After we featured JDM parking skills a few weeks ago, one of our eagle-eyed readers sent in this….a Japanese game show where one of the contests was to prove your Jedi Parking Skillz.
Adios, Amigos: Isuzu Is Outta Here
Damn, we’re out of the country for one week and the US loses an entire marque. Isuzu announced on January 31 that in one year, they will completely abandon the American passenger vehicle market after a slow and painful death. To be fair, you could see this one coming from a mile away – check out their website and you’ll see but two models, both rebadged GM trucks.
What started out in 1916 as a tie-up between Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial Co. to make commercial trucks was eventually renamed to the much more succinct Isuzu after the Isuzu River in Mie Prefecture. Over its tumultuous history, it forged alliances with many other automakers, including Rootes, GM, Honda and Subaru in an effort to gain a foothold into the car side of the business, but nothing really stuck.
In Japan, it’s most well-known cars are nostalgic ones – the Bellet, Florian, and 117 Coupe – but by the 90s they were selling only rebadged Honda Accords and Civics before stopping car sales altogether. In the States, the Gemini compact was sold via Buick under the Opel brand in the 70s, but the car most fondly remembered by Americans will be the 80s Impulse (aka Piazza), a wedge-shaped Giugiaro-styled RWD coupe.
Trucks, however, were always the company’s strong suit, and one of our faves was the futuristic dune-hopper Vehi-CROSS. The Trooper, Amigo and Rodeo also had strong followings, but not strong enough, apparently, to keep Isuzu afloat here in the US. Once Honda began developing its own SUVs, there was no need for the Rodeo-based Passport or Trooper-based Acura SLX, and the crowded market was simply too competitive.
The company will now focus on what it does best – commercial trucks – as the N and F-Series medium duties continue to soldier on in the American market. Sayonara, Isuzu, we’ll be thinking of you next time we’re stuck behind a flat-cabbed box van in traffic.
Skyline Overdrivin’ Memorial: Old School Gaming
If you’ve been to Japan you’ll know that there are TONS of Japan-only video games that aren’t released in western markets. Look hard enough, and there will be decotora truck racing and even bosozoku racing games. They are mostly quite unsatisfying to play, being not a patch on say, Gran Turismo and most of them have story-mode type gameplay which is unfathomable if you don’t speak Japanese.
But in 1997, EA Sports in Japan teamed up with Nissan to put out Overdrivin Skyline Memorial for the PSOne, 3DO and Sega Saturn. And this one was pretty good.
JNC In Japan: Day 7
Alas, our journey to Japan has come to an end. This morning we packed up our 10,000 lbs of brochures, some low down springs for the Cressida wagon, and 500 mystery boxes into Satoshi’s lowered 1995 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear Super Exceed and headed out to Narita Airport.
The road to Narita.
Before we part, let’s take a look at his van’s endearing but typical excesses of Japanese badging.
Here’s the first pic we took waaay back on Day 1. From left to right, it says “Mitsubishi”, “Delica” and “Space Gear”. Fine. We’ve got the make, model, and sub-model established.
On the B-pillar a small badge tells the world this is no mere base trim specimen, but a “Super Exceed”.
As mentioned before, this cruiser has five sunroofs, one of which is causing much glare in this photo, but trust us, the label says “Crystal Lite Roof”.
On the rear flanks, the engine is identified as a “24 Valve V6 3000”.
However, this plethora of badging would not be complete without one last item. Here’s Ben and Dan vandalizing the Space Gear with a JNC sticker.
JNC representin’ Tokyo!
Sayonara, Tokyo, it’s been a blast. Thanks to all our friends, old and new, for showing us around and guiding us through nostalgic car heaven! Jya-ne… For all you JNC readers, we’ll see you stateside.
Posted in japan, jnc, mitsubishi, road trip, vans
4 Comments
JNC in Japan: Day 6
No, we haven’t come to an untimely death by offending the wrong yakuza lieutenant, accidentally driving down the wrong side of the wangan, or eating ill-prepared fugu. Much to the chagrin of some, we are very much alive, but our last day in Japan was largely uneventful. We spent our single day of downtime meeting up with friends, collecting JDM brochures and getting fingerprints all over the cars at Toyota’s Amlux showroom in Ikebukuro and Nissan’s showroom in Ginza.
Amlux is a 10 minute walk from the JR Ikebukuro station. Exit on the Seibu side. You have to cross under an elevated highway to get to it, so this is the best exterior shot we could manage.
Six stories of Toyota goodness.
The Nostalgic Car set of R/C vintage Skylines at a Japanese Toys R Us.
Nissan’s Ginza showroom. Beware, weary traveler, for there are two Ginza showrooms. This, the smaller one, is near the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line station. It’s only big enough to house two cars and a gift shop.
The GT-R on display with the Intima concept.
The engine room of the starship Enterprise.
For some reason, you can buy Nissan Heritage Collection goods there.
This is the real showroom, which is a 10 minute walk or a quick shuttle bus ride away. Blade Runner on the outside…
… Logan’s Run on the inside.
Ben stinking up the GT-R. This is the first one we’ve seen in person that wasn’t silver. Red looks mighty purdy on this beast.
In Japan, white taxis (usually with blue stripe) are privately owned. This cabbie clearly loves his Cima (Infiniti Q45). We wanted to jump in and and say, “To Yokohama, stat!” just to see how quickly he’d get us there.
We went to sample some local fare with our friend Kats. Unfortunately, he didn’t tell us that one of the fares was beef colon soup from the Kyushu region. In case you’re wondering, it’s gamy, chewy, and not something we’d order again. Fortunately, we had several pints of smooth, delicious Suntory beer to wash it down. JNC: sampling the beef colon so you don’t have to!
Not beef colon.
Posted in datsun, japan, minicar, museum, nissan, nostalgic gear, road trip, toyota
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Tokyo Daze: JDM Parking Spaces
One of the perennial pub discussion topics for JDM car nuts is always “If you lived in Japan, what car would you drive?” Now, it’s no great secret that cars are quite cheap to buy in Japan, and so you usually end up with something along the lines of “7 cars…one for each day of the week! On Mondays I’ll drive my Hakosuka….on Tuesday I’ll drive my FD RX-7…On Wednesdays, I’d rock my crazy bosozoku Cresta, On Thursdays…” You get the idea.
But the reality of life in Japan is that unless you live on a farm in the countryside, you will only have room for one car, and even so, the arrangements for keeping it at your house may not be what you’d expect!
Posted in Tokyo Daze
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JNC In Japan: Day 5
Today we headed out to the Chainan 21, the official museum of Hino.
Check out this sign. The station name is Toyoda, and if you notice, the previous stop was Hino. Coincidence? Probably. The Hino museum is at neither of these.
Instead, it’s in Hachiouji, about a 40 minute train ride west of Shinjuku, but from the train station you also have to take a taxi or bus.
As a result, the place was deserted. Unlike the rest of Japan, there were no greeters, no people sitting behind a desk in the lobby, not even anyone at the gift shop counter. Just this Star Trek-esque elevator with pictures of dolphins in it.
It was a small museum. Nothing on the scale of the Honda Collection Hall, Toyota Museum, or Nissan Zama warehouse. A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that most of Hino’s products are enormous trucks. There were plenty of pictures though. Unfortunately, all the placards were in Japanese with very few English translations.
Hino made airplane engines long before their current lineup of trucks and buses.
Somewhere in between there was a car or two.
On the way back we stopped by the Subaru showroom in Shinjuku.
No nostalgics inside, but there was a new Forester and a dark brown “Bitter Edition” R2. The Japanese can never have too many limited editions.
Shinjuku by night.
Posted in japan, museum, road trip, subaru
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JNC In Japan: Day 4
Fun fact: 80% of Tokyo’s mass consists of vending machines, convenience stores, and arcades with coin-operated capsule dispensers. This is all an effort to drive the sales of mystery boxes, which ranks 4th in Japan’s top 10 industries, right between consumer electronics and shipbuilding. For the uninitiated (consider yourselves lucky), mystery boxes are little collectible toys with a common theme and several different items to complete the series (in the case of vending machines, the toys come attached to your refreshing beverage). But, rather than doing something useful like actually showing you what you’re going to get, the box is sealed, making the entire enterprise a lottery, like baseball cards or things at the bottom of cereal boxes. Of course, the ultimate goal is to get you to buy ever more mystery boxes and to drive OCD types insane.
While stopping into one of Japan’s 9 billion 7-11s, lo and behold, what did we find but a Nissan Skyline 50th Anniversary mystery box. As you can see from the packaging, we had only a 1 in 6 chance of getting something really cool and nostalgic, and for 500 yen (about $5), they weren’t exactly a cheap gamble. Nevertheless, we bit. And check out what we got on our first try:
Kenmeri GT-R, baby! And it’s superdeformed to boot!
It was a great start to a day filled with Nissans that all began behind this nondescript door.
This is the Zama warehouse, where almost the entirety of Nissan’s automotive and racing history is kept. It was like the lost Nazi-looted Russian Amber Room, Bruce Wayne’s garage, and the room at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark all rolled into one.
After that, we ate lunch at the Nissan employee cafeteria. The food was pretty damn good. No rubbery pizza tiles here!
We also stopped by Honda’s showroom in Aoyama Itchome, which you may recognize from the Tokyo Route 246 track in Gran Turismo 4.
More to come…
Special thanks to Mr. “Itchy” for being our guide!
JNC In Japan: Day 3
The time has come! It’s a cold but clear morning. Here’s the beautiful skyline of Odaiba, where the New Year Meeting is held, from the Yurikamome monorail. We have a ton of pictures, but here’s just the ones we had time to upload. We woke up at 5AM to bring these to you, so you better appreciate it!
Cars pulling into the show.
The parking lot is worth a look in itself.
Suzuki Owner’s Club
A pair of bitchin’ Toyotas
Publica Owner’s Club
Mooneyes‘ pair of 1JZ-powered Crowns
Ben hanging out with Goshu from Mooneyes
Hino Contessa Club
Skyline GT-R Owner’s Club
Isuzu 117 Coupes
Hangin’ out with the Cosmo Sports Owner’s Club during a brief moment of downtime.
A pair of 800cc sportsters
More Subarus
An awesome kenmeri Skyline badged as a Datsun 240K
Skylines, including one in rare wagon form, from Victory 50
Skyline DR30 Club
Fairlady S30Z Club
A row of Silvias
More Nissan goodness
Rocky Auto‘s booth
Rims for sale
Sayonara for now. It’s 7:30AM now and we’re headed out for another day.
Posted in events, japan, road trip
6 Comments
Jiotto Caspita: Yet Another Tasty Concept Car They Didn’t Make
In 1990, one of the highlights of the 28th Tokyo Motor Show was a swoopy, low-slung supercar called the Jiotto Caspita. Made by the Dome company, it was one of many hypercar concepts in the late 80s which never came to fruition.
Posted in subaru
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JNC In Japan: Day 2
We had high hopes of getting something completely unlike anything available in the US as a rental car today, but our hearts sank as we saw the Toyota Vitz (Yaris) waiting for us at the parking lot. They sank further when we saw it was bright purple.
Nippon Rent-A-Car employee #1 to Nippon Rent-A-Car employee #2: Let’s give these gaijin the fruitiest car we have!
Despite an engine that rattled like a 20-year-old diesel at idle, we managed to get to Twin Ring Motegi without incident. If you don’t count getting lost a half dozen times, that is. Apparently, the locals pronounce Tochigi “TOACH-iggy” and not “toe-CHEE-geey”. Who knew.
Honda’s race track Twin Ring Motegi is in the middle of nowhere. These narrow streets made even a Vitz seem like the Titanic.
If it weren’t for the occasional futuristic-looking kei car, some of these villages would look right at home in a Kurosawa samurai film.
Finally, after three hours, a sign!
There’s the hall. Hondas lie within!
There’s hundreds on Hondas in the museum. Most are bikes, since they take up less space, but there’s a great assortment of cars as well. We took hundreds of photos, but here’s just a few from Ben’s lame point-and-shoot camera. Dan’s the real photographer, and the ones he took with the SLR will be downloaded and edited after we get back.
After another long drive back to Tokyo, we’re exhausted and glad to be rid of the magenta Vitz. We’ve gotten only about 4 hours of sleep in past 48 hours, but tomorrow’s the New Year Meeting!
Posted in japan, museum, rental cars
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Office Tomitaku Fairlady Z: DOHC 24V OS Giken TC24 Droolage
Ages ago Van made a post about the legendary DOHC, 24 valve cylinder heads made by OS Giken in the late 70s for the Nissan L-Series. And while there are countless Nissan old school fans who would gladly sacrifice a few internal organs for a Giken TC24 head, it won’t do you any good, since they’ve been out of production for more than 20yrs and the casting moulds are damaged beyond repair.
So it’s so nice to see not one, but a few of these restored, and in action at Office Tomitaku.
Posted in nissan
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Honda Motocompo
In 1981, one of the better products in the Honda range was the City. Bigger and wider than a traditional kei-car, it was also more powerful and substantial, with a 1.3L 63ps motor and a curb weight of 675kg. It did quite well in many western markets.
But one of the interesting “options” for the Honda City in Japan was a tiny little motorbike called the Motocompo.
Posted in honda
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JNC In Japan: Day 1
We took NWA, but the food wasn’t very good. If you have a choice, we recommend Public Enemy Air.
Our man in Japan Satoshi picked us up in his slammed 1995 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear Super Exceed. It’s got 0 bump stops, 2 tones, 3 fewer inches in ride height, and 5 sunroofs.
Here’s Dan doing the Akabou mascot pose next to a Subaru Sambar kei-sized delivery kei truck.
After a quick ramen meal, we went to the apartment where we’ll be staying, and we’re about to pass out. It’s already morning in the US, and we’ve been awake about 24hrs. We’ve reserved a rental car for tomorrow, and we’re headed out to Tochigi and Honda’s Twin Ring Motegi. Wonder what rental we’re gonna get! Good night.
Posted in japan, kei, mitsubishi, road trip, subaru, vans
7 Comments
Tokyo Daze: JDM (Jedi) Parking
Since there’s quite a bit of interest here on Japanese culture, we’d add a regular segment for little snippets of JDM life. The first cab off the rank is….JDM PARKING! Once thing you notice when you travel around Japanese cities is that even in the suburban areas, space is very scarce. And for some reason, even though many houses have a space in front, it’s often not actually big enough for something like say….a car.
Posted in Tokyo Daze
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JNC Does Japan
One of things we can never wrap our heads around is the fact that in Japan, it’s already tomorrow. By the time you read this, we’ll be crossing the International Date Line in a 747 headed to J-land to meet up with friends, slurp down bowls of delicious ramen, and most of all, to see the 2008 New Year Meeting, the largest classic car show of the year. Oh joy of joys! We can hardly contain ourselves. If we don’t succumb to an adrenaline overdose, jetlag, or dehydration via excessive salivating, we’ll bring you updates – from the future! Stay tuned to this blog. We also have a few other surprises for you, including the private warehouse of a certain manufacturer. Tee hee! For coverage of the 2007 New Year Meeting, click here.
Posted in events, japan, road trip
6 Comments
JDM Classic Values: 1997 vs 2007
A few days ago, we posted up a link to JDM old-car dealer Harfee’s (here) and one of our readers expressed a little surprise at the prices that some classics fetch in Japan.
Of course, nobody would be surprised that things like a Hakosuka would fetch good money in Japan. But surprisingly, there are many cars which are worth very little in western markets, yet are worth a pretty penny in Japan. A couple of examples like the 280ZX (here’s one at Red-Megaphone for Y2.2mil, about A$23,000) or a 510 coupe for not much less. So we got to thinking about relative values, and dug out some 1997 classic car magazines, and compared the going prices for popular classics compared to today. The results are surprising.
Posted in Miscellaneous
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Enkei Reissues Vintage Wheels (huzzah!)
In conjunction with Mooneyes Japan, Enkei has re-released five of its 70s-era wheels: the Dish, the Baja I & II, the Mojave and the 5-Spoke (pictured above). More details here. Prices start at about Y29,000ea (about A$300ea) and they come in suitably low-offset dished sizes up to 10in wide.
More evidence (if any were needed) that the old-school movement in Japan is gathering strength in a big way.
Posted in Miscellaneous
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Magazine Subscription Update
More news about the Japanese Nostalgic Car magazine subscription.
- All content in the magazine will be new and unique, not reprints of articles on the website.
- The only way to get JNC is to subscribe. It won’t be available on newsstands just yet. If we went into detail about how difficult it is to get an unheard-of title onto the shelf at your local bookstore, your head would probably explode. Ours did, and it hurts! If you’re interested in seeing it there, please ask them to carry it!
- We’ve extended subscriptions to 4 (four) quarterly issues for the same low price of $9.99, or 50% off the cover price! If you’ve already subscribed, don’t worry – we’ll automatically give you the extra issue at no cost and you don’t even have to lift a finger.
- International subscriptions are now open! Sorry for the increase in price, but it’s all due to shipping costs. We think it’ll still be worth your while, though!
- JNC will be a collectible, high-quality publication designed for your library. It’s printed on thick, glossy paper that’s made to last.
And as always, thank you for your support! We would not be here without it, so please help us spread the word. The time has come for a magazine about Japanese Nostalgic Cars! Subscribe here.
Posted in jnc
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Ken & Mary, Together Again
Here’s a prime example of why Japan rocks the casbah. From January 8 – 31, Japanese Nissan owners can get this bitchin’ re-issue of the Ken & Mary T-shirts from the famous old ad campaign of 1972. WANT. Yeah, it’s a marketing gimmick, but we’re biting it hook, line, sinker, and rowboat. We’ve lamented the fact that the US branches of our favorite Rising Sun automakers don’t really do the whole enthusiast pandering thing already, and just check out how much the original shirts are going for, despite being faded, worn, and quite frankly, disgusting. That’s $70 American for a used T-shirt, people!
Posted in japan, nissan, nostalgic gear
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