The Red Rocket

So here are pictures (as promised) of our car. Its is a 1997 Nissan Cube and Dereck has named it The Red Rocket. Its nice and small so we fit into the Japanese parking spaces as well as on the narrow roads off base. However, its also surprising spacious quite versatile. Dereck and I both feel that we have enough leg room in the front (the seats move far back enough to comfortably drive) and the head room is great because of the cube shape.The back seats fold down to create a larger open space in the back. We were able to fit my bike in the back (barely) and that's probably the biggest thing we'll ever have to haul in it. The storage space between the back seats in the hatch is probably only about 16" deep but surprisingly seems to hold more than we thought. Plenty of room for groceries! There are also some small storage bins under the floor of the back seat area, though we aren't sure what to put in them since they are only about 2" deep. The Red Rocket has about 69,000km on it, which is about 43,000 miles. We got it for only $1800 from a couple who lives on base, so we are very happy about the deal we got, especially since in the USA I sold my '97 Acura that had 125K+ miles on it for $4000! Most cars in Japan seem to be decent priced, but like anywhere, if you buy from an individual you save compared to buying at a dealer. Plus all the cars have to pass an inspection every 2 years so we know its not a "lemon".  Here are some pictures of our new ride:

 You see the wheel on the right side of the car? crazy, right? I keep turning the windshield wipers on instead of the blinkers!

Also, here are some pictures of my new bike. I wrote a blog a few days ago about the trip to purchase the bike but I didn't have pictures loaded onto my computer yet. The bike's brand name is "Orkney" but Dereck didn't remember and called it "Orly". That is now my bike's nickname, which we find funny since we have a good friend named Orly as well. I hope she doesn't mind that my bike shares the same name. Enjoy the pics! She rides great :-)