Hi All,

I've just come back from Japan ( still very jetlagged ) from what was a half work and half play "holiday".

The first week and a half was spent up on the northern island of Hokkaido - which is very beautiful and very temperate at this time of year.

On the way back I stopped in Tokyo for a few days to have some business meetings and chase up a few people. In between the boring work stuff I managed to get a few car-related fixes ( although time was short and I could not achieve all that I wanted to, as usual ). Tokyo is actually not all that nice a place to be at this time of year; its the end of the rainy season and the humidity starts becoming rather too much for weedy Englishmen like me. The only thing to do is keep cool by drinking lots of very cold Japanese beer.

Anyway, Nissan are having a bit of a busy 2003 promotions and events-wise. As part of their 70 year celebrations they have been actively promoting the Z33 and the 'sportier' models of the new Skyline range, and linking them to the company's sporting heritage. Just as I hit Tokyo they had started a week-long exhibition display at their Ginza, Tokyo HQ showrooms. This is called "SPORTS CAR GRAFFITI", and is one of a number of occasional display events that they have been having and will apparently continue to host during the rest of the year.

A number of 'sporty' models from Nissan's back catalogue were on display next to several versions of the Z33 and a couple of the new Skylines ( which I'm sorry to say I totally ignored, so can't tell you what exact models they were - except that they were badged "GT" ).

I took some photos, and Mike has kindly created a special section for them in the 2003 Events area of the Gallery here. I just uploaded 29 pics into the section, and Mike has cleared them for viewing very quickly - so you should be able to view them straight away.

Hope everyone enjoys them.

All the best for now,

Alan T.

Hi Alan,

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all your photos!!! I LOVE every one of them. Its this kind of thing that keeps me coming back to this site.

Hope you are well over there in London... take care,

Cuong Nguyen

Cheers Cuong,

I'm very well thanks - but suffering a freak heatwave Summer here in England. Yesterday was 36 Degrees and today a slightly better 34 so far. We aren't prepared for this kind of thing.............

All the best,

Alan T.

PS- While I was in Japan I spotted a funny sticker, and picked one up for you. Hope you don't already have one:

HAHAHA that is funny...

Very appropriate for my 240Z + RB26DETT!

Thank you Alan, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Love the work Alan (as usual)......

PS My 240Z is currently at the trimmers - almost ready to roll!

Cheers Ben,

You mean you are going to have CARPET??!! Carpet slows you down you know:classic:

Alan T.

Solution = more horses

ROFL

Thanks Alan. I'll PM you later when I have more info on my trip. Right now we're gearing up to host my in-laws for a week in September (their first time in the US) - that's gonna be a blast I'm sure!

Michael

Alan I really like the poster you have on Article do you have a printable version? Seems like a nice trip except for the weather!!!

Florida has been hot and severe thunderstorms !!!!!!!

Damn it Al! I want to be you!!!

Nate

Alex,

I took some digital photos of the event poster ( the illustration by "BOW" ) and can e-mail one of these to you direct if you wish.

I'm not sure how well it would print out, as it was located higher than eye-level and the camera was pointing upwards at it. It might have slight shadowing on it too.

I asked if an event poster was available to the public, or if they had any spares. Unfortunately the answer was no on both counts.

Alex - PM me your e-mail address and I'll try sending one of the larger files to you.

All the best,

Alan T.

Very interesting mate, thanks for taking the trouble to share it with us.

An item on the T.V. last night said that England was suffering heatwave conditions with temperatures reaching 28 degrees C.

Heck mate, here it is the middle of winter and we're "suffering" daytime temps of 24 degrees C.

Maybe you should come over here long enough to aclimatise then return . You should feel rather comfortable then.

Rick.

28 Degrees Celsius would be fine by me - but its been over 34 Degrees every day for the past week. Yesterday a new UK record for peak recorded temperature was set at 37.9 Degrees Celsius ( just over 100 Degrees Fahrenheit ) here in central London.

While this is all very well in the countryside, the main problem for us city dwellers is what starts happening to our city when the temps go up like this. The other day, pollution levels reached a point where health experts were warning that they were becoming very dangerous to health. You can see the smog in the morning, and it gets worse during the day.

Most houses and shops ( except the big chain stores ) don't have air con ( we don't usually need it ) - and really only the most recent cars have air con as standard ( again - its not really necessary ). Our public transport systems are also not geared up for this level of heat. The London Underground subway sytem was largely built before 1900, and the tunnels are too small to allow trains to carry air con equipment. Many of our London buses and taxis are not air con equipped either, and on the more modern buses the windows only open a very small amount - for safety and security reasons. The inter-city rail services have been reduced to running at half-speed because the actual rails have been over-expanding and buckling in the heat...............

Its been even hotter in mainland Europe, and at least here in the UK we have not been suffering the appalling forest fires that they have in France, Italy, Portugal and many other places.

As I said before, Tokyo was rather hot last week ( its got hotter since I left ) and the humidity starts getting difficult to deal with - especially for me with my damaged lungs. However - Japan is geared up and well used to these kind of temps and humidity. Over here in the UK we are not.

Now they are talking about water shortages and the threat of the big storms and floods that seem to inevitably follow this kind of heatwave. Seems that the weather becomes more extreme every year...............

Alan T.