?" "Eh no no, I'm just an enthusiast. But I usually attend track days at Tsukuba circuit and I intend to attend time attack events professionally next year" "I see, I'd say good luck with that" It turns out their dad was a street racer in his younger days. Sera showed me some photos of their dad back in the late 80's and early 90's, where it looks like he drives a 280Z. There are pics of him racing both at Tsukuba circuit and Tsukuba Fruits line touge (how he can race there with a car with such long front end is beyond my capabilities to answer). Sera rode with her dad on the 280Z several times in her childhood, but sadly when Sera enters middle high the 280Z was sold to support their economy condition. As of today, Sera said he drives a Toyota Vellfire. But before the Vellfire, he purchased this Toyota Estima (Tarago for you Aussies, known as Previa back then in the US of A) when Sera enters university, which is handed to Sera at the final year of her university education. 
 The Estima is quite clean, the Bordeaux maroon (purple? Wine?) colour shines calmly to my eyes. Very fitting with Sera's personality, occpation and demeanor too. It's pretty stock too, save for that custom, seemingly cheap wheel. Sera said she learned to drive in the Estima, and one day she accidentally curbed the wheels so hard it created a huge scuff at one wheel. Ultimatey though, the scuffed wheel broke into pieces when Sera drove over a huge pothole 2 years ago. As she can't find a spare wheel for sale, her colleague helped her to find a similar wheel and she landed her choice upon this one while the car's undergo some bodging to its floor.
This one is the 2001 model, has a 2.4L 2AZ-FE I4 engine which produces 156 BHP to the front wheels with a 5-speed manual transmission. Quite a figure for a people-carrier I guess, obviously not an outrageous figures like what you can achieve with a German-built estate, but surprisingly aplenty for a japanese minivan, especially compared to it's luxury siblings, the Alphard and Vellfire. There are a lot of japanese minivans back home at Indonesia, but almost none has that kind of figures, even until now. I don't really like minivans like this due to their abundance on the road (therefore not unique to me), but considering the Estima isn't sold in my homesoil (Alphard and Vellfire do sold though), I'd like to drive one. Because the garage can only fit one car, and I don't want anything bad happens to my Evo, I decided that the best way to solve this is to get the Estima off the driveway first, then back the Evo into the garage. With all the preparations done, Evo has been kept safe and everything has been loaded to the boot, we set off to the destination. Sera & Hinako's auntie house is a place located at the coastal city of Hitachinaka, though said location is rather far from the coastal line. Sera told me to take the highway near Hinako's school where we met the first time so we could travel faster and refuel beforehand near the highway exit. Welp, turns out it runs on a quarter tank and Sera hadn't refuelled it beforehand due to her illness. At the petrol station, I remembered that I'm going to Tokyo soon. While Sera & Hinako bought some meal for the trip, I noted to myself to ask her about the fastest route to Tokyo as well as the cheapest accomodation there.  Refuelling done, we hit the highway again. Weather report says Hitachinaka will only experience cloudy conditions at worst, so I'm quite glad that rain won't likely to happen there, though it might still be raining at other areas. The radio then plays cheerful new J-Pop tunes, some of which I listen to at some times, and some of them....I actually heard for the first time. The mood was lovely and flowing, augmented with the car providing smooth sailing experience with it's quiet engine sound and soft suspensions. No need to rush at the moment......
  At the highway exit there's a roundabout. As I approached it I pumped out this song from my phone. As we turn in, I can feel the roll from the left side so much, but seems like Sera, who sat on my side was concerned. Neither does Hinako who sat on the middle row at the right side. What a quality stuff for daily commuting, though I can feel a bit of understeer at the front.
 As we drive along, we talked about a lot of things, especially my friends, as well as Sera's. I also asked about the Tokyo route, which Sera confirms that the best way to go with car is by the highway too. I only have to take a different turn in the roundabout next time I approach it.
Some hours later, we arrived at the border areas of Hitachinaka, where Sera & Hinako's auntie lives. Sera guided me to drive through the countryside to make the trip easier to navigate. It looks quite peaceful here, and the road quality is better than I thought.  We finally arrived at their auntie's house at 10.30am. The family talked a lot about their own conditions as of the recent, as well as exchanging memorabilias. We also had lunch together, and their auntie is kind enough to have me as well, despite not being a part of their family. It was so delicious, and definitely a nutritional upgrade for my body
Even Sera didn't hestitate to introduce me to her auntie, leading her mistaking me as her lover. Oh come on. we've just met! I also spent some time outside checking the car in more details, as well has another photography course with Hinako at the house backyard. 
 At 4.30 pm, we went home. As I drive the car, I and Sera planned our route while admiring the scenery. 
As Sera was still not feeling well, I suggested her to go to a clinic while we're still on the road. So when we're back in Tsukuba, We went to a clinic at the suburbs so Sera can get some medicine. The air is getting cold at that time.
 After the quick trip at the clinic, finally we arrived at Sera & Hinako's place at 7pm. We got off the car and unload the stuff at the driveway. After all this has been unloaded, I remembered that my Evo was inside the garage. So I have to back the Estima outside, get my Evo off the garage, and return the Estima inside.
 As I've done the tasks, I've closed the garage door. When I turned my back, Sera already appeared in front of me.
"Wait, sorry if this is personal, but how much do you usually get paid?" (as we all know, talking about salary isn't a sensible topic) I answered that I've just got a raise of V$565/week. Then suddenly, she whipped out her purse and gave me V$500. "H-hang on Sera-san, isn't this too much?" "Ah, just say this is a thank-you gesture from me" "I didn't expect anything to be honest, not even getting paid, but thank you very much, I appreciate it" "It's nothing. If I may, can I have your contact please? I'd like you to be our reserve chauffeur, in case things like this happened again" "Oh, it's nice of you for the offer. Sure, why not?" We then exchanged contacts as we walked towards my Evo, and finally I bid her goodbye as I started. I guess you can't reject a gift or blessing, huh? Along the way home, I reflected everything that happened that day while blasting the saxophone instrumental version of 'On Days Llike These'. A perfect way to end days like this, don't you think? (no pun intended) Wew boi, finally done the update after almost 2 week of silence! I don't really think a TL;DR is required, but there's a huge update on my cash: That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon (possibly in Tokyo)!
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