Trip to japan - Isuzu related stuff?

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Piazzish
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Trip to japan - Isuzu related stuff?

Post by Piazzish »

Have anyone here travelled to japan ?

I was wondering if some of you might have some keywords for me to google ;) What to visit and where to go..

Car enthusiast-related, all sorts, but especially Isuzu and subaru related stuff to visit. Meetings, parts shops, museums etc...
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo Red 92000km
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo White 183000km
1987 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Pre-Lotus Turbo Red 131000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Two-tone 145000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Black 92000km
1989 Isuzu Gemini JT190 Red 173000km
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Post by thirstysurfer »

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Post by thirstysurfer »

Did your Japan trip push through?
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Piazzish
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Post by Piazzish »

Not yet, the plan was originally this summer(2018), but because of other priorities/plans im planning to visit in 2019. Thank you very much for the link! Dont know why i never answered.. ;)
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo Red 92000km
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo White 183000km
1987 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Pre-Lotus Turbo Red 131000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Two-tone 145000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Black 92000km
1989 Isuzu Gemini JT190 Red 173000km
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Piazzish
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Location: Norway

Re: Trip to japan - Isuzu related stuff?

Post by Piazzish »

I actually did a write up in a car club magazine about this. Ill copy it from there:

Japan trip september 2019

Japan has been on my bucketlist from my earliest teenage years when I watched the anime series «Initial-D (4th stage)» for the first time.
A japan trip requires good planning to get the most out of your trip. We used the google calendar where we had notes for what to do each day. So when you get up in the morning, you always know your plans for the day. This way you get to squeeze in as much as possible on your «to-do» list before the trip is over.
We were 3 persons travelling, one Nissan-friend, my brother which is into Subarus, and me; Isuzus.

The japanese is absolutely ridiculous when it comes to English skills, so a good advice is to learn some basic words you`ll need as a tourist. We found the google translate app(with the camera function) quite helpful also!

Some basic tips for a japan trip:
- Get your rental portable wifi at the airport, its the best tool you can have on the trip!
- Get yourself a «Suica» card when you are about to board your first train. This is used for all trains and subways.
- Book a tourist-pass for the Shinkansen bullet train if you need it. We dropped this and spent the money on a rental car instead. Depends on what your plans are.
- I recommend not to travel in the mid summer june-august. Too hot!! Even september packs 25-30 degrees every day.
- Try to Arrive- and depart at Haneda airport, much closer to Tokyo than the other one(Narita)
- Stay in an interesting/central part of the city, this saves you a bit of transportation time. Hotel Prices are the same mainly, so why live in the outskirts of the city. We stayed in «Akihabara» Tokyo, which was nice.
- If you plan on driving, get yourself a International drivers licence
- You will explore and see much more of japan by having transportation by car rather than train. Just by taking a taxi instead of a train on short distances is recommended by me. Avoid taxis in the caotic city center ofcourse.
- If you drive on the expressway, it will cost you! Remember to always have cash in the car to pay at the road toll gates. Its more expensive road tolls than anywhere in europe.

Our main priority was to experience as much of the car culture as possible. But japan basically have everything for everyone, there is so much to see and do. The three weeks we had was not enough to do all we wanted.

Onsen – Japanese hot spring
One of the first things we did when we arrived was to take a taxi to a local Onsen – japanese hot spring bath. Quite nice after travelling, water is around 40 degrees in these baths. Many hotels have them, we used them alot througout the trip.

Ryokan – Traditional japanes inn(hotel)
I recommend at least one night to try this experience. Ancient style hotel where you sit on the floor with the low tables. Your pillows are also a strange type with small stones(?) inside. We tried three different ones. They are a bit more pricey, and not better than western style hotels.

Capsule Hotel
We spent out first week in tokyo. Here we stayed at a cheap capsule hotel. A place you just go to sleep basically, though there is a lounge room you can stay for reading books and such. Not for everyone, but worked out alright for us.
Being in the capital for the first week worked out good, that way you get to know how things work before you hit the road to the more remote areas.

Isuzu Sports - Hamura-shi Tokyo.
We took the train to Hamura station and walked from there. Mabye a one kilometer walk. Best place in the world to see nice Isuzus! Here you can freely go around and have a look at the cars and take photos. Very nice people(as most japanese are), and they were very exited when they understood that i had isuzu myself. I even showed photos from the finnish isuzu summer meeting, and the owner of the place recognised the cars straight away; he said «Instagram!» and showed me thumbs up. He wanted to take photos with us, and gave me some gifts!
If you are clever, bring your japanese-speaking friend and you can rent a 117 coupe from them. No English speakers at this place unfortunately, so its just very basic communication if your a tourist.

Toyota MEGAWEB and History Garage - Odaiba
«A must visit» if youre a car lover visiting tokyo. Megaweb is a showcase of new innavations like concept ideas, and also a free for all showroom where everyone can sit in their cars. Some racing cars are there as well, a Lexus LFA and a GT86. TRD-fan shop, and video game corner. The best part here is obiously the History garage. Toyota classics, and other cars toyota admire are here. S800 sports, MR2 AW11 Group-B and isuzu 117 to mention some. Shop with model cars as well. There is a cool unique shopping mall in the same building, you enter the history garage from inside the mall. Mall is called «Venus Fort». Free entry.

Up-Garage!
Car parts chain that you`ll find all over japan. Used goodies you will find here. Steering wheels, mufflers, turbo-timers, radios, wheels styling, coilovers/lowering springs, seats etc.. Every shop is interesting because the inventory is different. Recommended!!

Book garage – Tokyo
Epic little shop with old car brochures/litterature. Heaven if you love such, like me. Worth a visit!

GEMANIA -Isuzu Gemini specialist workshop
Here you will find about 10 Isuzus. This place has the most quirky isuzu cars, and I highly doubt they get visitors like me ofthen. Its a bit remote from trains, we took a taxi from the train station to get here. If you like 80-90s geminis this small place is worth a visit.

STI-Gallery - Mitaka, Tokyo
Holy grail Subaru museum, a very small one though. It holds just four cars, but is still worth a visit. Very nicely done showroom. Staff are very interested in talking to you and hearing about your subaru if you have one. Its an honour for them that you spend you holiday visiting. Free entry.

«Daikoku-Futo» parking lot
At the end of our first week, Friday, we rented a mk5 Supra twin turbo at Omoshiro car rental. We had this for 24 hours, our main destiantion was the Daikoku parking area. You have to have a car to come here, because its a truckstop on an island off the expressway. This is the best place there is to see japanese car culture. You are really missing out on the car scene if you dont visit. Every weekend evening there is a car meet. Lots of variety. Lowriders, and bosuzoku cars, Loud speakers, flashing lights and anime-themed cars were some of the spectacular cars you can see there. We spent 4 nights over two weekends at daikoku parking lot. Definatelyone of the highlights of the trip!

We swapped out the supra at omoshiro for a R33 GTR Skyline, and had it for the two days after the supra. With this car we drove from Tokyo(Akihabara) to Nikko-curcuit to go see some authentic drifting. And we went back to Daikoku both saturday and sunday night.

Next car we rented was the Mitsubish Lancer EVO 8, we had this for 10 days. We drove Tokyo-Fukushima-Niigata-Nagoya-Tokyo with it. What a blast to drive something more fun than just a «rental car»!

Real-Fukushima – Exclusion zone tour
Japan has its own version of Chernobyl. Caused by a earthquake followed by a flood, that cut the power supply to Daicii nuclear power plant. The emergency generators in the basement were under water. This causing one of the reactors a meltdown explosion which made the area around radioactive after this incident. This tour is today the only way tourists can go see the neglected ghost towns around the area. Eventually the area will be restored over time, many places are already opened again after decontamintion. There is much work going on removing the radioactive soil all over the district. This tour does not last forever, so it had a high priority for us! And im glad we went!

Ebisu Circuit – Drifting heaven
If you love drifting, this place should be on your list of things to do. You can rent a drift car, or just have a look around, as there is always people using the different tracks. There are about 10 different drifting tracks. And lots and lots of drift cars parked around, many not in use just sitting abandoned. Quite remote place for tourists. We visited on our way past, so no rental drift cars for us. Mabye next time?

Motorcar museum of Japan – My favourite car museum in japan
A very large collection of (mainly) Japanese cars, 3 floors! Remote location for tourist unfortunately. Very much recommended! Lots of Isuzus here, mabye 15 isuzu cars: Bellel, Bellett, Florian, Gemini, Aska, Piazza, 117 coupe.

The Yokota Collection (and toy museum)
Located near Haruna, Remote for tourists. Holds an impressive collection of old school japanese cars as well as a few others. It would be a shame to leave Japan without visiting. Holds a Bellett GTR among others such as two Toyota 2000GT and the old legendary Skylines.

D`s Racing garage cafe – Initial-D
Initial-D fan-cafe, located in the same place as the series are from. The road from the cafe and up to Mt. Haruna is the «Akina» course in the series. Very cool if you know and have seen the series.

Toyota Automobile Museum – Nagoya city
Big museum with toyotas as well as other cars Toyota admires and want to give credit to. This museum holds a Bellett 1600 GT, Piazza, and a 117 Coupe. Also, the Library there is worth a visit. you can find lots of interesting litterature about whatever car you like.

Isuzu Plaza -Isuzu`s own museum
For me, this was a bit of a disappointment, because its basically a truck museum (apart from a Bellel and a Kadett(Gemini). Best thing at the museum was actually the shop.
The museum has its limited time exhibits though. Earlier they had a 117 coupe there. Saturday is «open for all» day. The rest of the week needs to be booked online. Free entry-

Nissan Heritage collection
About 800 cars on display! Worth a visit, Though booking a tour here is a pain!! All is in Japanese kanji letters. You have to fill in a form and then wait for confirmation or an invitation. I got help from the hotel staff. Free entry.

Anata no warehouse – Kawasaki
The worlds coolest arcade game warehouse. Glad we visited!

Surprisingly many enthusiast vehicles to see on the roads, especially Shibuya/Akihabara and Shinjuku. Not many in the big picture, but still. You can see like 5 skylines a day, no problem. I even spotted a 117 coupe in yellow(snapped a photo of it as well), and a first generation Piazza Turbo on the roads!

Fun2Drive club – Hakone(Mt. Fuji area)
Expensive, but cool joyride in exotic JDM cars. We rented a Datsun 240Z RB25 carb, and a Skyline c110 GTR replica. You drive on scenic mountain road «Hakone skyline road». Only chance in life to get behind the wheel of a «Hakosuka» Skyline.

So much to do and write, but I will stop now. I had an amazing time in Japan and hope to go back some time in the future. There is so much more to see and do, that we didnt get the time to do.
The whole trip(everything) costed about 4000€. The big save here can be done at hotels/hostels.


Here are some other locations/keywords worth checking out:

R31 House – super nice people. We got to come along in two of their cars!
Liberty walk – Wide body stance high end cars (ferrari etc)
rocky auto – Lots of vintage Datsun and toyota
Flex auto review – Found a Bellett here
Tokyo sky tree
Shibuya crossing – The one from «tokyo drift»
Honda collection hall
Buddhist temples across japan (senso-ji tokyo for example)
Gran turismo cafe, at Twin ring motegi track
Tatsumi parking area – «daikoku number two» basically.
Fuji speedway
Tsukuba circuit
Joypolis Odaiba – arcade
Gunkanjima Island



www.omoren.com . Our favourite car rental place!
www.fun2drive-japan.com
real-fukushima.com
japancarculture.net – very helpful inside information car-related
japan-guide.com
«abroad in japan» on youtube

ImageDSC_1124 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190904_135741 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image117 at nagoya by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190907_110737 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190909_164645 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190909_164759 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190909_164817 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190909_164959 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Image20190909_165208 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageAbandoned R32 skyline GTS by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageAkihabara station by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageCapsule hotel by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageChecker auto Nagoya by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageDaikoku bozuzoku cars by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageDaikoku futo parking Yokohama by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagedaikoku2 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageFlex auto review by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageFlex auto review2 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imageflex auto by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageFlex auto2 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageFukushima area ghost town by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageFukushima car by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageFun2Drive rental cars by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagefun2drive by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageGemania lot by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageGemania workshop by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageGemania workshop3 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagegemania by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageGemini outside isuzu museum by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagegemini outside isuzu plaza2 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageHakone drive in evo rental by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageISP (2) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageISP (4) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageISP (5) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageISP (6) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imageisp (8) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageISP by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageIsuzu Plaza museum by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageLiberty walk Nagoya by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageMooneyes shop Yokohama by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagemotorcar museum of japan (3) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageMotorcar museum of japan (4) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagemotorcar museum of japan entrance by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageMotorcar museum of japan2 (2) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagemotorcar museum of japan2 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageMotorcar museum of japan7 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imagenagoya station roundabout by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageNikko driving roads by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageNissan heritage collection (2) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageNissan heritage collection by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageNissan heritage by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageR31 House backyard by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageRocky auto Nagoya by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageShibuya crossing by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageShibuya tokyo by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Imageshizuoka area by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageSkyline r33 rental by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageSnapchat-240445064 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageSTI gallery by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageSupra rental from Omoren by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageSuzuki Plaza by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageTokyo by night by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageToyota automobile museum Nagoya by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageToyota automobile museum by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageToyota History garage2 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageToyota history garage4 by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageYokota collection (2) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageYokota collection (3) by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageYokota collection initial d by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageYokota collection by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
ImageYokoya collection Bellett stuff by IsuzuJR, on Flickr
Last edited by Piazzish on Wed Nov 30, 2022 4:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo Red 92000km
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo White 183000km
1987 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Pre-Lotus Turbo Red 131000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Two-tone 145000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Black 92000km
1989 Isuzu Gemini JT190 Red 173000km
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Re: Trip to japan - Isuzu related stuff?

Post by Piazza_man »

Thanks for the update. Would be nice to see some pics along with your write-up.
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Piazzish
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Re: Trip to japan - Isuzu related stuff?

Post by Piazzish »

Updated first post with a few photos!
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo Red 92000km
1989 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Lotus Turbo White 183000km
1987 Isuzu Piazza JR120 Pre-Lotus Turbo Red 131000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Two-tone 145000km
1984 Isuzu Piazza JR130 N/A Black 92000km
1989 Isuzu Gemini JT190 Red 173000km
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Piazza_man
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Re: Trip to japan - Isuzu related stuff?

Post by Piazza_man »

Awesome pics mate. Quite a few there to digest with quality content. Thanks for that.
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