It’s a 1995 Volkswagen Jetta (Vento in Japan). Done around 45,000kms and is in relatively good condition. We flew all the way from Chiba to Wakayama to pick it up and drive it home. The drive was about 8 hours long.

A few days afterwards I noticed the front passenger footwell was soaking wet. Upon removal of the foot mat I was surprised to discover a  large mold patch.

Not sure where the water was coming from I spent the next few days researching the problem online.  The forum at vwvortex was pretty helpful. It seemed to come down to three possible causes. One: The heater core was leaking, Two: Rainwater was leaking in through the drain for the windscreen or Three: The air conditioner drain pipe was blocked.

Long story short, I never did figure out which one was causing the problem, but I did double check the air conditioner pipe was clean, then sealed the area where the pipe goes through the firewall. I also ran sealant along the base of the windscreen. Hasn’t leaked since. The heater core is most likely fine as the water level in the radiator hasn’t dropped.

So after ‘fixing’ the problem, we spend a weekend removing the seats and carpet from the car, replacing the base mat where there was mold, shampooing the carpet and replacing it. Obviously it would have been better to replace the carpet entirely, but for an older car that we will only use for three or so years, its not really worth the effort.

What is worth the effort though is the sound system. I will write about what I have installed in a future post.

Oh, and for those of you who own Volkswagen cars in Chiba – The Chiba-Kita Volkswagen people are really nice. They have reset the car computer, shown me where the air conditioning drain is and checked a few other things for me for free.

For the first visit they drilled out a cavity (big one) from one of my molar teeth – took a cast and placed a temp filling. The second visit I asked to change back to my regular dentist and have the temp filling replaced – it had come out when I was chewing gum. Third visit I was with my regular dentist and she just checked that the temp filling was ok and put a nice smooth finish while I was to wait for the nerve to heal. The last visit they finished off by putting a nice hard white composite filling in. White!

I initially argued with the other dentist that I wanted a white filling. He said he wouldn’t be able to do it on the insurance because of the size of the filling. The national health insurance (J.E.T) covers metal fillings and small white fillings. It would have cost a minimum of 20,000 yen if the insurance wouldn’t cover the filling. Luckily I spoke with my regular dentist and she said she could get around the system for me, saving me a lot of money. She managed to do this because she made the filling in my mouth rather than having a mold taken and a special filling made.

UPDATE: Thanks to Brian Ashcraft (Kotaku) I now know the title; Kochikame

Why? You may be wondering why I have bothered to write about Yahoo auctions. There are a few reasons, but the main reason would be that many Japanese people use the service, and you can get really good deals. I managed to get a couple dell servers for about 15000 yen each. The entire process was fairly simple and payment was a cinch.

When setting up an account you will need to know all your personal details, address etc in Japanese. Most of the application form is self explanatory. Unless you pay a monthly fee (200 yen I think) you will not be able to make bids over 5000 yen. After setting up the account you will be able to bid on items but not sell.

For those of you looking to sell on Yahoo Auctions, you will need to have your address confirmed. This can be found on one of the pages in your account settings, and Yahoo will send you a letter with a confirmation code to confirm you address and allow you to sell items.

Of course you will most likely need a Japanese credit card to make this a simple process but there were options to use Japanese banks, so if you don’t have a credit card there may still be options for you. Payment options are varied but most sellers allow payment by credit card, payment on delivery or Yahoo raku pay (Yahoo payment via your credit card or specified bank)

If you are unable to read any Japanese, I wouldn’t recommend using Yahoo Auctions unless you have someone who can help you out. Personally, I needed help with the initial setup, but finding items and purchasing is easy, so intermediate level Japanese will be sufficient to use the service.

One final thing. For those of you looking to buy something new i.e a camera, computer, television check out http://www.kakaku.com It tracks online shops for the lowest prices and will give you an idea of how much you should be paying. Expect around 5 to 10 percent more at retail stores.