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PHOENIX · 05-22-2006, 05:51 AM

From here, it was off to the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel and checked in, luckily Jeff and I got our own room with a shower. Most traditional Japanese hotels have community showers and are situated like hostels and you have to wear kimonos (Japanese robes). So we were happy to get our own room and not shower with 30 Japanese guys in 1 shower room.

We had dinner and did a toast with everyone. The 5 course meal was really good and to my surprise, a steak dinner. I havnt had a steak dinner since ive been hear because its so damn expensive in this country for a steak (about $80). We finished dinner and prepared for a night drive.

When it finally got dark, we split off into 2 groups. 1 group headed off towards the onshen hot springs into the mountains for a night time dip and the other group for a “Spirited Drive”. So the crazy night drive through the mountains was insane, it was fast with tons of blind corners. I definitely wasn’t ready for it as im still a new driver in Japan. And if you think driving a RHD car on 2-way roads as wide as alleyways, your wrong. Its completely different. I fell behind a little on the corners but was able to catch back up on the straights.

We drove back to the rest stop on the mountain and hung out there for about an hour or so. It was rather cold but we were all screwing around and made it fun. One guy brought this rather large telescope that took him about 20 minutes to setup and focus in on Jupiter. It was really neat, you could see the rings very clearly. Another guy brought his air soft gun with some glow in the dark pellets which was fun. We Headed back down the mountain to the hotel at a less than spirited pace.

We got to the hotel and the fun really started, the booze came out. Man did we get wrecked. Lots of beer, good (somewhat understandable) conversations about the American MR2 Clubs, and Japanese clubs.

You’ll be surprised to find that most MR2 owners in Japan are between the ages of 30 and 50 years. The 2 heavily modded MR2s were owned by older guys, 1 late 30’s and 1 in his early 50’s. I was impressed, in fact, I might have been the youngest one there at the age of 26.

05-22-2006, 05:51 AM	#5 (permalink)
PHOENIX Beams Owners Group Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: On Hiatus....... Posts: 9,266 Thanks: 92 Thanked 292 Times in 224 Posts Blog Entries: 1 My Google Map iTrader Rating: (49/100% )	From here, it was off to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel and checked in, luckily Jeff and I got our own room with a shower. Most traditional Japanese hotels have community showers and are situated like hostels and you have to wear kimonos (Japanese robes). So we were happy to get our own room and not shower with 30 Japanese guys in 1 shower room. We had dinner and did a toast with everyone. The 5 course meal was really good and to my surprise, a steak dinner. I havnt had a steak dinner since ive been hear because its so damn expensive in this country for a steak (about $80). We finished dinner and prepared for a night drive. When it finally got dark, we split off into 2 groups. 1 group headed off towards the onshen hot springs into the mountains for a night time dip and the other group for a “Spirited Drive”. So the crazy night drive through the mountains was insane, it was fast with tons of blind corners. I definitely wasn’t ready for it as im still a new driver in Japan. And if you think driving a RHD car on 2-way roads as wide as alleyways, your wrong. Its completely different. I fell behind a little on the corners but was able to catch back up on the straights. We drove back to the rest stop on the mountain and hung out there for about an hour or so. It was rather cold but we were all screwing around and made it fun. One guy brought this rather large telescope that took him about 20 minutes to setup and focus in on Jupiter. It was really neat, you could see the rings very clearly. Another guy brought his air soft gun with some glow in the dark pellets which was fun. We Headed back down the mountain to the hotel at a less than spirited pace. We got to the hotel and the fun really started, the booze came out. Man did we get wrecked. Lots of beer, good (somewhat understandable) conversations about the American MR2 Clubs, and Japanese clubs. You’ll be surprised to find that most MR2 owners in Japan are between the ages of 30 and 50 years. The 2 heavily modded MR2s were owned by older guys, 1 late 30’s and 1 in his early 50’s. I was impressed, in fact, I might have been the youngest one there at the age of 26.