More Japanese adventures... (long post)

[fb747]

So a couple of weeks ago my old man came to pay me a visit here in the land of the rising sun and very twisty roads.
It seemed like an opportune time for us to disappear into the wilderness to get some serious tarmac surfing done. After a bit of prior research and planning we were able to hire a ZRX 1200 DEAG (Japan only late model injected version) took it home and loaded up all our gear.
I went with a tail bag and tank bag combo he went with saddle bags... I won.





Day 1

We got up earlyish, took the obligatory "before" shot, reset the trip meter then threw a leg over and took off from my home in Chiba city. We headed south on an expressway then swung onto the Tokyo bay aqua line (huge bridge that halfway dips into the ocean and turns into a tunnel).
We stopped at the parking area in the middle of the aqua line to break our fast. Feeling better loaded with caffeine and sandwich we continued through the tunnel part of the aqua line which was not favored by my father as he hates tunnels... his hatred was going to have to subside pretty quickly.
We continued down the coast, south of Tokyo with the waves crashing on our left and the sun shining wearing big cheesy grins as the first mountain range of the Izu peninsula appeared before us.
We knew we were onto a good thing when we stopped at a parking area in the foothills and there were bikes everywhere, on a Monday!
The first road up into the hills was marred slightly by 4 wheeled vehicles but was soon alleviated when we got to the famous Izu skyline (look on YouTube).
I was in heaven hanging off the FJ screaming around perfectly smooth sweepers with killer views to match.
More amazing roads ensued on our way down the peninsula with the highlight being a corkscrew bridge. Yep you guessed it a corner that just keeps going down.
We made it to our first destination Shimoda with no hiccups and guzzled a few beers along with what I tried to convince the old man was whale.


Aqua Line










view from our room


slackin on my futon

Day 2

After a surprisingly comfortable night in a Japanese style hotel sleeping on futons we loaded up again. I threw a leg over but father just booted his saddle bags and nearly dropped the ZRX.
The shaky start was soon forgotten and replaced with spectacular coastal twistys that would give the energizer bunny a run for his dosh. It was a hard decision whether to take in the view, or reel in the road but I managed to find a happy medium luckily.
Continuing we made our way along another rev inspiring skyline eventually bringing us down out of the hills near Mt Fuji. The rest of the day was spent heading up the east side of Mt Fuji stopping in briefly at a couple of touristy places to laugh at all the weird shit they were peddling.
Again we made it to our destination Lake Yamanaka safe and sound albeit one close call with the law. I was certain the cop in the middle of the road was waving me in, but he just stopped me, waved at the car I had been quickly hunting down, apologized and gestured for me to continue with his orange light sabre.
It was late in the afternoon by the time we got to our stop for the night so we opted for the more expensive but less confusing western style hotel. We were treated with a rare uninterrupted view of Mt Fuji (it is usually covered in clouds) and a 7 course French dinner matched perfectly by me with beer.

















Day 3

Waking up early I snagged the onsen (bloody hot outdoor bath that can only be entered naked) while it was empty to take in a breathtaking view of the sun rising onto Mt Fuji which was quite an experience. I then enjoyed a massage chair before waking the old man and getting in the saddle.
I thought it was going to be mostly commuting but the route we took turned out to be spectacular including a tunnel that blew my mind. We entered the tunnel and rode for about 5 min before it took a steep dive, then it just kept on going down. I thought it was going to start warming up because we were getting too close to the earth's core but we eventually popped out on the other side of a mountain range before promptly entering another one.
After a lot of tunnels and a few good twistys we hit the outer sprawl wasteland of far western Tokyo. The traffic got to me so we jumped on the expressway and took a bit of a detour going way out of our way to avoid a bit of traffic. This turned out to be a good move because before we knew it we were at the foothills of our next mountainous playground eating soba noodles in an old school side of the road shack.
We experienced our first and last precipitation on the climb up to our overnight destination, it was so light I didn't even bother with the wet gear. We reached Nikko much earlier than expected giving us plenty of time to have a cup of tea and a biscuit, by that I mean beer and curry.



Day 4
Thursday was a bit of a touristy day so after a late start we headed up to Lake Yamanaka along with a hoard of other bikers, it sounded like a race track. There was the growl of big V twins (VTR's TRX's SV's TLR's) and the scream of little 2 strokes (RGV's NSR's) ringing through the hills. I forgot to tell Dad that the road up the hill was 2 lanes one way, so the poor bloke sat behind some van thinking everyone else was crazy.
After poking around at the top of the hill and some very tasty ramen, I thought it might be an idea to follow the crowd and see what happens, this turned out in our favour. We managed to find some rather well maintained but very out of the way road over yet another mountain pass. On the way over we spotted a work crew hanging around up on the power lines halfway across a ravine. Another bunch of nut bags were halfway up a large rock wall the road had been carved through only tied off to small trees at the top, pouring concrete down the wall.
When we got to the end of this section I was overcome by the smell of sulphur. It turned out to be hot springs that had a hot water/steam geyser shooting up from next to the crystal clear river. After a few more ups and downs and left and rights and spotting a very rare Honda NR on the road we were back in Nikko taking in some temples prior to mixing it up a bit with some beer.


Poor old Dad stuck behind a van with a free lane right next to him.




Where are we???





Day 5

We got up and rode like 2 bats leaving hell because I had it in my head that we needed to be at Motegi twin ring circuit at a certain time. This turned out to be in vain because when we got there Will Power was babbling over the loud speaker while some little female commentator giggled.
Putting Indy car practice on the back burner we went to the Honda museum and walked around with less space in our underpants whilst wiping drool from our chins at all the rare and famous machinery. Another highlight of the museum was a show featuring ASIMO Hondas robot they made to keep the engineers on their toes.
We took in a bit of the Indy car practice and decided it was boring so we made tracks for home via a packed expressway. This experience had the old man's senses working overtime as the expressways in Japan can get a bit hairy at times but eventually we scooted along the side of Tokyo and back around the bay to Chiba where it had all began.


Honda NR at the museum. Same bike we spotted on the road the day before!





Day 6

Not having to give the bike back until late afternoon we weren't about to just let it sit there so with the girly on the back of the FJ we set off for a tourist attraction we saw on Top Gear (an English car show for those not in the know). We found the place and trudged up stairs for what seemed like hours just to see some big rocks, carved like budda, that were centuries old... OK it was cool. We followed this up with a few of my local favourites on the way back to Chiba.
So after 6 days and 1427km we said goodbye to the ZRX and I dinked my Dad home to celebrate a successful epic adventure with you guessed it, beer.






Cheers, Ben.   

[rktmanfj]

Very nice trip report, Ben!       

Thanks for posting!

[craigo]

Beautiful Trip report Ben,

Man, I had no idea that Japan was that beautiful.  All we see here in the US is this overpopulated urban sprawl.  Thanks for the new mindset.

So how was the Kawasaki compared to the FJ?  Did you get to spend any time riding it?  If not, what did your dad think of it.  It looks smaller and lighter than our beloved FJs, but does it handle as well with gear?

Thanks again for this nice post,

CraigO

[ddlewis]

Nice pics, thanks for posting them. 

Japan just made my bucket list.

[axiom-r]

Awesome Ben, fantastic shots and well written! Note- I feel the same way about BEER.  Too bad you were not at Motegi for the MotoGP weekend but any action at the track is a good time for sure.  Several years ago I had a 1970 CB750 in immaculate original condition for sale on EBay and the Honda Museum at Motegi bought it back! That lucky bike went home to the motherland...  Did you see a near perfect blue/green color CB750 on display???

Thanks for the post!

tim

[fb747]

Cheers guys your comments are appreciated, it took me quite a while to write that up.

In regard to the ZRX, I did spend a bit of time on it and when I say on it I mean ON it. It just gives you that feeling that your not a part of the bike and your just hurtling down the road, although it does put you in a comfy upright position. In saying that it was a lot of fun to ride being very responsive and quite flickable due to the shorter wheelbase, and had socket tearing throttle response.
Power wise it lacked a little bit of mid range pull due to it being restricted as all domestic Japanese bike are. The suspension was nice in comparison to my 23 year old pogo sticks but it's major downfall though was that it was nowhere near neutral through the corners. On my FJ I can set it up for a corner and pretty much let go of the bars halfway round, if I tried that on the ZRX it would have ended in tears. I pushed the bars forward and it got better but still far off neutral... stick with the FJ



Do you mean this one Tim?

I fell in love with this bike. Do you kick yourself in the ass when you recall selling it? 

I would because i'm looking to restore one in the near future, beautiful, classic, revolutionary bikes. Honda seem to have a nack for coming out with one of those every now and then.   

     

[axiom-r]

Do you mean this one Tim?

I fell in love with this bike. Do you kick yourself in the ass when you recall selling it?  

I would because i'm looking to restore one in the near future, beautiful, classic, revolutionary bikes. Honda seem to have a nack for coming out with one of those every now and then.

That is the one Ben!!!  No regrets on selling it because they wanted it so badly that they out bid everyone daily which created a nice little bidding war and resulted in an astronomical closing price... the bike wasn't actually mine, I was buying and selling bikes for a local collector and was commissioned on the sale...  So I was "fine" with letting it go.  I was the last one in the US to ride that bike!  Plus I have a really nice 74' with just over 7k original miles in Boss Maroon Metallic... (plum).

Really cool to see it in its final display though - thank you!  

cheers- tim

[Mark Olson]

excellent ride report 

thanks for taking the time , I enjoyed it .

the ride looked awesome and the radioactive sunrise by the volcano was priceless.

[Lotsokids]

the ride looked awesome and the radioactive sunrise by the volcano was priceless.

I second that. I flew near Mt. Fuji once a few years ago, but didn't get a picture nearly as nice as you got. It was probably more breathtaking than what you can capture in a photo.

Thanks for sharing! P.S. - Someone stole the legs off the chairs and bed? Ha ha.

[flips]

Great post .Thanks for sharing
That cb750 reminds me of my first road legal bike...well very similar lines anyway...1982 cb250n superhawk.
Ride safe and cheers (beer!)