Help! Buying a car. And hello

[CrocOfShit]

hey,

first post. Thanks for letting me in, and for providing something almost as worthy as some of the other blogs and stuff i've endured glancing at.

I'm just in, not even 3 weeks. Last time i was here I hired a car and drove around for a month or so and had a merry old time, is it just me or does everyone have fucking jingles stuck in their head this time of year? Anyway, despite claims that management would surely help me with setting up phone and internet and car they have been bloody useless. I got 2 out of 3 done myself easy enough but 3 is really what i want. After all it is the magic number.

I found one I want, I visited the dealership, checked it out, spoke with the guy there, he couldn't understand a word of what I was trying to say with my phrasebook and google, he couldn't understand me. Basically yeah I don't understand Japanese hardly at all yet.

So, question,
Is it possible for me to rock up with a wad of cash and stamp or sign my name somewhere and buy (I have a license, residency, parking) ??
Or do I really need someone to come with me? I am obviously willingly bending over to allow the dealer to provide a reasonably priced service for doing all the other bureaucrashit..

Don't mean to just come on in and use you guys for help , but I am.
cheers

[Grumpy Gramps]

endured

Welcome to you, too.

Is it possible for me to rock up with a wad of cash and stamp or sign my name somewhere and buy (I have a license, residency, parking) ??

Dealer will be happy to do everyting and more for you including compulsory insurance. And if you can't read what you're signing up to, you might just get a lot of little accessories and nignags added to your buy. Like a great radio with CD player and possibly fax-connectivity (dealer has never heard of bluetooth or USB). And other really useful stuff, years of guaranteed fun.

I'd say, either bring a literate friend or two wads of cash.

[Taro Toporific]

h... despite claims that management would surely help me with setting up phone and internet and car they have been bloody useless. I got 2 out of 3 done myself easy enough but 3 is really what i want.
So, question,
Is it possible for me to rock up with a wad of cash and stamp or sign my name somewhere and buy (I have a license, residency, parking) ??

Welcome CrocOfShit! (I enjoyed saying that way too much.)

And welcome to the Land-Of-Fun as far as buying cars goes (housing is 100X worse). You cannot just rock up with a wad of cash and expect satisfaction---There always something. The entire country is going to shut down for 4~5 days for New Years.

Also, you forgot to tell us where you are living in Crappon? If you are are in Tokyo, there are plenty of engrish-speaking dealers who want your money.
https://www.angloinfo.com/tokyo/directo ... w-used-425

Also Osaka, etc. ---Use google.

As Grumpy Gramps said, without a savvy Japanese speaker in your corner, car dealers will add on all sorts of options you don't really need. Even with Mrs. Taro riding shotgun with me on my last trip to the new car dealer, I ended up with a 4-year comprenhensive service plan and a full-blown Bose Entertainment System I never knew I purchased. But it turned out that both the service plan and the Bose system were superb and begrudgingly I got good value from both.

[CrocOfShit]

Thanks

fax connectivity

was definitely one of the boxes I ticked when running searches, I would go for the vhs option too but I can't afford a car that new.

Unfortunately I have no japanese literate friends anywhere near me, I have been kissing some assses but people are claiming only semi-literacy or business busyness or whatever. Whatever happened to the great truism that Japanese people will bend over backwards to help you with anything? why backwards? I might just need to learn the numbers so I can haggle on my own.

Maybe if I could get someone on the phone? fax them copy of the contract to inspect? Even email a pic.. ? Would it be possible to achieve what we refer to as 'drive-away' ? i vastly prefer impatience to prudence.

Thanks again

[CrocOfShit]

Hey Taro,

Yeah I'm not expecting it to be easy, but nothing fun is ever easy is it? oh wait
I am in Saitama, you should come visit, we have everything. So yeah Tokyo is close enough, thanks for the link I'll check that out. I've been using goonet and the like. I actually don't want anything too new, although the Bose system does sound pretty sweet.

[Taro Toporific]

Would it be possible to achieve what we refer to as 'drive-away' ?

"Drive-away'"??: Not that I ever heard of in Japan.
The minimum time to that the dealer's agent needs to do the bureaucratic paperwork in Sanmezu Center (Tokyo) is four hours---I did it all my self once and it was a Kafkaesque horror. In reality, the fastest you can expect from a dealer for a purchase is a day and half, and a week or two is common. If you need a car immediately, an upscale dealer might give you a loaner car of the same or similar model until your paperwork is done---That what the rapists at the Yanase dealership did for me when I bought a Benz.

i vastly prefer impatience to prudence.

Sounds like your time in Japan may not go well. Japanese folks looooove to patiently suffer and revel in it while they sing the nation anthem, Shogani.

[Mike Oxlong]

Or could go to one of those places (no idea how many there are) that caters to ex-pats. For example (no idea how they are, never dealt with them): https://www.micklay.com

[CrocOfShit]

Sounds like your time in Japan may not go well. Japanese folks looooove to patiently suffer and revel in it

yeah you're probably right. I'm not quite that naive, I do have second hand knowledge from friends that have set up business about the streamlined nature of the way Japanese go about things. From other advice also I have kind of resigned myself to relying on hire cars and shinkansen for the meantime. Impatience is merely a preference but patience is a virtue, or so I have heard.

[omae mona]

Gotta agree w/ what some others said here. The first time I bought a car in Japan, I was already at a point where I could read all the paperwork, understand everything they said while they droned on for hours (yes hours) about options, insurance, payment, taxes, registration, etc., and I could have an adult-level conversation with them.

My imagination is absolute shit. And as a result, I can't imagine how I could have done that without understanding all the Japanese. So I recommend either:

1. Be a lot better than me at improvising your way through things, using non-verbal communication, etc.
2. Find a friend to assist
3. Go to a gaijin-friendly dealer
4. Just don't get a car. This is actually my top recommendation. Public transportation is great. Driving sucks. It especially sucks when you can't read the street signs.

And don't forget: don't fuck up your license and drive illegally. If you are not using a Japanese license, be very certain you understand the rules about foreign/international permits, because the chances are that whatever you are doing is illegal. Don't believe Internet explanations of the rules unless they are on an official government site. The noise from hearsay / rumors / misinterpretations is overwhelming... the actual rules are pretty simple and not what most people think. And you can get arrested if you screw up.

[legion]

[*] Just don't get a car. This is actually my top recommendation. Public transportation is great. Driving sucks. It especially sucks when you can't read the street signs.[/list]

And don't forget: don't fuck up your license and drive illegally. If you are not using a Japanese license, be very certain you understand the rules about foreign/international permits, because the chances are that whatever you are doing is illegal. Don't believe Internet explanations of the rules unless they are on an official government site. The noise from hearsay / rumors / misinterpretations is overwhelming... the actual rules are pretty simple and not what most people think. And you can get arrested if you screw up.

What he said

Traffic lights are set to impede your progress, not avail it, you cannot escape traffic jams, believe me I have tried and spent many hours in alternative traffic jams. The expressway is a ripoff and the traffic laws are designed to relieve you of money in the form of donations to the police slush fund.

If it is just you and you really want to travel under your own petrochemical steam get a motorcycle, except for February which is totally shit for riding.

Otherwise take the train, you can drink, pour yourself on the train and enjoy the land of the happy drunk.

[Mike Oxlong]

Dear doG I miss trains.

[CrocOfShit]

yeah i hear you all and I'm going for

option 4: Just don't get a car. This is actually my top recommendation. Public transportation is great. Driving sucks. It especially sucks when you can't read the street signs.

for now but I don't want a car just to cruise around and shit. I've done a bit of driving here and I think I've got a pretty good feel for it. Despite the stupidly small roads and everything i actually kind of like it, I drive just like I do in the country back home and haven't been done yet so it's guaranteed I never will. I don't even mind the tolls cause the etc says cute shit I don't understand and I get to see how close I can get to 25kph going through the gates.
But the whole point of this is that I love mountains, particularly the ones that are impossible to get to on public transport. Snow is pretty shit so far anyway so hire cars until about late Jan I think, by which stage I will speak perfect Japanese and have heaps of friends.

[wagyl]

There are in fact ways and means to get to public transport unfriendly mountains, and it is also a way to discover friends with similar interests. If you tell me a little bit more about just what aspects of the mountains you like, what kind of gear you use to interface with the mountains, and which mountains in particular interest you, I might be able to link you up with some Kanto-based groups which band together and head for the hills.

I had a car when I lived in Tokyo. It was a complete luxury there, more a hindrance than a help. If I had my time again, I would hire the car I need for the occasions I want it for. You can then tailor the car you use for the activities you are doing, and someone else vacuums the carpets for you. It often works out cheaper overall as well, although if Kooky is the kooky I am thinking of, parking charges will not be excessive like central Tokyo.

[legion]

Yeah, I used to prefer hiring when I was single and lived in central Tokyo. Much less hassle and far cheaper.

[CrocOfShit]

There are in fact ways and means to get to public transport unfriendly mountains, and it is also a way to discover friends with similar interests. If you tell me a little bit more about just what aspects of the mountains you like, what kind of gear you use to interface with the mountains, and which mountains in particular interest you, I might be able to link you up with some Kanto-based groups which band together and head for the hills.

I had a car when I lived in Tokyo. It was a complete luxury there, more a hindrance than a help. If I had my time again, I would hire the car I need for the occasions I want it for. You can then tailor the car you use for the activities you are doing, and someone else vacuums the carpets for you. It often works out cheaper overall as well, although if Kooky is the kooky I am thinking of, parking charges will not be excessive like central Tokyo.

yeah I met a couple of guys in Omiya the other day who had just been up to Niigata by Shinkansen and it doesn't sound as hard as I thought it would.
I like going snowboarding in winter. Particularly with a snowboard, I've got a split-board now and more keen to hit the backcountry. I want to explore spots around Gunma and Niigata, anywhere it's deep and there's no fucking Australians, I hate those cunts. Hookup would be sick, thanks.
After a ridiculous amount of fucking around made possible only with the super kind help of some new crew from the local izakaya i've managed to score a car with studless tyres to get up to Hakuba for a few days to catch up with some people up there and hopefully score some turns, and whatever I can score on nye. Kooky is that kooky and I've found a park about 50m from my flat for 5000 a month.
cheers

[wagyl]

Good luck avoiding Australians ... those pricks get fucking everywhere, and most of the backcountry opened up and known to the non-Japanese was pioneered by them. Hakuba is not the place to get away from them.

I was thinking that if you were snowboard and backcountry, http://yamaboken.net/ might be for you, but they seem to have abandoned updating their homepage last year. I only know of that group through members who have seen the light and graduated to telemark skiing, but it cannot hurt for you to try sending an email to them and see how they react.

[CrocOfShit]

Thanks for the link, yeah with my great skills it doesn't make much sense, even google those braindead fools couldn't translate it. What sort of stuff are/were they providing? I'll try mailing them and see what I can get. I think I might know some of the pricks that fucked Hakuba, not as bad as kuta bali niseko yet though. Even that asshole Steve is running tours there..
I'll be waiting in the tunnel for that, I've always loved the styling nature of those tele turns. I don't think ascents are always super friendly to skinning in the stuff here, given the number of dudes that carry snowshoes, but then again I wouldn't be cutting one of those TT boards in half either.

[wagyl]

yama bo ken is a pun, on one level it is "mountain adventure," on another level it is "snowboard mountain research centre." They are a backcountry snowboarding club, based in the Tokyo area, who study safety techniques and then have fun out in remote mountains. It is a great way to get introduced to backcountry areas, and to catch a lift with other people going in the same direction, where someone else does the organisational heavy lifting for you. You also get to meet other people with the same hobby, and often get hints for buying equipment cheaply or swapping second hand.

[CrocOfShit]

ah great thanks, sounds very cool, I've done some avalanche training and always keen to learn more. I like puns and gear too.