Someone described the galaxy gray color of my car as ネズミ色パール or a pearl mouse color which I thought was spot on so I decided to name my roadster ネズミ１号 (Mouse #1). Sounds silly but I couldn’t think of anything else. Today was the first day I had a chance to take it out for a real drive and decided to head out to Kawaguchi lake. There were a few things I wanted to test out. One was the Sony navigation system. It’s much better than I thought except for the VICS beacon (a system which gets real time traffic and redirects you away from traffic jams) which kept changing my route every 10 minutes and didn’t save me anytime at all. I ended up taking more than 2 hours just to get on the Chuo Expressway this morning. I tried to turn it off but couldn’t. I might have to disconnect it. Today was also the first day to take the car onto the expressway. The NC is alot more solid than my NB and I felt much safer in this car. Inside, it was much quieter and altogether a smoother ride. The suspension of the NC is a bit softer than the NB which some people don’t like but makes long drives endurable. In the NB sometimes you feel a bit shaken up after a few hours in the cockpit.

I got off at Kawaguchi lake but unfortunately Mt. Fuji was in hiding today. It did make a brief appearance in my rear view mirror so I stopped for a photo (above). One thing I realized is that if you drive around Mt. Fuji counter-clockwise, which is usually the case if you get off at Kawaguchi to drive the lakes, Mt. Fuji seems to be always behind you. I might try driving the other way around next time.

I saw a few NA roadsters but not a single NB roadster today. I also saw a 3rd Generation Ltd. The second NC on the road I’ve seen so far. The velocity red was unmistakeable as it drove past me in the opposite lane near Kawaguchi lake. The driver was an old lady, must’ve have been over 60!! And an old guy in the passenger seat. Her husband I presume. BTW, no one seemed to notice my new car. I guess there aren’t so many roadster freaks out there..

Around Kawaguchi lake there are many local museums and art galleries. I stopped at one for a toilet break and found this nice red NA left unattended with the windows down and the doors unlocked.

After a nice winding drive around the lakes I got back onto route 139 which takes you down the west side of Fuji-san along Asakiri-kogen. There is supposed to be a breathtaking view of Mt. Fuji here but I have never seen it even though I’ve cycled and driven this route at least a dozen times. I’m going to have to come back here in winter when I’m sure I’ll get a good view of Fuji. Farther down, I stopped into this playground which I thought looked very retro. There were only a few customers.

More shots of my car. I used to think the sexy rear end of the NB was the best looking of the 3 generations but now I much prefer the sporty rear of the NC.

Headed home via the Tomei Expressway which is almost completely downhill so I think I got some good mileage on this first tank of gas. I tried not to rev past 3000 RPM while still in the break in period. I drove 328.4 km on this trip so that’s almost half way thru the break in period. I doubt if I can drive the same distance tomorrow since I’m planning on a trip close by without getting on the expressway (it’s expensive!!) Maybe Miura Peninsula?