That is pretty cool!!

 

I've parked in several of those garages while I was stationed in Japan. As many have mentioned, space is at a premium, so the Japanese build "up" vice "out".

When you park, they ask that you retract your antennas, fold your mirrors, you drive it into the ramp, they give you a ticket, and then you walk away. You keep your keys. The car then goes into the rotisserie. When you return, you give the attendant your ticket, the rotisserie spins around, the doors open, and your car appears.

There is another cool concept with these garages: you don't want to back out onto busy streets, so there is a revolving disk that turns your car around (so you are facing out) after you back out of the ramp. You back out under the guidance of the attendant, he tells you to stop, the disk rotates the car around so you are facing out, and you drive out. A very simple concept, but very needed in Japan.

I have never experienced any power outage problems with the ramps, but that wouldn't be unheard of in a land that experiences earthquakes regularly...

 

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

 

i remember seeing one of those across the street from the hotel i was staying at in hawaii. it wasnt as high, but it was loud and annoying.

 

We do have this type of technology in the USA. It just cost allot of $$$$. I know of two apartment complexes in Washington DC that have that kind of parking.

 

This is some funny ****. The horn does sound like popeye the sailor man LOL

I was thinking of trying to install an air horn in my car specially for those ******** who cut you off or stomp on their brakes in the middle of the road when their turning into a driveway. It would be a lot more attention gettin than a "toot-toot" from the stock horn. Of course its probably illegal as hell though

 

Strong to the finichk, cause I eats me spinichk, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man (Cue the 3rd gen RX-7 horn) *beep beep*.

With the button steadily depressed, the darn horn sound fluctuates too =( and sounds like a dying animal. Doh!!!!!!!!

 

installing one may not be expensive, but you'd have to run all the lines and find a place to store an air tank. when the horn switch went out in my Ranger, i just went to the local hardware store and bought an air horn that was USCG rated for up to a 40 foot boat. that gets people's attention really fast, and it alot of fun when you wanna get a friend's attention as you drive by their house at 4am :-)

 

answer me this, would you drive an SUV that gets, well let's say 35 mpg (as in the new Escape Hybrid) in a country where you can get a car that'll get you 70mpg (honda insight), or 50mpg (toyota prius), and regular gas is about $5.00/gallon (that's what it was when my dad was last over there in 2000 on a business trip, he was in Tokyo and Hiroshima)?

 

Whitey85MTU,

I totally understand what you are saying about the SUVs; however, it is a status symbol to drive something large and American. I don't know why, but it is. One of my female Japanese friends was looking at buying a Lincoln Navigator...I kept trying to convince her using the same arguments you brought up (gas mileage, expensive gas) and I even told her it was too big for most Japanese roads in smaller towns. Not to mention that it wouldn't fit in most parking spots. Just something about American vehicles I guess...

 

No, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt though