Buying a car

So in the land of the rising sun, there is more to buying a car than what you will think. Much like in Australia where there are all sorts of hidden taxes, Japan is no different.
There is registration tax, a parking certificate (making sure you have a space to put the car in) a recycling fee a few other hidden taxes and the almighty Shaken- which is like a roadworthy that costs around $1000, give or take, depending on the size of the car (Some cars can be over $2000 I have heard).

So, off we go and as I had no idea what they were going to ask of me, we took along a foreigner who had lived here for 15 years with a Japanese wife to ask all the tricky questions... Except, there were none.
We rolled up to the local lot (as it had been recommended to us) and basically asked what he had in our price range. Which was a single car...

At this point I was a little sceptical, as there was no price tag on the car he showed us and there were other cars on the lot with lower prices on the windows than what he told us that this thing was. So, naturally, wanting to get the best deal I asked about one of the cars that was advertised as $1000 less. He happily showed us and upon getting in, our knees touched the steering wheel like one would imagine a tall gaijin in a tiny tiny japanese car- so that was a no go. We then asked about the car next to it, which he did not recommend as it was a bit of a fixer upper, so for lack of options- we took the car originally recommended to us.

Being Japan, I expected mountains of paperwork to complete, but all he wanted was a piece of paper that said our plastic stamp belonged to us, and then he sent us on our way to come back two days later to pick up said chariot. I would like to mention at this stage, there was no test drive or anything either.

Naturally after I suffered complete buyers remorse, but due to lack of choice there wasn't much that I could do but put faith in the Japanese.

So, two days later we went to pick up our beast, once again expecting a mountain of paperwork, but nope, he took car of all the paperwork and registrations- It was just a matter of handing over the cash, he gave us the keys and away we went...

Never has it been so unexpectedly easy to buy a car.

So the question became, did we get a lemon....

True to form- no. The Japanese were honest (even the used car dealers). The car drives perfectly, great steering, breaks, 4wd  (for the snow) and all the mod-cons like key less entry and power windows, but best of all...

A spoiler (That makes it go fast)!

So watch out Japan... Cassie is on the road!