We went to the toyota museum today 4 1/2 hours to get there we rocked up lou our toyota man was in heaven. But when we got there we find that 1 floor is out but i language barrier led us to think all jap stuff could be seen . We bought our tickets and headed for the jap stuff and it was out of bounds so we returned to the front counter to get our money back and we were heading off to another venue They asked what was wrong and we said we were only realy interested in the jap stuff when a staff member that could speak english came over and explained that it was being revamped and was not open. Which was fine then we spoke that we were the jap car club and was over checking things out and she decided to see her boss if we could enter.
Well the boss came out and this young english speaking angel translated for us and he said i will escort you up there but it is in as you find it condition as if we cared. We donated a grill badge from our club as a form of thank you and was ushered into a lift around the back. From here we looked at a few awsome cars in top condition and we all found the car of their dreams as i checked out the pr90 as most of us know. It was love at first site and as a goodwill token i donated a pair of number plate lenses for it as the two were in a bad way. None of these cars were enclosed and they were there for the taking so i was all over it with the camera and all over it on a personal basis in side and out. After we were finished he said do you want to see our private collection and we were taken to another building and shown another 100 or so cars not displayed. AWSOME. The lady that made it happen said it was the third time she had seen it as the manager is the only 1 on site with a key. We returned home tonight with memories,photos and gifts that will be with us forever. P.S i have photo's of the vin and engine no for our reference.

Sounds totally AWESOME Greg
But also seems like you didn"t see a Wasp at this museum either.
Keep enjoying your eye opening activities.

I showed Takeeys walter as they had a chev luv there. Are very rare car never seen 1 was his reply. Tomorrow we are off to another car show and thats it i think for cars for a week until we go to the mazda museum. I am starting to go into brain overload.
B.T.W Lizzie got back in a race car today the guy at the motor museum insisted he wanted a photo with Lizzie in their f1 car in there workshop he asked if Liz was ok when she struggled with some stairs and we told Lizzies story. It was a struggle to get her in and even harder to get her out but no one was blowing this oppertunity .

Look at that big kids smile, I hope you didn't leave any claw marks as they tried to pull you out of the car.
Lizzie was probably the only one that would have been able to fit in the F1 car too.

I can't wait to come up for a photo night when you get back to relive it with you both.
You sound like a school kid in a lolly shop Mr Orphanage and your excitement comes across in your post updates.
I for one have become addicted to this thread, wish I was there with you guys and the other club members.

Hey Greg,

Wow man, that car has been front-and-centre of every Google Image "Bellett GT" search since the internet was shiny and new!

And there it is again... except with a big Aussie sitting in it! Never, EVER thought I'd see the day!

Nice work on getting the engine and chassis number.... PR91 Brett will be pleased as he seems to be able to memorise these things!

Surprises me that they didn't source an earlier PR90 with the 14" wheels and domey wheel-covers, but they're in short supply (DUN999 and a black JDM example are the only ones I can think of that come to memory), so they probably just got what they could or what was donated.

Still superb though. If the museum ever closes down, I have a house I could mortgage, I suppose....

LIVE THE DREAM, Greg!

Cheers,

Dave

greg and liz guess you are living every bellett owners dream and fulfilling your own and im so happy for you the last year has been a hard one for you this is your reward for carrying on thru the hard times best wishes davo keep on snapping .....we love em

We went to a mooneey's show today it was massive. No bellettes but i got some bolts to hold the number plates on with the old isuzu logo. There is a lot of old logo stuff here but the dollars add up when you get 1 0r 2 or 10 of everything. the number plate bolts are $6.50 each green 'blue,black and silver and a pair for the gt's and walter. Was not cheap. I have a lot of bits like hat pins key rings ect and i hope we opned channels to buy these we swapt emails and they said they will send stuff. We just need to be able to comunicate with them.

you guys are just jumping from one amazing experience to another.
fancy getting a personal tour of the closed floor and being able to climb all over the Bellett's.

don't reckon anyone will better the is Japan trip in a long long while.
great idea to take some extra bits and pieces with you too. makes for a much better exchange of interests and show we care and we are doing something to keep these rare cars on the road even though we are way down under.

could not have picked a better ambassador for the Aussie Bellett Club. Keep up the posts and the wonderful cultural exchange.

lovin it

HEAPS!!!!!!!!!!


cheers


OZ

Much thanks for taking the time to post this stuff! When you're on holidays it can be pretty hard to find the time between going to places and then flaking out!

Thanks again!

Not a lot to report up until yesterday car wise anyway. We went to a shopping centre yesterday that was themed on Italy with a toyota show room all the new cars displayed and a 1.5 km test track inside and out this centre it was huge. With massive sandstone blocks 3 storys high with a domed fibreglass roof skyblue with clouds and lighting to make it apear to be moving . On the other side was a toyota museum this was set up inside the shopping centre and some cars just looked like they were in the street a early 117 was one of the cars below was a cafe more cars a glass room where you see part of the test track and go karts racing inside a shopping centre . On the other side was a glass front worksop to do the resto's we looked with much interest and took photo's and this got the attention of the workers Lou drops a photo of his car and we are soon invited past security and freelancing the workshop as if we owned it .
Today started out on a sad note as one of the couples are off home tonight so early today we caught the bus to the airport dropped there bags and headed to a prince/nissan private collection a few cars here about 10 go and a private wrecking yard. Most were race cars and for kjb a prince ute. On arrival we were greeted with the owner as well as another prince owner we met last weekend at a car show and a the editor of nostalgic hero who had become aware of our travels and greeted us and asked if we were agreeable to run a story on us. We spent a few hours here and we had afternoon tea with these people that were kind enough to welcome us into their home which we felt was a huge honour. With this we discussed lots as one guy spoke some engrish. We handed out a few gifts such as club hats and badge and in return have some more valued contacts in Japan. I was given a magazine based on the dohc cars with a full write up on a bellett gtr and then a little later a nostalgic hero bar mat was handed to me this was being used by the editor as a dash mat for his little honda and will now live as a bellett dash mat or in the pool room Negotiations are now in place for a aussie car feature in the mag this will be confirmed in the comming weeks.
The motto on the end of the matt [quote, NO CLASSIC CAR NO LIFE. unquote. The guy we met at the car show ownes a shop that sells classic japanese parts mainly prince/nissan but he speaks some english and we have exchanged emails. Tomorrow we are off to the other side of the island to be toured through the mazda museum on a private tour. In the morning travels we will use a shinkensen these trains are the ones we have been using to date and distance over time we estimate 240km/hr then we catch the bullet train this is the quick sucker .

getting quite a collection of cool stuff to bring home as well as all the great new contacts.

cant wait to see more pics when you get back and get things sorted






OZ

I have posted a few boxes already,from parts to models and they are stacking up again we now have a storage arrangement in Tokyo my guess is the day before we leave our clothes will be posted home and the remaining treasures will be in our baggage freight bill so far over $300 but i have my own museum now most is isuzu but today I scored some prince stuff that will let live behind the glass also. No i am staying with isuzu but i was put on the spot today and asked which car i would have bought home if i could bring a car away My reply was the porche and i was then asked why because there is no room for datsun crap at my place close call thank god for the porche .
I think mr nostalgic hero has a thing for walter his eyes nearly poped out of his head, we gave him a cjcc club calender and he was blown away that three wasps were in it. walter,jessabell and george. I told him there was still a few more here.

By the looks of things your tour is way above the standard of the tours that I did with Nissan. We visited carshows and went through manufacturing plants in Dubai. Also a plant in Barcelona. As we toured as a group we could pool all our excess baggage against the group as a whole. ie. Not everyone had excess baggage. It is a good idea too post some back home. Not include it in your baggage. We found that it was cheaper that way. Unfortunately you and Liz don't have that option.
When I went overseas for hockey we took badges,shirts and all sorts of giveaways. Nine times out of ten we brought more home than we took.
Can't wait till you get home and see what photos and gear you picked up. The parts emails in particular. And I reckon I wouldn't be the only one.

Dave.

Not much in the car way of life here to speak of in the last few days except a tour of the mazda museum that was about 12 cars but we got dragged through the mazda final production line. Boring no way Man this is huge with it's own uni,5 fire stations with 50 full time fire fighters staff car park fit 1100 cars it has one of the largest private bridges in the world it's own port 2 water treatment plants and 2 of it's own power plants. This plant produces 1800 cars per day and from stamping the first bit to complete 50 hours.

As Dave said can't wait to see some photo's when you both get back,maybe you could do a few talks up on stage along with photo nite

Yeah, definitely the go. A great first presentation could be at the Shannon's meeting room at the June CJCC meeting. Gerry, You'll have to come up to that nite

I just had my first experience at a mexican restaurant well sheeeeeit was it hot. Man i am gunna put some ice into the bidet tonight just in case i gotta put the fire out . These bidet are even in most public facility's here The thing i can't understand is if you think your going to make a noise you can choose with the push of a button what noise you want and then select the fragrence This feature is in male public toilets . Well i am not into pretending i am upper class they can have their suits and i will have my rubber double pluggers and for the smells and noises they will have to listen to the barking porclein bullfrog and the smell of sulphur As if anyone really believes there is birds in the trees above a rose garden in the cubicle anyway.
They call them western style toilets here they think this is standard for us .
On a less serious note i worked out we are 25 minutes from isuzu head office so tomorrow we have a free day nothing planned so i am off for a look Liz say's what for cause i can and what a great photo oppertunity getting escorted out of the building . Wish me luck.
I have an interpreter booked for thursday this was not cheap but going home without seeing and chatting to isuzu sports is not a option.

Man I wish I was there to see that
Now there's a photo opportunity not to be missed.

never made it sticky but we did find a shop that dealt in old car stuff books,brochures and mor model cars and stuff another box to post home. In the morning we are off to isuzu sports. With a lazyday fridayand mt fuji speedway saturday and sunday we are on our way home .

Isuzu sport today was huge we were there all day the interpreter cost a lot of $. It was worth every cent. From arrival we were welcomed by a passionate employee that like some of us rolled around a back seat of a gt as a baby and still has 1 today. We were later introduced to the owner with this we were driven to the restoration plant and then they insisted they shout us lunch before heading to the storage facility. We spent from 9.30 until 6.00 there. we left with a parade of staff waving us off. The language barrier is one problem and the other problem explianed that they have is people spend a lot their time using them as a museum. I would suggest if you want to make a visit prewarn them you are comming and what you expect and you will be welcome. Our interpreter is willing to help us in contacts and any other japanese contacts including written translations needed in the future. Isuzu sports are capable of reading bellett net in english and are only to happy to support us and share our bellett love. I now have the capability's to purchase parts from them and I can only speak very highly of this firm..
THANKS AGAIN ISUZU SPORTS.