Japan again! At last!

 9/10/14

We have been in Japan for about 24 hours now. This is after travelling for 24 hours straight to get up here to Central Hokkaido! After three flights, a train and a taxi we arrived in Nakuafurano where our vehicle was waiting. John and Stephanie had kindly let us leave it in their yard for the 2.5 months we were away. 

We left Matilda in the sun in order to keep the batteries charged. And she started beautifully. The only evidence that we had been away so long was the fridge seal which had warped, because we had left the door open. Joe managed to relocate the seal and all was well. The cooktop failed to start up first time, but with one squeeze of the hand bulb it started up nicely. 

The very first thing we needed to do was sleep. Then next morning we had to take Matilda to our friend Nakamura San in Asahikawa for replacement of the transfer case. During our last trip up here we had repeated oil leaks from the transfer case. The mechanics said there was a manufacturing fault in the transfer case itself. Back in Australia I spoke with Fuso and asked whether there was anything they could to to help. (The Fuso Australia warranty is a "back-to-base warranty" -meaning that the vehicle is not covered outside of Australia). To their credit they provided us with a new transfer case, all packed up on a pallet ready for us to ship to Japan! The freight cost was $800. It remains to be seen what the labour will cost, so the jury is still out on whether we saved anything by doing it this way. 

Also while in Australia I discussed the wheel bolt issue with Mark at Earthcruiser. It had cost us $900 to have new wheel bolts fitted and machined to satisfy the Japanese that it was roadworthy for re-registration purposes. Mark agreed to pay $500 towards the cost, since he could have fixed the problem much more cheaply if the vehicle had been in Australia. 

It is autumn here and the weather is cold (by our standards, not by hokkaidoan's). We needed the heater last night. There is snow in the mountains here already, and the autumn colours are everywhere. We came here for the colours and we can already see that we will not be disappointed! 

  

 Nakamura says that the peak of the colours has already passed in Hokkaido! If so then I can't wait for the colours further South! 

10/10/14

We spent the night in a log cabin in the bush. It was cold and raining so we appreciated the gas fire. In the morning it seemed the colours of the forest had intensified. The scenery was simply dazzling! 

 

 We were using words like "astonishing", "WOW", "dazzling", like a painting". If we see no more colours during the next weeks I will still feel satisfied! 

Late in the afternoon we heard that Matilda was ready. The total cost including labour, import duty, other taxes was ¥44792. That's about $448. So it all cost 448 (labour and oil) +800 (freight) = $1248. Given that we were quoted $5000 for the job originally we certainly benefited from Fuso's assistance. One curious fact emerged though. Fuso Australia did NOT contract Nakamura here. So I guess that they knew about the fault in the transfer case (there was a machining error resulting in the seal not fitting the male part it should match) and so gave us a new one without question. 

On leaving the workshop we exchanged gifts as often happens in Japan. NakamuraOs gift to us was a poem he had written! 

"I hope you don't become a trouble anymore.

But you have a adventure

There will be some troubles

The trouble brought you here.

So it was nice to meet you.

You can come back here anytime!"

So here we are camped in the middle of Asahikawa in a park where people walk, run ride bikes. We have autumn colours all around us. (  43.751N  142.371S ) We can hear a flowing river and very little traffic noise. Tomorrow we will head south towards HONSHU seeing the last of Hokkaido as we go. 

Asahikawa, vehicle problems, west coast Central Hokkaido

16/6/14 we have arrived back at Asahikawa to get an oil leak fixed. The transfer case has been leaking. We have luckily found a mechanical workshop which seems to specialise in trucks, and has an English speaker! The workshop is called Ootani. They have got the parts we need from Mitsubishi. We also asked Nakamura San if they could do the vehicle inspection as required for our registration renewal. So we left the vehicle with them and Nakamura San, and went in the rental car for the day with Stuart and Nira. 

One of the first things we did was to call in on our new friend Rikka, who gave us our vegetarian cooking lesson last time we were here. We were vary glad to see her again, and told her we would be back for dinner in her Resturaunt in the evening, along with Stephanie and John Dyer (the American couple who have kindly agreed to have our vehicle at their place when we go home in a few weeks.)

So in the evening we arrived at Rikka's shop to find that she had spent all afternoon cooking up an absolute banquet for us! 

 We had a wonderful evening with all of these friends and Rikka's great food. 

Back at the mechanical workshop though things were not going so smoothly. We have found that in a vehicle with as many modifications as this one, it is essential to have the engineers inspection certificate which was used for the initial registration. The design of our wheels and their attachment to the brake drum was questioned by the mechanics, and they wanted to change the bolts etc. after discussion with Mark at Earthcruiser and establishing that the wheels are as designed and inspected/passed by the consulting engineer in Australia the mechanics signed off on the form. At least we think they have. We have gone on while all of this was sorted out, and will be back in Asahikawa in a few days to finalise the forms. Hopefully Nakamura-San has managed to get them completed. 

Another problem we have run into is getting the correct forms for the inspection from Qld transport. The forms are not available on-line being only given out to authorised workshops in Australia. Apparently we should have gotten the correct forms before we left home! According to Nakamura the form is almost identical to the Japanese one which of course is in Japanese! I have emailed Qld transport more than a week ago but have had no response so far. Hopefully I will have the form before we get back to Asahwikawa.

Stuart and Nira are leaving soon, so we were very happy to find a great camping spot on the west coast. 

20/6/14 Stuart and Nira have gone. We had a great month with them, with no tensions between us. We reckon we deserve a good pat on the back for that! The arrangement of having separate cars and meeting up in the evenings or any stops along the way worked very well for us! On a few occasions we went separate ways for a day, and that also worked well. So well done all of us.