An expensive weekend...

It has been a very busy weekend! On saturday we took D`s car into Nissan to have it checked out because he said it had been making funny noises. He has had the car for 7 years and has travelled more than "100 man" (1 million to those not in Japan) kilometres in it. Unsurprisingly, it is a bit knackered but we didn`t realise how bad it was until they declared it unsafe to go back on the road. In order to get it back on the road we would have to pay out 20man (about 2000 dollars) and then in October when it is due for Shaken (a bi-annual car check that is necessary in Japan) we would have to pay out another 20man (plus repairs) So we were faced with a bill for 40man (4000 dollars) in the next 6 months. I don`t like talking about money in such a public arena but suffice to say, we don`t really have anywhere near that kind of money floating around and it would basically have meant using D`s summer bonus which would have meant that we couldn`t make the trip home in the summer for J`s christening. Our other option was to buy a new car. After looking at the financial options and trying to work out if we could afford to pay off an extra loan (as the one of D`s car still has another 2 years left) we decided that a new car was basically the best option as on top of the 40 man in the next year, the car would cost another 20 man at least in the next 3 years, which is much more than it is worth. We are still in the process of checking out loan options but basically one of the options offered to us seems feasible as it gives us a year of breathing space (only paying a relatively small amount) before the loan payments kick in for real. I figure that by this time next year we will finally be caught up financially and I should be working more by then so it will all even out in the long term! Obviously making yet another big purchase (having just bought this apartment last september) is making my head hurt but I figure it will all be alright eventually!!! Financial stresses aside, we are kind of excited as the new car is an upgraded version of D`s current one and it has LOTS of space in the back. One of the first things that occurred to me when we were checking out the storage space was "man we could fit SOOO much stuff from costco in here..." Funny thing is that Daisuke was apparently thinking the exact same thing!!!