Hi,
I am moving back to Japan from the US in March, I will PM you my mobile # here if you want to give me a ring and have a chat.
I have owned a couple of NSX's in Japan aswell as an S2000. We have a driving club for foreign owners and do track days once a month at Tsukuba circuit, I will PM you the details to sign up, we also go out driving around 1 weekend per month to somewhere nice but the default is the mountain roads around Hakone.
Where you want to live is most likely highly dependant on where you work, I can give you some good tips. My company's offices are in Shin Yokohama and in Suidobashi (downtown) so a place 30 - 40 minutes from both is what I chose previously, it was also close to the Tomei and Chuo highway entrances so a big bonus for driving days also!
As far as importing your car to Japan, I previously took my (JDM) NSX from the UK to Japan, it cost me 5% of the car value to get in and around $1200 to get it registered and through the Shaken (government car test). The Shaken is something that can get very expensive depending on the condition of the car, emissions are checked, shocks, tire condition, oil leaks, CV boots, lights, seatbelts etc etc - if your NSX is in good condition here and passes the CA Smog test (which it should) then I am pretty sure that you will have no problem passing the Shaken.
As there is no major differences between NSX's in different countries around emissions etc I believe that all NSX's should be easy to get through the shaken, import will be 5%.
Should you bring your NSX to Japan ? well I am taking mine with me. I sold my previous 93 sebring before I left in 2004 to come here for a stint and regret it as I had almost every type R part possible on the car including the seats, reason I regret is that NSX prices have gone up quite conciderably since production stopped and it is getting harder to find a reasonably priced model. A 97 Type S will set you back around $70K for example, an early model 91 to 93 car with low KM's and good condition will be 45 to 50K .
Anyway, my decision is to take my 98T with me with some nice goodies on it, soon it will have cantrell headers, Taitec GTLW exhaust and a small blower from comptech .. aswell as a lot of brake/suspension mods. There are quite a few Acura badged NSX's around but not many people go to the trouble to do major mods to the cars over there, so if you are buying you can be pretty sure that it will be stock.
Parking - you will want covered parking off the street and will need a shakoshomei certificate from the local koban (poilce box) to show that you have sufficient parking available in the correct dimensions for the car that you want to purchase - normally a dealer will help you with this. So if you take your NSX to Japan I will introduce to a friend at Honda who speaks English who will be able to help you with the whole process - except the import part in which case you will need to contract with Showa or another import/export company, plan on paying $1500 for shipping + $1500 for import agent + 5% of the car value to get it into the country.
Buying in Japan - I would highly recommend buying through a professional Auction such as
www.isibike.com or similiar (I know some smaller local dealers also that can help but they dont have web sites we would have to go and talk to them). With the auction sites, you need to know exactly what colour, model, year and condition you want - then you give them the limit and wait .. I waited 3 months for my S2000 which I specified as a 2002 yellow with red interior and VGS - I ended up with exactly what I wanted with Mugen headers and exhaust also - amazing machine. You can trust the auctions also as every car is professionally graded so any accidents would be pointed out or any other thing to note from door dings to well anything and that is guranteed also - I bought my first NSX from an auction, it was a red 91 and in perfect condition.
Insurance - be sure to bring with you any past insurance documentation from here, I know an agent that can use that to get good driver discount in Japan, I will also send his details to you.
Gambatte!
(goodluck)
Kye
