The Cars

Our first automobile is a 1997 baby blue Surf (4-Runner in the US) with 61,000 km's (about 36,000 miles). This bad boy has power windows/locks, remote starter, 4-wd, 12-disk CD changer, airconditioning, sunroof, and GPS (although it's in Japanese).

The second of our auto's is what I refer to as the "monster truck." It's a 1995 Pajero Mini with 111,000 km's (66, 000 miles). It's fully equipped with power windows, cd/mp3 player (you have to hold it in at first, so it will start playing), and 4-wd for the snow driving. In this bad boy you are literally elbow to elbow with your fellow passenger. This soccer mom's dream will hold 4 full sized adults very uncomfortably.

Both cars run well (Japanese engineering at its finest). But for the life of us, we can't figure out what the tiny mirrors are for on the hood. A couple of theories are (1) they can see the shorter japanese people walking along the road, (2) you can check the polish on the chrome of your rims, or (3) to check the blindspot inbetween the front wheel and your front door before trying to make a lane change. And although we would love to bring these beauties back home with us, it might be hard to drive in the US with the steering wheels on the wrong side.