Vehicles over 1L engine have white plates, the same goes for green plates but they are commercial use vehicles, and the yellow are for vehicles under 1L. The commercial plates for under 1L is black with yellow letters and numbers.
Hey chickendumpling. I do take orders, and I'll look out for you. Number plates are colour coded. Kei-stuff is normally yellow plate, but if it is a dedicated delivery vehicle, it can be be green. Cars > 660cc are on a white plate, and trucks/taxis/vans carry a green plate. The code reads thus. Across the top line is the local authority and tax regime. Most of the photos I have read "山形", which is "yamagata", or "mountain shaped", which is where I live. The number following doesn't particularly matter, unless it is a luxury car (over 2 litres, beginning with a 3, or police beginning with an 8). The bottom line has a hiragana character, plus a pair of numbers. In the mean time kei fans, I'm going to punish you with this. In Japan, a lot of spare time is spent getting nekkid in hot water. Normally, the baths are segregated, but an outside bath can be mixed. Rotenburo are fun.
I am wrong and Steven is right. Kei delivery vehicles have yellow on black plates, not yellow on green. :thumbsup: To atone for my sin, here's a full frontal nude of me in the rotenburo (I thought you'd like that)
The old Legacy Wagon is starting to get a bit tired, 9 years standing outside, and 140,000km. We've had a couple of months of discussion and this one is about to go. You're going to hate me for this. The deal is, she buys the car and pays the bills, and I get to drive it.
OOohhhh nice. I would love to replace our 2003 Legacy Wagon ("Umi") with a new one but Subaru no longer makes the regular Legacy wagon available in the U.S. much less make it available with a manual tranny.
Keith It's a hang, isn't it. 4th generation Legacies are now out of production here. This one is a runout model (with an appropriate discount and government 0% finance). The new model has a totally different treatment of the glass. Toyota's accountants have done their job and from now on all Subarus will be Toyota with a funny badge. I've told the memsahib that this will be our last Subaru. That's my gut feeling, so she went to a few Japanese Subaru websites, and everyone is spewing. Subaru are finished. When the new one gets replaced it will probably have an "H" badge. Absolutely no chance of a "T". And the new one were lovely to drive. Definitely a step forward from the Gen3.
chickendumpling. Is this what you are looking for, alongside the Sambar? These are parked outside out local farm supply store. This the carpark of the new school building site. This is fairly typical sample of what the tradesmen drive.
Man, I should have boned up on the difference between the 63 and the 65 I'm on full-alert. All the recent Suzukis here seem to be long wheelbase, but I'll check to see if there are any SWBs about. They may have slipped under my radar.
Here are a few more. Rice planting is just about finished now, so we have a floating landscape. There are some quite attractive places around here. This is Ginzan Onsen. For several hundred years they mined silver here, and the mountain behind is riddled with tunnels. There is a big natural hot spring here, so of course there are many traditional hotels with hot spring baths. Plenty of fish in the clean mountain river running through the centre of town.
Ken, Beautiful pictures! Thank you. You're letting me see parts of the world,that I never would have had, the chance to see. Thank You again, Tmikewww (tom)
Wow, Ginzan Onsen sure looks like a beautiful place. So many of the pictures you've shared definitely show that much of Japan is quite beautiful. I'd love to visit there one day, but I'm afraid my western manners would offend some as I am too talkative and forward.
Again, thanks gentlemen. The fish are trout, as identified by the memsahib. I guess they are a Pacific variety, but I'm not a fish person. I've lived in northern Japan for five years. It is quite different from the south, and the high-snow areas are much less densely populated than the better known Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto areas. We have plenty of space, relatively uncrowded roads, and lots of clean mountain rivers. The built environment in Japan (in general) is pretty tacky, with lots of housing built cheaply post-war. Where we live, the road has recently been widened and straightened. All of the building plots have been changed and everyone has had to demolish and re-build. The new homes are built to world class standards wrt. earthquake resistance and insulation. We have central heating and aircon, and it is very comfortable here. Schick, I wouldn't worry about being talkative and forward. Japanese are very tolerant people, and don't expect foreigners to be like them. Basic respect and good manners are pretty universal. And when the missus wants me to give her a good listening to, she can be perfectly clear and direct Anyway, thanks for the encouragement. I have plenty more photos to put up, and I really enjoy sharing with people who are interested. I find this a fascinating country. Sometimes it is frustrating and difficult, but I love it here. Cheers Mat
The memsahib dug out a couple of youtube clips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ERadrC4-Is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuD3VdSID-4
Bingo, chickendumpling. This I believe is a Suzuki DA65T FC in the wild. It's parked outside the local hardware store. We aim to please
We took a trip up the mountain today. On the right is Oishida, where we live. Lower down the mountain we have beech forest. The winter snow blanket sliding downhill flattens all saplings, and they have to be able to recover from that. All the trees in the forest are bent over like this. You'll also be glad to hear that the new wheels run just fine on gravel. Needs a wash though This is Gassan (mountain). Skiing opens here in May, because that's how long it takes to open the road in. Finishes in about August. It's rubbish.
Stunning photos! Absolutely beautiful scenery! And to think you get to look at this all the time. ________ fake weed
Hi Ken, I know you said you might post requests. Have you got any general pictures of towns,and modern structures.
ukmicro. Yes I have some town and modern structure photos. Most of it is houses being demolished and replaced. I can sort some out, but there's nothing particularly exciting. I'll sort some out for you. Spent the afternoon helping out a mate on his farm today, driving this. It's 30 years since I've driven a tractor, but after a couple of minor fumbles with the controls, everything came back. That's his son and daughter-in-law. She's a stunner. My mate runs a part time business building log cabins. That's one of his in the background.
ukmicro I've put about 30 photos taken around town up on imageshack. If you go there and search for "blindfreddie" or "oishida", you'll find them. Oishida is historically a prosperous trading town, because the Mogami river was an important trade route. That's Chokai San in the background. The old town centre along the river bank is a bit run down, but there's still life there. The building on the left is a kura, or storehouse. Most houses were built of timber, paper and straw. Kuras have wattle and daub walls, about 30cm thick and fire proof shutters and doors. They were and are status symbols, indicating the owner held property. This is typical of older parts of town. Narrow street with all the houses lightweight structures. The trees on the right are part of a temple complex. The grey strip up the centre of the street is the sprinkler system for melting snow, and covered drains each side. This is a temple gate, framing the small wooden temple. These are almost invariably set in a grove of cedars. Where we live has been re-developed. This is us. Steel frame, aircon, central heating. Very comfortable, and earthquake resistant. Even minitrucks have to fill up. JA is Japan Agriculture, a sort of cross between a farming co-operative, and marketing desk.
Do the snow removal sprinklers spray fresh or salt water? To bad we couldn't run something like that here rather than dump all the sand and gunk on our roads.
