Last week for my vacation I decided I want to go to the mountains during the japanese Obon summer holiday. For those that don’t know the Obon holiday is a common summer holiday week for Japanese people. So as you can imagine this time highways are bottlenecked and beaches are extreamly busy. I wanted to take the road less travelled. Off to the mountains to escape this year’s above average heat. The temperature on the mountain was approx 21 degrees C.

Check out my pictures.

So on Monday August 8th we headed up to Guma Prefecture. The highways was clear and the speed was fast for Japan. About 3 hours from Tokyo we landed at the foot of Mount Haruna. The main pass up to Lake Haruna is, as some of you Inital D fans may know, is the model for Mount Akina’s mountain pass. Now it seems that this main pass at the main hairpin corner sections would be difficult since they have speed bumps before and after each hairpin turn. There is, however, another road going from the lake to Haruna Temple that seems like there is still some activity going on.

After the our family visit to Lake Haruna I manage to take a video of the drive down the mountain pass. Even at the posted speed limit it was a fun drive. This video is by no means a race video so I hope you can enjoy it for the scenery as I did.

Just a small post to let visitors know I added the infolink links to the website to have the Finding JDM blog self sustaining. If you see something of interest feel free to click the link. As you may know if you mouse over the link it’ll show a popup, if you don’t wish to visit the link just move the mouse away and the link will disappear.

Thanks for looking !

So a few weeks ago I met up with Fukuda-san owner of FS Auto in Saitama Japan. This is where I got to experience the magical process of the pocket book killing SHAKEN. As an automotive tech in Canada I was actually very excited to see this and compare it to my home provinces inspection.

Here is an item I come across fairly often as many SR20DET owners they are a good thing t have one or two of.  The price can range from 5000-7000yen for one. If someone wanted more then one the shipping would be the same more likely since they are a small item.

SR20DET Ignitor Chip / Power Transistor
Price with SAL air shipping 8680 yen ( approx 4 weeks)
Price with Int. Air Shipping 9700 yen (approx 7 days)

Here’s another nice little item I came across in my search for parts. New Spoon Engine Torque Dampener. This is a new item.

Price w/ Int.  Express Shipping 29000 yen (approx 7 days)
Price w/ Grd. Int. Shipping 26580 yen (6-8 weeks)

If your looking for JDM parts from Japan you can check out Driftnami Performance or email JDMparts@driftnamiperformance.com for part requests.

I dunno about the rest of you but I thought I was cool when I had my satellite radio back in Canada. Then once I come to Japan screw radio I have Digital / One Seg TV broadcasting when I’m driving.  I don’t know any other place that has it but I thought it was pretty cool. Anyhow it kills the time in traffic or when I’m parked at the drugstore I can watch some TV.

Watching some Anime waiting for my wife at the drugstore.

Here’s a nice little tuning item I found. All inquiries for this item at JDMparts@driftnamiperformance.com.

Apexi Power FC SR20DET w/Boost Controller
Price: 92,000 yen to USA / Canada (0 days remaining )
Shipping included in above price.

————Pics removed ————

Sometimes while walking around Japanese department stores I like to read the “Engrish” on clothing for sale or what people are actually wearing. I’m not making fun of it because foreign people do the same with the Chinese characters / Kanji on their stuff or even tattoos. OMG people be careful what you wear or put on your skin lol.
Anyhow I saw this and just thought it would be funny to show. Also to make a point if you can’t read / understand the language, I wouldn’t be getting a tattoo or displaying another language because it just might make as much sence as the above piece of clothing. But if you want to it might be “awsome JDM cool yo !”

One thing that boggles my mind about Japan is the police. I don’t quite understand what else they do except for giving directions or driving around with their cherries flashing when driving normally in traffic. WTF do you want me to pull over what. Turn your damn lights off if your not in pursuit.

One day I was riding my bike to work , and came across a police officer blowing his whistle and waving his light saber around directing traffic for no reason. I check all of the lights and yes they were all working properly so there was no need for him to be there. I guess he must have pist the chief off and they made him stand in the heat or something. This seems to happen a lot. I’m suprised he didn’t stop me for taking the picture.

It’s kind of like when I was dead tired, more like stupefied, after teaching one night and a police officer decided to wave me over for some reason. It’s 10pm I’m tired, I ask myself why am I stopped. He pointed at the mount on my handle bars where my light wasn’t. I sighed and in japanese told him I left my light home. He politely thanked me for stopping and in a confused grin I continued on my way home. Police can be annoying in any part of the world but it’s escpecially annoying  here in Japan sometimes. Ah well part of the love hate relationship I have with Tokyo.

Well I’ve been on vacation for the last 2 weeks enjoying Canada. Then I come back to Japan to the unbelievable heat and humidity. I went from a nice dry 25 degrees Celsius to an awful 28 degrees + like 70% humidity. I feel like putting a load of desiccate in my pants to keep the southern region dry lol.

Weather aside it was nice to get home to Canada and see my