Roof Tent Experience

 

Gerd asked me how we like the roof tent so far. Basically it is really nice. It is like a home. You open it in a minute and you have your home sweet home everywhere you go. Buuuut......, we had to learn some things.

 

1. Never buy the Chinese product. Maybe everybody knows but although the one German company which is selling this tent gets it from China. We did not have another chance, since this kind of roof tent I could not get in Japan. Furthermore, I did not want to buy the one with the plastic cover since you can not put any heavy stuff on it and it takes all the space you have on the top of your car.

 

2. It gets really noisy and we are sometimes afraid to fly away if there is heavy wind. In this case I cover it now with an additional strong plastic sheet. Do not take a thin one it will be noisy to.

 

3. Isolation: well in the cold areas we had the problem that the mattress was quite wet below in the morning. We were hot (:) the bottom of the tent cold, where warm and cold air meets you have condense water. I bought additional isolation mats, you the one you use in tent. I changed the order of all components several times until I got the best order. Now the mattress is not wet anymore.

 

I do not know other roof tents of this kind but maybe some of the problems you will also have. The two Belgium guys: ....... were also complaining that there roof tent was almost damaged after one year using although they had roof tent from a better maker. I friend of us had a Beduine roof tent which is also quite expensive but the manufacture quality of his one was also not that good. One advantage of the one we have is also that it is not so heavy. It is around 40 kg. I saw the others have much more, but maybe because they are more reliable (:). Yeah and so far we did not get wet but I do not trust in this Chinese product in a really heavy rain.

 

But I still think it was a good decision to buy the roof tent (:).

 

Picking up the car and buidling the Roof Tent Carrier

So last week we pick up the car in Tomioka and had to go to Nagaoka which is at the west coast close to Nigata. Here we got our new japanese license plates for the car and the "international car registration certificate". But they told us we can not drive in germany, Mongolia .. with this certificate, since Germany and ... did not sign the Geneva contract !!?!?!? Ok anyway this week we found out we have to translate the japanese car certificate to german (5000 yen), and getting certificate of the German embassy (2500 Yen). Mongolia is the same, but we do not need to use a professional translator. Kotomi will ask her mongolian friend to translate and the mongolian embassy will certify. After we picked up the car we went to Nigatta to visit a friend I call him always Mr. ChinChin, who was working close to Kotomis shop before. Last year I went with him to snowboarding so it was nice to meet him again. Actually he lives close to the place where I had a conference last year. We had some really delicious fish and of course some beer and a lot of talking I could not understand (:). Next day we went to Kotomis friend where she has her adress now. From there we take a road through the mountains back to Tokyo with really nice views of snow mountains. Driving in the mountains is rally nice, few cars, no street lights every 50 m, much better to drive than the roads close to coast, where you just stop and go stop and go. From Picking up the Car From the car dealer I got two old roof carriers. From one I could use at least the 6 stands and just need to construct the bars. So the last 4 days I went everyday to the "Do it yourself store" to buy screws, metal bars, antirust color and so on. Sawing, filing, drilling and so on, all the stuff I learned from my father and the good old east german education system (:). But the reall problem was how to get this fu... heavy roof tent on the car with the height of 2.10 m. Well all other people where at work, Kotomi is to small and had to go to driving school (because she still do not have the manual driving license). So I did something Japanese would never do, I just asked the neighbour and asked my friend Yamamoto San (the friend who helped already with picking up the rooof tent from the harbour). 3 people and everything went fine. Finally I get to know all neighbours, some provide me with electricity and some just give me a hand. Most of them are happy to help since they are retired and are bored to death. For example my neighbour comes out of the house every 30 minutes smokes a cigarette. He look quite bored, as he do not know what to do after smoking. This is basically related to the japanese working culture, mans have to work every day bring the money home and the free day they have they drink or sleep. Anyway now he always comes to me just checking what I do next with the car and at least now I can see some life in his eyes. I amazed that most of the old people can speak quite good englisch and if not with my few words , I still can understand that from the one guy the garndfather and mother were studying 80 years ago in Germany, and the other made a business in Germany in the oil industry. I found out that I already now more than Kotomis mother which lives here alredy 10 years (:). Anyway maybe they think what a weird Gaijin (actually word for american foreigner) doing everything naked, but still it seems that they enjoy the conversation and it seems there not so strict as Kotomis mother always thinks. I am not sure if this is only because I am foreigner.

From BuildingTheRoofTentCarrier

Car Registration Part II, Never Ending Story

Today the car dealer called us and said we need new parking certificate. Häääääääääääää what why,... Because he need to much time to prepare the car and doing the registration the car parking certificate is not valid anymore, it is only valid for one month. These stuff drives me crazy, it is unbelievable. I mean if I am on the journey I know I have to be patient and I can be since then we have a time. But now there is no time at all, we could not do any preparation especially perparing inside the car ans so on. From my journeys together with my parents to africa and... I know that all the small stuff takes so much time and now this guy from the company is aksking us if it is ok if we get the car in the middle of April ?!?!? Hääääääääää Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Furthermore I asked them to change from aluminium rims to steel rims. If aluminium cracks you have no chance of repair, but steel rims you just use a big hammer and can reach the next city. Anyway last time they told me they ordered and now they tell me for the current tire size there are no rims that fit and it will be ok to use aluminium rims. I think they just know Tokyo cowboys which drive a landcruiser in the city to pose and not to use in reall offroad. I can understand a little Japanese it is enough for very easy conversation but for such discussions it is really hard and epecially with Japanese since they never change there opinion, sometimes their minds are really fixed.

Maybe we should start next year (:), just kidding.

Good News Visa and Open Stuff

Yes we have it our 12 month russian bussiness Visa. Last week I started early in the morning with my bicycle and my GPS and going through Tokyo to go to Roppongi to pick up the Visa at the russian embassy having a suit in my bacckpack. Arriving at McDonalds which is a good place to change to "bussiness" man and just picking up the Visa everything is fine and would like to drink a beer (:). After that got my bicycle and go another 40 min to my working place the Tokyo Institute of technology in Ookayama. It is always nice to take the bicycle and just cross the city not knowing before which way you will take, seeing new things and being most of the time faster or same time than the totally crowded trains with all the people with there tired eyes without a sign of live inside the eyes. Of course it is not everybody but I think 80% of the people at least.

Anyway with this 12 month Russian Visa we are save now and can return everytime we want by just driving home just in case something goes wrong. We do not hope but nobody knows. The other Visa we will try to arrange during the journey as we do not know now our exact schedule.

The Visa stuff is solved but new stuff is waiting to be solved. As the Yen is so strong and the Russians increased the import tax for foreign cars they do not buy that many cars. Consequently the ferries are empty and the one we wanted to go with may not opperate. The agent from the company will tell us one week in advance if the ferry will go or not. But fortunately I found another ferry for the car the Fesco company and hope this will work out. The strange thing is always, that the shipping agents respond quite fast to the first e-mail but if you have more questions and ask where to book they need long time to answer or do not answer at all. The estimated departure date for the car will be around 23th or 24th or ... of April.

Actually we still do not have the car in Tokyo now since the registration of the car is another long story. The car is a Diesel therefore it is not allowed to register and to drive in Tokyo. That means Kotomi need to move to another place almost at the West coast of Japan (Niigata) . Then she needed to get the parking license for the car which took us again almost 4 weeks just because she could not do at the same day she went there to change her address. Now we have actually everything but the car dealer decided he still need to change some parts, that is nice for us but I am asking myself why they start so late since I bought the car already in december so they had almost 2 months to do something. Anyway finally we hope that we can get the car to Tokyo (do not tell anybody (:)) in the end of March. That means I will have only a little time to prepare the car for the journey, but that is live and I can not change.

Next is how to come to Vladivostok since we can not go on the ship with the car. Now we are thinking to go by ferry from Shimonoseki (Japan) to Busan in Korea and then take the train to Seoul and visit our friend Yung Sun. From there we can take the plane or another ferry to Vladivostok. For now this is just an idea but let see if it is working out.

Größere Kartenansicht

Where should we go?

This is not just a phrase. It is not that we do not know where to go! But I think maybe some of you have places in mind they really would not miss doing such a journey. It is just interesting to know what other people know about the countries we want to travel. I am waiting for your comments and places you are dreaming of in this countries (:)!

Traveling trough Russia, Mongolia, Kasachstan, Kirgistan, Taschikistan, Usbekistan ........ Germany

1. In Taschikistan I really want to go to the Pamir Highway See here: Pamir Highway Documentary.
2. ........
   

Getting the most important Visa

From all you read in the WEB it seems that applying for russian Visa has to be done really carefully. Any mistake allows the embassy to decline your Visa request. Like if the names of the city which are written in your invitation are not exactly the same as in the application they can decline, if you have a miserable handwriting (as I have (:))) they can decline.....That made me a lot of head age since you do not know what else they are looking for. Furthermore applying in Japan for Russian Visa having German nationality is normally not possible only if you have a permanent address here. This is actually related to the regulations of Germany when Russians apply for German Visa. They also can only apply in Russia for German Visa even if they are in Africa rigth now. That means they have to go back to russia if they want to have the German Visa. It is understandable that the Russians do the same with the Germans, its like if you Germans are assholes we can do the same. However, that means I had to get a permanent address registering me here, which is only possible if I am here longer than 3 months, which is fortunately the case (:).

Furthermore you can find everywhere different information of which documents you need, actually for multiple entry 12 months business Visa a HIV test is required, but when asking in the embassy they we do not need. Calling there is rather difficult too, if you finally managed that
they pick up, then they tell you in perfect Englisch I am sorry I do not speek englisch, and just put you in the waiting queue with the nice music for 10 minutes. Finally I went to the embassy two time and at 27th of February I submitted our applications where I have to pay 6500 Yen since I am stupid German and Kotomi nothing. Anyway I just hope everything will be fine. In one week I will know.

Just to avoid any question and trouble I wear a suit (:).

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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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