As it was a national holiday here in Japan (Coming of Age Day I believe), a few of us headed up into the hills of Izu and Hakone and spent a few hours riding the twisty roads and taking in the sights. I have to say it was quite cold up there, especially on the bike and when out of the sun, but it was a good ride with clear skies, and not many people on the road. A great day out, and I clocked up 187Km door to door, which is not too bad for the first run of the year.
Last Sunday – December 11th – I joined in the third annual Tokyo Toy Run, where a group of bikers meet up in Tokyo and Ride out in convoy and in groups down into Kanagawa prefecture to deliver toys and other gifts to a couple of children’s homes, and then spend some time with the kids.
This year I thought I’d have some of my own drama the night before when I had to announce my 5.5 year old battery to be dead, and so I headed out to NAPS in the car at 6.30pm to pick up a new one, and give it a test run. The next morning I was up at 5.30am tying on bits of tinsel and such onto the bike, taking care again to make sure nothing was going to sit on the hotter parts of the engine but still look festive. I’d also managed to obtain a Santa suit from Don Quixote which actually fit not just me, but also go over the leather jacket and the Draggin Jeans. It’s still a mystery that many nations see Santa/Father Christmas as a jolly, large fellow, and yet most Santa suits are for people who weight 60-70Kg. Indeed. I decided to attach the white beard set to my helmet, which worked much better than I expected.
Xmas Bike 2011
I met up with a couple of riders locally at 6.30, and we were running in towards the meeting space in Odaiba. It’s a beautiful urban ride in, going past the docks and cranes and factories on the expressway as the sun comes up, and see the planes taking off from Haneda airport as we go under much of it, and then over the rivers on the bridges, getting another great view. Once again, the weather was great – we’ve always been so lucky for the weather on these runs.
We all met up with the other riders at the RicoLand Carpark, and it wasn’t a bad turn out with plenty of bikers, bikes, decorations and a couple of vans to fill with gifts. We then went through a quick run through of the plan, including the one stop we’d be making en route, and the groups we’d split into from there to go on to the two children’s homes. The runs are always great, and each year it seems to get smoother getting through the ETC toll booths, the gents in the booths seem that little less freaked out at a group of (largely gaijin) bikers, many dressed as Santa, trying to get on the expressway. It also reminds me how happy I am to have invested the outrageous sum into getting ETC fitted to my bike a few years ago.
On the road as a bike convoy is always fun, we just have to be careful to make sure we’re not stopping people getting on and off the freeway – sometimes not as easy as it sounds. One point of having this many bikes in one place is that the tunnels are deafening – the only way you know your engine is on is to look at your revs. We stopped at Daikokufuto, which is a service area in the centre of doughnut upon doughnut of roads, to meet up with a few more people, get our photos taken with a lot of very curious people who themselves were on trips – including with small dogs with santa coats…
From there we split into two groups, and again I went with the group for the Chigasaki Farm children’s home, and whilst we may have taken a wrong turn, we did get to the venue not too far behind schedule, after a run through historic Kamakura, and along route 134 along the beach which was fantastic – riding along looking at Enoshima to your left, and Mt. Fuji in the distance to your right: fantastic.
Xmas Tree
The venues, the children’s homes are really where the days start – rolling in as a group, all bikes and vans and filling up the small parking areas, then meeting the kids, playing sports and really getting to know them. As I’d been here twice before (the Toy Run last year, and a BBQ we did this last Summer) it was was great to see some familiar faces and catch up with what was going on – some were even getting jobs and going out into the world, which is great.
For once I missed the sports, but chatted with a lot of the kids, had photos taken with the smaller kids with the rest of the Santas, and once the pizza we ordered for the event arrived, sat around for a while talking, playing Uno and enjoying some of the gifts we’d brought. I should say, Chigasaki Farm made a fantastic soup for us, which, after a few hours on a bike in winter felt so much better than that pizza! A lot of the kids were playing volleyball, and throwing American footballs and just spending a good afternoon outside on a nice day – even if the resident dog did destroy a couple of the balls!
Once people had eaten the food, played a lot of games and energy levels were dropping, we all sat around one of the patio areas and played a couple of rounds of bingo, before having more photos taken with the kids, this time on the bikes (now that they’d cooled), and finally, somewhat reluctantly, got back on the bikes and headed off home as the sun was beginning to set.
It’s amazing how fast the time goes on the toy run, from that early start to getting to the kids over 120Km later for me, to doing some games and sitting and talking, to leaving feels like just a couple of hours – not essentially a whole day.
OK, so what are the benefits? Well for one, the kids get to spend a day with people they don’t usually meet and just talk and have fun – this is what we often hear from the staff and volunteers at the homes – they love the gifts and the toys, but what they like is that these often funny and a bit whacky bunch of bikers are happy to come in dressed as Santa and just talk, throw a frisbee, be chased, have reindeer tails pulled and just relax with them. I know one thing debated on the forums after the event is always that of who got the better deal, us or the kids! In the last three years I haven’t seen a single biker, even the tough military ones, who aren’t putting the smaller three- and four year old kids on their shoulders and running them around the yards, and for those of us with similar aged kids, feeling that concern that these kids will be OK. The truth is, I think most of them will be, they’re fun and smiles, they’re resilient, cheeky and witty and easy to get on with, but the places also need the odd day of distraction.
2011 has obviously been a tough year on Japan, and it’s going to be for a while to come, and it’s fair to say that for some of those outside of the mainstream society who rely on government support and volunteers, things are very tough, and its rewarding to know that it’s actually quite simple even for a relatively small group of people to pick a day, pool some money and really help out some kids who themselves are going through a lot as it is – we should all do it more often.
(NB/ There’s one more Toy Run in Yamanashi next Saturday – Dec. 17th!)
Just a rather late note that this year’s Tokyo Toy Run will be on December 11th – that’s next Sunday – so grab your motorbike, some gifts for the kids, and meet at 8am at the Tokyo Bay Ricoland bike shop.
If you want some background, check my posts of the 2009 event, and the 2010 events. Essentially it’s a group of bikers (usually 100+) who ride from Tokyo out to two children’s homes in Kanagawa, give out a pile of gifts and spend the day doing sports and games with the kids, so everyone wins.
If you have a bike then, check out the route and rules on TokyoToyRun.com and join us all next Sunday, and follow @tokyotoyrun on Twitter.
For some reason, this month seems to have become the month of motorbike covers. Just to go over the history a little then.
My previous cover was one I bought at NAPS a couple of years ago based on the recommendation of a friend. I can’t remember the brand, but it felt thick, and seemed well made. Indeed it started out well, kept the bike nice and dry, but sometimes the local cats would sit on it, and scratch it, and chunks started to come out of it. It’s difficult to describe the material – it was like a thickly woven paper, a bit like the one-shot oil change overalls material, but several layers of it bonded together. After a year, I found it left a lot of ‘dust’ from the inside layers on the bike after putting it on and taking it off again, and finally after two years I’d decided I really didn’t like it, as now some of the seams were ripping, and some holes exposed the bike, so I planned to buy a new one.
I could have gone for something from NAPS since it’s just down the road, but decided to ask around, and ended up getting a few suggestions from Jason Fullington, and after reading some reviews and thinking about it, I decided to order a cover from Nelson-Rigg – the Falcon Defender 2000 – through Jason’s company AFGMoto.
As it was coming from the States, I expected it to take a week or two, but it made it within a week, and since I was looking to go to the AFGMoto shop anyway, I decided to drive on up there, though in a four wheel vehicle and in traffic, it took a little longer than expected – it’s just outside the Yokota airbase on Route 16, which is not a quiet road.
In the meantime though, and in an odd twist, I went out on my bike for an hour last weekend, leaving the old cover neatly folded next to the conifer tree in front of our house, so it wouldn’t move, and when I got back, it had gone – yep, someone stole my old, hole-riddled cover in the hour between 9.30-10.30 PM.
Fortunately the bike was only under a tarp for a few days.
As you can see from the image below, the Falcon Defender is a rather tasteful black and silver. The black is a thick polyester weave, which feels very sturdy; the silver is a heat treat version of that. Unlike previous covers which had straps, this one has an elasticated skirting which I actually find feels far more secure, and should prevent flapping in the wind. Under the silver logo triangles are some holes to allow some venting, which the previous cover lacked, which I think was also an issue.
It feels very good, it looks very decent too, so frankly I’m very pleased with it, and it’s far, far easier to get on an off. As a package, it also comes with a backpack to pack it in if you want to take it with you, or store it – something else I just couldn’t do with the bulky cover before, and actually something I’d want to be able to do. One minor issue for me is the eyelets for a bike lock are just a little too small for my lock, which isn’t a major issue, and they eyelets are re-inforced, which is nice. This may be more or less of an issue depending on where you live – I don’t think my old cover would’ve been stolen if it was on my bike.
For sizing, buying from a US site for a Japan only bike was a little concerning, and from their sizing, it seemed a medium size would do, but I saw a couple of reviews which praised the cover itself, but advised going one size up, and I would agree – for my Honda CB400 Super Four, that’s a large size cover on there. The only downside is that the heat shielded material stops just short of the end of the exhaust, but I generally let my bike engine cool anyway before putting any cover on it.
Price wise, given the exchange rate (Yen wins) and buying through AFGmoto, it was much cheaper than I think anything I could have gotten from NAPS, coming in under 7,000yen (though I picked it up of course), making that previous cover at 10,000yen even less of a deal.
Nelson Rigg Defender 2000
It’s been a few months since I’ve been out on my bike for more than running errands and such, so when I was able to negotiate a whole morning to get out on the road, I had to decide how best to use the opportunity. I was tempted to just do a few hours of ‘take random turns’ up in the mountains, which is what I like doing, but it’s unpredictable time wise, especially on the return leg. Instead, I decided to go for a tried and tested – but fun – route.
Getting on the bike at 7am on Sunday morning means less, but not zero traffic – as I went down the 134 coast road, that Shonan is a surfer place is very apparent, especially at this time of year – lots of people in wetsuits on bicycles, with boards strapped in U shaped holders on the bicycles, people in cars just lazily drifting along, checking out the beach.
It was basically a nice, sunny morning, fairly warm, but not too hot, riding in my mesh jacket and Draggin jeans, in good sunshine, a nice clear view. It’s a good road to go down, you have Fuji ahead of you and the beach on the left, and year round there are a smattering of surfers in the water, fishermen (and women) on the beach, and the universal collection of people walking their dogs on the sand.
Some of the faster roads are toll based, but usually only a couple of hundred yen, and I have ETC on my bike, so I just slow down and go through, rather than in the old days when I’d have to stop and fumble for change in my tank bag with my gloves on. That’s always frustrating, and in the winter and in the rain, it’s a real hassle. On the Seisho Bypass there’s a small service station where a lot of bikers stop to meet up, and sometimes I stop off for the cinnamon coffee, made by an energetic vending machine which plays you upbeat, potentially Colombian music whilst you wait for the drink to be reconstituted. Today though I was against the clock a little, so I skipped the coffee and decided to head straight to my first real stop, turning off at Hayakawa, and heading up the Toyo Tyres turnpike (toll again) to the rest stop at the top which houses the Dammtrax Cafe.
View from the Dammtrax
As I got closer to the turnpike the road was getting damp and then wet, and at the top of the ‘mountain’ near the Cafe it was even raining a little and once more I was glad I keep my rain gear under the seat, just in case things got worse, but in the event the rain stayed off. The Dammtrax Cafe is in the corner of a food court in the main building, and is a homage to the Ace Cafe near London (where I really would like to go). They do a decent drink and a hot dog too, and the whole place has some great views. Whilst it’s a tourist spot in general, like most of the Hakone area, there’s always bikers and car enthusiasts there – the day I went there was a large BMW meet-up with some of the BMW reps there for what looked like an organized ride. It’s always a place to get into general conversation about bikes, custom work, and pick up some good routes and tips.
When I came back to my bike, I noticed the one next to mine was a Triumph Street Triple, with a great tank decal.
A Nice Triumph Tank
The weather was still wet, but most of the road was OK – no real surface water, but for someone of my skill level, definitely reason to be careful on the corners. Off I went then to the Izu Skyline, another toll road which runs a little over 40Km north to south down the spine of Izu – it’s all hills and twisties, and thus tremendous fun on a bike. For me, on a non sports bike though, I keep an eye out for people coming up fast behind me, and keep an and let them run past – we’re all just out for a good ride. Yes, it’s a fast road.
Enter the Skyline
The route does give great views, and there’s a good selection of roadside stopping points for photographers. There’s also a selection of service stations, including this somewhat derelict one; it always reminds me of some neo-Communist building for some reason, grey concrete surrounded by grass broken car parks, a monument perhaps to Bubble times.
When Rest Stops Die
More than anything, it’s a fun route to ride down, slow or fast, beautiful tree lined stretches, which open onto the sides of mountains, with great curves and vistas which make you want to stop and take a photo.
Get to the bottom and there’s really not much there, beyond a sort of derelict cafe which may or may not be open at certain times of year – at least it’s never had any sign of life inside it when I’ve been there, despite the constant white van parked outside.
After reaching the bottom and having a nice cup of tea from my flask, I turned right around and worked north again, retracing my exact route back past the Dammtrax, back down the turnpike, and back down normal straight roads and traffic, back to Shonan having thoroughly enjoyed it.
I usually say that having a motorbike is very liberating in Japan, just taking the next turns at random, but even so, there are good mornings to be had just taking a route you’ve done plenty of time and just enjoying the bike and the road.
Tea is also good.
The best way to get the feel of a country a little bit better is to physically travel it. How a country feels – the people in the place – in it’s capital, or a major city, compared to the farmlands, the mountains, the sea-ports or wherever, can give you a markedly different impression of the country, for better or worse. See any many aspects as you can really increases your appreciation for it.
On a small scale, that’s pot-luck ordering in restaurants. I used to walk into Ramen shops and order whatever the person next to me was having by pointing at it, as even when I could read the menu, I still didn’t always understand what it was. I never got overcharged. In fact, sometimes, I’m sure they undercharged me for even doing this.
We go up the scale, and travel by rail; Japan is a gift for doing this because the rail systems are simply amazing, and it’s a pleasant way to travel, either bimbling long in local trains, hitting the Shinkansen for that faster feeling, or taking your time on one of the long scenic runs like the Cassiopeia.
Some visitors and foreign residents to Japan hire or buy a car and see more of the country that way – and it is a great way – though the traffic jams are sometimes not so fun, and you very quickly understand the fetish for in car entertainment. Sorting that license out, or using an International if that’s legal for you does put some people off.
Somewhere in all that though, there is the motorbike, and I wonder if some people overlook it. Frankly, that’s a mistake – if you truly want to know a country – get on a motorbike.
I should say now that this isn’t a tutorial on getting a license and all that – better people than I have already invented that wheel, so pop on over to GaijinRiders, or SBKJapan, and the enthusiasts there will help you out, and the ‘Motorbiking in Japan‘ blog, if only because he chronicles going from not being a biker, to loving his bike.
For me, I’ve always loved bicycles, so the idea of two wheels has always appealed to me, but I came late to motorbiking; I spent two years on a 50cc Zoomer around Tokyo in my early thirties, and then decided I would do the 400cc licence in 2006 and bought myself the dependable CB400 Super Four, and then did the large licence in late 2007. I really wish I’d done them both sooner. Still, there’s hope – I really enjoy reading the books of Ted Simon, who in his early 40′s went on a four year round the world trip, and chronicled it in the book “Jupiters Travels” and several follow up books which I’ve managed to collect (with the help of my wife!) including the one for his second round the world trip at the age of 70! I’ve quoted him before in this blog, but to repeat this from Mr. Simon, from the travelogue ‘Long Way Round’ , this sums up why I like motorbikes :
“I think the motorcycle is best because it puts you so much in contact with everything. You experience, much more closely, the nature of the terrain, you can almost taste the cultures that you’re riding through. Because it exposes you to the climate, to the wind and rain, it’s a much more complete experience.”
In a more humble context, new family life restricts my riding and where I now live, I can’t commute, but I do love to get out for days, or even just half days and run out on the bike. I’ve written on here a couple of times about some of the places I’ve been, and seen, but perhaps what I haven’t mentioned is that I couldn’t have done any of it without the bike. Some of the weird roads I’ve travelled, some of the very odd tunnels, tea houses I’ve stopped at, accidental off road excursions and so on, none of it would have been possible without the bike. Really, some of the places either aren’t signposted, or aren’t on a map, or you wouldn’t think to take a car down. On a bike, you just turn, when you want to stop, you just stop – parking isn’t much of an issue, and even the rain doesn’t stop the fun.
It’s not just the riding and the environment though, it’s the reaction of people, the more obscure the place you go, the more interesting riding there becomes.
In a forest. Somewhere.
In early January this year, I took a freezing run down the coast road here in Kanagawa; that’s the literal meaning of ‘freezing’ too. I stopped off for some coffee and got into a great conversation with the few other bikers there, as to how completely mad we were, or how truly inspired – we decided on the former. Plodding along at 80Km/h with a cold wind, looking at the beautiful Pacific Ocean, with Mt. Fuji in the clear distance is fantastic, and the frosting of ice on your helmet, and that steady chill on your hands fades away. A bit. Actually, on that trip I remember stopping at a McDonalds at the side of the road for another hot drink, and even the staff asked if I was OK on the bike. I took the coffee outside, walked through a passageway under the coast road, and spent the time it took me to drink the coffee talking to some people fishing off the quayside. Does this happen if you’re in a car, or does having biker leathers on key into something which means you’re safe, because you’re out there? My Japanese isn’t great, but I’m fairly outgoing – I’ll talk about anything, so for me , being on the bike has been great to just meet people doing their thing.
Where the wasabi grows.
On a different tack, a friend and I were just picking random turns in Izu, and ended up in a valley, where the river seemed to be full of vegetables, with a little rail track in the air with a cart. From a few signs we’d seen on the way for shops, we assumed this was a wasabi ‘field’. It was completely fascinating – I’d heard they prospered in running water, but I’d never seen it, and since the whole area was serviced by the traditional farmer’s vehicles – tiny white Suzuki vans, I suspect many others haven’t either, apart from the more tourist ones, unless you were on a bike.
Meeting up with fellow bikers, just by accident is always interesting – the bike itself is a topic of conversation. I remember talking to a man in his late sixties at a service station, who pulled up on an old Harley Davidson, with his wife on the back. We were just talking about bikes, and I asked him whether he’d thought about getting a Prius as I see a lot of retired people driving them. His response was a hysterical mime of the kicking of cars and the throttling of owners: “Prius drivers are idiots!!”. You see all these old men, maybe former senior businessmen or something when they worked, and imagining them in a Prius, blocking traffic somewhere, and you realise that the cool, interesting ones spurned that, and keep to two wheels, and are enormous fun to be around.
It is a good crowd too, a certain camaraderie; I’m fortunate enough to be on the GaijinRiders forum, and to have been involved with two Toy Runs to benefit children’s homes, because they could. (There’s something beyond culture which means that kids love the sound of a hundred plus motorbikes revving up.)
Down By The Beach
Anyway, I think you get the idea – I love biking. Not for speed or to talk specs or anything like that, just because I like being out there, plodding along, feeling the environment around me, and hoping I remembered to put my rain gear back under the seat.
So whilst many 20 year olds prepped for the Coming Of Age Day national holiday, I awoke early, got a nice hot cup of tea, wrapped up well and headed off for my first run on the bike in 2011. Even though I’m still a novice and have a basic bike (a 2006 Honda CB400 SuperFour) I do like to get out all year round. Knowing it would be chilly, I went for two layers under my leathers, and set off.
For the sake of the blog, let’s call a ‘run’ something over 100Km door to door, and a ‘trip’ something over 250Km? This one ran to approx. 124Km., so not a long one.
I only had the morning due to family committments in the afternoon, but wanted to see how far I could comfortably get. The run down Route #1 and then out onto 135 – the coastal road – was OK, but it was already apparent how cold it really was, and the roads were wet.
That said, that road is awesome to see the sun rise, the early fishermen (and women) on the beach, and on the clear days, Mt. Fuji in front, and to the right of you.
After a cold start, I pulled in to the service station at about 7.45 on the Seisho Bypass just past Kouzu to get a cup of coffee from my flask and see who was around. This is a very popular meeting point for people – especially bikers – as there’s a special bike parking area and quite a bit of space, but there were only four of us there. Four. Usually there’d be ten times that. The other three riders were all in serious winter riding gear so either I was part of some dedicated few, or I was being a bit foolhardy/optimistic.
A Cold Morning Sunrise
Only A Few Takers
One thing I did do was to put my rain gear on as an extra layer, and the effect was nigh on instant – reducing the wind chill significantly, and proving once more why you should always keep rain gear on your bike!
Back on the road the only issue was dodging the snow clumps blowing off the roofs of cars flying past – really, is it such a difficult task to clean your whole car? Good luck when you brake.
I will admit that my next route was ridiculously optimistic – I went up to the Toyo Tires turnpike entrance, despite the apparent snow on the sides of the roads, and the generally wet surface; looking at the mountains towards Hakone and Odawara, it had obviously had a decent amount of overnight snow. Unsurprisingly, the chap on the gate, looking at bit bemused at myself and the biker rolling up behind me, explained that the road was closed due to snow and ice higher up. So that was Plan A down, so I went to Plan B, which was to continue a nice run down Route 135.
It was still cold, but the sun was a bit higher now, around 9am, and getting a little warmer, however, that road is twisty and the surface was wet and glinting in the sun, and at least once I could feel the back wheel slipping on the white paint from zebra crossings, so between those (and there are many), the manhole covers placed conspicuously on the best riding line, and the twisties, it was a good riding workout.
At about 9.30am, I saw a small McDonalds by the side of the road and decided that this would be my halfway turn around point. Now, I don’t usually like McDonalds but at that time of morning, feeling a bit chilled, I quite fancied a muffin and hot coffee, except I seemed to have stopped at one of the few McD’s which doesn’t have the breakfast menu, so I settled for the smallest hamburger I could order with the largest coffee (no fries). I will also say that the music being played was a pretty decent attempt at an 80′s rock revival which took me back to school disco days.
After the food and coffee I decided to walk a little before getting back on the bike and resting the stomach back on the tank, and followed an under road track to the beach where I chatted to a couple of people fishing off the pier. It really was a beautiful day for it too by this time.
View from the Pier
The ride back was fairly relaxed, even if it was getting a little congested by 10.30 and again, there’s plenty of driver’s who don’t see the point in cleaning snow off the roof. I did stop off at the Nexco Tachibana services for a break and a coffee, and I’m happy to report that whilst the esoteric vending machines which play invigorating Colombian music are still there, the toilets and rest area have been renovated. The outside sitting area has now been encased in glass, so you can get out of the wind a little more. Well done Nexco.
So it was a short run, and hopefully I’ll get somewhere new and a bit further away next time, which at this point is likely to be next month but it was worth it to get out and feel a bit of road under the wheels.
For those interested – Seijin no Hi – became an official national holiday after the Second World War, and celebrates people who have turned 20 since the previous January 15th, and it generally the age people can smoke and drink and do all those other fun things.
Currently, when I’m out on the motorbike, I have two options for leg wear – either my 5.11 Tacticals with the Alpine Stars solid knee protectors, or my Dainese leathers. I’ve always felt a bit vulnerable in the former, but the truth is, for quick runs and errands (statistically when you’re more likely to have an accident) and especially in the hot weather, the leathers can be a bit cumbersome to get on, sit in traffic with and walk around the shopping centre in.
With that in mind, I went looking for some biker oriented jeans or similar, which either had pads, or under which I could use my solid knee pads.I looked at a few places like Aerostich, but after trawling forums, found that Draggin’ Jeans always seemed to get decent reviews. They do a fair sized selection, but in the end, I went for their basic Classic jean – nothing fancy, a thick weave denim with their standard Kevlar weave at key points inside.
Obviously ordering online is always a bit worrying for clothing, but for better or worse it seems that Draggin’ has some limits which may help – as far as I can tell, they only sell 34″ inseam trousers for men. This is a bit longer than my usual 30″ but I thought I could get them altered with minimum fuss, and bike jeans do need to be a little longer than usual.
So how are they? They’re really good. Lets cover fit first: the waist is pretty much exactly what I was expecting in terms of size, and similar to jeans I’ve bought in the UK – but not in Japan. The leg didn’t actually seem that long, and of course sat on the bike, with boots on, you want it to cover your ankles, and they did, and despite obviously being a bit long, they didn’t drag, and a simple measurement showed the seam at 33.5″ so it is pretty much what it says.
They’re very well made – thick denim material with quality stitching. The yellow kevlar weave inside is particularly striking, but it doesn’t feel rough when you’re riding, and does seem to feel like it’s going to help if you end up sliding on some asphalt in the future. They have the usual jean pockets, but I found them a little difficult to get into, which may be a problem for some, but I tend not to put anything in my trousers on the bike anyway.
On the road with the bike, they’re really comfortable, and blocked a surprising amount of wind, though I haven’t tested them in any rain, but I would expect they’d react like all denim – might become cold and wet quickly, with a long dry time. That said, they’re definitely worth the money and a huge improvement on normal jeans and even the 5.11s. I also received some of the basic Knox kneepads, which seem pretty good – 3D molded solid core with a foam outer; interestingly the way to affix them to the jean is to glue a strip of ‘military grade’ velcro (supplied) to the knee area of kevlar weave, and then affix the pad to the corresponding strip of velcro on the pad. I haven’t done this yet, but these are Draggin’s own guidelines, so I see no reason they shouldn’t.
My only point of note on these is that if you had the velcro in, but for some reason didn’t wear the pad, you’re probably going to get a decent red mark on each knee from the velcro. They’re not cheap though – 249AUD (they’re an Australian company), which is about 175USD or about 20,500yen plus shipping. Are they worth it? Yes, I would say they are – a vast improvement over even tough jeans, and whilst not leathers, they do feel safe, warm and comfortable.
December 12th. 2010 marked the second Tokyo Toy Run (check here for last year’s).
Essentially the Tokyo Toy Run was a group of bikers and like minded individuals who got together donations and gifts for two children’s homes and rode down to the venues in an almighty convoy to personally deliver the toys to the kids and staff, and spend the afternoons playing tag, football and whatever else the kids wanted to do until exhaustion kicked in.
It’s based off, and organised by, the Gaijin Riders forum, but pulls in attendees from other forums as well as other bikers we know.
Last year’s event was a huge success, and so I was looking forward to this one. As before, I met up with a few riders I knew from last year’s event and the forum at NAPS Yokohama on Route #1 for those of us coming in from Kanagawa. NAPS must have been following the forum (they’re a sponsor), as they left the chains off the car park this time, so we could get in there to make sure we all knew the run in route and have a chat.
We decided that since ManyBu (sorry, it’s forum handles) had the Garmin Navi, we’d follow him, and since he was on the CB1300, he’d likely be the quickest too; the other rider was SomethingWild, who was also the coordinator for the second children’s home. Unlike last year, I have ETC on my bike this year, so no fiddling around for change at the toll booths, but SomethingWild didn’t, so we’d be waiting for him on the other side of the barriers, which is no problem.
The run in was great – we left NAPS around 6.45am, and essentially ran the Bayshore Route through Yokohama past Haneda to Odaiba, to this year’s meet up point at RICOland. It was a beautiful run-in watching the sun come up, and with minimal traffic and only a single error on the Garmin we made good time, and were already waving at families in cars, and at traffic lights as ManyBu was in a Santa suit, and my bike was pretty well adorned with tinsel and gift boxes.
At RICOland, the car park was already filling up quickly at 7.40, with a lot more santa suits than last year, and honestly, a very healthy demographic across ages, gender and nationality – many more ladies and Japanese for instance, which is a great sign.
An Xmas Tree
The camaraderie at these meet ups is great – there’s just no negativity – and after a period of admiring some of the bikes and their decorations, the core organisers started explaining the plan for the day.
Ready to roll
A few things had changed this year – the meet up being in Odaiba was obviously the first, but then it was much like last year in the middle – a ride over to Daikoku Futou service area for a rest stop and meet up with more riders, and then a ride over to NAPS Sachiura where the staff were ready and waiting for us with marked out car park areas and some more gifts for the homes themselves.
This was where a few competitions were judged (Best Dressed Bike and so on), and we divided up for the two homes – Elizabeth Sanders, which was the home we also supported last year, and Chigasaki Farm Home, a smaller place we were supporting for the first time, which is where I’d chosen to go.
Santas Bike
Considering we had just under a hundred bikes by this point, it’s quite a feat the group can split into two easily, and quickly organise into sub groups with riders with navigation systems in each, and where possible make sure everyone had the right routes in them (they were available as files from the forum beforehand).
Unlike the ride to that point, which was mainly expressways with large groups of bikes, we were now going out onto normal roads, through Kamakura and down onto route 134 meaning we’d be in traffic and we’d be likely to get split up through traffic lights. In the event, it seemed to work out fairly well, no one seemed to get too lost, and that we were sat in traffic meant that people could take our pictures, children could wave at the Santas and we could even explain what it was we were actually doing, which is great. Mid-way down Kamakura’s main street a KTM blew coolant all over the road and Loco’s leg, but aside from that I don’t think there were many mechanical issues which is good – I’d hate to miss out on this through a bike fault.
Rolling, albeit slowly, down that Route 134 was actually quite nice, watching the ocean I’m quite familiar with, and once past Enoshima we could get a little speed up. We saw a tribe of bosazoku coming the other way on their noisily modded 125cc and 250cc’s – they’re a beach staple making as much noise as they can – and a few actually waved as they went past the other way. A shame we couldn’t get into their revving game (it’s against our own Run rules).
Soon enough we were at our final staging point, making sure we hadn’t lost anyone, and that we were all at the right place we prepped up for the final few hundred metres in to the Chigasaki Farm home, off the main road and into the venue down a narrow road.
Wow! It seemed like the whole place was there to applaud us in, both from the home and from a few people who seemed to have just happened to be walking down the street. That was pretty humbling, I have to say. We all just about managed to get a place to park in the small parking /recreation area, and after a few more minutes and some shuffling of vehicles, we managed to get the toy van in, and SomethingWild and the head of the facility managed to get a quick aisatsu done, before we could get all the presents moved into the chapel hall for the staff to divide up later; and the excitement level was already pretty high.
To me the highlight of these days are the actual games, and within minutes I’d got into a football (soccer) kick-about with some other bikers and some kids, before Loco broke out some goal markers and an (American) football we’d brought, along with some belts with velcro’d tabs on for some touch football. I wont pretend I understood the rules, but on 5-a-side with three kids and two bikers on each side, it didn’t seem to make much difference; the kids on my team picked it up way quicker than me (I was still having flashbacks to playing rugby which is a different beast entirely) and they were pretty much winning the game for us. It’s good to win like that sometimes! I don’t know how long we were playing, maybe about an hour, but I was sweating into my santa hat, and one of my team suggested maybe I was a bit overweight and unfit. Frankly, guilty as charged.
Eventually the game wound down, and as people started departing, and the sun got a bit lower we organised about four of the better riders to give the kids rides in the small car park with the others keeping an eye on everything, with the motorbike and sidecar doing circles in the ‘football’ area. That was probably the highlight for some – the kids loved being on the bikes and just bouncing around the bumpy yard at 10km/h.
Somewhat apologetically I had to head away before the bingo kicked off, but it seemed that everyone had had a pretty good day of it, and if nothing else, that was the point.
I think sometimes being in Japan, foreigners can feel a bit outside of things (yeah, hence the term ‘gaijin’ I know), especially with the charity system being quite different to say Europe and the UK. Events like this though remind us that that’s a bit wrong headed sometimes. Everyone on the run found a way to make it happen irrespective of where they came from, and even though it’s technically the bikers helping these kids, when you see some posts in the forum from after the event, and our faces at the homes, I can’t help thinking that in a major way, they’re helping us too.
A Tokyo Toy Run 2011? Already under discussion.
Since I had a half day open for the bike, I decided to go to down familiar roads – along Route 134 along the Pacific Coast, up to Damtraxx Cafe at the top of the Toyo Tires Turnpike, for a brief cup of coffee, and then down the Izu Skyline. Since it was a cold, damp and very misty morning, there were very few cars or bikes on the road up there, as you can see from the pictures, and those who were seemed to be more intent on sticking in the service areas. I don’t blame them – I had my rain gear on and not because the road was wet – it certainly wasn’t – but just the water in the air made my gloves wet. It began to burn off towards noon, but either way, it still made for a decent 205Km of run, on almost empty roads.
Estimated trip length: 202Km.
