Bilderverkauf aller 50 km / Pictures on Sale every 50 km

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Invitation for the Russian Visa

Today we got the Invitation for the Russian Visa after nearly 4 weeks. One interesting thing was that the DHL Express send the invitations first to Leipzig which is actually close to my home town. After that it was send to Brüssel in Belgium, to Amsterdam Netherlands and finally after 3 days we received it today in Tokyo. Thanks to the internet we could follow the way of the invitation by DHL tracking system and at each time we knew where our invitations are. For me it was quite interesting to see which way the invitation went.

Anyway now we have it, but everybody needs to press thumbs for us that we really get our desired 12 month Visa for Russia with that invitation. Otherwise 320 EUR are lost and we have to start in Thailand or whereever with our journey, but I am really hoping everything will be fine.



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Monday, February 9, 2009

The Difficulties of A Roof Tent Order

We thought it would be nice to have always something we can call a home therefore we decided to buy a roof tent. I was checking the roof tent prices in Germany and found a nice one for 900 EUR (Nakatanenga), tent only but for the shipping to Japan I had to pay around 450 EUR plus paying tax importing it to Japan. By coincidence I found the same tent at chinese Web page. (rahoo4x4 equipment factory) Finally I figured out that this is exactly the company producing the tent for Germany. The company is located close to Hong Kong and the shipping would be possibly cheaper. So I wrote thousend of mails and to clarify what is included and what not because they never specified in detail. Anyway finally I ordered and whit the help of my Chinese friend Yi in Germany and his friend in China we paid the tent in China. So far everything was easy, but how to pick up the tent and where. They did not say anything except Tokyo harbour and a comapny address in Osaka, well after two weeks of calling and sending faxes we finally could pick up the tent. Since we had no car I asked my friend Yamamoto san who has a big station wagon to pick up the tent together with me and to help me with the japanese customs where we spend almost 2 hours filling out documents and calculating on a mystirious way the final Tax I had to pay. In total the tent, an air jack to lift up the car and a toe strap costs me 465 EUR + 29.000 Yen (Loading fee what ever made is so expensive) + 6000 Yen Tax. It is still better way then ordering from Germany since I would have almost the same costs.

Finally everybody is happy and everybody in Kotomis family tested already being amazed how large it is inside. Now we still need to test if the tent is waterproof (:). Looking forward testing it in Japan if we finally are able to register the car and bring it here to Tokyo.

Click the picture below to see more!



RoofTent

Moving

Before we start the journey we have to move to a smaller place. So end of February we moved to nice small house in the garden of Kotmomi's mother. I really like the place especially now as spring is coming. Click the picture below starting a small slide show.



Moving

Getting the car

I was searching a long time for a car. I wanted to have a Landcruiser
which has Diesel engine, manual transmission and diffrential lock at
front and back. But I had to learn that exactly this combination is hard
to find as only 20% of all landcruiser in Japan have this specification.
Finally I found one in the internet selling the car for the export. So I
asked them if I could also in Japan and it seemed ok. At 27.12.2008 I
went to Tomioka City in Gunma to test the car. From now I can say it is
in a good condition being 13 years old that car in Germany would loke
like hell. Anyway now I got it, but still need to register which is
another story. Kotomi has to register in Niigata as in Tokyo Diesel cars
are prohibited.