Weekend with Audi

So… we picked up our new car on Saturday!!!

There were some unpleasant surprises leading up to the collection of the car though.

On Monday, we were told that we won the license plate number that we balloted for – lucky #7! We were so ecstatic since it’s pretty difficult to win such a popular number!

Then on Friday – the day right before the car collection – we were suddenly told that the number was gone!!! Apparently it’s because our Audi rep forgot to process some required administrative work or another. Not sure what the full story is either because Fu is the one liaising with the rep and one speaks broken English while the other one speaks broken Japanese :S

Needless to say, it was quite upsetting and frustrating :( It’s worse than not winning the number in the first place! But no choice, gotta just suck it up and take the new chapalang number plate. The Audi rep says he will keep balloting for the number we want though, but I think we’re both not counting on it. Sian already, sigh.

Then to add to the chaos, the Audi rep whom we have been working closely with from the start (also the same one whom we closed the deal with) suddenly said he could not be present to hand the car to us due to a relative’s passing. I know nobody wanted it to turn out that way, but still, it was sian with another heaping of sian on top of it.

Fortunately on Saturday, his colleague who stood in for him was also very nice and patient. He walked us through all the documentation, waited by the side as we scruntinized every last inch of the car for any damage, diligently cleaned up any tiny mark we pointed out, and even went through what each button, knob and lever in the car does! Not sure if this is standard practice for all customers or he did it because it’s our first car… We spent a total of 3 hours at the showroom just to pick up the car hahaha.

The grand plan after picking up the car was to drive to Tokyo Bay Aqua Line to see it on a clear day! (previous trip was during rainy season -_-) Saturday was the only sunny day in the week, and since it was winter, there was a good chance we could catch Mount Fuji in the distance!

We set the navigation (aka GPS. Japanese call it navigation, or nabi in shortened japanese form) for Aqua Line and made our way there!

… or so we thought.

We missed a turn. Ok, still getting used to the nabi. Anyway, it’s on small roads, so a loop around the corner and we’re back on track.

We got on the expressway. Missed an exit. Had to drive more than 10km in the wrong direction before we could make a U-turn.

After making the U-turn, missed another exit. Have to drive more than 20km to get back on track AND THEN drive another 15km to our destination.

It was already 4+ and the sun was setting soon. AND WE WEREN’T EVEN HALFWAY THERE.

WTF. Plan cancelled.

Stupid nabi! Ihatechu!!!

So all we did on Sat was mainly driving around all the (wrong) expressways and paying lots of tolls + getting trapped in Tokyo’s traffic jams for 1.5 hours.

Well, at least we managed to drive to our favorite budget sushi chain and went home with happy bellies.

After we parked the car in the lot at the end of the day, we decided to explore our car a bit more.

There, we found that the nabi mode was set to “Compact“. No wonder all the nabi directions were all so minimal and last-minute! %(*@(*&#*^&#!&@ We switched it to “Full” and it is about 97389173985 times better now!!!

I just realized that nabi looks a bit… vulgar? Haha. It sounds cute when pronounced though! NA~BI!

On Sunday, even though it was pouring, we still headed out! Haha. We went to an Autobacs because Fu kept commenting that the the sound system lacking and he wants to add a subwoofer to amp the bass (which he feels is non-existent). Alas, European cars are not favored as they only deal with Japanese cars :(

Ended up buying a car ionizer at Autobacs that supposedly produces minus ions which is good because it can purify the air and all that jazz. Not even entirely sure how or what it does. We cannot see these “minus ions”, there is no sound, no smell, no nothing. Man, it sounds like we just fell for a marketing ploy, doesn’t it?! But well, I guess it helps psychologically? That there’s a device there to purify my air? Although it might not be that effective since it’s only 2,000 yen ($20)? Aiya, whatever. Let’s just pretend it works ok?!

After that, we decided to make use of this really cool function where we can connect to a live call centre that has answers to all of life’s questions! Hahaha.

We were like “Hmm, is there a big shopping mall nearby that has a movie theatre?”

Wait a few seconds and tadah! She will provide the answer.

“Is parking free?”

Again, wait a bit and she’ll come back with the answers. Like, super detailed answers. “If you watch a movie, you will get 3 hours free. If you spend 1,000yen and above, you will get 1 hour free.” and so on.

Then if you say “Ok, this place will do” she will send the information right to your screen and all you have to do is set it as your destination and drive!

Very useful! Just sit there and issue commands, easy peasy!

We made lots of calls (since it’s free lol) asking for help with every little thing. Where the nearest X restaurant is. Where the nearest supermarket on the way home from here is.

I hope they don’t refuse to answer our calls after a while haha.

So that was our first weekend with our first car in Japan! Also one of the first weekends we didn’t watch any TV at all!