It's been sitting around for a couple of years now. I just never got a good pic of it until now. I don't see it happening as far as production goes.

 

I always wanted to be Jesus.

That would have helped to know that a few years ago. I wouldn't have gotten blown off by this girl

 

Racing Beat headers are smokin!

 

This is me (on the left), Brillo (on the right), and Yamamoto after the banquet. He is THE rotary engine person to talk to. This is the person I had the oil talk with last year.

 

Damn... I really have to go one of these major events once I get back. It'd be interesting to rap with the engineers in Japanese... especially after taking them out for a few drinks. If you know the Japanese business style... that's when the real info gets passed and deals are made...

 

I am going to study Japanese this year just so I can get straight answers from Yamamoto-san next year...

 

Come on over! We'd all like to meet you and I'd love to hear what you could discover.

 

Why don't you guys just gather up all of your penny's and see if you can pay me off to tell you everything I know!!

-Bern

 

I'll give you just a couple pieces of advice...

If you want to learn Japanese, then you must absolutely be determined to do so. Eat, sleep and drink the language. Listen to J-Pop in your car, watch Japanese language movies, anime or whatever. Unlike romance languages and slavic languages... it isn't easy to pickup if you know one already. Even Korean and Chinese are of little to no help.

Expect it to take you quite some time to be able to do much more than say the equivalent of "See spot run".

Speaking fluent Japanese will change you. It's a necessary evil inorder to understand the subtleties of the language (and there are MANY).

Lastly... good luck!

 

I've been saying it for awhile now, but I am actually really working on the details right now for making the move back to the US. So hopefully next time we all will be able to meet up.


Now where's the fun in that?

Taking customers and business associates out to dinner and drinks (lots of drinks) is a time-honored Japanese tradition...

 

or even better, live in Japan like Japan8 and I have... I was there off and on for 6 years... but now that I've been back for a while, I don't remember a whole lot... not a lot of folks to practice with... my Nihongo was pretty lame anyway.

-Bern

 

You've never named a price.

 

I've always learned languages by immersion. Most have been Germanic and romance languages, but Icelandic was about as far from my native tongue as I have strayed, despite it having the same root (Norse).
Japanese will probably be the most difficult if for no reason other than local Japanese hangouts are not going to be too receptive to gaijin.

 

but the karaoke in the states doesn't even compare!!! and the cooler part is when the Japanese business associates take you out to one of their private company clubs... now that is the way to go!!

-Bern

 

You lived in Japan before? Cool... didn't know that.

That is very true though... the best way is to live in Japan. Not even immersion schools like Middleberry College can match all the cultural intricacies and current lingo that you'll learn from actually being in Japan.

I've been here continuously since 1999 and before that spent a semester studying here... so I've got close to 8 years under my belt. What's sad are the guys that have been here for 14-16 years and don't speak anything more than "katakoto" (baby-talk) Japanese.

I usually don't like to say much about my linguistic abilities... I'm not much into bragging and there is always someone who is still more fluent than yourself. However... it does bug me sometimes when an acquaintence or co-worker says something like "your Japanese is so good". The truth is that it should be much better... I'm just too damn lazy to be bothered on my own (no structured classes). After studying Japanese language, politics, history and cross-cultural communication... studying abroad in university and living here for 7.5 years now... I had better be able to speak some Japanese!

Well these days company resorts and such are severly on the decline... however... company paid memberships to golf clubs and entertainment establishments, and tabs with certains restaurants is still very prevalent.

Working in sales and other customer-facing roles in Japan is... a big headache to say the least. The upside to it would be these "perks" of the job...

Karaoke... the little of it I've seen in the US is almost an insult to Karaoke in Japan (especially the American pronunciation of the word!). The wonderful selection at the bigger chains, drinks, food, big screens... and it's all private booths (of varying size). You know... although I don't do it often, I think I'll really miss having Karaoke.

I dunno. If I look at it from the perspective of a foreigner in Japan... Japanese guys coming to foreigner hangouts to "chit chat"... probably would annoy me. I don't like being used for a free English lesson and usually my Japanese is much better than their English. To make matters worse... you should see how much they drink! Always getting **** drunk and being drunk is a Japanese cultural excuse for improper behavior... be it just being loud and obnoxious or worse sexual harrassment with co-workers. Granted... most foreigner guys don't care if it's a cute girl instead...

I'd probably suggest trying to get involved in events, hobbies, and such related to Japan. I know that in Charlotte, NC they have things like Japan Culture day, OmochiTsuki (pounding rice cakes) and some Japanese holidays/festivals sponsored by the Japanese community and Chamber of Commerce. If there is a significant Japanese population there should also be a Japanese school for teaching ex-pat kids and local Japanese-Americans kids some of the standard Japanese curriculum on weekends. Hopefully there'll be some events in your area and you'll be able to make a friend or two... which will help to open the door into that community for you.

 

Yea, I lived in the Kansai area... while we were building the Universal Studios Japan, Osaka; I was a manager on the project. We dealt with huge contractors like Kajima, Takanaka, and Obayashi... long established companies with much tradition and $$.

Oh yea you will... although I didn't do it very often there, going out and doing it was some of my best times I had in Japan... along with going to the bookstores and buying all kinds of SUPER-COOL magazines! Boy I miss Japan.

This is so true... but I never minded them chit chatting with me, because my Japanese truly and severly sucked a&*.... sometimes I used this to my advantage and played the BAKA GAIJIN DESU!!! One time we ran into the retired curator of the Osaka Museum in Nara, and just so he could spend some time "chit chatting" in English, he gave us the most incredible tour of Nara, and Kyoto.

But yea the over-drinking deal is really way out there sometimes... all one need do is ride the last train out to see this. But the funniest thing is that in the morning it was always SAW NO EVIL, SPOKE NO EVIL, HEARD NO EVIL... no one talks of it at all!

I will tell you though on the language deal, if you speak fluent spanish your Japanese pronunciation will be a lot easier.

-Bern

 

I think that's a bit exaggerated... you wont pick it up over night but I've studied for 4 years in high school and I can converse with people decently well... I dont know if I'd be considered fluent or what it takes to be considered fluent. To learn japanese you just need to be ready for it and willing to learn and study. Going to japan helps a lot, even for a short time. Anyways, back to SS9 stuff!

 

Not by much grasshopper.

Not for fun, but for *work* I've done translation and interpretation. I work in major (like fortune 500 major) firms in Tokyo... most are almost entirely Japanese. I also have 5 years worth of Japanese language studies under my belt inaddtion to my years spent living and working in Japan. Trust me... there is a BIG difference between being conversational and fluent in Japanese.

You can learn to say "see spot run" level of language within about a year. But you sure as hell won't be able to talk about politics or any deep level of discussion, much less watch the Japanese news. Talking to a senior engineer at Mazda POLITELY in APPROPRIATE Japanese isn't doable in year... maybe with intensive immersion studies you could after two years... but then that goes back to "eat, sleep and ****" Japanese.

 

so, Bern how much?

would I like the info?

 

Ify ou look at Berns posts about Japanese and crack the code, he clearly says the Renesis is capable of 500whp NA!!!

 

Damn it go learn Japanese in your own thread!

 

 

Hey guys! Great pics and comments on the turbos. Keep in mind these are complete kits with the fuel pump upgrade and fuel injectors as well....

did any of you get a picture of our cars with the flags and tent? I was sooooo busy at the event that I didnt get a chance to take a pic of the booth...

anyone?

it was nice meeting the yappers of the site in person

the dyno time with Slavearm and the turbo type 1 was well worth it. It was a conservative tune and we stopped at 335 RWHP which was at 12psi if i remember correctly. there is another thread under major HP with more details.....

we want to thank Dave at Rotorheads, Nick at Rotor Reliability, Greg at Stuttgart Performance and Cam at Pettit Racing for helping us along the way with this whole trip.

It was very exciting to get across the country to meet more rx8club.com members....

 

One thing is clear after SS9, the rx-8 is going to get respect, its amazing a few monht ago the RX-8 look hopeless, now we have cars in the 400 hp area without much problem and with a very good budget

thanks to all the people that has made this type of development possible!

 

it was great meeting you betsy. yummy on the turbo, very impressed. yappers ey? hopefully im not one of them =P

-Sam