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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#153641 2019-02-10 07:52 |
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The Queen's Departure
(And a new family member!) Finally, my days living in happiness at Tokyo is over.......for now.
It's time to get back to business and go back home to Tsukuba. And oh, before all of that, a new family member is (unofficially) here!  Let's jump into the update to find out who is she, shall we? ;) [04 Feb 2019] Paycheck time! V$750 landed safely into my pocket. Should be a nice savings for the early work days waiting for me later. And of course, tuning my cars as well. And oh, at the previous weeks I've been scouting for cars with Muza(Niatross) and AJ(RocketBunnyS13) over the internet. What kind of cars? Almost everything I should say, from your usual tuner materials to some wackiest cars imaginable(including Renault Twingo!). Turns out some JDM heroes like the R34, NSX or Supra A80 does have price tags worth of their status, usually going above V$15k. After all, not only they're rare, most of them are also meticulously maintained and has racing reputations on their shoulder. Stuff to be admired and respected at, in short.
But what's more surprising is some other JDM heroes can be very, very cheap! Some can be explained for good reasons, like the Mark II-Chaser-Cresta family (without mods they're simply an executive sedans) or S-Chassises (lots of them has been modded). If you don't mind on buying an auto to be swapped on later, that's a bonus point since those with autos are much cheaper than their manual counterpart. But some are actually rather hard to explain, like 350Z being cheaper than I thought (but to be fair some are also reasonably priced), both auto or manual. They can go as low as V$2500 when I found them back then. BUT THEN, I found something cheaper, almost half-price cheaper in fact. What car is it? You'll find it out later. And yet another surprising thing is some European cars are actually sold for cheap as well. Obvoiusly those aren't performance cars like M-cars or AMG-cars, but rather their everyday counterparts. But considering the fact that nowadays engine swapping can be done on these things, this can turn out to be a very, very good or even mad idea. Some of these cars can even be sold below the V$1000 mark, depending on their mileage or condition. On a bit minor note, I didn't expect the cheap Euro car list would include an abundant presence of classic Volvos! Driving a Swedish tank around Tokyo could be a hell of a smugface-inducing joyride to me. But then, I remember what Rantaro said to me back then when he introduced his Merc-I mean Mark II: They might be cheap, but spare parts could be hard to come by. Considering I had to import some parts for my Evo, he's absolutely right. It can turn into an endless pit of money cremator machine........ [05 Feb 2019] Turns out there are also another places to get your cars for cheap, and they're not even around Asia. The first one is around the British Isles. Quite understandable since most Euro countries are left-hand drive countries, but the well-known isles of albion is unique since all countries inside it (England, Scotland, Wales, Republic of Ireland, and Nothern Ireland. Technically Isle of Man isn't a country but can also be said as one) are right-hand drive countries, so logically driving them outside the country would require adjustments (by either swapping the wheel side or simply adapting to it). But driving them here would be an easy breeze since, y'know, Japan and most of Asian countries are right-hand drive countries.
The second one is most parts of Eastern Europe, due to the depreciation rate being faster than the time you took to completely read this sentence. This was proven when Muza and AJ received some cars sourced by our good friend, Ben(Phonexius), straight from Bosnia. The only problem is, at the moment only AJ's has arrived. The cars are two LHD Euro-spec Nissan 200SX, bought at V$2300 each. In the sea of JDM S13s, I'm sure both cars could stand out from the crowd.....though overtaking could be an issue. Check out how it looks and find out why Muza's havent arived yet here. Speaking of Ben, the reason why he could source the 200SXs is....simply because he's there at the moment with his partner-on-crime, Ziga(Lagano). They'll going to do some high-quality projects while staying there for a while. You can check the progress from Ben's point of view here! With this in knowledge, I decided to look for myself some cars that can be obtained from that side of the world. For bonus humor points, I tried to look for the wackiest and cheapest car I can find, in sense of normally these cars won't be turned into a project car. Turns out ome cars can be cheaper than......the Evo's steering wheel! With these findings, I decide to grab them someday, with a lethal joke build idea in mind. *insert evil scientist maniacal laughter here* [07 Feb 2019] At this point, all my parts for sale, specifically stock turbo assembly and intake manifold has been sold for V$3440. More than enough to purchase any of used cars I, Muza and AJ has been looking these days. But then, I've made my mind on what should I buy. I decided to order them immediately and pick them tomorrow. Then I realize the car's location is rather far away from Tokyo. The car is located in the town of Kuwana, at Mie prefecture (I don't know how far it is from Suzuka Circuit). Back then I grabbed my Evo by taking a bus since it's located in the same prefecture as my crib, but this one is roughly 2-3 prefectures away, so taking a single bus is a bit impossible.....and it'll be a long, long journey as well.
I decided to solve this problem by taking my Evo there to sort the final deal and bring it directly to Tsukuba by having it delivered with a truck. Rantaro told me he towed his Mark II to the shop that done the Merc conversion back then, so I contacted him to get the towing company's number. "Hey Rantaro-san, it's me Edo-kun. I have a small favor." "Oh hey Edo-kun, is it serious?" "I told you it's small man. Anyway, you said you've towed your Mark II once yes?" "Oh yah, when I brought it to the workshop. What's the matter, did your car broke down?" "No, thankfully. I needed it for something else" "What is it, really?" "Okay I'll just spill it here as well. I'm going to buy a new car" "Hoowee boy congrats! What car is it? And why the tow truck?" "I'll tell you when I and the car have arrived at my crib. The car is neither in Tokyo or Tsukuba" "Aaaaaah that makes sense. I'll send the contact to you" "Thank you very much my man" "Anytime, mate" After the phone call ended, Rantaro sent the contact to me. Problem (half) solved! Later on I received news from Rifky(Shez) that he's finally got his own crib at Shinjuku and works as an animator for an animation studio. The good news is his DC5 accompanies him for work and daily usage with ease. The bad news? His 86 won't be reaching the Japan soil after all since it turns out he has sold it without finishing the project. Well at least he can get another car for cheap here.......and unleash his weeb side with ease. Speaking of which, I decided to visit Akibahara for the last time in my visit here to grab some more UCC Coffee cans to be enjoyed back home at my crib.  Coffee business done, I returned to the garage and get an early sleep. [08 Feb 2019] After a rather long period of sleep, I woke up, took a quick shower and dress up. I'm going to grab the new car today! And so the journey to Mie started. It turns out the trip passes the Kanagawa prefecture, which has a lot of famous touge roads. So when I approach the Kanagawa prefecture, I immediately elected to get into the mountain areas. This is going to be fun hehe
After several hours of driving I've seem to be stumble upon one when I emerged from a tunnel. I really don't know which touge is this, but it looks promising. Not so narrow compared to previous touges I've ever drive on, but this looks promising as well.  Moments later, I passed across what seemingly is a tree logging area, with lots of truck carrying lots of logs. Thankfully though at this point the road widens to give them a place to stop. Still, imagining having to face log debris at touge nights made me feel a bit uneasy. I mean what if it flings over your tires, or even worse, windscreen?
 Later on, the road tightens again. But it has no guardrails this time. I really wonder if racing here would be a bless or a curse. Oh well, as long as you don't tumble down the hill........
 At one point I came across an odd-looking intersection and a tour bus, seemingly being parked. Is this area a tourism spot?  I think the bus explains the need of extra lane at some corners. This also would come very, very handy in touge races, as long as you can come back to the original lane at the exit. I think there's a similar touge, also in Kanagawa, once featured in Initial D, but I forgot the name. And it's worse: It changes from two-lane into a single lane, effectively cutting off overtaking chances.
 And here comes the explanation on why there's a tour bus: There's a temple, or any kind of historic/ancient Japanese building nearby. They're located down below a corner. Well, it might be dangerous if a car somehow tumbled down the corner, but.....I'm sure you've seen Mighty Car Mods's Turbos & Temples video series, which features JDM heroes along with Japanese temples. I think you can make your own version here!
 I continued my trip for several hours. Indeed it was very, very long way to Mie.  Some hours later, finally I arrived at my destination in Mie. One of the dealer agents welcomed me and told me to put my car near their garae, since the car being sold was stored there. I decided to wait outside for a while. Oh yah....are you ready for the reveal?
 "Come on, where is it, where is it........" Minutes later, I heard a sound of a revving engine that isn't coming from my Evo. Time to meet the new car.  AAAAAND HERE IT IS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! It's a 1999 Nissan Silvia S15 Spec-S G-Package (god this is a mouthful). It's an auto with SR20DE inside (as opposed with SR20DET in Spec-R model),and it has gone through 128,000 kilometres of roads. So all in all, pretty healthy. Airbags hasn't popped yet which roughly means it hasn't ever crashed yet, the AC is relatively cool for me. I suspect the car hasn't seen so many actions back in the past. And all of this comes for V$1500!
 Note: I had to use a BBS to resemble the original Spec-S wheels
"But Smoke, why an auto man? Manual is love, manual is life!" Yea I'm agree with that. I've explained why I picked an auto in the beginning of this update. And anyway, at the end of my project with it, it won't be an auto anyway. But what kind of project is it? I'll reveal it when the Silvia comes to my crib at Monday, all I know is it'll be big and doesn't involve AC or airbags. These things can go away from the car.
After I've sorted the payment and slips for the car, I called the tow truck service with the contact I got from Rantaro. For the trip from Kuwana, Mie to Tsukuba, Ibaraki they charged me V$360. Quite reasonable I presume, and the car will arrive at Monday at my crib as I've said before. Haven't thought to give the car a nickname, but it can come later anyway.  I went back to Tokyo after the Silvia has been unloaded into the truck. [09 Feb 2019] It is now time to leave Tokyo and come back home to Tsukuba. But certainly this isn't the last time I'll come here........now I know where I should spend my summer holiday (or at least half of the summer holiday)
the guys at WestKyo are so kind to me for letting me stay with them (overstaying for a month, in fact), helping me on finishing the final stages of the Silver Queen build, and sparing their time to have some fun as well. We all started this year with relatively great stuff (save for AJ's S14 being destroyed and Marc(Macaron_moon)'s Evo not hitting the road yet). And I'm eternally grateful for that. Now I have a second place to call my home, and a second group to be called my family :') After having lunch together for the last time, I packed up my stuff into my Evo, and all of us have a warm group bro-hugs. Though before I leave I spotted something odd: Whose Impreza GRB is in the garage? But eh, I might check it out at summer. Also, my stuff is heavier now thanks to the UCC Evangelion Coffee packs  "Guys, thank you for everything. For letting me stay, work with you, having fun together, absiolutely everything" "No probs man, you're welcome all the time here" "Yeah. You know what? I guess I'll spend my summer here" "YEAH BOI THAT'S HOW YOU SPEND THE SUMMER! Can't wait for your visit again man!" "Haha sure man. Anyway, I'm off to Cluckin Bel-I mean sunset my fams" "Take care man, and keep following the damn train Smoke!" "Ohoho, sure I will!" And with that, I rolled off the garage for the last time. The Queen now has left her wounded little sister who accompanied her at Tokyo.......... 
 .........as well as her German mentor who taught her the joy and thrills of rear wheel drive platform. When the Queen come back here, he might not be rolling in the streets anymore, rather than that he'll be seen on racetracks. Who knows if they could meet in Tsukuba Circuit? I'll celebrate it when the day has come
 As I leave the garage and turned away from the town, I still can hear the boys cheering on me and my Evo, like rally spectators cheering on the race drivers and their cars. Thank you for sending me and the Queen off, fams! :')
"LONG LIVE EL GRANDO SMOKIO!" "LONG LIVE THE SILVER QUEEN!"  I'll miss everything in this small part of the town. The sea breeze, the narrow roads, the good people, the marina......it's not everyday you can enjoy sea breeze when you live far away from the seaside by yourself.
 After exiting town, I headed to the expressway for the last time. I decided to cue up this song, despite spring is just a corner away at the moment.It's a proper goodbye song for the moment in my opinion.
 Later on, come the Tokyo Expressway in my views. I really wish I've got something like an R34 or a Supra A70/A80 to ride on it......... 
 .......so stepped on the throttle to cherish the moment when I got into the main roads.  As I headed to Tsukuba, I remembered everything I've done at Tokyo. The first time I came here and questioned the weather, the first time meeting the boys, the first time I went downtown, our touge sesh, the meeting at Shinjuku..........
 Some hours later........ The trip is admittably not as smooth as I thought due to traffic jam, but at least it wasn't as bad as when I departed from Tsukuba way back then, where I was stuck for a few days with traffic jams everywhere due to heavy snowfall. And so, finally I came back to Tsukuba as the sun sets. I really miss hitting this highway.
 As I zoomed on the highway, I also spotted a huge supermarket with even bigger parking lot.....should be ideal to have a huge meetup. I should tell Rantaro, Kenichi and Ryuji about this, they might be interested on the idea.
 Speaking of which, I really want to meet everyone I know soon to tell about my days in Tokyo. Rantaro, Kenichi, Ryuji and his sister, Genzo, the high school girls, Sera, Ohira-sensei and his crew, Kitagara-sensei.......the list goes on and on.
 As the sun alomst sets compeletely, finally I arrived at my crib. As people always say, there's no place like your home after all. I immediately entered my garage.......
 .....only to realize I entered from the wrong direction. That's what you get when thought about bed overcomes your concentration
Thankfuly though my yard is big enough to do a multi-million point turn. After I adjust the Evo's position and heading properly, I backed up the Evo into the garage. I'm really, really greateful for all the times I've spent in this world. After the Evo has been parked I unpacked my stuff, put them back properly and went to a deep sleep.
Finally, my times in Tokyo has been over and I returned to my crib safely. Here's how my wallet survives at the moment: That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!
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