I’m sat in a Japanese garage because i have an electrical fault with my indicators, it looks like a bad earth to me, i have tried to fix the fault myself but really i need an electrical tester on the job. We have now been working on the job for the last 4 hours and it seems complex we cannot find why their is a bad earth on the car, the car has too much electrics The garage is similar to West coast 4×4 in Banks Southport UK, it is a family run business and the sons and daughter are into 4×4 racing and off road driving they race Mitsubishi Pajero’s and drive Toyota landcruiser’s to go out in.

The weather is getting worse at the moment winds are picking up and everyone here is keeping an eye on the Typhoon Sinlaku which is heading in this direction from Taiwan this is causing heavy rain and wind, however the Typhoon is a category 1 which is the least destructive and has a maximum wind speed of 95 mph, which the locals tell me is going to be ok, but when you are not used to hurricanes and typhoons you don’t know what to expect, a hurricane and a typhoon are the same except a typhoons is the name given to hurricanes in the pacific and comes from the Chinese word for strong wind.

I’m looking at my options for leaving japan for myself and the car. I am talking to three shipping companies two offering Ro Ro services which is where the car is loaded, as drive on cargo and the second option is to ship in a container. Ro Ro shipping is more cost affective but some people complain about the fact that the car can be interfered with whilst on board and on the dockside and this has happened to an English couple i met in Russia www.wrinkliesontherun.com they had shipped their vehicle from Seattle to Vladivostock and on collection in Vladivostock Russia had noticed that a lot of personal camping equipment had gone missing and also the alternator was broken.

This does not put me off as we have designed the 4×4 to be able to lock all of my loose equipment away. Container shipping does away with all these problems and you can put whatever you like in your own container but it comes at a cost and i am trying to keep cost as low as i can.

I have just been told by one of the companies that i am dealing with here in japan which is a Ro Ro operator, that he is not happy to ship the vehicle as the company does not except personal items and he doesn’t know how to define all the added equipment to the vehicle. I am not happy about this as they ship similar items like motor homes and other utility vehicles like exhibition units that are also out of the ordinary. This is is not good news on the Ro Ro idea as this information is coming from Willanius shipping’s office in Japan and they are the only option of Ro Ro to U.S.A that i have found.

The opposite of this is that i have a Ro Ro shipping company in Germany that is happy to ship the car, however they will have to use Willanius lines and that means that they will have to contact the Japan office and they could refuse to carry my vehicle .

So the next option which sounds the most logical is to container the vehicle and all my equipment onto a vessel called the Hanjin Madrid on the 28th of October, the exciting thing about this option is that i can book a cabin for myself on the same vessel which will call into Vancouver Canada and seattle U.S.A around the 5th or 6th of November 2008. I will look more into this option and get some prices for the Container for my car and inquire as to how we proceed with customs documentation. Meantime i have reserved a cabin on the hanjin Madrid for no charge, so far i am in contact with a London based company that specializes in this kind of freighter ship travel for passengers, the company are very helpful and i provide a link to their site if you want to see what freighter travel is all about. www.cruisepeople.co.uk