Patrolman Pat posted:

I'll be in Tokyo in August. I bet the cappucinos are more expensive and not as good as the ones at the B/Ville CP.

Member - Omaroo (NSW) posted:

hehe... I lived there from 1974 to 1975. The exchange rate was around 450 yen to the Aussie dollar and everything was emminently buyable.

Nowadays???? phew!!

Ruth from Birdsville Caravan Park posted:

Patrolman Pat & Omaroo - my young boss in 1982 was a new politician having his first o/s fact finding trip and went to Japan - he was horrified when a cup of coffee was AUD6.50 and a McBurger AUD15.00! That's been my money marker ever since. Pat, how long you going over for? Omoaroo - were you teaching?

Member - Omaroo (NSW) posted:

No Ruth - my father was there working for IBM. He was involved in the development of the Automatic Teller Machine... or better known as those things we all get money out of - the ATM :)

I remember a restaurant lunch meal costing, on average (for Japanese food - we never ate European/western) about 600 yen - which was less than a buck fifty.

Patrolman Pat posted:

Hi Ruth. Just a four night stopover for me on the way back from the UK.

I couldn't talk SWMBO into a Simpson or outback trip this year. Maybe next year. : )

Ruth from Birdsville Caravan Park posted:

So, Omaroo, somewhere between 75 and 82 the Japanese economy changed and food became really expensive (wages were probably very high also). Interesting.
Pat, maybe next year it will be wet and wildflowery in the Simpson - it's really nice then.

Nick R posted:

Ruth,
to answer your question, coffee at about $4-5, (sure they`re not as good as yours) don`t intend to find out the cost of McChukkas burgers with so much other stuff to try. Now down in kyoto, the river is lined with cherry blossom, we struck a beautiful saturday, since the blossoms only stick around for about a week, combine that with a lovely day and i think all the 20,000,000 residents of tokyo were out that day, place was busier than myers at the post xmas sales. Managed to luck the blossom season, they are going nuts.
average wages here are similar to oz but there seem to be a lot more people out working such as the team cleaning the grout between the tiles on the footpath, or 6 waiters in a restaurant where we would have 2, adds to the cost but makes service superb.
only seen 1 lot of grafiti so there must be either pride in one`s country or fear of repecussions.
It is nearly impossible to find a rubbish bin and just as hard to find rubbish!!!
seen a couple of 4wds with winches so I can only assume they use them some times. if they went off road they may need them because they only seem to have road tyres.........
that`s all for now,
NickR

Nick R posted:

I think maybe they do
yesterday here in kyoto I saw a seriously lifted Nissan I think, rancho shocks, at least 33s (maybe bigger) and a modoified panhard mounting on the chassis, it was an IFS jobbie but looked sweet in black, let`s hope it doesn`t go to waste.
NickR

Ruth from Birdsville Caravan Park posted:

So Nick, that's great. Now, where do they go?

Nick R posted:

I must find out, was a big lift under a Paj today, rack on the top too....

here is a site for a club
www.geocities.jp/x2offroad/
they look like having events and a good lineup of members
NickR

Nick R posted:

Honestly never seen a GU shorty.
Probably didn`t take any notice until the start of my transformation from young Anakin to Lord Vader of the dark side!!!!!
what am I talkin about? ask the young fella, he knows what goes on in star wars!!!