Going to Japan for a month long holiday

Hello Fellow VIP'ers

I am planning on visiting Japan in the coming year (2014) for at least a month and I would like to go visit some of the car tuning shops eg Junction Produce 326 Power KBREAK UpGarage some of the VIP shops and also visit some VIP car meets king of sedan etc , also on the do to list is go to some drifting events on the track aswell as witnessing the famous street/mountain drifting now I havent been to japan but have seen alot online and I have a feeling going to Osaka is the place to be as Tokoyo is too crowded? :shrug: can members give their words of wisdom on my dream trip also I plan on buying parts and bringing them back aswell any tips and advice oh btw i dont speak japanese whatsoever.

Osaka is not as crowded as tokyo but does have a large population. 
Buying parts is a hard one as it is much easier and convenient to ship them. If you know someone in Japan definitely would make effort to plan a trip around them hopefully boarding you.
There is alot more to the country than automotive so be sure to check those out too. Best advice would be find the location of the shops and try to figure out transport to and from. 

 Also if you can get gps phones service there that will make a huge difference. Just my opinion.

i am back living in japan (okinawa) for the second time and just had my parents come out for their first ever visit to japan last week.  okinawa is tropical island (think hawaii) so we took them to where my wife is from (osaka) and to kyoto as well.  osaka is famous for their unique styles of food plus the people are super friendly/cool compared to other parts of japan, cough tokyo, cough cough,, but i highly recommend going to kyoto.  just take their train line to the end and get out and walk up to their famous temple at the top of the hill.

renting a data phone is a big added benefit too but prolly not cheap for the data plan though.  having a guide who can speak both languages opened up an entire different world/perspective for me so if you have that luxury then you are already ahead of the game...  i lived here for 1.5 years before having a full time translator and learned more in the first few months of living with a japanese woman (eventually my awesome wife ;)  than in the entire year and a half living there on my own.

i have been to the junction produce boutique in osaka and it took a while to get to by train and taxi/walking and was only worth about an hour tops once there.  it was cool, but not really worth the effort to plan half a day around if you are only going to be there for a few days.  recently they opened up a D.A.D Garson shop/boutique in the downtown area of osaka (america village in Shinsaibashi) and it is much more convenient although its not 100% vip it has a lot of stuff to see there,, think bling bling everything...

to see cool night time stuff like car meets and such you sorta either need to know someone who is in the know or just be out and about real late in the downtown areas and hope they are friendly when you approach them...

parts are crazy expensive (well the yen to $ rate is actually fairly good right now as of recent) but shipping is $$$.  plus most shops want to see your registration paperwork for your car before they will sell you parts for that car and this is awfully ridiculous and hard to get around at times, unless you are just buying small stick on items.  the D.A.D shop i found to be one of the only places to buy stuff for a significant savings over just ordering it in the states so this is what i usually do when i go there in person.

good luck!!!  BTW like Damicci said, check out some of the culture and awesome World Heritage sites while you are there, like Kyoto temples and Hiroshima shrines and what not...