Hi all,
For those of you with time on your hands and want to read about my trip this last weekend, on a rented Honda CB400 with Yuri the hot Japanese biker babe (driving her Kawasaki ZXR 1200) riding over mountains, through typhoons and generally having a great time then please feel free to continue....sorry if its too boring but I just wrote it last night - exhausted after the weekend! E
Enjoy,
Andy in Nagoya (only 9 days left!)
P.S. The subject title says "no compromise" as this is what I was thinking while riding through the typhoon as we crossed the mountains in the dark.....
What a weekend! 3 day trip from Nagoya – Kogo (Ninja museum) – Ise-Shima –Koya-san (Shingon Buddist mountain headquarters –total distance covered = 810km). I was riding with Yuri, a biker I had met last year during my first trip to Japan. She is an extremely experienced rider having traveled around the whole of Japan and since she rides into Tokyo to work every day, all year round, she has in total traveled the equivalent of 7.5 times around the world. I was in good company!
Saturday 16th September, 2006
It started off Saturday morning; I went to the local Honda dealer and met Yuri who had just driven 400km from Chiba (near Tokyo) in 5 hours (she had left at 4am). With her help I rented a 2006, CB400SB (VTEC engine). First time I had driven anything so modern so was looking forward to the experience. When we left the dealer it was raining and the forecast was for a typhoon coming up from Okinawa! Wasnt looking like a sunny dry ride was in order. Nevertheless once out of Nagoya (on Rt1 – lots of traffic which meant getting used the gears and brakes on the bike and following Yuri lane-splitting the traffic into some very tight spaces!) the weather soon dried up and was fine for the rest of the day. This was just as well as straight after lunch (at a specialty Japanese Yam restaurant) we were on the Suzuka Skyline drive. This was an amazing ride of tight twisty turns on the way up and I soon got the hang of the cornering ability of the CB400 which seemed to me (being used to a 30 year old Honda) to have super sticky tires. The ride up was great, and I just about kept up with Yuri on her Kawasaki ZXR1200 (on the straights I would accelerate hard (up to about 80-90km/hr), brake hard then corner hard on the really tight turns). However, I have to admit Yuri was the expert at cornering and she could really hand the ZXR (despite her small size – 5`2!). After cresting the top of the mountain (and getting no views as I was concentrating on the road too much and had to!, the ride down the other side was ball-breaking as I tried to keep up (and failed) making more tight turns, braking hard (and due to my tall size on a small bike I was somewhat squashed in the seat!) and trying not to dump the bike or overshoot the corners – fast and furious! and no other traffic on the road! I eventually came to the end of the ride, smiling broadly and there was Yuri waiting at the end, bike switched off!!
After this it was more fast riding (I dont think we ever did the speed limit the whole weekend except in the rain and I wondered about traffic cops but I never saw any the whole time. Driving on the country roads was really good as there were long straights where the CB400 could really accelerate in 3rd gear, followed by long sweeping turns or really tight turns. Even going through small villages there wasnt much traffic and we kept at a constant 80k/hr (speed limit usually 50km/hr). We finally found Kogo the hidden Ninja museum/village after getting lost a few times (apparently the museum is hidden on purpose but I think too well as it was very quiet!). Koga is the original birthplace of Ninjutsu (according to Lonely Planet and the guide at the museum) and we met an Italian ninjutsu instructor who makes the trip to this place for training 3 months of the year. Once we finished seeing the ninja house with the hidden trapdoors, false ceilings, hidden doors etc it was time to go and we left the place at 5pm, and with only half of the journey complete we were soon to be riding in the dark (lucky it was dry!). We ended up riding a short stretch on the highway (toll road) and cruised easily at 120km/hr (speed limit = 80km/hr; and still able to accelerate) as followed Yuri to the Thalasso Shima hotel - a spa hotel with pools, jacuzzis, relaxation therapies and lots of rich Japanese women (on the Pearl Road south of Ise). We arrived looking like 2 worn bikers.... and this was one of the coasts most expensive hotels (a French-Japanese operation that sent the company that built it into bankruptcy! –but thanks to Yuris corporate discount we were getting it for a bargain). It was interesting watching the staff struggle with our helmets, bike bags and shopping bag full of convenience store food (the two restaurants at the hotel were ridiculously expensive!) – the next day after we arrived back from a day in the rain they even gave us towels for the helmets and to dry off the wet clothes and newspapers for our wet shoes – now that’s service! Hotel was very nice and we had a top floor room with view overlooking the ocean and islands –very relaxing already just listening to the sounds of the waves against the beach.
Sunday 17th September 2006
We had decided that despite the forecasts of typhoons raging over the area that we could make it the 180km to Koya-san (mountain home of the Shingon Buddist sect) before lunchtime and may delay getting wet (typhoon was due at somewhere between 12- 6pm). By 7.30am we were on the road and it was immediately a thrill riding up the twisty Pearl Road coast drive before stopping for breakfast of canned coffee and croissant at the same convenience store we had got dinner at the previous night.
After this more twists and turns to Ise and the start of the Ise-Shima Skyline drive – another thrilling road with more tight twisty turns on the way up (this time losing Yuri almost immediately so I stopped to take a photo over the island-dotted coast complete with wooden rack platforms where the mother oysters make the famous cultured pearls. On the way down it was another great ride this time I was more confident of the handling of the bike that I was leaning deep into the corners, accelerating hard on the straights going down, brake hard, corner and then same again, at one point touching the outer part of my foot on the road as I cornered hard and lent over and over...and touch for the first time! what a rush! I came off this mountain also with a big smile on my face! What a great start to the day!
Coming off the mountain it was now some fast river valley driving, and Japanese country roads are all very narrow twisty two lane roads with very little traffic (and what little there was, it was easy to overtake) so its a really fun ride all the time (even through the small villages). As we approached another mountain it started to rain and the ride along by the river was wet but due to the good road surface was not so slippy. The ride up the mountain had some scary moments as the joins on the bridges are slippy metal and they just happened to be on the tight turns going up! Some good tunnel driving as well made it fun and the on the other side sunshine and warm air once again – nice! This made the run down the other side fast and fun. The CB400 all the while keeping up with the ZXR1200 as I got more used to the bikes handling and Yuri doesn’t drive slowly! It was a challenging, uncompromising ride!
We eventually arrived at the bottom of Koya-san and then had another 35km up a very twisty mountain road, thrown left then immediately right, time and time again into very tight turns, and overtaking on the small straights (few and far between) added to the excitement. I was just amazed at how well the CB400 kept up with the ZXR and the handling was just superb for a small bike. Once at the top of the mountain, we were both ready to get of the bikes and we were both sore and stiff from the long ride and constant cornering and full concentration!
On Koya-san there are over a 100 temples clusterd around the head temple of Kongobu-ji and over 6.5 million visitors come here each year (and we had passed a good few on the way up). There is a pilgrimage associated with Shingon Buddhism and Koya-san and thats the Shikoku pilgrimage where you must travel by foot to 88 temples in Shikoko (island in the Inland Sea) in 40 days and get your book stamped at each temple. You can also do it by car, bus, train etc... Yuri informed me that 10 years previously she had done it by motorcycle and had only one more to do – Koya-san! Today was the day she would finish the pilgrimage. After touring the main temple and seeing some paintings dating back to the 9th Century, having some tea served by a monk, and appreciating the Zen Garden it was onto the cemetery (called Okunoin) where the founder of Shingon Buddism (9th Century), Kobo Daishi is housed in a mausoleum, surrounded by 10,000 lanterns (yes there was a lot!) and is apparently not dead by in “eternal meditation. After lighting some incense sticks here and purifying myself with the smoke (well had to try at least) it was onto to get Yuris book stamped for the final time and a photo to mark the occasion!
By now it was time to leave – 4.30pm, 180km to go (5hrs it took to come due to the many mountain passes and small twisty roads) and it just started raining – typhoon? We were lucky that it stayed dry on the way down the mountain as it was heavy traffic, same tight turns as the way up and we were overtaking like crazy (but carefully of course) trying to pass all the traffic. Once back on the main road it started raining hard and it got worse and worse as we approached the same mountain passes as before. By this time it was getting dark, water was lying on the road and running down the steep parts like rivers. Things were getting desperate. No point in stopping as it was too wet so we pushed on relentlessly driving at 40 -50km/hr in places where visibility was bad or flooding obscured the road. My rented helmet though large didn’t fit so well and it was an open face with visor which meant I got a wet face. I didn’t fancy my chances if I were to fall off the bike or slide off the mountain – both of which were real possibilities! It was so wet I had trouble seeing anything but Yuri’s taillight. In the tunnels the wind was cold and fierce and we had trouble maintaining a straight line. At first it was a challenge and wasnt so bad but then the wetter I became (was wearing a good biker jacket and t-shirt underneath which was now wet through) the colder I got and I was briefly worried about getting hypothermic! But with 40kms to go we stopped for a break and hot coffee helped.
On the final stage we had 20kms of highway which was interesting with lashing rain, high winds which buffeted my small bike and ill-fitting helmet. We were pushing for a 8.30pm finish in time for a hot jacuzzi at the end but we settled for 9.10pm (13.5hrs in total) and missed the jacuzzi. I was just glad to be back and we draped into the hotel looking like drowned rats.
Monday 18th September 2006.
Up at 6.30am as usual, and plan for the day was jacuzzi (fresh water one was outside – now sunny and humid! and salt water one inside) followed by Pearl museum (of Mikimoto pearl company) before heading home to Nagoya. The outdoor jacuzzi was just perfect and could watch the sea crashing against the beach, feel the breeze on your head and the sun on my shoulders (which got sunburn in the end). Pearl museum was very interesting and saw a demonstration of the Japanese women divers (hold breath for over a minute and dive in white suits (that apparently protects against sharks – not quite sure how as its only cotton!). By time we finished here it was 4.30pm and we had 120km back to Nagoya to drop off bike for 7.30pm (closing time at bike shop). Weather was sunny (setting) and strong wind at first then backwind. We sped up the highway at a constant 120-130km/hr. We stopped once for gas and I checked the chain on the bike – it was super loose!!! It could touch the swingarm!! This of course set panic in me as imagined it snapping or flying off at any moment. Of course it didnt and the ride back was smooth and easy. Bike dropped off at 7.15pm much to the delight off the Honda staff!! They were extremely helpful throughout, giving us free drinks cards (soft drinks) and printing out directions (in colour), and giving us other helpful non-bike info. Really great service. Total cost of bike hire for 3 full days – 22,000 yen (or ~$200). Riding for 3 days on small country roads, over challenging twisty mountain passes, riding along the Pearl road, through wild wet and windy typhoon weather – priceless! (The VFR800 as 35,000 yen for the same time but I was happy with my choice even if it was on the small side.).
Next weekend will be riding pillion on the back of the ZXR as we head out of Tokyo to Hakone (mountains!) and then onto the Izu penninsula to see where the first American Black Ships arrived in 1853 :-)
cheers
Andy in Nagoya
