Taking the long way home from Japan to Frome, UK
Exciting deliveries keep arriving.
Foremost is the fridge; a Japanese design called Engel. We decided on the MT17F which gives us enough room for milk, a small amount of fresh produce and beer – a total capacity of 15 litres. We oohed and aahed about whether we needed a fridge but in the end decided that it would be useful. Incidentally, the fridge weighs the same amount as the fat we want to loose over the next 6 months! He taketh and he giveth 🙂
Being totally crap with mechanics and general ‘car stuff’ I have given myself the role of being in charge of soft furnishings. Incidentally I will also be in charge of cooking, eating, entertainment, cleaning, washing, chrome polishing and making friends – rather gender stereotypes I know…but there you go…
And so on to curtains. Firstly, what fabric? As Totty is Japanese I decided to go with Japanese material and so trotted off to ‘Fabric Town’ in Nippori. This place is amazing and has lots of shops selling all sorts of material…some shops only exclusively deal with leather, or buttons, or fur, or silks etc. So it was that I eventually decided on this fabric and bought 8 metres of the stuff…1,000 yen a metre (about £5.00 a metre).
Well we have it! Three months after putting down the deposit we went last Saturday to pick it up. She is utterly amazing; with lots of new shiny bits. We’ve taken her for a couple of trips around the block, at one point accidently going down some very narrow residential streets which was a bit nerve wrecking.
Yesterday we decided that, with only a one month warranty, we should take her for a longer drive so set off to see Fuji-san. I’ve decided that we should take lots of photos of the car in front of iconic Japanese views. At some point we will try getting a picture on the Shibuya crossing; in front of Tokyo Tower; by some cherry blossom; Torii gates….etc
Her name(s) by the way are based around the character Totoro (From the Studio Ghibli animation; My Neighbour Totoro).
Tots, Totty or To chan (which translates as Father even though chan is an affectionate term for girls). I’ve been mostly calling her Totty.
Our Land Cruiser FJ62 is currently having a few bits and pieces replaced/rebuilt in preparation for the long way home. As Utilitas has only 1 mechanic, we’ve had to be very patient and accept that, in the words of Morrisey, “these things take time“!
Today, we got a little photo update from Ikegaya-san. It’s great to see so many bits and pieces being either replaced or rebuilt.
In Japan you can’t buy a car unless you have somewhere to park it – the garage literally won’t sell you a car until you complete a form that officially proves you have somewhere to park a car within 2km of your registered home! Whilst that sounded kind of curious to our British ears it makes a lot of sense in Tokyo given the lack of space.
So having committed to our journey, and having decided to buy a car as soon as possible, the next stage was to find somewhere to park said car….
With a bit of help from Clare’s employer we eventually found a spot some 500m from our apartment.
After various visits to various garages in and around Tokyo looking at various cars, we  eventually found ‘the one’. In our case this was a ’89 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ62G.
What with Japan being the home of the Land Cruiser you’re pretty much spoilt for choice for quality specimens. That said, it did take us a few visits to various shops to find the ‘near’ perfect car for us. I say ‘near’ as our 60 has an automatic transmission when we would’ve preferred manual.
© 2026 Fromeward Bound
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments