Airborne, 3d, thanks for the quick reply, I forgot about the time difference, its afternoon in Japan! As I mentioned I did live in Japan for many, many, years and seeing your posts made me feel both nostalgic and curious. I was into cars mainly at the time, and while most of my stuff was Japanese, I did order American items from Tower from time to time. A group of us just set up cones in open parking lots, and while there were many tracks operated by store owners, I just didn't have the time nor could I justify the money to travel to them. My club allows r/c planes, helis and off-road cars right in the heart of silicon valley and is 15 minutes away from home. Its funny though, if I want to run at a real car track, I would have to drive a 2~3 hours north.
Akita sounds somewhat like Ise, there were lots of open fields, spots near the river where I could have flown electrics at least. I was tempted, but then again none of the lhs's had airplanes, and besides I didn't have any extra space to keep planes anyways. Believe it or not, the procedures and prices for club membership don't surprize me at all. The membership fees seem reasonable for Japan, though the price for planes are definitely not
I remember my nieces having to be ball girls before being able to join the school tennis team for example and prices in general.
I better stop here before I ramble on! I will say that I do miss all of the nice thick magazines, and the shear number of shops in the larger cities. I'd say there were more shops in Tokyo than all of California. You may see me visiting to see my friends and see whats up in the r/c aircraft world in Japan soon.
Thanks for the snapshot of Japan, I've subscribed to learn more! Regards!