What makes your heart throb when you see your opposite sex?

At work or at home, have you sometimes felt your breath was taken or your heart throbbing more when you saw your partner’s casual movement?

Lately, in a magazine research was carried out on males and females between 20 years and 40 years old on “What type of movement of your opposite sex do you like?” The theme was the “favourite behaviours”: there were some common answers across all age groups and there were some particular answers for certain age groups.

Some were astonishing answers and I thought “Are these the times females think males sexy?” There were some answers I have never thought about, and there were some quite impressive answers: how well people are watching others… Hey, if we mix some of the top answers, we can give girls knockdown blows, can’t we?

From the females’ view, the answers are mostly to do with and . Look at these:

Women said “It is attractive and manly when a man has a cigarette in his mouth and squints his eyes against the smoke”. Because those women themselves do not smoke, they think it is cool to see men doing something different?

Many women said “When he is backing his car up putting his hand on the passenger seat, it is like putting his hand around my shoulders: I feel nervous but excited.” Some women feel a man is sexy when he is a “skilful driver” or “driving a manual transmission car and changing gears smoothly.” Some matured 40 year old women said “I like to see the side of his face while he is driving.” (I personally welcome these answers! If more women think a man sexy when he is driving, more young men would be interested in cars… )

Some women said “A man looks cool when he does up his tie to get psyched up and switches to his official faces.” On the other hand, there were some who like to see men sigh, loosening their ties.

“I like to see a man working hard and seriously (if he gets up a sweat, it is even better!)” Women love working men! They also like men’s “smile” “muscles” and “suit”. These things can send women electrified feelings!

From men’s view, the list was as follows:
“Sexy” “I like it when a woman’s fingers go through her hair, longer than men’s”. Men feel a spinning sensation from this sexy behaviour.
Next top answer was . His breath will be taken away.
Some said that it is “erotic” or “It turns me on when I see the movement.”

Wow, if you are a woman, you can do these 3 things at any one time! Why don’t you try that and tell me the result!


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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

Is motorbike riding good for your brain?

Dr Ryuta Kawashima, famous for his popular Nintendo DS software “Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?”, reported the outcome of his study of “The relationship between motorcycle riding and our brain”.

He started this study when Yamaha Motors heard people saying that “You look younger if you ride a motorbike” or “I feel like motorbike riding took a few years off my age”, asked him if he could scientifically prove these statements.

His experiments involved 11 current riders who had medium & large motorcycle licences (average age of 45.4) and 10 ex-riders who held licences but had not taken a ride for 10 years or more (average age of 46.2). The first experiment was done by asking them to ride a motorcycle on courses in different conditions and recorded their brain activities using a machine. The eight courses consisted of ones with curves after curves, bad conditions, steep hills, hair-pin curves, etc.

Analysing the data, it lead to an interesting finding that the current riders and ex-riders use their brain in different ways.

When the current riders rode motorcycles, their brains (right hemisphere prefrontal area) became activated and they had a higher level of concentration. You would think that ex-riders might concentrate more because they had a gap between rides but riders who always ride paid more attention on their riding by activating their brains.

The next experiment was on “How the life habit of riding a motorcycle affects our brains”. This time the trial subject was healthy people who had licences but had not ridden for 10 years or more. For a couple of months, they had to use a motorbike to get to work and in other everyday situations and Dr Kawashima and the team studied how their brains and mental health have changed.

The result was that, if we use motorcycles in everyday life, it improves our cognitive faculties, especially our memory and spatial reasoning capacity. On the mental health side, the participants said on their questionnaire that their stress level had been reduced and their mental state changed for the better. Thanks to this experiment, participants who used a motorbike for 2 months, said that their health had got better, they had made less mistakes at work and they appreciated things more.

To the question of “Why motorcycles? Driving a car should have the same effect”, Dr Kawashima says “There were many studies done on driving cars in the past. A car is a comfortable machine which does not activate our brains. It only happens when going across a railway crossing or when a person jumps in front of us”. It is not the same as when riding a motorbike. He also says “By using motorcycles more in our life, we can have positive effects on our brains and minds”.

Recently, motorbikes generally have the impression of “noisy”, “dangerous” and “annoying” vehicles but according to these outcomes, it is proved to be the effective thing for “Smart-aging” (making your life better as you age). To me, who loves motorbikes, it looks cool when you ride a motorbike and get old. What do you think? We can export scooters and motorbikes, etc., whatever you want! Please ask us!



★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.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

The highest bid ever in the history of Yahoo Auction: JPY633,000,000 for a piece of land!

At Yahoo Auction I talked to you about the other day, someone placed a bitd of JPY633 million on a piece of land listed by Wakayama Prefectural government office and won the auction. The land used to be a part of the ground of a senior high school (10044m2) and since its agriculture course was abolished in 1991, it has not been used and has been bare land for a long time. Referring to a real-estate valuer’s opinion, they set the minimum bidding as JPY549 million; but the price of JPY84,000,000 more was placed. (The highest bidding at the Yahoo Auction before this was JPY316,300,000 for the government house in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.)

The name of the bidder has not been disclosed but a condition of the sale is to use it for a commercial establishment or housing. This part of the town has been attracting more people as a commuter belt of Osaka and mass merchandise outlets have been built one after another. The land was along a national road. The spokesman from the prefectural government’s administration department commented “The land attracted a lot of people’s attention through the internet and got this high price! In this recession, we are really, really grateful”.

At the Yahoo Auction, now not only private users and shops, but government and other public offices started uploading onto the website and listing their properties and some assets they forcible collected due to tax defaults. Until then, they were just waiting for public bidding after advertising by notice through the official gazettes but now by listing them up at a large online auction site like Yahoo Auction, they can attract more people’s attention, attract bids nationwide and can expect higher bids than they could have expected before. Also the bidding process is very clear for everyone to see, they are listing more & more stuff there.

We once won the auction for a minicoach (29 passengers) for a customer at this Yahoo Auction’s government and other public offices section. The bus had been actually used by a government office, so it was well maintained by a dealer every year and the condition was excellent and satisfactory. The customer was also happy.

Checking overseas auction sites, I found the latest article on the US’s e-bay. It reported not the highest bid, but the lowest bid! A person living in Chicago bought a house in Saginaw County for US$1.75 (the top bid for the auction!). The house was sold because of the US’s recession and the seizure notice was still on the door and to own the house, the winner had to pay US$850 tax and some more to get rid of the over-grown grasses.

We, at JPC started exporting parts at the same time as the Yahoo Auction agency service. We are sometimes asked if we can export a used engine. Unfortunately, well maintained engines are not cheap as a part and sometimes you can buy a whole car at auction for half the price of a good engine.

Auction prices are decided by the demand and supply system. This is the reason some things get an incredibly high price and some do not get even a minimum bid. Please join us!


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
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★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(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

Motorbikes

Are motorbikes popular in your country? I only noticed it when we started dealing with motorbikes but in Japan, we see cars and motorbikes together on open roads. I had never thought that it was not a common practice worldwide but as is in Japan, it is not always accepted that motorbikes go on the same roads as cars. In Japan, the Road Traffic Laws were amended about 4 years ago. Until then two-seated motorbikes were not allowed on the motorways but now if the bikes have more than 125cc displacement and the main rider has more than 3 years motorbike riding experience altogether, they can go on the motorways. (The rider has to be 20 years old and over.)

For riders, this change was more than welcome when they want to travel around with someone else and now medium to large size scooters are getting more popular. With a full automatic transmission, the riders do not have to change gears or to use the clutch. Easy to operate and not needing a shaken (Japan’s automobile safety inspection) and cheap to maintain, more 250cc scooters including some female riders are now a common sight on the motorways and in the towns.

How is it in your country? We, at JPC, deal with motorbikes as well as cars. However, talking to customers of different countries, depending on the countries, the demands vary compared to that of cars. In some countries there are no demands (there are no motorbikes on the roads), in some countries because of the geological formation and road conditions only off-road bikes are popular, and there are some countries motorbike riding as sport is popular, etc.

According to one of the JPC’s staff from Uzbekistan, because they had too many accidents in his home country, motorbikes were banned after a current law change. In central Asia, motorbikes are OK in other countries but not in his and people jokingly say “If you want to die, hop on a motorbike.” So there are THAT many fatal accidents caused by motorbikes. In his opinion, people change their personalities once they are on the wheels (?). Is it a reflection of his country’s culture?

Although the countries we are exporting motorbikes to, are still limited, basically they are transported in a container; so if there is a healthy demand in your country and it is accepted by law, we can send them to any destination. (To some countries, we can send them on the automobile carriers with cars but because of the risks of them getting stolen on the way, we can only use this way of transport to certain countries.) The most popular option is 40 scooters in a 20ft container. Its FOB price is JPY2,500,000 per 40 scooters. We pick scooters in reasonable conditions and purchase them for you, then ship them out. We are handling it responsibly. At the moment, only for a few countries, we put motorbikes or scooters inside a car before putting the lot in a container. The car has to be big enough to do that, so it is restricted to SUVs or mini vans (such as Townace). We wrap the motorbike in some blankets and secure it inside the car. This is very popular to put the space to practical use. If you are interested, please contact us.

For a quick change, I found an interesting online motorbike game. If you have time, please check it out.

http://msai.sakura.ne.jp/autban1



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★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(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

Initial cost of Cars & what you don’t want your partners to know

The other day, a think-tank in Japan carried out a survey to 500 males & females aged between 10 and 50 on mobile phones. Of what sort of services you want to know the initial cost?

The result was as follows:
1) Monthly mobile phone usage 60.7%
2) Tax (income tax, local tax, etc.) 58.5%
3) Utility charges 53.2%

The reasons why people want to know the break-downs were:
1) Cost structure is not clear 48.8%
2) It seems too expensive 44.9%
3) Set price is questionable 42.8%
We can give a glimpse into the fact that consumers do not have complete confidence in the prices suppliers of service have set.

To the question of “Of what commercial goods do you want to see the initial cost?” the top three answers were:
1) Cars 37.2%
2) Mobile phones 28.9%
3) Cosmetics 23.9%

Males say:
1) Cars 23.8%
2) Mobile phones 31.8%
3) Condominium apartment 24.4%

Whereas Females say:
1) Cosmetics 42.6%
2) Mobile phones 31.8%
3) Cars 31.6%

From these results, I can say that both males and females want to know the initial costs of household products.
To tell you what the initial cost of cars is, if a completed car cost is 100%, 25% goes to manufacturing costs (including labour), 20% to redemption of the development cost, 30% to the promotion cost, 15% to the manufacturer’s profit and 10% to the dealer’s pocket. In the manufacturing cost, the engine and transmission only account for from 6% to 8% together.

Then what you do not want others to know?

What do you want your partner to give you information on? What single people want their boyfriend / girlfriend to tell you about in detail?
Males want their girlfriends to tell them about:
1) How their money is spent 28.1%
2) Their future dream 24.1%
3) Their life plan 22.6%
Whereas females want their boyfriends to tell them about:
1) Their annual income 37.8%
2) Their chronic disease 33.0%
3) How their money is spent 31.9%
Both males and females chose something to do with the “money” and want to know about each other’s “relationship with the money”. It might be reflecting the recent economic situation; they are realistic.

On the other hand, what they do not want each other to know?
Males do not want their girlfriends to know:
1) History of TXT sent and received on their mobile phone 20.1%
2) Total amount of savings in the bank 16.1%
3) Photos saved in a folder of their mobile phone 12.0%
Whereas females do not want their boyfriends to know:
1) Their weight 35.2%
2) History of TXT sent and received on their mobile phone 25.6%
3) Their body fat percentage 25.2%

Males and females in Japan now seem to be worried about their future but do not want others to know about their personal things. Don’t you see an uncomfortable distance between males and females? How about in your country? Is there a bit of distance between them?


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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

Honda’s new hybrid car: Incite

In the middle of this worldwide recession, Honda introduced a new hybrid car, Incite. Although this is the second time Honda has used the name, the first model was for two people and this time it is for 5 people. The basic configurations and the purposes are totally different, so it is actually a new car.

This is one of the eco-friendly cars US President Barack Obama is supporting in a broad sense and the first hybrid car Honda can expect high sales. It is Honda’s long-awaited car in which they bet and devoted the company.

I went to a Honda dealer the other day and asked for a test drive of the car. Here is the impression I had.

The most important thing: the cost. Incite is 4390mm long and the same class as Toyota’s Corolla but the price for a cheapest “G” grade is JPY1,890,000. It has CVT gearbox, power-folding door mirrors, multi information display, and whatever is generally needed comes as standard equipment. Considering the price of current Toyota Prius and Honda’s 5 people Civic Hybrid starts from JPY2,300,000+, it is really cheap.

Next: fuel efficiency. 30km/L (10.15 mode) seems average but obviously lower than Prius’ 35.5km/L and slightly lower than the highest grade current Civic Hybrid’s 31km/L. For hybrid cars, fuel efficiency is very important. Why isn’t it as good as Prius when it is obvious they had Prius in their head while developing the car? It is because Incite is totally different from Prius.

Its “price” is the selling point for Incite. Look at the body first. It is one size smaller than Prius. It is because the base of Incite is Honda’s compact car, Fit. However, comfortableness for passengers is retained, unlike its profile from outside, an adult can comfortably sit in the back seat when another adult is sitting in the front. It still has a reasonable fuel tank size of 40L.

Next important factor: power performance. The hybrid system, the heart of Incite is the 1.3L i-WTEC Engine + IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) system, the same one as the current Civic Hybrid. The motor is 20% thinner and the battery’s electric pressure is lower but there is not much difference in between them. This is to lower the cost and to promote efficiency.

The drawback is its interior. It looks cheap and you cannot deny it. The instrument panel is very simple without soft padding and no heavy looking metal panel is used for its operation system. It is really just an extension of their compact car “Fit” and I have to say,the current Prius looks a lot more expensive.

Ride quality feels short on fun too. Honda’s hybrid is always parallel type in which the petrol engine is directly connected to the electric motor. There is no electrically-powered mode where a car can go only with the electric motor, separated from the engine. Air-conditioning is also engine-driven, so if in a traffic jam, the engine might start. I could not really feel that I was driving a hybrid car and it was not much fun. When I first drove a Prius, it had an electrically-powered mode which kicks in once the motor is fully charged and it also had regenerating brake with a totally different feeling from the normal one, and the highly computerised engine which moves separately from the car’s movement: it was impressive.

To compare that with the Incite is like a gasoline car with an electric motor added. Basically the engine revs with the accelerator and will not stop as long as the car is running.

But, wait! It is cheap enough to forget about all these flaws. Honda wanted to make hybrid cars to be low-end cars, not dream cars. Their most popular “Fit”, although it is small, can carry 5 adults plus luggage, and is only JPY1,200,000. They brought this concept into the Incite.

However, what do you think about the timing, I mean, in the middle of this recession which happens only once in every 100 years? I wonder if the Incite can be the detonator to resuscitate Honda. I will keep watching!


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
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★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(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

JPC Trade: Yahoo Auction

I guess everyone might already have known but JPC has the Yahoo Auction Agency Service. When it was started, we experienced some system troubles but now it has settled: I am sure customers will not be dissatisfied if they use the service.

The reason why we started this service was that many customers who had bought a car from us asked if we have some parts in stock. What our customers want is divided into two things: genuine parts from the manufacturer or comparatively cheap used ones.

At first, we were thinking, maybe asking different dealers, put as many genuine & used parts together on our website and let customers chose them. However, after spending a reasonable time checking individual parts dealers, we could not find any who sell both genuine & used parts widely. Most of them are specialised in particular imported parts such as tyres, batteries and other consumables. I guess when you think about business efficiency, it is easier to sell one particular type of part and some dealers had good reasons why they are only dealing with imported parts.

In selling genuine parts of Japanese manufacturers (such as car manufacturers like Toyota, tyre makers such as Bridgestone), each manufacturer has their own trade network to stabilise the prices and they are setting barriers so that nothing will be distributed outside their own network. So, new dealers cannot purchase parts directly from the manufacturer’s parts division. Because of this, there are no dealer selling genuine parts cheaper on the internet.

Understanding the system, we tied up with large manufacturer’s parts companies and not listing them on the website we decided to receive orders individually from customers. Go to the website below, enter the necessary information on your car, then list up the parts you need; we will check them individually and get back to you. Now we have about 10 of these kind of orders every month, mostly from repeat customers but we do have new people contacting us just to purchase parts only. If you want to check the availability of the parts, we have to ask you a favour: would you please give us as much accurate information as possible on your car and the parts.
http://www.jpctrade.com/parts.html

On the other hand, with used car parts, we only target Yahoo Auction, the biggest online auction market in Japan. Yahoo Auction uses the same business model as US’s “ebay” and is a free trade between individuals (C2C) or dealers & individuals (B2C). The number of the parts individuals and dealers list there cannot be compared to any other dealer shops in the country; and you can find most parts you want on the website. Although it is a free trading site, thanks to the honesty of Japanese people, the quality of the parts there is relatively high. I heard that there is always a risk of getting rubbish if you buy anything from online free auctions overseas. This is fortunately very rare at Yahoo Auction. If you check market prices of the parts you were going to bid and if you have anything you are not so sure about, ask questions before you place any bids; then you will not be ripped off: your trade should go smoothly and satisfactory. I, myself use the Yahoo Auction heavily. I have bought more than 100 items through there, but have never been ripped off. I always had good trades. As a system, it has so many items listed there, it took us a lot of time to sort them out. Also it is developed for Japanese people, so we had difficulties instantly translating bits & pieces into English / Russian from Japanese. It still gives you strange translations in the order process because it is an automatic translation, but I think you can understand the basic information. To use the Yahoo Auction Agent Service, we need to ask you to pay more than the total of the bidding cost and the freight. Now mainly customers who have bought their cars from us, are using the system continuously. If you have not yet accessed the website, please browse it to see its wide selection of items.
http://yahoo.jpctrade.com/yahoo?site=http://jpctrade.com/



★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(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