Our car is pretty famous around Kuma-gun…..not for the right reasons. It’s famous for being the crappiest car among the ALTs. It has mold growing in the back, the driver’s seat belt is fraying and will randomly come unbuckled at times, the passenger side tail light hasn’t worked since we got it, it’s difficult to start on cold mornings, the defroster never works on days that end with –y, and we’ve had several problems with it in the past. It’s been a good car for us, but it’s just time to send it to a better place….namely the scrap yard. 
Our plan was to keep it until we leave in August and sell it to our successor. I would have been honest with him/her and told him/her that it’s nothing fancy, but it will get you from point A to B and back. However, with Ian driving back and forth to Kagoshima twice a week, we’re starting to get worried about it. A couple of weeks ago, it started to make a strange noise…..I mean stranger than the noises that it currently makes. Ian knows the difference between it’s normal squeaks and a bad squeak. He was not comforted by the sound it was making. He came home from work one night and said that he was worried about it. I drove it to the store the next day and heard the noise—definitely not normal! It sounded like when a big rig shifts down too quickly on the interstate and makes that long fart noise. Since our car is incapable of making that sound, even me, with no knowledge of how cars work, knew that the noise was a bad thing.
Ian took the car to the mechanic the following day. I was so proud of him for being able to navigate an entire conversation in Japanese and being able to not only tell the guy what was wrong but also understand him when the guy told him what was wrong…..it ended up being three different things. If you would have asked me then what was wrong with the car, I could have told you, but since I know nothing of car parts, I have forgotten by now. 
It was bad. That I know. When Ian told him that he drove to Kagoshima for work two days a week, the guy’s response was: “HONTONI?? ABUNAI! Kowai!” Which means, “REALLY?! How dangerous! That’s scary!” So….um……it’s a good thing our car didn’t steer itself off a cliff and die in a fiery crash on Ian’s way home from Kagoshima one night. 
Ian asked how much the repairs would be, and Ian said that when the guy took the calculator out of his desk drawer, Ian’s heart sank. The guy was typing number after number, and Ian was afraid of the grand total. However, when the result happened to be about 25,000 yen (a little over $300), Ian was pleasantly surprised. That’s not bad considering how much was wrong with it! The mechanic said to bring it back the next day, and he’d get it fixed. Awesome! Just as promised, the mechanic had it back to mint(ish) condition the next day. At least the horrible sound was gone!!
The following week, Ian wanted to change the spark plugs on the car because he said that they were waaaaaaaaaay past their prime. Unfortunately, Japan is not a “do it yourself” nation. If there is a problem with your car, sink, plumbing, ripped pants, etc, you don’t fix it yourself…..you take it to or have a specialist fix it! No matter how little the issue or how easy the fix, they don’t like to do it themselves. Oh, Japan! Therefore, there were no replacement spark plugs at our local DIY store, so Ian ordered them online. Ian is no mechanic, but he is capable of fixing things on cars. When the spark plugs arrived a day or so later, he realized that he needed a socket. To the DYI store he went! Once he got home, he realized he bought the wrong size. *face palm* Not only that, but Japan is not like the States where you can take something back. Pretty much across the board all sales are final in Japan. 
He managed to make it work, though. Back to work he went on the car. Since the old spark plugs were corroded and rusty, he accidentally broke them while getting them out, which was fine since we had the replacements. ……..only not. While Ian ordered the right size spark plugs, for whatever reason they didn’t fit. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO DO SOMETHING YOURSELF IN JAPAN!!!! The old ones were broken and incapable of going back in, and the new ones wouldn’t fit. Therefore, we had a car that wouldn’t start. Awesome. This wouldn’t be too big of an issue except for the fact that that was on Tuesday, and Ian NEEDED the car to get to his work on Thursday. He ordered new spark plugs immediately, and luckily they came in time for him to fix the car before work on Thursday. Whew! Saved!
Fast forward to this past week. One of our friends, Katakin, decided to break contract and go home. Therefore, she needed to get rid of her car and asked us if we’d be interested in buying it. Even though our current car is crappy, we had no problem keeping it until August. However, with Ian putting 500 kilometers on it each week, we are starting to get a bit concerned. It wouldn’t be a bad car for just driving around Kuma-gun or the occasion trip on the expressway, but twice a week is asking a lot from our car. As soon as I walked in the door from work on Monday, Ian said, “Check your email.” I asked him what it was about. He just said, “Check your email.” 
I hate when he does that. If I’m standing right in front of you, just tell me!!! Anyway….I digress. He had forwarded the original message from Katakin asking if we’d be interested in buying her car. Even though I’m a cheap-o and normally will say no to large purchases, this was a good deal. She was willing to sell her car to us for 30,000 (about $320). It was too good of an offer to pass up, and we’ve been putting Band-Aids on our old car for far too long. I agreed to get the new car.
Within the span of forty-eight hours we went from not even considering buying a new car to owning a new car. With the help of my supervisor, Ian was able to accumulate the correct paperwork, take it to the dealership in Hitoyoshi, pay Katakin, and drive the car home all in one day. Woo-hoo! The Reed car is no longer the laughing stock of Kuma-gun! 
Our new car is ridiculously roomy compared to the old car and has trunk space that could go on for days! Plus, we don’t have to worry about our car MAKING it until August, and we can sell it to our successor for a better price.
One downside of buying the new car is that it came up so quickly, and we didn’t budget for it. Yes, the car only cost 30,000 yen, BUT the shaken (mandatory bi-annual car checkup) is due by the end of this month. Since it’s a white plate car, (meaning that the engine is over 660 cc) EVERYTHING is more expensive with it…..taxes, gas, tolls for the expressway, insurance, and even shaken. The dealership in Hitoyoshi quoted us the price of 100,000 yen ($1,070) for shaken. 
We didn’t do it there because Ian wanted to see how much our mechanic would charge, thinking that it would be cheaper. While we’re trying to sell our car to friends who don’t have a car, if we can’t sell it, we actually have to PAY to dispose of it. Those are the rules in Japan. I’m not sure how much it costs, but I think I read somewhere that disposal of a vehicle could cost several hundred dollars. All of these things are adding up, and let’s just say that we’ll be glad when the next pay day rolls around in a few weeks. 
Anyway, that’s all for now! I’m going to celebrate the weekend by driving around in my cool new car!!
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