Hi all,
Well Im back in Boston now but for anyone whos interested and wont find it too boring.....here is what happened onmy last weekend in Japan....
...Saturday 23rd July...I met the hot biker chic with the orange Vmax again this time at Mt Fuji train station...she gave me another helmet this time claiming it was bigger than the last one...it wasnt...it was smaller - a trail riding helmet, full face and no visor...I had to squeeze my head into it and then my nose was pressing against the front...I hoped we didnt crash. Then as we set off for the mountain and lunch, a light rain started. We drove some great twisty roads up over the mountain and at times the scenery reminded me of Scotland...coarse grass and that wild look about it. I held on tightly to the hot biker chic so I wouldnt fall off
...she encouraged me. It was 17C on the mountain road, the coolest I had been since arriving in Japan (Nagoya has averaged 34C since Ive been there and humid with it). The rain got heavier and the roads got twistier which added an element of fun to it all.
We stopped for lunch and had a steaming bowl of udon noodles and dried off a little before heading for a day at the onsen (public hot springs baths - unfortunately not mixed!). We relaxed there and slept on tatami mats until it was 7pm and we headed off to climb Mt Fuji for sunrise at the top.
The road to the 5th station was steep and twisty and visibility was down to 10metres in places due to the heavy mist. I was hanging on the back and this was the first time for me being a passenger on such a steep climb....my legs were permanently tense so I wouldnt fall off the back and I had to hold tight
....some of the corners were very tight and we literally crawled through them into thick mist. Finally we arrived half-way up the mountain and at the start of the climb. After a quick bite to eat and a look at the weather we decided to abandon the climb as the sun wasnt going to shine in the morning. We set off dowhill which was easier for me but not for the brakes on the Vmax....on a steep descent Yuri shouts to me that the back brakes were not working - they had gotten too hot and had given up...we engine braked slowly down the hill which was fine with me as I kept sliding into the bit biker chic....11.5km down.
On the highway back to Tokyo we sped along listening to music and i tried to keep my small helmet from blowing off my head...it would keep rising up over my nose which was the only thing keeping it in place.It got progressively warmer as we approached Tokyo....soon we were cutting up traffic with all the other bikes, driving down the streets of Tokyo heading to Shibuya district where we parked on the pavement and I was dropped off at midnight after saying our goodbyes, and I wearily made my way to the Capsule hotel...great ride!
Below is a scanned page out of the Japanese national motorcycle magazine "Tandem riders"....on my first ride with the hot biker chic we were interviewed by the magazine and here it is in glorious colour
Enjoy and thanks for reading.
