Our Car Life

2019.12.27Our Car Life

Interview with a GT Sport Player and MC: Could GT Be the Savior of Japan’s Auto Industry?

In this interview, we talk with Riko Otsuka, MC of the YouTube channel GT Sport Broadcasting Station, which showcases the appeal of the PS4 racing game Gran Turismo Sport (GT Sport), and GT Sport player Tatsuya Sugawara. We shared the first half of the interview the other day; here’s the second half. We hope you enjoy it. GT and Real-World Racing First things first: What should we call online racing? Riko: Sugawara and I have...

2019.12.27Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.26Our Car Life

Why Right-Hand-Drive Manuals in Imported Cars Can Be Surprisingly Awkward to Drive

Imported Cars with Right-Hand Drive and a Manual Transmission Lately, whenever I drive my BMW 320i with a manual transmission, I find myself thinking, “Turning at intersections in a right-hand-drive imported car with a manual transmission is surprisingly hectic.” I didn’t used to have the mental space to notice—or maybe I was so focused on operating the clutch and driving smoothly that it simply didn’t register. But now I’m much more accustomed to driving a...

2019.12.26Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.23Our Car Life

Why Gran Turismo Sport on PS4 Is So Much Fun: An Interview with a GT Sport Player and MC

The YouTube channel GTsport Broadcasting Station shares the excitement of Gran Turismo Sport (GT Sport), the racing game for PlayStation 4. After watching a virtual race on the channel recently, I was blown away: “I had no idea GT Sport could be this much fun!” So I sat down with Riko Otsuka, the MC who plans and runs the channel, and Tatsuya Sugawara, a GT Sport player, to hear all about it. Falling for GT...

2019.12.23Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.17Our Car Life

If You Want Your Wife to Love Cars, Get a Porsche Panamera—My Car Life Started Here

Panamera Love If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I love the Panamera. That said, after I learned to drive a manual, there was a time when, if I’m honest, the Panamera felt a little too easy. It was so brilliantly engineered that it seemed to leave little room for the driver to get involved… It handled whatever I asked of it so effortlessly that I sometimes found it...

2019.12.17Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.16Our Car Life

What Every High-Performance Sports Car Owner Should Keep in Mind

Driving Safely with the Kids on Board When I’m driving on the highway at night, thoughts sometimes cross my mind that I wouldn’t normally dwell on. The evenly spaced orange lights and the taillights of the cars ahead look beautiful, and the speed can feel as if it’s being swallowed up by the darkness. At the same time, the car begins to feel more than ever like “a space all to myself.” The other day,...

2019.12.16Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.12Our Car Life

How a Woman with Zero Interest in Cars Decided to Learn to Drive a Manual

Back When I Had No Interest in Cars I’ve written about this many times on the blog, but I used to have absolutely no interest in cars. When I met my husband about 10 years ago, he drove a BMW 318i. But cars just weren’t on my radar, so I don’t remember a thing about how it rode or what it was like. We went somewhere almost every weekend, so I rode in the car...

2019.12.12Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.11Our Car Life

Why Car Color Choices Always Seem to Come Down to Black or White

Body Colors on Japanese Cars… The other day, I was visiting my parents and chatting with my father when he—who has absolutely no interest in cars—said something that caught me off guard. Japanese cars don’t have many really good colors, do they? European cars seem to offer lots of sophisticated, grown-up shades, but Japanese cars don’t seem to have many colors that really appeal to me. So in the end, you wind up choosing a...

2019.12.11Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.10Our Car Life

A Visit to Mercedes me Osaka: Christmas Shopping in a Festive Showroom

A Long-Awaited Visit to Mercedes me I recently had an errand to run in Umeda, Osaka, on my own, so I decided to stop by Mercedes me at Grand Front Osaka for the first time in a while. I’m usually not very tuned in to seasonal events, so it wasn’t until I came into the city that it hit me: Christmas is just around the corner. A large, stylish Christmas tree had been set up...

2019.12.10Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.08Our Car Life

How to Enjoy Your Porsche for Years: Why Looking After Yourself Matters More Than Car Mai...

Driving Takes Muscle The other day, I took part in a Porsche driving school—the Porsche Track Experience—and realized just how much muscle driving can take. You need real strength to press the brake pedal hard. And when slaloming, bracing your back against the seat and pushing the steering wheel as you turn takes leg strength and core muscles, too. Of course, I’m not trying to become a racing driver, so there’s no need to think...

2019.12.08Our Car Life

Our Car Life

2019.12.03Our Car Life

The Time to Own a Porsche Is Now: As Europe Phases Out Gasoline Cars

Porsche and Gasoline Cars The other day, I received a message on the blog from someone who works in the automotive industry overseas. They were hoping to own a Porsche one day and had found this blog while searching online. Toward the end of their message, they wrote: I need to buy a Porsche within the next 10 years… Europe’s restrictions on fossil-fuel vehicles will bring gasoline-car production to an end. That day will probably...

2019.12.03Our Car Life