Riding Japan

Riding Japan

Over the holidays our counter-man, Andii, was off to the far-east once again. Quite to his surprise he had an unplanned opportunity to go riding. This is what he has to say:

I spent the Christmas/New Years holiday in Japan. It is normally cold and sometimes snowy where we were staying, so riding a bike was the last thing on my mind. Much to my surprise though it was sunny and mild. My friend, who has a Honda Shop, was the one suggesting we go ride with the warm winter they were having.

Who was I to say no?

And that is one reason why I keep a set of riding kit at my in-laws. My friend suggested that I pick where to ride. Being the owner of a shop he doesn’t get out to have fun so he thought I would probably know some goods roads (since I’ve ridden there in the past).

We meet at a cafe’ around 10am – waiting for a little warmth being that the highs were around 10-11 degrees c. I on one of his CB400/4’s and he on a 250 Forza scooter. Anyone who has ridden the backroads of Japan can tell you that you don’t travel very far. The whole day we may have covered 230km. But we got a good taste of a variety of roads – mostly tight and twisty, with a hot-springs at the end of the day to ease the fatigue.

For anyone wanting to ride in Japan, I highly recommend it. But do a little homework and stay off the toll highways to have fun.