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MotorTranscript
00:00Hey guys, this car we're riding in here is a Suzuki Wagon R, which was actually Japan's
00:07most popular selling car for some time.
00:12I love this car and my wife has one similar and we just find it's the best car to get
00:17around in Japan because usually of course, you know, the streets in Japan are very narrow,
00:24the parking areas are usually small, and it's just the perfect little car to get around
00:31in.
00:32However, the big cars are becoming more popular, more and more, so there's a few different
00:37types of becoming popular.
00:38One is this one we're going to run into as we go into the corner, you see the four wheel
00:41drive, so that's a Toyota Prado or something.
00:45Some people call those SUVs, sports utility vehicles, I don't call them that because I
00:51can't imagine them doing any sort of sport in that.
00:54It's more likely to be, the most likely sport they'll be doing is driving the kids to badminton
00:58or something.
00:59So, four wheel drives, yeah, they're becoming more popular.
01:04As you can see, this is actually a new estate out in the countryside, so the houses are
01:08a little bit bigger than average and the street is wider, much wider than average.
01:15But still, when you look at the size of the house compared to the size of the cars, quite
01:19often you'll see the cars protruding out into the street because the parking spot isn't
01:23quite big enough.
01:25So the next popular type of vehicle, probably more popular than the four wheel drives, this
01:30white thing we're looking at over here is a Toyota Noah or Voxy or Alphard, something
01:39like that.
01:40And we've actually rented a car like that when our family members came over from Australia
01:47and we needed to travel around, we needed a bit more space, a K car wasn't big enough.
01:53We rented one of those, we've actually done it a few times and they're excellent for travelling
01:58around in because they're big inside, you know, there's another one coming towards us.
02:02And they're really big inside and that makes it really comfortable to travel around in.
02:05But they're really not practical for Japan because a lot of the streets are narrow in
02:12the older areas, this is a new area, but in the older areas of Japan the streets are really
02:16narrow and quite often you'll encounter a car coming the other way.
02:19The parking areas, even in shopping centres and things like that, the parking spaces aren't
02:24really big enough for those cars quite often.
02:27And then when you visit people's houses and things like that it's always hard to find
02:30somewhere you can put a car of that size.
02:32So for us it's a bit of a mystery, it's sort of a fashion thing at the moment.
02:37You know, all the mothers turn up at the kindy in the morning with a big car like that one
02:41and so that's what they all want, you know, the Japan style following the trends thing.
02:47So if the other mothers all have one of those big cars they want one too.
02:51Those cars actually seat 7 to 8 people.
02:54So 7 to 8 people, the average Japanese family is a couple of 50 kilo adults and a couple
03:01of 10, 15 kilo kids, you know, that's the average Japanese family.
03:04There's another one there, that's a Voxy or Noah, Voxy and Noah are pretty similar.
03:08But you know, 7 or 8 seat car for a 4 people family.
03:13Oh there's a Ranger over there, did you see that?
03:17Let's go back now and look at the Range Rover, there's the Range Rover, look at that.
03:22So of course, you know, people are told to buy whatever cars they want, it's just, the
03:26reason I'm making a video about this is it's the trend at the moment.
03:30So you've got, that's a big Honda, there's an SUV there isn't it, that he does no sports
03:35in, four wheel drive, there's a big Mitsubishi there.
03:38That Mitsubishi's huge, one of our family members has got one of those and it's got
03:41a really wide turning circle.
03:44So when the mother visits our house, I have to turn it around for her, I have to do like
03:49an 8 point turn to turn it around in our driveway because it's so big and the turning circle
03:53is so wide.
03:55And then there's another Voxy or Noah there.
03:59So it's an interesting trend, look, just to illustrate the point, there's another one
04:03here on the right, that's another 8 seater there on the right and then another Noah directly
04:08in front, the white one.
04:10So you're getting the idea, oh and another one on the left, there's a Voxy on the left,
04:14the Voxy and the Noah are basically the same.
04:17So isn't it amazing, isn't it amazing, as I'm looking up this street here, I'll just
04:21turn up to the right here, look up here, you've got another one on the right and then a Honda
04:26version on the left.
04:28So interesting isn't it, it's sort of a bit of a shame because it's not logical, it's
04:33not logical, I mean they are fantastic for travelling round in, but for taking the kids
04:37to kindergarten and going grocery shopping and all that sort of stuff.
04:41And the other problem we're finding is some people just don't have the skill, so what
04:46you'll see at the shopping centre, you'll be driving through the shopping centre car
04:50park which is, as I've mentioned before, the most dangerous place in our town, is the shopping
04:54centre car park.
04:56That's another four wheel drive on the right, Toyota Prado, and another one of those big
05:01Mitsubishis on the left, but you're driving through the shopping centre car park and someone
05:05will be trying to park one of those things, and you'll see them reverse into the space
05:10and they're a bit crooked, and keep in mind they've got reversing lights, reversing cameras
05:15and all sorts of gadgets to help them with their reversing, but they'll go in and they'll
05:20come out and try again and they'll go in and they'll come out and try again and they'll
05:23go in and they'll come out and try again, and you sit there waiting for them to finally
05:27be satisfied with their park, and it's because they're trying to get it into the centre of
05:32a really small parking space, usually, with hardly any clearance either side, so they
05:37try again and try again and try again, and the other one of course, just stopping now
05:41to look at the Jeep, there's a bit of a Jeep boom going on, we made a video about that
05:45once before, Jeeps are everywhere, which is a mystery on multiple levels, first of all
05:49why you need a four wheel drive in Japan, in the suburbs anyway, and the second one
05:54is Japan makes some of the best four wheel drives in the world, including what's it called,
06:00the Toyota Land Cruiser, one of the best four wheel drives in the world, and they're
06:04importing Jeeps, but anyway, so yeah the parking of them seems to be a challenge for many of
06:09the owners, and see another one on the right there, and the other one is, the narrow streets,
06:16and we get that a lot, we live in an older part of a small town, and really narrow streets,
06:21single lane street basically, which means when someone comes the other way, someone
06:26has to back up, and I've found that it's 99% of the time, it's far quicker for me to
06:33back up, than for wait for one of them to try and back up that big car, because a lot
06:38of them just can't do it, they'll start to back up, they end up a bit crooked, and then
06:43they come forward again, and try and back up again, and get a bit crooked again, and
06:47it's just quicker in this little car just to back up, so you can see just about every
06:51car on this street, is one of these 7 seaters or 8 seaters, that's a midsize, that one on
06:57the left there, that maroon coloured one, that's a midsize, that's a 5 seat car, that's
07:01actually quite a sensible car for Japan, we've actually probably have to get one when our
07:05kids get bigger, we'll probably have to get one like that, that's a sensible car, you
07:08know 5 seat, but these 7 and 8 seat ones, they're just too big, excellent for travelling,
07:14excellent for travelling around Japan on the highways and things, but for actual day to
07:18day normal, normal living, it's just not practical, you see how many there are, that's
07:27the Nissan version of that Voxy thing, basically the same isn't it, if you didn't look at the
07:31badging you wouldn't know the difference, so yeah big cars, the big car boom, and they're
07:36all doing it, our friends and family and neighbours and people, you know, oh we got a new car,
07:42what did you get, oh a Voxy, Alphard, it's all these 7 or 8 seat cars, so I'm lucky my
07:49other half sees these things, this particular subject in a similar way to what I do, so
07:55she's not real keen for a 7 or 8 seater either, she's quite happy with her little wagon R
08:01for now, so probably in the future we'll settle for a 5 seater, this little Honda here, that
08:05little black Honda, that's pretty sensible, that's bigger than this car, that'd have like
08:09a 1000cc engine or 1100cc engine, and these little cars, the power to weight ratio is
08:15really good, so they go really well, that'd be fantastic, it's a 5 seat, got a bit more
08:20space in the back than this car that we're sitting in, so yeah something like that'd
08:24be a bit more sensible for a family, you know, but the big ones just don't get it, there's
08:30no real need, you know, this car will sit, I mean the speed limit, the highest speed
08:35limit in Japan is 100km an hour, and you know, this car will do that easily, this is
08:40actually a manual, it's got 5 speed, and you know, you stick it in 5th gear on the highway,
08:45it's happy, it'll sit on 100km, or a touch higher, a touch higher, it'll sit on that
08:51speed all day quite comfortably, revving at about less than 4000 revs, so it's all good,
09:00anyway, big cars, gave you the idea hey, by the way, this is middle of summer vacation,
09:09so didn't see a lot of people did we, a couple at the end there, but the rest of it, you
09:14don't sort of see people outside, they're all inside hiding in the air conditioning,
09:18so anyway, that's it, the big car boom in Japan, more videos coming soon.
09:30Thanks for watching.