by Doug Hayashi<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. The Motegi Twin Ring racetrack is spectacular. Supposedly Honda claims\nit spent $400 million to build it. Rumor has it that it went way over budget,\nand it cost more than 1 billion dollars. It makes Laguna Seca look like\na dirt track. You get the impression that once Honda makes a decision,\nthey don’t screw around at all, they give 110% to make things the best\nthey could be. There is a big oval NASCAR-type track, and a separate 4.8Km\nroad racing course. They also have skid pad, rental go carts, and rental\nrace cars that look like Formula Fords with motorcycle engines (but with\nperfect Honda paint and finish) that you can rent. Museums, exhibits, food,\nluxury boxes, big screen TV for the fans, and a luxury hotel all built\nin an area that looks like a mountain range. Imagine going to Big Bear(or\npick your favorite ski resort), and about halfway up the mountain someone\nsays, “Ya know what, I think we can level part of this mountain range,\nand build a world class race track for Oval and Road Racing, and build\na resort hotel on the side of a mountain overlooking the track, and make\nit so that the track and hotel look natural and there is no damage to the\nenvironment.” Very impressive…..especially when you see 200+ NSXs\ndoing a parade lap around the oval, filling up the entire track, with mountains\nand trees in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Honda Museum. We went to the Honda museum at the Motegi track, and it\nwas pretty awesome. Tino said that he has also been to the Ferrari Museum\nand the Porsche Museum, and said that Honda’s blows them away. They have\nthree floors of vehicles from their history, ranging from little generators\nto scooters to motorcycles to Civics to F1 and Indy cars. An entire floor\ndedicated to their Motorsports efforts throughout the years, and they have\na bunch of F1, F2000, Rally, LeMans, etc type of cars there and motorcycles,\nwith little signs saying what race(s) that vehicle has won, what the new\ntechnology on it was, etc. F1 cars that Senna drove to victory, Nelson\nPiquet, etc. are all there. It was nice to drool over Senna’s F1 cars……that\nhas gotta be a rush to drive one of those…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. We went to the NSX plant in Tochigi, where they build the NSXs. We were\nonly there for about 30 minutes before they kicked us out, because they\nwere building the S2000 cars there at the same time, and they didn’t want\nanyone watching the production of that car, since I guess no one outside\nof Honda has seen the car. Of course all of us boneheads in our group spent\nmore time looking at the S2000 production(or maybe is was pre production)\nthan the NSX production, which got us kicked out quicker. \ud83d\ude42 Anyways,\nthere were craftsman actually filing down by hand bare aluminum NSX bodies,\nmaking sure the curves were perfect, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. We got to meet with the head designer and creator of the NSX. I got\nmy picture taken with him. I asked him through a translator if a V8 or\nV10 would fit in the existing engine bay, and he was kinda evasive on it.\nHe did kinda of stress that Honda builds car that are enviromentally aware,\nfun to drive, and very reliable. Also got picture taken with the Japanese\nFormula 1 driver Shinji Nakano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Got a ride in and NSX-R around the oval track a Motegi. There were about\n3 NSXs on the track at one time, and we each got about three laps as a\npassenger with professional race car driver driving. The guy that drove\nme around was staying about 3 feet off the bumper of the car in front of\nus, dogging the other driver, and he laughing slowing, “heh heh heh\nheh”, like he knew he was faster than the other guy. Kinda like how\nWayne or I laugh when we are dogging the other person’s car on the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. The Hospitality of Mr. Nakamura and Mr. Nakanishi of Honda was fantastic.\nMr. Tomiyoshi of the NSX Club of Japan also stayed with us the ENTIRE time,\nand was very helpful and gracious. Mr. Kase also went out of his way to\nsocialize with us at some of the events. Can you imagine babying sitting\n16 or so Americans that in general can’t speak the language, can’t read\nthe signs, and don’t know the customs of the country, and being in charge\nof shuttling them around from three different hotels, a bunch of buses,\ntrains, shuttle cars, bicycles, etc, AND having an agenda for dinners,\nlunches, breakfast, museums, exhibits, tours, drive arounds, and letting\nthem drive 14 limited production Formula Ford-like cars worth $40,000 each\non a little autocross-type course in the pouring rain, with people doing\nbig time spins(hey, I didn’t spin…can’t say the same for many others!)\nWe had an awesome dinner\/finger food at the Twin Ring Hotel with fresh\nsushi, crab legs, steak, chicken, etc. sponsored by Honda and the Fiesta\nfolks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. I got a ride(along with Alex and Skip) with a guy who had a supercharged\nNSX that he claimed put out 370 HP. He had a big supercharger that filled\nup quite a bit of the engine compartment between the engine cover and the\ntop of the glass. He gave me a 5 minute “Rendevous” type of drive,\ngoing 85 mph through the crowded narrow streets of a Tokyo business district\nat 9:00 p.m. I thought for sure we would hit a person\/car\/tree, and then\nI would be in jail with him as an accessory…..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Hotel Room at the New Otani is pretty awesome. If you ever go to Japan\nand spent at least one night in a great hotel, sign up for the New Otani\nClub on the Internet about a month prior to going there(the wife had foresight\nto do this). The rooms are expensive, like most of the major hotels in\nTokyo, but the Club Membership got us about 9,000($75?) yen off the nightly\nrate, so it reduced the room rate to about 31,000($275?) yen a night, with\nfree coupons for breakfast. I am writing this sitting in a room with two\n27 inch televisions with inputs for video cameras, another 9 inch TV in\nthe bathroom, two regular phones and one cordless phone, a fax
\nmachine, and the hotel has their own ISP facilities, so for 10 cents a\nminute you can dial into their PBX and get a connection out to the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. I had the best restaurant dinner I ever had at the teppan yaki dinner\nat the New Otani. We ended up there by mistake, and the steak was the best\nsteak I ever had, the fish, the salad, the cucumbers, etc, the best I ever\nhad. Only problem is that it cost more than a night in the hotel room…but\nya got to splurge now and then. You can get great sushi and noodles in\nthe mall\/alley ways at good prices, two pieces of tuna sushi can cost as\nlittle as one dollar at many of the places, good bowl of noodles for 6\nbucks. So I guess the moral of the story is that you can eat cheaply in\nJapan as long as you don’t eat in the hotel restaurants…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10. And of course another highlight was enjoying the company of all the\nNSX people that came over from America, along with having dinner with Alex’s\nbrother and his brother’s babette. And super special thanks to Kendall\nfor organizing the trip from our side over here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interesting stuff about Japan – NO NSX CONTENT BELOW…..(well at least\nI thought it was interesting, but then again this is the first time I have\nbeen off the North American continent. I rarely make it out of Orange County,\nwhere the weather allow me to drive my NSX 365 days a year…unlike you\nguys\/girls back east or up north, ha ha ha!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. No one tips. Most people here don’t accept tips. It drives me crazy\nnot to tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Very little crime. No one worries about their luggage, brief cases,\nlaptop computers, etc, out here. I am used to being paranoid with my luggage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Everyone is very polite and helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Food is really good. Udon, sushi, beef yakitori, bread, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Subway system is awesome, runs exactly on time, and a train pulls up\nabout every three minutes. If I had to build a city\/country from scratch,\nI would start with a good subway system. (and I would also mandate no speed\nlimits on the streets\/highways for cars). Being from Southern California,\nI think I have been on a subway maybe once in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Bullet train is nice, cruises at 120+ mph. At first I was scared, because\nthere are no seat belts, and I don’t drive at 120 mph unless I have a five\npoint harness. Supposedly there has never been an accident on the bullet\ntrain. It rides like a Lexus. People walk around the train when it is cruising\nat top speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Hotel TV sucks(except for the New Otani Hotel). Even the major hotels\nhave only about 12 stations, of which MAYBE one will have English speaking\nCNN. I thought everyone would have their own satellite dish for each room,\nand I would have 500 channels to watch while the wife goes shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Japan economy can’t be bad, simply because everyone in Japan seems to\nbe out shopping. There are shops everywhere, the whole country is made\nup of little shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. In one of the subway stations, all the Japanese women had their expensive\npurses sitting on their laps, and everyone was checking out each other\npurse to see who had the best designer purse. I teased Dagmar and said\nthat all the of the women were “revving” their purses on her,\nsince she did not have her good purse with her. She always gets on my case\nwhen I rev my car at the stoplight when another “modified car”\nstarts revving their engine at me. There are enough purse shops here in\nJapan to supply every woman on earth with 190 purses each. At the sacred\ntemple sites, people are even selling purses there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10. All temples look the same to me. So far, it seems we have seen 100\ntemples. All of them had shops that seemed to me to be selling the same\npurses, clothes, dishes, senbei, food, tourist trap stuff, etc. Of course,\neach temple and shop looks different to Dagmar, so we have to inspect each\none…….I guess it is payback for the last 15 times I took her on a weekend\n“vacation” to a racetrack……<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11. It isn’t as crowded as I thought it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
12. To rent a track like Suzuka(the F1 Track) is expensive. The Honda NSX\nClubs pay 700,000 yen per hour, or about $6000 PER HOUR to rent it. Many\ntimes they just rent it for two hours, and everyone gets about 15-20 minutes\non the track. This may also explain why many of the NSX’s there did not\nseem to have aftermarket rotors, since they might not get a chance to really\nbeat up their cars on the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
13. We took about 20+ cab rides, and not a single cab driver cheated on\nthe fare, meaning that they always turned the meter on and printed out\na formal receipt from the meter. When I take cabs on business trips in\nthe U.S., it seems that 20% don’t turn on the meter and they keep the entire\n“estimated” fee to themselves, instead of reporting it back to\ntheir cab company or the IRS. The cabs are clean, drivers wear white gloves,\nnice white covers on the seats and backrests that appear to be washed every\nday, etc,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14. Most Japanese natives look at me strangely when they find out that\nDagmar speaks more Japanese than I do…..and when she is the person attempting\nto translate what we are saying….the natives then look at me like I am\nretarded or something. \ud83d\ude42
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doug “good to be back home” Hayashi
\ndougha@msn.com
\nwww.nsxfiles.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(C)Copyright NSX CLUB of JAPAN. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Highlights of the Japan Trip (from my perspective) by Doug Hayashi 1. The Motegi Twin Ring racetrack is specta […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiesta","tag-fiesta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsxcj.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}