Greetings from Japan

[MadScott]

Thanks for the warm greetings guys.

I'm pretty excited, I've wanted one for a while but the stars of 'want' and 'need' have finally lined up in favor, happy days.

[POPEYE]

Mr Scott (or may i call you "Mad") thats a nice looking truck, sounds like the Japanese have a totally different outlook concerning cars than we do, wouldn't mind a few "free" ones myself some of the second hand stuff sold here leaves a lot to be desired, Japan's a place i'd love to visit, one day i might get to go to the Yamato center and shrine,
enjoy and welcome

[MadScott]

Just don't call me late for dinner.

When I arrived 20~some years ago the market was overloaded with remnants of the 'bubble economy' here, lots of unneeded rides floating around; that was before they implemented the payment of the recycling fee at purchase, so you actually had to pay to scrap a car, Y15~20,000 or so.

Fortunately for me the motor vehicle law was also ammended just before I set down, making it possible for owners to perform their own inspections, previously the domain of dealers and specialized garages only. It was always very expensive, sort of a monopoly of secrecy and special knowledge that the average guy would never touch, nobody even changed their own oil prior to the revision, technically illegal.

This provided the window of opportunity I needed to fund a place to live, women and Beer.

People thanked me profusely for taking away their ~40k km rides in mint condition without charging them a yen, and I got so many Japanese pickles gifted to me I thought I was gonna bust...

Said rides were then cleaned and repaired if necessary (rare); I then took them through inspection (learning the BIG paperwork was a real B****, I barely spoke Japanese then) and sold on cheap. It was all profit anyhow, and there was lots of demand from foreigners especially, living in Japan with small coin and unable to navigate the official system because of language and mechanical fail.

A lot has changed since then, but you can still pick up some amazing deals.