dxbwanted

Hey folks...our craze for vip modification has grown an interest in me to fly to japan. Im flying to japan next week, its a soft request if any member has any information on places togo in japan or literally anything informative about modification parta can forward me here. Lets see what they got, keep your suggestions coming. Vip for life!!

dxbwanted

Hey folks...our craze for vip modification has grown an interest in me to fly to japan. Im flying to japan next week, its a soft request if any member has any information on places togo in japan or literally anything informative about modification parts can forward me here. Lets see what they got, keep your suggestions coming. Vip for life!!

SonicMotor

iTrader: (19)

Where in Japan are you going? There's lots of shops out there, and make sure to check UPGarage!

sojah

iTrader: (1)

it is really hard to give any solid advice on this as I did this same thing a few times when visiting. now I live in japan and can even more clearly state that unless you have a part or parts in mind there are very few shops that actually stock parts.

I have visited a few various vip boutiques and shops like Junction Produce and D.A.D. but aside from just looking and possibly buying some small items you really aren't going to find much.

I just got back from the 2016 Osaka Auto Messe last night and it was awesome but even at the giant car show I only bought a single sticker. 2 years back I did buy some VIP neck pads from D.A.D. Garson though that were really discounted.

as far as car stores goes it depends on what part of japan you are visiting. if you look in the back of a VIP Style or VIP Car magazine it will show all the vip car shops listed out by city with their addresses. Auto Bacs and UpGarage are two of the main chain car parts shops and they have some small goodies as well.

one of the hardest things about buying car parts in japan is that they always ask you for your vin number of the car so they can make sure the part you are asking for is right for your car. often times they won't even help you if you don't have your vin number and they will want to see the physical car title paperwork to verify. japan is weird like that.

dxbwanted

@ sonicmotor
Im still planing my trip... It totally depends on where i can get stuffs.

@sojah
Thats very helpfull of u dear. Sad thing i dont have a vin bcuz i sold my ls as iam buying an '06 when i arrive. How about junkyards over there

sojah

iTrader: (1)

about 6-12 years ago the junkyards were awesome and full of nice parts to be bought for cheap and then you could actually make a lot of money on resale (in the US). Presently though with ebay and the way the internet is, it is hard to make much money. I am not sure about the UAE market but maybe you can still resell for a good amount where you are but in the states it is hard to make money on JDM parts at the moment. You will only make a few dollars on a part as opposed to say 8 years ago when you could make 300% on a part.

Japanese junkyards also started paying people to junk their cars about 8 years back and since this time the junkyards have to make up the difference so now they charge a lot more for the parts coming off the cars.

dxbwanted

That does makes sense, with the new modes of selling (online) things are changes at high degrees. The market in U.A.E is still good for such parts, its totally different out here. Sojah i had a hard time to find these junkyards online. Can you help me with some junkyards locations?

sojah

iTrader: (1)

I only know of the junkyards on the small island I live on here in Okinawa, sorry I don't know of any on the main island of japan. I can ask a gym buddy next time I see him who used to live in the yokohama are and may still have some contacts from the junkyard connects.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

so after talking to that guy who used to live in Yokohama he confirmed what I thought. it seems to be a really tight group of folks that routinely buy parts from the nicer junkyards so he didn't have any info to share. he said it took him years to build up his network of contacts and credibility in that scene. he said it took a while to get to where he would be notified when good stuff arrived so he could show up before others and get the good parts.

I think UpGarage, Stark, and maybe Yellow Hat and Autobacs are your best bet but these are all big chain stores. UpGarage has a nice web site to search all of their products which is constantly changing everyday between all the buying and selling of parts they do. http://www.upgarage.com/upgarage/

Mandrake

Also Goo Parts http://www.gooparts.com/


And Yahoo auctions Japan http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/


Personally, I just buy it off of Yahoo auctions and have it shipped to my house. You have to buy a 300 yen membership to purchase anything over 5,000 yen and they only accept Japanese credit cards or ofurokomi but you can make an ofurokomi from any ATM of the sellers bank.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

mandrake can you spell out how you are able to order stuff from YAJ and have it sent to your house in the US? this was something i was never able to actually accomplish when we lived in the states. i always had to have my wife's friends/family buy the stuff for me and send it to us.

even living in japan YAJ is a bit of a pain in the *** (IMO) but they are the biggest and often have the best stuff.

i didn't know Goo sold parts, i found my Majesta on Goo Cars and ended up getting it for even cheaper once no one bought it on there and the shop pushed/sold it to auction.

my local car shop buddy/mechanic is my hook up presently for anything from Goo Cars or YAJ. i just get him to buy it, i kick him an extra few ¥ and then months later my wife is like "Your wheels look shinier, did you change them¿"

Mandrake

I have a Japanese bank account so I just make an ofurikomi online to pay for it. The sellers are usually willing to ship internationally because these are generally mom and pop shops or small businesses. You just have to pay extra. They generally don't read English very well though so you have to do business in Japanese. It's not hard if you have a Japanese friend to help you.

I'm guessing you're a Marine or sailor, thanks for your service. I hear they don't let you guys out much so it's hard to learn Japanese. If you don't have a Japanese bank account, I recommend opening an account with Shinsei bank. They have online banking in English and you can make an ofurikomi from there.

Otherwise, you just make a Yahoo JP account, buy the item, type in your address etc and then it'll give you a choice to pay by credit card or ofurikomi. Choose ofurikomi and then print off or write down the account details. Then walk up to either an ATM for a bank you have an account at, or the ATM for their bank. It's kind of complicated to make the Ofurikomi but banks usually have staff that can help you do it.

Link to your Majesta? I'd like to get one but the year I want is still too young to be imported. I'm going to try and import a 91 Aristo this year first.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

here are a few pics of my current vip car here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/vip...ew-camber.html

my Japanese wife has a Japanese bank account but it usually just has the minimum amount in it just to keep the account open. i remember when we were living in the states it was tricky to move money into that account from our stateside accounts.

presently if she uses that account to pay through YAJ then we have to go down to the Japanese ATM to move money into that account to pay for the YAJ purchase so usually i just do the cash via the ATM straight to their account anyways.

i don't have any problems using YAJ presently (i can read hiragana and katakana just not kanji,, yet ) but when we were living in the states it was a pain since most sellers didn't want to ship to the US and getting money into my wife's Japanese bank account was tricky and costly to do a money transfer each time.

i do love japan but doing transactions like these from outside the country is usually a pain. i can't wait till japan opens up their market to the rest of the world.

I'm not military btw but was air force stationed here from 02-04 which is how i was first introduced to japan and ultimately met my wife here

あなた　は　にほんじん　ですか？

Mandrake

おれは日本人がちがう。アメリカ人です。大学の時はにっぽんへべんきょうにいった。


I'll check out the pictures later. That's great if you can read hiragana and katakana because you can read many signs and get around town quite easily.


What I did for moving money into my Japanese account is use Mt. Gox and bitcoin. Mt Gox's headquarters was located in Japan so you could deposit into your Mt Gox account and then exchange that into bitcoin and deposit it directly into your American account or vice-versa. You can do the same transfer into your Japanese bank account on Mt Gox. IIRC Mt Gox is shut down now though right? Their website doesn't look good.


You can also do it in paypal and the fees are less for small amounts but for large amounts of money, a wire transfer might still be better.


Doing a wire transfer is way more expensive. I know how much of a pain it can be to move money around and especially make larger purchases in Japan. It's a wonder they can do business with anybody.

sojah

iTrader: (1)

yeah I read a lot of Japanese news (in English) and always find the business aspect interesting. recently I was reading an article about all the business in japan that just aren't willing to ship outside of japan and have zero interest to start. that's fine and all if you are a small shop and are happy with your present revenue stream but just blows my mind about how they are not even considering the bigger picture. maybe with the negative interest rates presently or if they fall even lower it will encourage more international dealings I know it would for me if I had large accounts in a Japanese bank...

I can't imagine doing college in another language. my wife did a few years in the states amazingly and that just blows my mind of taking courses in a foreign language, and succeeding. I feel like I am a little spoiled since I work around all English speaking folks and yet still get to enjoy all the benefits of being a US citizen and living in Japan without the stress of having to 'fit in'. japan is a very difficult place for foreigners as I'm sure you are well aware...