Fixing your car with second-hand parts

When there was something wrong with their cars, most Japanese drivers take the cars to the dealer’s maintenance shops to get them fixed at dealers such as Toyota and Nissan. When a mechanic gives them a quote, most people just accept it without even a glance and book their cars in. In this case, the parts they use at dealer’s shops are usually brand new.

However, recently, some dealers started recommending the change to second-hand (recycled) parts. Recycle parts are taken out of deregistered cars and stocked by recycle parts traders. They have a wide range of parts from exterior parts such as door mirrors and doors to machinery parts like drive shafts. For dealers, selling new parts is definitely more profitable and better financially. So, I was wondering why they recommend using second-hand parts to their customers.

I found the answer the other day when I visited a car dealer near our office. Inside, I saw quite a few brochures recommending parts change with used parts, clearly in display. So when I found a mechanic who I sometimes do business with, I asked him the reason behind this sudden change. According to him, among the people who bring their cars in to his shop, more of them tell him that they want to reduce their maintenance cost. After checking the quote, they specify the parts they want him to fix. From the dealer’s stance, when he writes up the quote, he does not add any unnecessary services on it; thinking about safe driving in the future, he recommends the parts changes or the services. So when there are so many bits overlooked by the customer, it means that it will not be safe for the car going back on the road. However his customers only want him to fix the urgent problems and now more cars are brought in straight after the service with other problems where he knew would be the problem sooner or later. Even if it was his customer’s decision, dealers want to avoid big accidents later on because of that. That is why he recommends them not new parts but reasonably priced second-hand parts to save the cost so that all the problems would be fixed altogether. Dealers also think that even if they cannot make much money from parts, they can make profit from their maintenance services, so it is still profitable.

Lately, some large insurance companies gives their customers 5% discount in their car insurance premium under the condition that they preferentially chose used parts for maintenance.
Using recycled parts means using our resources again. It is good for our environment and for our wallet. At JPC, for customers from certain countries, we started selling “half-cuts” by cutting cars in half to send in a container from the dash board to front bumper only. In this way, you can use many more parts as parts, such as the engine and other front parts. If you are interested, please send an enquiry to our staff.



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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Summer holiday 2009: Day 5

After driving a total of 600km drive within three days to yesterday, we were a bit tired so decided on an easy sightseeing day in Hakodate. Thinking about the location, we booked a city hotel near the Hakodate railway station as it has easy access to most places.

After a buffet style breakfast, we checked the morning market in front of the station. Here, we saw people selling fish and other seafood, fruit & vegetables, dried food, confectioneries, etc. About 450 stall holders were crushed together from early morning and yelling to tourists in brisk voices. I felt like eating Sushi there but I was still full from my breakfast, so we were just walking around, enjoying the atmosphere.

Straight from there, a walk along the port took us to the waterfront warehouses, one of the famous tourist attractions. The red brick warehouses were making the port attractive. They are now used as bars & restaurants and a shopping mall. Shops of different sizes were attracting the tourists. Among the shops, there was a musical box museum and my daughter spent a great time making her own music box.

After wandering around the shops, it was almost lunch time. We decided to go to the original “Lucky Pierrot” hamburger shop to try their hamburgers. The “Lucky Pierrot” has 14 shops in Hakodate. They boast that all the ingredients are from Hokkaido. They do not stock their food: they cook it after each order. They are famous as a place you can get hot-from-the-oven hamburgers. I had a “Chinese chicken burger”, the most popular on the menu. It was very nice with the combination of slightly sweet fried chicken and thick bun.

Hakodate is also well-known for slopes. From the centre of the city, they had about 18 slopes towards Mt Hakodate. To do some exercise after lunch, we walked up the famous “Hachiman-saka” which was used in a TV ad. At the top, there was a high school. It was supposed to be a great panorama overseeing the whole port but it was raining all morning, it was blurry unfortunately.

Within a short walk from there, we saw the Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward, the Old British Consulate building and other historic buildings of Meiji era. We were impressed with their great architectural skills.
After sightseeing of the port area, we went back to the railway station. Luckily it was time for a bus leaving for Mt Hakodate. Because the rain had stopped, we decided to jump on the bus and headed toward the mountain. It is a small mountain with a height of only 334m but is famous for its breathtaking night view which is said to be one of the three best in the world with Naples in Italy and Hong Kong.

When we got there, the sun had not yet set and it was too early to see the night views but with the evening sun peeking through the cloud, we enjoyed the fantastic scenery of the city illuminated by the setting sun.

As the sun went down, the city was lit up; there appeared beautiful scenery right in front of us. You know, I was expecting much because a night view is not anything new for us who live in a big city watching it every night. However, I was taken aback with the unimaginable beauty and the scale of the view. Unknown to us, it was the anniversary day called “Night View Day” and to celebrate 150 years after their opening of the port after the period of national isolation of Edo era, there was an event in which fireworks were set off from 15 different places around the city. This made our visit there more exciting. We felt really lucky with this whole trip. Thank you, Hokkaido!

Starting from Hakodate, everything in our trip was 100% satisfaction. A summer trip in Hokkaido, it is a bit far from Tokyo but I would recommend it to everyone.



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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Summer holiday 2009: Day 4

The whitewater rafting yesterday was a great fun but I had some muscle pain on my old body. It is pathetic for me to be left with sore muscles after playing on the water. Anyway, I could not stop there: today we were to climb Niseko Annupuri (1308m).

There are 3 routes to the top and two of them use gondolas (lifts). Wondering how we should go up and thinking that coming all the way to Hokkaido to do mountain climbing, using a gondola seems like cheating, I decided to use the pure route without one.

We drove to the entrance. The entrance was at a height of 750m, so the actual height we were climbing was 558m. And it was a straight track. To be honest, it was more like trekking rather than mountain climbing but for my wife and I, who do not exercise regularly, it turned out to be a hard enough climb (Yes, to me it was proper mountain climbing!) According to the morning weather report, it was supposed to rain the next day, so it was cloudy. I thought it was a bit disappointing not to have clear sky but some locals told me later that the sun would be too strong and we would be sweating like pigs if it had been sunny at this time of the year, so we were lucky.

After signing our names in the visitor book at the entrance, we left. At the beginning, we were talking and joking together but after 10 minutes or so, a gap started to open between our children and us. The children kept walking ahead of us. But we could not give up then, so we kept our pace and walked step by step. At a certain height, we started seeing Mt Iwanuopuri, massive in scale behind us. As we were walking up, Mt Iwanuopuri got lower and lower. Being encouraged by that, we kept going by having a break now and then.

There are quite a few bears in Hokkaido and some live in Niseko where nature has not been spoiled yet. Among some local climbers, we saw some carrying bells to scare bears away. When our children disappeared out of our sight, my wife was worried they would be attacked by bears. However, I did not have time to worry about others: I had to worry about myself, whether I was going to make it to the top or not. Not even sparing a thought for their parents, the children were there at the top looking a bit bored from waiting.

At the top, we saw Yoteizan. We could not see it until we got there because it is right behind the mountain we were climbing. Without a cloud, it was towering up grandly. We did think about climbing Yoteizan instead but we gave up after checking that it would be an all-day walk and would need proper preparation. Watching it from there, I thought Yoteizan was not a mountain to climb but one to watch from a distance. Taking a few family shots at the top, we decided to go back quickly because it was quite windy. It took us 1 hour and 40 minutes to go up and 1 hour and 10 minutes to come down.

When we got back to the car park, we had some rice balls for lunch and decided to hop in an Onsen somewhere to relieve our worn out bodies. Around Niseko, it is a volcanic area and I heard that there are lots of famous Onsens and you can be satisfied whichever one you hop in. Driving around deciding which one, I saw a “Koikawa Onsen” sign at a Japanese style inn and went in to use the Onsen only.

Not knowing anything about this Onsen, we just went in but the car park was full even though it was daytime on a weekday. The inn was an old wooden building and you could easily guess it had been there for a long time. At the entrance, we saw a lantern with a print of “Japan Secluded Hot Spring Association”. At the end of the wooden corridor, straight from the entrance, there was the Onsen. In it, the bathtub was yellow. A lot of hot water was coming out of a tap and when I saw it closely, I saw some particles of iron in it. No wonder the water was brown. Because of the amount of iron contained in the water, even the tiles of the bathroom were brown. This indicated that the source of the hot water was spring. Beside the outdoor bath, there was a waterfall. Surrounded by the woods and looking at the waterfall, it was very pleasant. In winter, it would be even better with snow added to the scene and just imagining it, I felt great. While I was in the water, more and more people joined us.

When I got back home, I checked this place on the internet. It was the oldest Onsen in the area and for people who are mad about Onsen, it is one of the best Onsens in Hokkaido. After 3 nights of using a bath in modern hotels, it was nice to experience an old real Onsen. Feeling refreshed inside and outside, we went back to Hakodate.


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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955

Summer holiday 2009: Day 3

After hopping in the Onsen the first thing in the morning and a buffet style breakfast, we left the hotel at 8:30. The main attraction for the day was to travel to Niseko for whitewater rafting as a family but in the morning we were going to Shikotsuko which boasts one of the few lakes in Japan with clear water. The weather was great so we could not miss the Shikotsuko sightseeing on a tourist boat.

It was about an hour drive to Shikotsuko and it was really a smooth drive on the roads without traffic jams in Hokkaido. When we got there, we went straight to the tourist boat ticket office. Checking about this beforehand, I knew each boat leaves every half an hour. I had to buy the tickets so that we did not have to wait too long. If we had to wait there, we might not be in time for the water rafting at Niseko and we would have to give up the idea of going on the boat. At the ticket office, while some visitors were taking time to buy theirs, I bought 4 and this was a success! We were the last to get on the next boat.

Shikotsuko is famous for the water clarity. To see the bottom of the lake, the boat had a glass bottom. Looking through it, I saw some fresh water fish such as rainbow trout swimming slowly in the cobalt blue water. Getting off the boat, we saw incredibly blue sky above us and similarly blue water on the lake; we felt “Yes, we are in Hokkaido!” We felt great. It was a half an hour ride on the boat but we felt it was shorter because we enjoyed the scenery so much.

For the water rafting in the afternoon, we had an appointment to meet a staff from the adventure company first. We did not have much time and although I thought it was shame finishing our sightseeing of Shikotsuko just after the boat ride, we got back in the car and headed off to the next destination.

Having mushroom soup for lunch on the way, we got there 10 minutes early after exactly a 2 hour drive. There was a young Japanese man waiting for us with rubber boats on top of a dark blue Toyota Hi-ace. (We then found out that he was the company director.) At the same time, two couples from Sapporo arrived and joined us. It was about a 15 minute drive to the bank of the Shiribetsu River. (Until the year 2007, Shiribetsu was ranked as the country’s best limpid water and still a class A river with great water quality. ) There was a tent already set up for us and another staff member was waiting. We changed into wetsuits and life jackets there. Although it is not that hot in Hokkaido in summer, after putting a wetsuit on, I felt sweat shooting out of my body. Looking at us, the staff member yelled “Let’s go! Jump in the water!” and started running towards the river with everyone hand in hand. I do not think my children had ever jumped into a river like this, but they did not hesitate. They looked happy in the cold water of the Shiribetsu River. This spot was going to be the end of the rafting. So we all got in his Hi-ace and drove to the starting point.

At the starting point, we met more families from different agents. There were a numbers of non-Japanese instructors, most of them were Australians but there was a Nepalese instructor who cultivated his skill in the Himalayas. I remembered watching TV when they were saying that Niseko has so many tourists from Australia coming for its powdery snow. Some of them then fall in love with the natural beauty of Niseko and decide to live there and set up companies selling resort villas. Checking it later, I found that there are some water rafting companies whose directors are Australians. No wonder there were so many non-Japanese staff there.

After a lecture of all the notabilia and how to control the boat at the starting point, we were off in the river. Our family were on an 8-person boat and the couples were in 2 different 2-person boats. On our boat, we had a staff member with us so we had to row as instructed but the people on the 2-people boats, although another staff member (the director) was following them on a separate boat, had to row by their own judgement. So it was full of thrills but they were struggling when their boats went on rocks and falling out of the boats in the rapids. The amount of water in summer is stable and was good for beginner rafters like ourselves. River Shiribetsu runs around a beautiful mountain called Yoteisan, which looks like Mt Fuji; we enjoyed the great scenery of the mountain and the river at the same time. However, we could not always watch the scenery: at the points where two rivers met and curved, the stream got very strong. It was quite scary. The staff member who was with us hit rocks intentionally and put the raft upright so that we all thought we were going to be thrown out, my children were having a great time. Half way through, we had to jump off a 3 metre high rock, something we cannot normally do. Because of these sideshow acts and happenings, we got to the final point after 2 hours and 15 minutes, way over the planned time of 1.5 hours.

After getting back into our own clothes, the director handed me a CD. He was taking photos of us on the raft with his digital camera while he was following us closely and put the data on the CD. There were about 150 photos. It was a great souvenir for our family.

For your reference, I will write the link to the adventure company we used this time. For half a day course for 4 people family, it was \16,800 including hiring wetsuits, helmets and life jackets and a photo CD. There are many different companies providing similar services but not always including the wetsuit hire, a photo CD and they are more expensive. They usually tie up with travel agents and hotels, they usually have more people and their services are more mechanical. On the other hand, this company only has 2 to 3 members but they were all friendly and entertained us depending on our experience level. I really recommend them. If you visit Niseko, try them!

NISEKO WHITEWATER COMPANY
http://niseko-ukka.com/wear.html



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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955