JAPAN TOUR 2008

This was about touring,

not sports bikes, (although we saw a few) not off road stuff, (although we could have) and not about the ride for the rides sake, it had to be the whole adventure! It's not often we think of going somewhere outside the square. Usually we occupiers of Aotearoa tend to dream of riding from SanFran to New York on a Gold Wing or Harley (God help your leather arse), traverse the UK via the Isle of Man on a Triumph, tour Eastern Europe on a Beemer or India on an Enfield (I sure don't dream of re-riding the 60's!) This trip was to a place in Asia that most of you don't have on your radar, Japan.
Firstly, the food, if you can't eat it raw, like it hot, with cereal or without rice...don't go. If you can't sleep on the floor, bathe naked with other men and not call it sport…don't go! But if you like new and exciting experiences and a ride quite different to what you know, it's worth the discomfort, all of it …
I was going to Japan to finish a dream I had had since living there five years previously. I wanted to ride the Japan Romantic Road from Nikko to Ueda, and further if possible. Anyone who wanted to come with me was welcome, I would show them what I knew and loved about Japan, they just needed to remember that this was my holiday and I was going where I wanted, no usurpers allowed. :) The planning began. We had a few punters in the beginning that fell by the wayside as our plans changed from A to B to C! I decided the best way to move quickly to some points of interest I really wanted to see was by bullet train (Shinkansen), riding the expressways for too long would be counterproductive to our ride enjoyment, too expensive (toll is JPY19/km) and the Shinkansen is my second favourite form of travel.
A cutoff date was set after which 'Neko' spent days booking accommodation. It is not like other countries where you can stop in on a whim, if you don't have the credentials or the language it's difficult to get accepted and any change makes them nervous. We had also to be able to park 2 bikes and a car during the riding phase, believe it or not it's not so easy! A carpark at the hotel can cost $10 a night! At JPY76 to the NZ$ it was looking good, like anywhere in the world you can spend billions on a room to sleep in overnight if you don't know what you're looking at. Little did we know that the world economy, driven by tossers who have now proved they can't be trusted with their own kids piggy bank, would send the NZD plummeting to JPY49 at it's worst point, giving my credit card, wife and accountant mini heart attacks! So much for early retirement
The 'final five' flew the 11 hours from Auckland to Narita (Tokyo) via Japan Airlines on an Air New Zealand aircraft, leaving at a respectable 0930NZDT and arriving at 1700JST. We cashed in our Japan Rail Pass orders for JR Passes and took the Narita Express to Tokyo Station. Another short ride on Yamanote-sen and we were in Kanda where we walked the 150 metres to the Kanda Staion Hotel. The rooms were big enough and we couldn't hear the trains roaring by outside, fantastic!

Dinner was at a local Ma & Pa restaurant specializing in pork cutlets, Japanese style, and totally edible to non-vegetarian Westerners. The service was great and set a level to which we would become accustomed.

The following day saw our first visit to JapanBikeRental.com who had offered to store our riding gear that we didn't want to carry around on our Shinkansen trip. The guys were very helpful and even gave us the phones we had rented for the bike ride a week early. Your 3G Vodafone will work in Japan but at the cost of an overseas mobile call - a lot. JPY600 per day for a rental phone with the bike was a good deal.