Bike-Tour on Nanikore

Coast to Coast 2025

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 10:22:00 +0000

It was time again … time for the Coast to Coast 2025! Was I doing it on a fun little bike, like my Hunter Cub from last year? Nope! No, this year I was back to the good old Tracer, so it was time to mount up with the usual crew, and get ready to get twisty.

Odawara in Kanagawa prefecture, to Joetsu in Niigata prefecture via mountain roads to the tune of 500Km. Bring it on.

We were ready. Maps were loaded, and we and many others were at the start point, admiring that sun rising over the Pacific Ocean. Then more dedicated riders turned up, and instantly started swapping out brake pads. Now that’s a statement of intent.

How can I describe this year’s run? In a word … smooth. Really. I don’t think I’m even retro-tempting fate here, it went well, smooth. Fun, and with no drama. No broken bikes, no revving a 125cc bike to hell in first gear to get up slopes, no one disappearing off the road - just simple, twisty fun.

It was one of those rides where you just flow, the curves came and went, we took turns leading, and had some laughs at the rest stops. There were some odd things; we had to stop at a rail crossroads at one point, and it only occurred to me when I looked at the photos, that we had stopped at exactly the same crossing two years previously (different train though). How random is that.

We made it to Joetsu with a decent amount of daylight left, though we had taken it very easy, and we were all quite impressed at just how smooth things had gone.

At the Route Inn hotel, there was time for a bit of a soak in the onsen, before meeting up for a spot of Italian food with a bunch of other Twistybutters at a nearby restaurant, which looked very nice from the outside, but inside looked like the nicest nuclear bunker you’ve ever seen.

As always, a tip of the helmet to Touge Express for putting the maps together for the ride; be sure to check that site out if you’re riding in Japan.

(This all happened at the beginning of May. I’ve just been very lazy sorting this post out. Thanks.)

Off to Jougashima

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 02:14:00 +0000

I had a day off in February (yes, almost half a year ago), so I went in search of a fish and chip shop rumoured to exist on Jougashima, a small island I think I’d only been to once before, located at the southern tip of the Yokosuka peninsula, a little south west of Yokohama.

I also decided to not get there in a hurry and to stop, smell the roses (or whatever foliage there was), and see what there was to see along the way.

I decided to do a run mainly down the west coast of the peninsula, which can be a little touristy near Hayama and Zushi - towns well frequented for their beaches year round, especially in the Summer, when Tokyo invades, much to the chagrin of the locals.

I was thinking of having a more upmarket breakfast than my usual combini fare, but sadly, the place I was thinking of (the Nagisa Bridge Cafe) was closed for reconstruction - so onigiri and a cup of tea it was at the nearby Famima!

I swung down the coastal road and finally the number of traffic lights calm to a less insane number (if you didn’t know, Japan loves traffic lights, and many are on timers). There’s a small town called Morito, so I stopped at the Daimyoujin Shrine, which is nice in itself, but also backs onto a great view of the coast and ocean, so it’s worth a visit for a sit down and a cup of tea - even better if you brought a camera.

Did I mention the weather was fantastic all day?

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After the shrine and the view it was off again, mainly along R134 to the South, up on to the plateau to see some of the farmlands (and feel some of the crosswinds) before heading back to the coast to take a walk around Arasaki Park.

It’s a very rocky outcrop, rugged but nice on a day like that and some really nice textures in the rock if that’s your thing. There’s plenty of trails and inlets to walk, some rock holes and generally just beautiful views. There’s also plenty of photos to be taken, and places to just stop and have a cup of tea, which is always appreciated.

Finally I crossed the bridge over to Jougashima, which I think the first time I went there I’m quite sure was a toll on that bridge, but not any more it seems!

It’s not a huge island, and it’s sort of split by function into east and west. The west is mostly a harbour and fish and other docks. The east is mostly a park, but with some hiking trails to the south, and there’s a few cafes and hotels sprinkled around.

There’s a good day’s hiking around the island, and as you can see from the photos, some nice places to just stop and look around - small marinas, bits of coastline, but I almost forgot the fish and chip shop, it’s on the dock side, and is actually right on the water, small, and actually looks like a small chippie from the UK.

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Inside they even had salt and malt vinegar, but enough of condiments, lets talk fish and chips! As you can see, the chips are a real size, even the paper cone looks good. The fish is not the usual cod or haddock of course, but actually battered tuna. Actually, it tasted really good in its own right, so I’ll give it a positive review!

All in all then, a great day out, and some good food to, so not much to argue about there.

Twistybutt 11 - Coast to Coast

Sun, 07 May 2023 14:43:01 +0000

April 29th to 30th 2023 marked another one of those wonderful weekends - the 11th Coast to Coast Twistybutt, winding from Manazuru on the Pacific Coast of Japan, over to Joetsu on the Japan Sea coast.

This was my fourth run at this, and every single one of them has been different. My first run - solo - in 2017 took me over 14 hours, finishing in the dark and in the rain, having made hard work of navigation. My second run in 2018 was with a friend, and we made it in to Joetsu around 6.15pm after a decent run, and once again I did all the navigation, but I’d done more useful prep and we made good time. After a break for injury and COVID, I made attempt 3 in 2022, riding in a group of 4-5, but sadly one of our number had an accident requiring an ambulance (he’s long since recovered), and then another member of the groups’ bike died about 35Km from Joetsu, making us even later as we sat outside a 7-11 waiting for a recovery lorry to help jump start the bike, and ate fried chicken products. We finally trudged down main roads into Joetsu at near 8.30pm, but frankly, after what had happened that day, we considered that a success.

This year we were to ride mainly as a 3 person team, with BM meeting up with us at points, as he wanted to stop to take some of his excellent photos along the way.

My prep hadn’t been great - I’d been busier than expected for the few weeks leading up to it, but crucially I had gotten the bike an oil change, the front forks serviced, and I’d topped up coolant and adjusted and lubed the chain, so mechanically I was ready to roll. The next key part - the navigation - I really did fix up just 24 hours before launch, which is much later than I like, but at least it did turn out to be pretty much spot on.

All looked good at the 5am meet-up at Manazuru PA. Only the angling shop was open, but there were vending machines and toilets, and that covers a pretty decent percentage of the needs of many. This was new start venue too, and a nice one, just be careful crossing the road, since it was pretty busy even at that hour.

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Despite fears and forecasts of rain for the day, as you can see it was a beautiful clear morning, and give or take that was mostly how the weather held up for much of the event. Of course you have to have some minor issue before kick-off, and for us, that was EP’s riding jacket blowing its zip and refusing to fasten. That’s not a helpful start, and the only makeshift fix we had was to have him put his rain jacket on top. Luckily his body armour was on a separate layer, so there was little real safety impact, but certainly not a good omen.

c2c-23-start01.jpg" alt=“Sunrise over the Pacific” caption=“Sunrise over the Pacific”

Just after 5am and we were away, skimming Odawara and on our way up to Ashigara. It’s a beautiful first 100Km, watching the low cloud and mist burning off the mountains, and the only people you see are the kind of morning people who are there purely to see it. These are all backroads, so there’s the odd farmer and locals just going about business, then there are some tourist areas as we skirt some of the lakes, before taking the back road up past the Tenkachaya tea and coffee house, and through the tunnel which has long been replaced as a commercial road by the much wider tunnel through the mountain lower down. It’s a beautiful view from the tea house, and a very nice set of twisties to go with it.

It’s normal to have other Twistybutters passing you - you usually end up leapfrogging each other as you all make stops - but this was the first time it felt like some of the overtaking was getting a bit over enthusiastic, and almost bombing in. I guess some people were keen, but as anyone will tell you - it’s a personal challenge and a bit of fun - it’s not a race. Have to see how that develops.

At our first konbini stop, we all added layers. Despite clear skies, it was chillier than expected, and we hadn’t even gotten close to some of the elevation we’d be getting into in the next few hours, so the Lawson toilets become something of a changing room as clothing was added.

It’s at times like this I like my top box. I used to use a dry bag strapped to the pillion seat, but eventually it would slide into my back, and after taking things out and re-packing, the weight always felt different. The top box makes for a much more consistent experience.

As we got into the middle section, we were at a higher elevation in some highlands, and we passed the corner where our friend had his off the previous year, and I think we all made a mental note. All it takes is one bad corner out of a couple of thousands, and your day can change in an instant.

This year, we were all going pretty steady, and despite the jacket issue, no one was really having any gear issues either, just sweeping through farming valleys, making the odd stop for railway crossings, then getting back to the serious business of admiring scenery, and taking the curves. Sometimes you’re just waiting for something to happen (spoiler: nothing bad happened).

That’s not to say there weren’t near misses. As we were going down one short straight section a lady just decided to start crossing the road carrying a couple of bags, and we three bikes coming down the road and our hooters (horns) going didn’t seem to faze her at all, nor even when we slowed and moved as far to the left as we could, she just kept coming, and she only finally stopped halfway across our lane and we passed at walking speed. She seemed completely unconcerned or aware. We also had a few vehicles who slowed for no reason, before suddenly turning left or right but that’s par for the course.

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Then it was back up-hill as we went up to the highest point of the national road system in Japan. It’s not a secret either - there’s a large monument there to mark it. The road up also has the ‘snow walls’ which is a popular photo op too, and people stood next to the 2-3m of snow which often dwarf vehicles on the road. This year, they didn’t seem as high, and everyone in our group has already collected this particular photo, so we had no need to stop for this, or for the monument, which was probably for the best - I’ve never seen so much traffic up here - cars, motorbikes, cyclists and hikers all over, slowing us down, but also making it a little tricky to avoid people posing, and trying to position themselves for the best selfie. It’s worth saying that whilst these ‘set piece’ places do make good mementos, the whole area has just gorgeous vistas in every direction, so you have plenty of choices.

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From there it’s sort-of down hill overall if you like, but for us, there were over 100Km of twisties left to go, and as we made our way through the ski resorts finally closing for the year we pulled over for a break and actually started peeling layers off again, as it really was getting quite warm.

Winding down from Shiga Kogen for me always feels odd, as I frequently snowboard in the area, and everywhere looks familiar and yet different, and you realise what everything looks like under all that snow in the winter.

We made it down into the valley and the resort support town of Yamanouchi before making a turn back into some lower mountains and the farmlands which make up the last 65Km of the journey. I actually love this area - quiet roads between rice fields, which look great as sunset approaches, and you can easily forget what I learned on my first Coast to Coast - that the beauty is in part because of little human interference - no safety features at the side of the road, no cats-eyes, no street lights. As we wound our way through it looked awesome. In a few hours it would look a lot less fun.

There is a point where you come out of the rice fields and wind down for the last time, giving you a view of the small town of Joetsu and the Japan sea, and you know you’re 95% complete and you just have to be a little careful navigating urban streets again and your done. As we got used to traffic lights and pedestrians, two of the group peeled off for their hotels and BM and myself made it to the beach as it was just coming up to 5pm - a very respectable run for me.

The only tour photo I’ve been missing was the ‘Joetsu Beach at Sunset’ one, and whilst it wasn’t a terrific sunset, I do finally have it, and so we sat in the local cafe (Umineko or ‘sea cat), had a nice non-alcoholic beverage and a burger until the sunset really had passed and we headed back to hotels.

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The Day After

The day after a twistybutt there are many things people do - some head off for more days of touring, some do stretches of the previous days rides in reverse, some go to get some photos and then hit the expressway, and some go back on completely different roads.

However, it seemed like it had been raining most of the night, and was still coming down, with a lot of surface water.

My plan this year was pretty relaxed - leave around 9am, maybe stop at Lake Nijiri again, then head to my friend’s new house in Nagano-Ken and say hello.

As it was, I had breakfast and bumped into a Twistybutter I knew by name but whom I’d never actually met and we chatted for 45 mins., then I got my things together and after fuelling up bumped into a couple more twistybutters and exchanged tales of the previous day, and our plans for that day at the side of the forecourt.

I eventually hit the road at nigh on 11am, and the rain was still coming down, albeit not as heavy as before. The idea of a coffee break at the lake had long since been mentally dropped. I rode the first 40Km on the expressway with an old friend, and when he peeled off, it was just me on the expressway for almost 180Km. That’s a strange feeling after riding in a group though a ton of twisties the previous day.

The rain was off and on, and that’s one of the fun things about mountainous countries like Japan - it’s not like the UK where you can often see weather fronts moving over the rolling hills far in the distance, here you go into a 5Km mountain tunnel with rain coming down and puddles on the roads, and emerge into a completely dry but maybe windy valley. That’s why tunnels often have warning signs for people to prepare for coming out.

I found my friend’s new place (it’s truly awesome), and instead of a one hour chat and re-hydration, I chatted with him and his family for nigh on four hours! So there I was, waving goodbye and heading back down the farm tracks at 5.30pm, looking for the nearest expressway entrance.

Often the return journeys on C2Cs can feature some heavy traffic since it’s the first weekend of Golden Week - a collection of national holidays in Japan. However, this year, all of those holidays are bunched around the second weekend, meaning my run back was actually quite light on traffic, and those remaining 170Km fairly flew past with just a quick fuel top up, and a couple of tea breaks, pulling up at my house at 8.30pm.

All in all, an awesome weekend of almost 1,000Km of riding. The weather gods mostly smiled on us, as did the road safety gods, and you can’t say fairer than that for sure.

All the best to those at Touge Express for the route and help, and to EP, SM and BM for being awesome riding partners, and definitely looking forwards to C2C 2024.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Touge — 2023-05-31

Good stuff G!

Empty Beach in Golden Week

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 12:07:14 +0000

During Golden Week I thought I’d stop off and get some photos of people sea fishing off the beach and some of the jetties where the Hayakawa meets the Pacific Coast, so I packed up my cameras on to the bike, a flask of tea, and off I went.

(Golden Week is a collection of national holidays here in Japan, and is usually ~ 3days, but this year, with the new Emperor, we ended up with a metric pile of them.)

Unfortunately I had missed the memo which must have said that all the people I often see on that beach had to take the day off. Still, it was an interesting bit of coastline to take a look at, despite the emptiness, so lets see how much I can squeeze out of it!

I got off the main toll road which runs down and above the coast, and rode through some local streets, trying to find a road which looked like it would end appropriately near the beach itself. I found one by essentially following the dog walkers, re-enforcing one of those things about life - dog walkers always seem to know the best places. This particular road ended with a ramp and some steps down to the sand under the aforementioned toll road overhead, near some quite reasonably designed toilets and a barrier I expect is deployed in the busier summer months to stop people just driving on through to the ocean.

No, I did not take the Tracer down onto the sand. Therein lies disaster and tears.

View Larger Map

So this was when I realised that the place was pretty much empty. I’d been hoping to watch the beach fishermen and women, and get some kind of insight into the hobby of beach fishing, but there was just a solitary enthusiast on the end of a pier, and he looked like he was ready to take a break anyway. He was perhaps disheartened that he too didn’t get the memo either.

Tetrapods

This particular stretch of beach had a couple of types of coastlines defence too - tetrapods or similar. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but there are a lot of them around the place, but then Japan is an archipelago on the side of a vast ocean so defending the coastline is likely high on the agenda. It also creates construction jobs, and I’m sure friends of the government have liked that too.

I expect there is something oddly satisfying about these huge concrete blocks and the regularity of their shapes which appeals to your average bureaucrat.

Empty Beach .. but Always Someone

If there’s one thing I know from nearly a decade near this ocean, it is that there is always someone around the beach. There was the solitary fisherman, but then a trickle of people, some walking dogs, some seemingly just come to look at the ocean for a few minutes to take in the sights, sounds and smell and then head back to whatever they were doing. One older gent in his jogging outfit walked down the peer, drank his can of chuuhai (rice wine and in this case, lemon), and continued walking down the beach.

Wall Art

One thing I did get to see, amongst the damaged warning signs, mild amounts of rubbish (both washed up and dropped), was some interesting wall art. Along one wall we had some grafitti, and on another was a mural seemingly painted by a local school in the Summer of 2011, just months after the massive tsunami which devastated a large section of the north east coast of Honshu island. It seems odd it’s in the area under the road, rather that in the sea-facing side, but it is there, half hidden behind tetrapods.

More About The Waves

Another nod towards the waves which lap the coastline is a mural near the pier warning about high waves complete with a rendition of Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, just to get the point across. Whilst the surf was relatively quiet whilst I was there, it’s easy to imagine the odd rogue wave coming in, potentially knocking people in who weren’t paying attention.

Not a Life Boat

Whilst I was wandering, and drinking my tea, I noticed there was actually another ramp which I’d missed, and at the top was a small boat. For a moment I thought this was some kind of life-saving launch, a bit like the coast guard or RNLI we have in the UK, but when I got to the top it was obvious this was some kind of damaged and abandoned boat, which is a shame as it looked like it’d be a good size for the bay, and that ramp looked like there was some run rolling potential, but alas no. I do wonder if it was intended to launch from there at some point.

Maybe Another Day

I have to believe come the summer proper, this place will be much busier as it has those big ramps and a fair sized toilet facility, so maybe in a few months I’ll come back and bring my bikini. Having often seen people here before, I think I just picked the wrong day in the midst of the 10 days of national holidays to celebrate Golden Week and Reiwa, and reminds me that sometimes you’re just not in the right place at the right time!

Twistybutt 8 - Coast to Coast 2018

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 21:04:19 +0000

TL;DR: An awesome 500Km TwistyButt run across Japan, having a great time on bikes with friends before food and beer. No bad way to spend a day.

“This is not an easy ride! You will be on the road for the best part of daylight and maybe more than 12 hours with little time to just cruise and zone out. It is a true feast of twisties that even gluttons have trouble swallowing.”

Touge Express

The Coast to Coast Twistybutt is an informal event put on each year for bikers in Japan by the Touge Express site. We would be riding from sea level at Odawara in western Kanagawa prefecture by the Pacific Ocean, all the way over the spine of Japan to 2,172m on the highest national road in the country, and then on to Joetsu in Niigata prefecture, on the Japan Sea coast.

This was my second attempt at the 500Km route, having clocked in a 15 hour time last year, rolling in tired and wet to the hotel at 8pm. I loved it, I was hooked.

This year I had a few goals - to ride better, to ride smarter, but overall, to be better prepared.

I’d trimmed my gear down from not-so-much, to downright minimal, so that instead of a waistbag and a camping drybag, I was just using a jacket pocket and one of my bicycle’s panniers, down to puncture kits, tools, fasteners, safety kit and a change of clothes. I’d spent more time really understanding my navigation app ( OSMAnd +), and understood how gpx GPS tracks worked on it, and spent a few hours in Kurviger.de making a track from the ‘official’ route.

This year I was riding with an old friend (CS), who has been riding far longer than me, but this was his first go on the C2C. We woke around 3am, got prepped, got that all important cup of tea in, and with gear safely strapped to the bikes, we set off into the dark, under that weird illumination of a full moon.

The few other bikes we saw en route were all fellow twistybutters it seemed, and rolling down the coast road to Odawara we were all waves and enthusiasm.

We met at the base of a toll road as it has a small but convenient car park, which we promptly filled with just over 80 motorcycles, from 110cc SuperCub copies, to elegant and classic Kawasaki’s, to big BMW 1200GSs and pretty much everything in between.

It’s a totally international field of riders as well as the machines, and everyone took photos, exchanged last minute tips, realised flaws in their plans and eagerly awaited the off. After a reminder from the Touge Express team about road etiquette and safety, at around 5.15am we set off with a mere 500Km of twisties ahead.

I again found the first 50Km awkward as I was navigating for the two of us, and generally I don’t ride following a route, so I had to remember to check my turns and not disappear along a beautiful road, but which wasn’t the specific beautiful road I should be on.

(It also became apparent from the profanity levels at stops, that my riding partner’s Google Map / Smartphone system was not working for him at all, so it was looking like I’d be leading the whole way!)

Bounding along on my Tracer with CS’s Triumph Tiger 1200 Explorer’s familiar lights in my mirror felt good in the brisk morning sun, as we twisted towards Fuji, and I had to keep to a point I’d made: I wasn’t going to stop for photos every few kilometres early on like I had the previous year. It’s a difficult promise to keep as many of the views we’d pass by are stunning, and at one point we skirted Fuji, with low cloud barreling down a valley towards it looking like a wave lapping up on a beach. OK, maybe I should’ve have gotten that picture.

(I should also say we were riding with another chap, EP, but for reasons unknown he took another route, but thankfully he made it to Joetsu! )

The roads on the south end of the route were decent as some are well travelled tourist roads, so we made good time as at this early hour there were just a few cars around, mainly photographers looking for that early morning Fuji shot.

After the initial barrage of turns, as we neared Kofu, we traversed a kind of valley bottom between mountain ranges, and you’re reminded that there exist flat, and even straight roads, which suddenly feel wrong. It wasn’t many kilometers though before we were back climbing up into new mountains and more touge, meandering through small villages.

We really only stopped for fuel or for a quick snack, drinks and to stretch our legs around every 100Km. At the 200Km stop for refreshments (and for CS to get caught with his trousers down again, adjusting his knee protectors), we encountered probably Japan’s most minimally stocked convenience store. It was like some homage to late eighties eastern bloc shops I remembered seeing - empty shelves, and half of what products they had were local wines and other alcohol. The staff though were two very friendly old ladies who chatted with us, and made a point of bringing out their personal rubbish bin when I was trying to find somewhere to throw some rubbish.

This kind of interaction seems normal when motorcycling here in Japan, everyone in the mountains just has time for people, and if you’re on the road, then that’s a talking point. When we took on fuel around 300Km, we had a good chat with the old gents running the place about why we were on the road, where in Japan we had set off from, how long it had taken, and where we were going. In fact we were quite appreciative as we’d passed a few petrol stations which were either closed for good, or closed for the Golden Week holiday which had just started. (Oddly, I really start looking for fuel when I’m down to half, even though half would still likely get me ~ 150Km.)

We bumped into a fellow Twistybutter just a few kilometers later when we were looking for some more refreshments at a large Seven Eleven, and he was relaxing with a cigarette, his CBR600 parked up, and with that riding position for a few hundred kilometres, I can see why you’d be stretching out. We exchanged tales of the ride thus far, and other riders we’d seen.

One thing we’d both seen was another biker on a big BMW coming the other way with his pannier wide open at the back. I remembered as I was waving at him and pointing at the back of my bike and him. I don’t think I got my point across.

One reason for that is the ‘biker wave’ - we wave at each other as a salutation as we pass, to say hello, or to pass on information, but sadly I don’t know what the correct gesture is for ‘your side box is open and I think everything has fallen out’. I think he just interpreted my motions as sheer enthusiasm.

It has to be said though, as the day went on, the road quality started to get patchy. Or indeed non existent. We had a stretch of about 100m of basically gravel and stone downhill where they were looking to put asphalt down at some point. Going down this wouldn’t have been much of an issue for either of us, except that there were a couple of cars coming up who apparently had to be in the centre of the track, and would not negotiate, so we were left to get through the rough side sections. It’s all good practice.

I should say at this point that there isn’t much traffic on most of this route, and the vast, vast majority of cars on twisties will move to the side and wave you past. These were the exceptions to that.

We went over some quite badly maintained roads, down through some valleys where there was plenty of debris on the road, as well as the required tar snakes, ripples of asphalt and general subsidence leading to significant drops from mountainsides.

It’s part of the deal - we have great mountains and thus touge and twisties because of Japan’s location on the rim of fire, and the typhoons and long deep winters take their toll. Indeed this year there was a change of route due to one road being closed for nearby volcanic activity. That’s the trade-off - not all of these places can be maintained beyond adequate levels, and I’m fine with that.

We pushed on, savouring the views. At one point I got myself caught in a ragged trench running down the centre of the road when I was looking to overtake a farm vehicle, and had to wrestle the front wheel out of the rut and get back into a lane before anything came the other way, I managed it, but it made me a lot more wary of passing in that area.

Almost the only photo stop we made was at the snow walls on route 292, not far from the highest national road in Japan sign, and a truly beautiful view to see, and something of a tourist attraction, and after several hours of there not being much humanity, it’s a friendly reminder. I have to say this is my favourite section I think, riding between banks of snow, awesome vistas, small streams of melt rolling across the road, and the dedicated skiers getting the last runs of the year in before strapping things back to their cars and heading down, whilst the hotels reconfigure themselves for cycling and hiking season.

Winding down into the next valley, and cutting through a small town it was getting into later afternoon, and we were about to start on the last full set of twisties, which are mainly unmarked single lane farmers roads, and which the previous year I’d done in the dark, in the rain and hadn’t really enjoyed it. This time I was a few of hours earlier, it was dry, so I got to enjoy a wonderful ride down into Joetsu during the golden hours towards sunset, with the light bouncing off the fields and ponds.

We also passed a lady on a mobility scooter coming the other way. Uphill. In the middle of nowhere. The biker spirit never leaves some people it seems.

The last section is a quick highway burn into the town itself, and we rolled into the Hotel car park literally twelve hours after we’d left Odawara, with the sun just about to set.

All that was left to do was a soak in the onsen and have a few beers with the other riders, make sure everyone was safe, exchange stories and bike scars and share a few laughs before getting some sleep, to be fresh again for the next day, where some would continue to other parts of Japan, but where I would be making my way back home.

All in All

It was another fantastic Twistybutt, good times with good people. It’s a great opportunity to challenge and improve your riding skills, or recognise where you need to put some work in. It’s also a good time to learn your bike, how to pack it, how to navigate on it, and if you’re riding with other riders, how to effectively communicate, or agree beforehand how you’ll proceed.

The main thing I learned from last year’s coast to coast, which not only saves time, but boosts enjoyment on the day: knowing the route is everything.

This could be by running it beforehand, or just having a solid mental picture of the turns from studying a map of Touge Express’s route. It also includes having a method of navigation which you know and understand. For me this also included having a far better idea of how GPS tracks, routes and maps work.

Last year I had the source route (the golden master) on Google Maps, and I exported it from Furkot as a GPX route and imported it, seemingly successfully, into OSMAnd+. It didn’t work so well. OpenStreetMap and Google Maps are subtly different, and when I missed a turn my smartphone would then try to recalculate to the next waypoint, which may or may not be on the golden master route. I also didn’t fully understand some of OSMAnd+s options, further adding to route recalculation. It all added up to wasted time and missed turns.

This year I used Kurviger (which also uses OSM) to make a 1:1 track copy of the golden master, which then looked 100% correct on my phone, and I set OSMAnd+ to just use that, so if I missed a turn, it wouldn’t recalculate, it would just point to where I left the track. that was pretty much exactly what I wanted, and was the key to making the navigation portion a case of checking turns in advance, and actually in 500Km I only missed one turn as it was a fairly small hook turn in a forest, forcing us to do a U turn a hundred metres later.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Sanjeev Kumar — 2018-06-20

Great Post Sir !!!! Really refresh those moments of C2C, This year i used Moton GPX on my iphone & it works flawless ( i imported latest route)

After C2C, i continue my journey towards Shikoku, had a great time,

I have not started processing videos, will do so soon.

gurahamu — 2018-06-25

Thanks! Glad you made it yourself too - and went off on your own tour. I’m definitely looking forward to the videos. How did you find the navi app compared to Google Maps last time? ;)

Coast to Coast Twistybutt?

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 03:16:53 +0000

At the tail-end of Golden Week this year (May 5th to be exact) I took part in Touge Express’ 2017 Coast to Coast Twistybutt, an invitational run across Japan from the Pacific Ocean to Japan Sea purely via the mountain pass roads or ’touge’ as they’re known. 500Km of turns with the occasional short local road connecting them.

If you were on a straight road, you were probably on the wrong road.

So where is the tale of this crossing? I did write one, but it’s not here, it’s on a real motorcycle website, so thanks to Chris and everyone at RideApart for bringing tales from the touge to the broader world - they’ll be all the better for it!

The Twistybutt - Japan’s Iron Butt Challenge

Shimoda and the Hosono Highlands

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 17:38:16 +0000

There’s a little known requirement that you have to go on a full day out on your motorbike within a week of getting it.

Actually, that’s not true. But it should be true.

To do my part then, I decided to take a day off and ride down the Pacific coastal roads to the southern end of the Izu peninsula, to Shimoda.

I love coastal roads; just riding along, with the vast ocean on one side - hopefully with a sturdy looking metal barrier between you and the cliff down to that ocean - and a rising mountain on the other.

If this sounds good to you, then welcome, and come on down to Routes 134 & 135 on Japan’s Pacific coast.

The day started at around 7am, I’d gotten all my layers on, and warmed the bike up a little too, and then made sure I had a hot flask of tea in my backpack. The sky was a perfect blue, with almost no cloud, bright sunshine, and most importantly at that time - no ice or dampness on the road.

Since I was exploring the new Yamaha as well as the road, I decided to give one of the ‘other’ riding modes a shot - it has A, B and Standard. I’d only been using standard up until now, but decided to give ‘B’ a try as this is intended as the smoother, power-reduced rain mode. I thought that would give a nice gentle start to the day. Indeed it is exactly what that suggests - it’s smooth - it really is a wonderful mode to start the day on. It still pulls, there’s still the torque, but it’s like it’s massaging you into the ride.

The coastal road I take is a toll road, it’s true, but raised up, you get to look down on to the beach and the rivers flowing into the ocean as the sunrise hits the beach and you get to see the sun on the side of Fuji-san, all snow capped, before looking left again at the handful of surfers and fishing enthusiasts casting out from the beach. Part way along this straight section is the Seisho Bypass Service Area (SA). It’s often a big meeting spot for motorcycle groups, but as I approached it I didn’t see a single bike unfortunately, so I passed it by this time. When I’m riding alone, if I see some people in there, I’ll sometimes stop off for a chat and exchange route ideas and good stopping points - but not today!

There was something of a cross-wind on the road, but unlike the old Honda, this was much less tiring (and chilling) thanks to just the small amount of fairing and screen on the Tracer, and the bike held its speed more consistently.

Once you get a little past Hayakawa at the west end of the road, the twisties start kicking in, rising and falling around the cliff edges, switching from cliff cutout roads, to short bridge sections seamlessly. It’s fun. Again, there’s a choice of free roads with a little more traffic, or toll roads, with a little more flow. Be aware some of these toll roads are not ETC/NEXCO ones, you need to stop and pay, a bit like the Izu Skyline.

The road takes you down past coastal towns like Manazuru, Atami and Ito, but as I rode along I saw a couple of small signs for some place called ‘Hosono Highlands’, which sounded interesting, so I turned up an already narrow road, up into the hills, where the road gave way to a narrow, barely paved forest track, past some camping and cabin areas, before popping out into a clearing with what looked like some brand new parking spaces - the Hosono Highlands!

I parked up, and was having a nice cup of two when a couple of cars pulled up coming the other way, and out jumped eight retired people, who made a bee-line for the bike and we spoke for about ten minutes about why we were all here - they had planned to come up, to see the highlands, whereas I was there almost by accident. We also discussed whether Japan still makes good motorbikes (they do), whether English is difficult to learn (it is), and after a swift toilet break, they jumped back in their cars and left. One of the drivers had commented the road extended further up in to the the mountain, past a golf course, to the wind turbines I could see higher up.

It looked like a nice road, so after pondering the view, I decided to go up a bit further. For about a kilometre it a was fun, cracked road surface, steep inclines and corners, with autumnal leaf-fall and branch debris here and there, so it took some concentration.

Anyhow, I came around a corner into a shady wooded area and saw what looked like a run-off stream actively flowing across the road. Not so unusual in the hills around here, but only when I was too close to it did I realise from the reflections that it was actually solid ice.

Pants.

All I could do was make no change to my speed or direction and hope I was balanced enough to get over. Fortunately it seemed I was, though for a second or two I could feel the ice passing under the tyres, but my momentum carried me over. I decided to get off and take a look at how this thing had duped me, and sure enough the water had frozen in rivulets rather than as a flat sheet, and was well over a centimeter thick even at its thinnest point. I decided then it was better to GPS mark the road, and come back to do it in the Spring, rather than have less luck further up!

Fortunately, those leaves and such at the side of the road had virtually no ice on them, and so it was quite simple to walk the bike back down that way, bypassing the frozen stream. It was disappointing, but that road will make a nice addition to a future day out on warmer days.

Back down to the coast road, and more great views and soon another small road, this time down to a beach, which, given that it was about 5degC., was pretty much deserted. However, given the blue skies and sunshine, if you didn’t know that, you could think from a photograph it was a wonderful Summers day.

It’s called Sotoura Beach, and when the weather gets a little warmer, has quite a good crowd down there. On this day though, it was just me, and some fisherman repairing nets in the small harbour nearby.

(Note that in a few photos my bike looks like it is on sand - it isn’t - I walked out to check the area and found it was actually an old asphalt car park with a very thin layer of sand and gravel on it.)

After another cup of tea just looking at that blue ocean, I pushed on just a few more kilometres to my lunch spot, the appropriately named Cafe Mellow

[As this post is a little long, I won’t fully recount the trip back, which was yet more happy riding, avoiding some bad drivers, and getting to test the headlights out. I’ll also see if I can get a short road video together for it. After 350Km that day, I have to say, I’m really pleased with the Tracer for sure. ]

明けましておめでとうございます 2016!

Sun, 03 Jan 2016 07:27:17 +0000

A slightly belated [greeting]((/2017/01/05/%E6%98%8E%E3%81%91%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%8A%E3%82%81%E3%81%A7%E3%81%A8%E3%81%86%E3%81%94%E3%81%96%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%992017/) into 2016, which we’ll be calling Heisei 28. It’s all about the reign of the Emperors, and is designed to confuse me when I come to sort my taxes out next month.

We did the midnight tick-over at home with the family, but for Hatsuhinode - the first sunrise of the year - I was out on the motorbike to meet up with some friends. Since I was riding into the sunrise, I thought I’d get the old GoPro Hero 2 out and do a timelapse:

We met up at a Konbini, and I was able to get my traditional biking breakfast of onigiri, but this one was unfortunately common - grilled salmon (焼き鮭) but still did the trick.

Then it was time to ride back up the 134 through lighter traffic, to meet up with a few more people at the Seisho SA, which boasts a great view of the bay, clean toilets and allows you to enjoy the quality musical coffee machines. I never get bored of this Pacific Ocean road on the bike, and just have to remember to take my turn inland - it’s easy to just keep following this road down the Izu pensinsula.

From there, it was on up to the Mazda Skylounge to take in the view along the Mazda turnpike (now 520yen one way).

At the Skylounge you can guarantee a good selection of people on any given day, and here on New Year’s Day I was impressed to see a steady stream of older people - alone and in groups - come up in taxis, take in the view and perhaps have a drink, then get back in the taxis to wherever they’d come from. For myself I had a cup of tea and decided to try the chili cheese hot dog. In no way traditional, or even advisable, but it did taste pretty good. No photo sadly.

Finally, thanks to Frank for getting a line-up shot and for putting the day together:

Here’s to hoping 2016 continues as well as it started, and all the best to everyone.

Bike Tour: Lakes, Tea and Senbei

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 06:46:17 +0000

It’d been quite a few weeks since I’d been out on the motorbike for a day trip, so when my old friend CS offered up the middle day of a 3 day weekend for a trip out in November, I was up for it, and so spent some time staring at my Touring Mapple book and Google Maps to see where we could put in a few hundred kilometres.

The Classy Meet Up

As I’m all about style and culture, I had decided we should meet up on the infamous 246 road before moving up into the mountains of central and western Kanagawa Prefecture. The meeting place: The Eastern Gods Truck Station. Well technically it’s the Toushin Truck Station, but the literal translation of the kanji sounds a lot better in my opinion. Yes, it’s a truck stop - a fair sized one too - with a restaurant, showers, some rooms, and of course ample parking for large trucks, and a smaller area for vans. We parked up in the latter car and van park, CS’s Triumph Tiger 1200 dwarfing some of the vans, whilst everything dwarfed my CB400.

A cup of tea and a catch-up later we were on the 246 for a little while before heading north on the 412 and then moving onto the 413 and pushing west. The 413 is a decent road - well surfaced, the odd narrow portion, with plenty of twisties to play on. For the most part you’re going along valleys, but at elevation, so expect some dampness and mist, especially on an overcast day like we were on. It was at this point I discovered the mist loved settling on my visor and stubbornly refused to roll off, so I need to sort that out.

Doushi Road

About half way along, we came across a rest area near the town of Doshi, and sailing past all those people in cars who like to queue for parking spaces, we parked up in the bike area which was packed with bikes and bikers - men, women and children of all ages, with all manner of bikes, trikes and quads. It was a good place to take a break, with people queuing for various hot snacks or grilled chicken, pork, vegetables , some tasty looking grilled fish, as well as a shop selling powdered radish roots, fresh veg and other things there was no way I could fit on my bike. In the end I had a bottle of hot lemon juice from the the vending machine. A missed opportunity in retrospect - I should have queued for the grilled fish.

Back on the road, more twisties, but then a slower section in traffic around lake Yamanaka. I always like the lakes around Mt. Fuji, especially for the novelty ferries. I didn’t take a picture, but Yamanaka had the giant swan ferry on the water as we rode past.

Another missed food opportunity here: we went past several nice local places and pulled away from the commercialized lake area,and only when we were stopping for some fuel did we decide we were hungry, by which point our only real option was the nearby Royal Host. It’s perfectly acceptable as a place to eat, but as a franchise, we’d usually avoid it.

As CS has a GPS system, he oddly likes to make use of it, and due to this, it likes to run him a merry jaunt on occasion. This time, instead of taking us to a small tea house on a mountain road I had spied on Google Maps, it decided we really wanted to sit in more traffic around the outskirts of the larger Kawaguchi lake in a market stalls area where it continued to confidently claim the tea shop was always 3 minutes away,.

After fifteen minutes, we called it out, told it we weren’t happy, did U-turns and followed my direction following my paper map. That was better. Or at least it was better for a while, since on the 137, we were to look for road 708, a svelte mountain road where this legendary tea shop would be waiting for us. Unfortunately CS was a couple of cars in front of me, and he missed the turn. This left me bombing up the road thinking I was way behind, arriving at the beautiful tea-shop and realising it was just me. Long story short, CS did finally locate the place, and it was worth it.

Tea Time

It’s called Tenkachaya (天下茶屋), as in, ‘whole world under heaven’ tea shop. They also make and sell senbei rice crackers. There’s no parking as such, and the collection of cars and bikes basically hug the sides of the road. Inside it’s all wood, modestly lit, and very relaxing. The staff were really friendly, and explained what was available in the shop and on the menu. That’s when we noticed we’d misunderstood something. They do sell tea - indeed they give you a complimentary cup when you sit down - but their speciality is a blend coffee. I had to have one, and yes, it was very good. Also, the senbei were sweet, sort of lemon flavoured, and the staff advised us to break them in their plastic wrappers before eating because they could probably stop a bullet. They do taste rather good though, so we bought some as omiyage to take away too. It’s by itself really on that 708 road, which the tunnel making it far quicker to get to and from the lake, but it is worth the ride/drive up for a rest stop and to take in the view.

After that good rest we started winding our way towards the Chuo expressway, joining at it’s southern starting point, and following it east. There was plenty of traffic - perhaps people returning Sunday night to avoid the read traffic insanity of the Monday return, so we ended up filtering for a couple of kilometres before stopping before the Hachioji junction where we parted ways. My route would take me onto the newer Ken-O extension south. I like the road as it’s not so busy, there’s plenty of distance between junctions, and even though there aren’t yet service areas, it’s a relaxing ride though I should note, there’s no street lights along some sections, so with just me on my bike, even with the headlight on, it felt oddly isolated.

The only notable thing on that final stretch was that all the auto-payment arches (ETC) were broken on my exit ramp, so I had to stop and get off my bike, get my bike seat off to give the chap on the gate my ETC card so he could manually check it through, then put it all back together. I’ve never had to do that before. Odd really.

All in all a good day out.

(An aside here: the lake is called Kawaguchiko. That ‘ko’ denotes lake [湖], and though most signs in English say Lake Kawaguchiko, it’s technically Lake Kawaguchi I think).

Bike Tour: Shouganai Dam

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 02:23:07 +0000

Imagine if there was a place called ‘such is life’. Well, potentially in Japan, there is, and it’s a huge dam. The Shouganai dam. I say potentially, as it’s a bit of a kanji joke - the name - Ogouchi - is written in kanji as 小河内, which with a liberal interpretation, could phonetically be read as ‘shouganai’, which is the Japanese equivalent of ‘such is life’. Yes, puns in Japanese can be many layered.

Anyway, getting past all that, when I found the Shouganai Dam on the map, I knew I had to go and take a look - partly for the name, partly because dams are usually impressive, but mainly because the twisty roads through the mountains to it were just so enticing to a biker such as myself.

View Larger Map

Route Planning
I planned my route similar to my previous Tanzawa / Yabitsu Touge route, because it’s accessible but fun, coming in from the south on route 246, keeping on the back roads and those mountain routes pretty much all the way up, but then planned to come out to the east through the rural roads, and then get on the Ken O expressway to come back [map at the end of the post].

On the Road
I was out of my house by seven am sharp, and the weather was fantastic - dry, sunshine, mid 20s degC., not too humid, and made my way up to the Route 246 in fairly light traffic. Some people may have seen Route 246 as a course on Gran Tourismo. In real life, on a bad day, it’s far worse, especially in mid Kanagawa, where is it one of the main free roads west. Fortunately for me, Saturday morning wasn’t too busy and I could make good time, and not have to stop at every single traffic light, every 100metres, which is sometimes the case.

A few Km down and it was time for the interesting right turn onto Route 70. Interesting for a couple of reasons, mainly the convenience store after the right, which I usually stop off at for a breakfast snack, and partly for the petrol station on the opposite corner - a great place to fuel up, but between the crossroads and the various entrances/exits for these two businesses, you have to be a little careful on two wheels.

Whenever I have to use franchised outlets for things, I prefer to at least try something new, and this time, at that 7-11 on the corner, they had a new onigiri (rice ball) - dry curry - which they even heated up for me. It was nice. It was very nice. I would recommend it. You can also chat to the many cyclists and bikers who often use the place as a meet up spot, as it effectively marks the beginning for people starting a run on the Yabitsu pass.

Route70 is a pleasure to ride - starting off with gentle curves, a steady incline, not many traffic lights, and lightly used roads. As you get up to the pass roper (as delineated by a larger bus stop, a gate, and a small bridge), the road narrows and widens, the bends are sharper, compensated for by fantastic views off one side - just beware cyclists coming the other way at speed down! I think I did a whole post on the Yabitsu Pass, or Yabitsu Touge as it’s known.

At the end of the pass there are a few ways to go, but this time, as I was heading further north, I took a left I’d not taken before, and since I was getting a little thirsty, I was looking for somewhere to stop. Then, just a few hundred metres from the junction, there was this nice Sunkus with some patio tables outside, so I bought a lettuce sandwich and an ice coffee, and watched all the various two wheeled vehicles come and go for a while, before setting off again, and regretting I hadn’t brought my CamelBak water-bottle on what was turning into a nice hot day.

Off again, from Route 64 to 518, twisting higher up into the next group of mountains, then a few junctions and up to Route 76, and over into Fujino. I wasn’t planning to, but I actually got off to take a few photos there - it’s a small almost-town where two rivers meet. It’d be very picturesque if it weren’t for the factory perched up on one mountainside. I’m going to say it’s a concrete factory, but I can’t back that up.

More uphill turns which were plenty of fun, and just great cornering out of and above Fujino, and keeping an eye out for a petrol station, since I’d hit the half tank point and I like full tanks. I missed one, a nice, small, local one which I kind of regret as there was a small group chatting on the forecourt, and so I ended up a few kilometres later on at a Cosmo - nice people though. Then I was through Uenohara, which seemed like a tranquil town save for its very congested main road, then up again into the countryside up to the dam. I came in from the south, weaving along the narrow road, but always with fantastic views, until I came to a small car park on one corner, overlooking the lake.

Actually, that lay-by had a camera club or something there, all with nice looking cameras with large zoom lenses all adorned with camouflage for some reason - I mean, they’re sat next to silver cars in a stopping area, chatting, so they’re not exactly blending in to the wilderness but I’d guess there is some bird watching to be done. One chap was also flying his drone out over the valley - I should have asked him where he uploaded to. I should have asked what birds they were hoping to spot too.

More twisties and we’re down to the level of the rivers and the lake behind the dam, and some nice small bridges. The lake is called Okutama, after the local area, and the small nearby town. I stopped to have a drink at one of a couple of restaurants nearby - both looked a little worn, but the staff were friendly, and the drinks were cold, and on a hot day like it had become, that was enough in itself.

Then it was on to the dam itself, which is a huge wall of concrete as one might expect. There’s a visitors centre, and a generous carpark too, which is free. On this day, it was pretty much empty, but given the coach spaces and the visitors centre having a lot of child friendly areas, I suspect it gets a lot of school visits.

I decided to take a walk across the top of the dam, despite the heat, and even though it is what it is, it’s still impressive to see a 100m plus drop on one side, and water on the other. I also went up one of the viewing towers, which have some basic models in them and don’t add much beyond some welcome air conditioning.

There’s not much on the other side of the dam - a shrine for the areas drowned, and presumably those who died in its construction, and a hiking route, which I followed for a couple of kilometres, but biker gear is not the best wear to go mountain hiking in this kind of heat! I’d be interested in coming back and doing it though, as it looks like a nice route.

It’s a very tranquil place all told, and I spent a couple of hours sitting and walking around it, talking a little with the staff in the towers and visitors centre, so it was a good destination, even though I was more interested in the way of getting up there.

Leaving the dam was simple enough though there are a couple of road signage oddities which clearly sent some people the wrong way, but I headed out from the east, through tunnels which varied in age from bubble era 1980s concrete ones, to ones which dripped water from their ceilings, and which I imagined had been blasted out in the early 1900s. The road out isn’t as twisty to the east and you soon get on roads which are more frequently punctuated by villages, but it’s still a nice run.

I’d taken a little longer than I planned up to the dam and at it, so I was thinking of ending the day with some expressway riding, and make use of the extension to the Ken O to Ebina and Chigasaki. It was a nice fast run, but there aren’t any services on it, so make sure you take a toilet break or have a drink before you get on! As a new road of course - and not busy when I got to it - the asphalt was beautifully smooth, and it was nice to watch houses and rice fields fly past (at the legal speed limit of course).

All in all, another great day out, and I’d go back to Ogouchi to be honest - great runs, friendly people to chat with on the way, and plenty of small places to stop and check out.

Here’s a few more pictures, which include the obligatory bike shot:

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Darryl — 2015-09-02

Looked like an awesome day out in the mountains. A well-written and enjoyable article to read, too.

gurahamu — 2015-09-02

Thanks Darryl. I definitely recommend giving it a run, but again, watch out for hikers in Yabitsu in season.

Bike Trip to Tanzawa

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 23:52:39 +0000

I was looking for somewhere different to go on the bike for a few hours, and using a tried, trusted and very scientific method, I looked at my map to see where there were very few roads, thinking fewer roads meant a generally quieter area. It didn’t take more than a minute to see the Tanzawa area in central Kanagawa. With all the research I needed done, I got a fresh flask of tea, the camera, hopped on the bike and off I went.

There’s a rough route here on Google Maps (I hope this works - it’s been a bit hit and miss lately):

There are actually several ways to get to where I needed to go, but I thought I’d get some faster roads in to warm up, and avoid some traffic, so I took the quick Fujisawa bypass down to the coast, did a little on the 134 before cutting north on the 61 up to Isehara. Isehara is a notable place for me since it’s where I lived for two years on my first tour in Japan, teaching English in schools on the JET programme. It seems not much has changed, a few new places, more car parks, but it still seems as nice a small town as it was.

Contrast that with Route 246 which is as comically evil road out here in Kanagawa as it is in central Tokyo. It’s not a fun road on two wheels, but fortunately on this day, it wasn’t too bad, and most of the drivers were relatively sane.

It was route 70 I really wanted though, and the climb into the mountains aiming for the Yabitsu pass, so just before Hadano I made the right and began the ascent though increasingly relaxed housing, more fields and a great view of the mountains.

I’ll be honest, I somehow managed to take a wrong turn, for which I blame my being easily distracted by small and interesting looking roads. I realised my error when I… ran out of road. This was to be something of a theme for the day.

I soon got back on track, and onto the important job of loving the road and the scenery, it’s just a great little area to go and look it. It also seemed popular with cyclists.

There are a number of things to see along the way, some small shrines, which aren’t really notable, and a few viewing points, which give great vistas of the towns below.

There’s a small service area at the beginning of the Yabitsu Pass. OK, there are some vending machines and a toilet at the start of the Yabitsu Pass to be honest, but don’t worry about that, it’s fairly secluded, and offers just kilometre after kilometre of beautiful twisty roads, shaded tree cover, mountains, and small rivers running down these small valleys.

On the day I went there were also quite a few hikers which is great, but I noted many walked on the left, and not (per international convention I thought) facing oncoming traffic, which would be their right, so be careful on real hairpins, since not only could there be someone walking on the road, but they may well have their backs to you. I think this was a bit of an issue for the cyclists a few times.

I love twisties, have I ever mentioned that? I don’t ride a bike for speed, I just like seeing what’s out there, meeting people at stops, and winding, winding roads, and this area is great for that.

There also seem to be a lot of camp sites around the area, so I’ve pencilled them in for next year.

As you come out from the Pass, you start to skirt Lake Miyagase, which looks stunning, and is actually a man made lake supplying water for much of east Kanagawa and Tokyo, so if you look carefully you can see dead trees just below and protruding through the water line.

The colour of the rocks, the water and the treeline just looks so different to many of Japan’s lakes, and is quite a contrast to the very green feel of the place.

The lake has several smaller rivers feeding it, so I chose a road that followed one which the map suggested ended closest to mount Tanzawa, and headed up. More twisties! There were some small collections of houses, presumably for farmers, and the required white kei vans, coming and going, and more and more, signs were for hikers, pointing out hiking routes and estimated walking times. The roads started to get narrower, and there were more pieces of rocks and leaves in the middle.

Along the way I came across and angling farm, if that’s what they’re called, so I pulled over to have a look. At a turn in the river, a makeshift gravel carpark (and BBQ spot I suspect) had been created and several pools with weirs of rock built for fishermen to fish their own spot.

It looked like a lot of fun if that’s your thing, and each pond was well stocked. It looked a bit rigged if you know what I mean, but everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Yes, I know nothing about angling.

Further on, I made another wrong turn and hit another dead end, retraced my steps, and got back on route, and saw some beautiful waterfalls, but it was increasingly obvious that the road was not well travelled at this time of year - branches on the road, a rock slide, a stream flowing across it, and even a snake at one point. Some bent barriers also suggested a few drivers had been a little over enthusiastic on the corners.

I pushed on, taking care between the rocks, and trying to avoid branches in case they also turned out to be snakes, whilst at the same time trying to enjoy the view as the road was now quite high above the small river below.

Finally though, as all good things must come to an end, this did in the shape of two large steel barriers across the road, which didn’t entirely come as a surprise since the 50m of road up to them was basically a rock track.

That then I decided was the end of the run, and I headed back the way I came, stopping to take some photos of the lake, waving to a few bikers as they passed, and felt a little sad that this place was so close and yet I’d never ventured up here. I am planning to come back as part of a group next time, and perhaps we can try some other roads.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Benjamin Moore — 2014-11-04

That ride up Yabitsu to Miyagase is my go-to run for when I have limited time but need some twisties–within easy range of the metropolis but feels like inaka. Nice write-up.

gurahamu — 2014-11-04

Thanks Ben. It really is a great area which I really just hadn’t looked at, and there seems to be a lot of small roads to explore up there, and quicker to get to than Hakone or Izu, which is nice. Just avoid the hikers!

Bike Trip to Manazuru

Sun, 12 Oct 2014 17:29:31 +0000

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been out on my bike for a run, rather than just running errands, and in fact, the last time, I just did old faithful - the Izu Skyline. This time I decided to blend the old and the new, with a final destination of the Manazuru spit, so I took my favourite ocean-side route 134 down towards Odawara, and then go up the Hakone Turnpike. It used to be called the Toyo Tires Turnpike, but now it’s the Mazda Turnpike. At the lower entrance they basically changed one cheap sign for another cheap sign. At the top, they’ve renamed the cafe area to the Mazda Skylounge, though aside from that, it’s business as usual - and there’s nothing wrong with that - a good chance to see people who love to get out on 2,3 or 4 wheels. I await a unicyclist at the SkyLounge for that single wheel addition.

Sat outside the SkyLounge, on one of the benches with a view down onto lake Ashinoko, I was drinking some tea from my flask, and leafing through my Mapple touring map book, trying to find somewhere I could do in a couple of hours, and be back home in the early afternoon. It just wasn’t going to be Izu again I’d decided. As I leafed through I noticed a small spit of land out into Sagami Bay, that just hadn’t registered with me before, I suspect as I’m usually on the coastal road, which lacks an exit near it - the small peninsula called Manazuru.

View Larger Map

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, first I needed to get from (A) The Mazda Skylounge, to (B) Manazuru. Fortunately for me, a nice way to get there is via Yugawara and Route 75, a playful twisty something, meandering down through the mountain valleys, with plenty of tree overhangs, shade, and more corners than you can shake a moderate sized stick at. It must be five years since I last used this road, and it’s a shame because it’s a lot of fun. At Yugawara, at the base of the 75, it’s a short jaunt on that 135 coast road, but you jump off before the toll and express routes, and then in my case, headed for Manazuru station. I was wondering how these roads were going to work, as on the map there seem to me a mass of turn-offs in front of Manazuru station - and there are. However, after years of tourists, they’ve got it organised, with colour coded lanes to take you to different areas. Fundamentally, the 739 road loops the peninsula, but near the cape (as it’s called) a smaller road breaks off, but this is one way, and quite narrow, which is a good thing, as it keeps traffic flowing safely.

I stopped a couple of times along the road to watch people sea fish off the rocks, see the literally fresh fish being dried, and listen to the waves. Riding on though, and onto the one way loop through winding lanes, you finally get down to Manatsuru Cape itself, and a nice large tourist area with car parks and bus parking. From the building, you can get a great view of the bay, it’s very scenic, but I hadn’t come all this way to look at the Pacific from the top of the cliffs - I’d come to touch ocean, and see the shrine. Well, not so much a shrine but, well the photo explains it. As far as I can tell, it’s called ‘名勝三ツ石’ or Meishoumitsuishi. Literal translation - ‘A place of beauty with three rocks’.

As you descend by the steps though, there’s a nice looking cafe. I can’t recommend anything from there, as I was a little early for it to open, but it looked very inviting, perched on the sloping rocks with a grand view of the ocean. At the base of the slope are some toilets, then the pebble beach. The large rocks at the end of the spit are often cut off from the coast when the tide is high, but when it’s low, you can walk out towards them on the rock causeway. You have to be careful on the rocks, and there are thousands of beetles and such, but it’s nice to get out around the waves, and if you’re up for it, try to catch some small fish or shellfish.

The rocks themselves, between two of which are stretched some Shinto based paper streamers on a long rope (called shime 標, or even a rope version shimenawa), look quite striking against the surf, and it’s easy to see how people living near here in times past would want to make an acknowledgement to the gods of the sea. All it all, it’s quite a fetching place, and somewhere you can sit for a while and just look out over the vast Ocean. You’ll likely want that rest too, before the hike back up the steps.

The building at the top of the cliffs is nice, but it’s nothing special, if you’ve seen one tourist targeting restaurant selling local food and trinkets, you’ve pretty much seen this one, but it’s got a great view, the menus seemed OK (again, it was too early to try), the staff were nice, it had some nice places to sit outside, and vitally, the toilets were clean.

After I’d drunk some more tea on the lawn over the cliff, I could feel the bike calling me, so off I went again, giving cyclists plenty of space on the bumpy road, but actually not so far, as another building came into view, and in front of it, the Manazuru Fire Station, which is a simple building with large glass windows, showing off the single fire engine. It looked quite nice in it’s own way.

The building just behind it looks like a large converted house, in some old, and non-Japanese style; at first glance it looked almost south east Asian colonial - yes, I’m not much of an architectural scholar. In front of the house, what was once likely a large stately lawn, has been quite tastefully converted into a miniature golf course. Walk past this, through the palm trees, and again there’s a beautiful cliff-top view of the ocean. I think this is all a part of the number of hotel resort facilities in the area, for those who want to come down for several days.

There are lots of things to see on this peninsula actually - I’d quite like to come back for a full day and walk around a lot more to see more of them, and once you’re here, on foot is a good way to do it. Of course, two wheels are the best way to actually get here.

I made a Google Map link, as the image above is a grab - it didn’t want to show for some reason. However you get here though, the compactness of the area makes it worth the trip.

That Old Skyline Again

Tue, 06 May 2014 01:43:07 +0000

Whenever I get a half day to take a run out on the bike, there’s always the decision to be made about whether I should go somewhere new, take some random turns, get off the beaten track, or go somewhere I know, tried and tested. Not always, if ever, an easy decision.

Earlier this week then, when I got that time, I went conservative and decided to do a run I know I can get through in about 6 hours, even with some vital stops for tea: down the Pacific coastal route 134, then up to the Dammtrax Cafe near Hakone in the mountains, then down the toll based Izu Skyline. Then back pretty much the same way.

I’ve written about this route before simply because I really like it - I even did a video for it over a year ago:

A Quick Run to Izu in the morning from Nanikore on Vimeo.

For me it kicks off with some nice straight and fast roads down towards the beach with great head-on views of Mt. Fuji in the morning mist, then out along route 134.

At 7am, there’s not usually much traffic, but since they’re widening the whole thing right now, there were some road works, but those of us on two wheels can usually get down the sides without too many problems - it’s worth noting that the vast majority of Japanese car drivers are quite happy to stay away from that left hand curb and give riders some space. Unless you’re being really obnoxious anyway.

It’s a mix of toll roads - none of them too expensive - until this point, but I usually take them over the free local routes to get that nice elevation above the beach and ocean. You can ride along, see the early morning fishermen on the piers and the beach, the waves coming up the beach - it’s very relaxing. Along this section there’s a service area often used as a meeting point for bikers, so if you’re looking for a quick drink and a chat with like minded individuals, it’s great. I remember stopping in early one February, the kind of morning where ice was forming on the front of bikes - chilly. Unlike on those spring and summer days when the place is packed, there were just three of us, all out on our own, clutching hot drinks next to the bikes, generally not understanding those who don’t ride year round, and also realising it was likely us that were a bit nuts

That beach section, like most roads here, is in good condition, but as it’s been assembled in concrete sections, you get that rhythmic bounce at each join, like a train on it’s tracks.

There are a few routes into the mountains, but the two I usually choose between are the Toyo Tires Turnpike, and the Hakone Pass. The latter is free, but the Turnpike takes you straight to the cafe, and I think is a more entertaining ride up.

Either way, from here on out, it’s twisties, twisties and more twisties.

The Dammtrax cafe is a part of a general service area - it would like to be the smaller sibling of the famous Ace Cafe near London - and has a lot of photos and memorabilia from that place, but it’s not, it’s a corner of a food hall which also offers ice cream and ramen. That’s not to say it doesn’t have the idea - the staff are great, you can buy random biker items, and on most days, you’ll be sat with a bunch of bikers. The car park is huge though, and in the spring and summer months, owners clubs, manufacturers and other motor vehicle related vendors set stands up to sell their products and often have giveaways. In peak season you could probably spend a couple of hours just looking around at all the cars, bikes and talking to the people.

From here though, it’s a short run down route 20 to the upper entrance to the Skyline, and from there, it’s just over 40Km of fun. There are places to stop along the way, and at the halfway mark there’s a service area which sell the usual Japanese selection of gift foods and vegetables and food.

One odd thing along the route, a few kilometres from the beginning is an abandoned building, claiming to be an Energy and Environment Building, if you’re into abandoned building (’ haikyo’) then this one might want to go on your list. I didn’t go inside, just walked the perimeter; I like the design, and that there’s a drive in ramp (though not I suspect for vehicles really). I’ve ridden past it so many times, but never stopped. Next time I’m up there I might take a closer look at the ramp.

The Skyline is a great road though, good surface, plenty of slopes, turns and enough straights that you can escape slow cars and buses if you get unlucky enough to be behind one. Don'

There’s also a lot of places to pull over for photos, since the road gets you great views of Fuji on one side, and the ocean coast on the other. If you keep your eyes open (so to speak) you’ll also see the odd farm track leading off the road - I’ve followed a couple of these, and they are a lot of fun. This time I rode up one for a few kilometres, and it was great to see a camp site I didn’t know existed, and a really nice stream and some waterfalls- a good place for a cup of tea from the flask.

The end of the Skyline is always a bit of a let down - there’s nothing there after the toll booth - just a long closed down restaurant place. A weird anticlimax, it’s also not very photogenic, though like the Energy Museum, I should probably look into it’s history.

Another quick motorcycle trip to Chiba

Sat, 28 Dec 2013 10:15:16 +0000

Now and then, I like I take a day to go over the bay for a quick motorcycle trip to Chiba and just run some of the twisties on that peninsula. It was a nice day, and after a 7am start, took a relaxing ride down the coastal road to Kurihama to meet a friend, and take the ferry over - just a nice relaxing 40 minute boat ride, and time for a chat and a cup of tea on the way over. There’s usually a few bikers on this ferry, and a decent percentage on dirt bikes, as Boso apparently has quite a few kilometres of off-road for those so inclined.

My friend was looking to give his new Triumph Tiger Explorer a good run on some twisties, and I was looking to simply have a more successful run than last time. When we came over in March, we had stopped for a traffic light when some genius in an SUV rammed my bike, forcing me almost 10 metres forward and effectively stopping the run before lunch. That day, dealing with the police and the hospital meant we’d lost most of the day, but with bits taped up on my bike, the police at least let me ride it home.

For some reason, I get a really simple pleasure from riding my bike on and off ferries, and we found some great little twisties along the way, very little traffic, some nice views, and generally had a good time.

We stopped for lunch, originally intending to eat at an Italian restaurant we saw, but it turned out - after we’d walked in - that it was closed; generally unless there’s a sign outside saying “Closed”, I work on the theory a place is open. Anyway, it wasn’t, but the upside was that the neighbouring ramen place was, so we settled for that, and in a great piece of serendipity, the place turned out to be fantastic and quite cheap. Getting good food on a run is always good, with the bonus that you can balance your expanded stomach on the tank when you set off again. The only downside - I lost the receipt and forgot to mark the place on my map.

The Boso area is very different to the crowded urban Chiba bordering Tokyo; where we were it was very rural, lots of fields and hills, though I got this sense that it’s faintly run down - we passed a lot of abandoned or disused buildings, and it seemed like a lot of the petrol stations had closed. I wonder how the local economy is faring nowadays since so much seemed to hark back to the bubble of almost two decades ago.

As the afternoon moved on though, the weather began to close in a little, and we opted for coming back via the Aqualine, a part bridge, part tunnel connector between Yokohama and the Boso peninsula.

I have to admit, I don’t especially like the 4Km bridge section - it’s across Tokyo Bay, it can be windy, there’s a lot of fast, big traffic, and even in good weather, it’s not so fun on a smaller (400cc) naked bike. The weather was getting worse too.

As the road goes from the bridge section on the Chiba side, to the tunnel section on the Yokohama side, there’s a very large service area called Umihotaru, which is on a man-made island. It’s basically a multistorey car park and shopping centre, well known as a bit of a date spot. We weren’t on a date, but we did stop off, if only to have a last warm drink before the last 50Km run home.

It was also raining by then, which is no real problem - the rain gear is always under the seat - but the wind was also picking up, so we got the rain gear on, and headed down in to the tunnel, then broke off from each other as I headed to the west.

My route takes me over a lot of bridges, skirting the coastal industrial areas which means a lot of wind and large lorries, but not usually anything dangerous. The wind was really cranking up though, and I was having to lean the bike into it, hunkering down low over the tank, and trying not to let the bike veer too much from my line as some cars were passing just off to my right, not really judging it well (I could easily touch a lot of wing mirrors), and then the rain started coming down.

In these conditions, on this 80Km/h road, I usually drop it down a gear, keep the revs up, and go down to about 60 Km/h, meaning that usually there are people still blasting past me and probably cursing this biker who is making them actually maneuver their nice wind shielded, dry cars.

Over one bridge and the inevitable swirling of wind around the large bridge towers, and I noticed that no one is passing me any more, but I’m still the same distance behind a tanker in front of me, so I have a look around, and it seems like this weather isn’t just affecting me - everyone is going 55 - 60 Km/h. Nice to know I’m not the only one having to be careful. After about 30 minutes the road took me a little further inland, giving some protection from the wind, to sit up a little more, increase some speed, and not have to lean in so much. I ride year round, and try to be wary of ice and such, but one thing I think I handle better now than previous years is riding in the wind - revs up, tank gripped with the old legs, arms relaxed, and hunker down over the tank.

It was nice to quietly roll up the hill to the house, a little tired from holding the bike through what seemed like the edge of a decent sized storm, but I think it was another good day out if only because it was good to feel like my biking ability had improved a bit through the twisties and that weather, which is always a good thing.
[Run length only ~260Km + ferry]

A Quick Run on the Skyline

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:39:11 +0000

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, and that Shonan is a surfer place is very apparent, especially at this time of year - lots of people in wetsuits on bicycles, surf-boards strapped in U shaped holders on sides of the bicycles and 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 fisherwomen?) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Meet Japan

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:02:21 +0000

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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassiopeia_(train%29).

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 license 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 “Jupiter’s 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.”

Ted Simon

In a more humble context, new family life restricts my riding and where I now live, I can’t commute by motorbike, 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 these 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 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.

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.)

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.

First Bike Run of 2011

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:50:40 +0000

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 bike run of 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 commitments 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.

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.

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.

Tokyo Toy Run 2010

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:50:38 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bike trip-ette to Izu Skyline

Sun, 30 May 2010 12:44:34 +0000

Since I had a half day open for the bike, I decided to go to down familiar roads and went on a bike trip-ette to the Izu Skyline via 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 to 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: 205Km.

On the ferry on the bike

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:39:13 +0000

For the first time, I rode on to a ferry on my motorbike. It was actually a lot of fun for such a small event.

Kicking off at a rather early 7am start, I went down route 134 to the Tokyo Wan Ferry at the bottom of the peninsula below Yokosuka and took the 45 minute ferry over to southern Chiba. You just get your ticket for 1,600yen for a 400cc bike, and then ride on, they’ll tether your bike to the hull, and you can sit and have a cup of tea upstairs, and then just ride off on the other side - just in time for a bit of breakfast from Gusto.

From there it was a nice ride along the coast - which is quite different to Kanagawa’s on the other side of the bay - and then finally up onto the on-ramp for the Tokyo Aqualine, which is an over-water bridge on the Chiba side for about a kilometre, then into a tunnel under Tokyo bay to the mainland which pops out between Tokyo and Yokohama, so from there it was a quick run back via Sachiura NAPS. The only downside to the Aqualine? A price tag of 2,400yen.

Estimated trip length: 162Km

Through Wasabi Country

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:48:37 +0000

So we rolled for the first bike day out of 2010.

Actually, this is the first day out I’ve ever done in January. It’s a part of my ‘all year round’ biking push for this year to get more kilometres under my belt - more experience on the bike. DG joined me on his trusty Skywave, and under a crisp - rather chilly - blue sky, we headed out onto Route 1 with only a general plan - we wanted to head down the Izu peninsula and take a look at a hotel of all things, called Ernest house which some on the gaijinriders.com forum had recommended.

The coastal road down Shonan gets you some beautiful views, so we made a point to stop on the Seishou by-pass just to take some photos and have a cup of coffee. For 200 yen we got some kind of coffee / chocolate fusion with cinnamon from one of those vending machines which has a video screen showing the coffee being ground etc., whilst playing a pretty catchy latin American tune.

Almost surprisingly, I have to say it was actually was a very decent drink. I’ve been past this service area on every run down this road but never actually pulled in, so even though we hadn’t been on the road very long, I thought it was good stop - a lot of bikers, who are always friendly, and a fairly decent cross section of machines. Again, my CB400SF was pretty much the smallest thing there.

We worked our way don’t the coastal road [135] in minimal traffic, only slightly missing our turn off onto #59, which at least gave us chance to have a bit of breakfast in a McDonald’s (shame!) whilst we decided where we were. Then, fueled up on caffeine and cholesterol, we made our way down #12 and finally onto #59.

Road #59 is a lot of fun for me - it cuts through wasabi growing country, through meandering hills and valleys, over rivers and on roads which though tarmac, often get very bumpy and are usually a single lane, with those convex mirrors to see a little around blind corners. You can stop pretty much anywhere and buy wasabi, and in a few places actually see a wasabi farm - we saw a very impressive one which was effectively in a river, since I understand that wasabi requires a lot of fresh water to grow.

It’s a nice, slow, windy road, with great vistas. However, not much in the way of cafes or fuel! There are however, a selection of temples and shrines along the way, and down some side roads, so they were a bit of a photographic opportunity also.

Right now it seems like they’re doing some work on the western part of the road, in fact, when I first did a run down it last year, a section was closed for post-earthquake repairs. That now seems largely done, though we did have to ride across a short stretch of gravel, but down the road we were stopped by another road closed sign which we elected to heed, so we turned back and took another route. I’d also done this road previously - another tree-lined winding road, which pops out back near the 414, main north-south Shimoda/Izu road.

Down the 414 we went, around the bizarre looping bridge (I think it’s called the Kawazu Nanadaru Bridge), and kept on the road, until it met the #135/#136 junction where we took the latter for a few Kms until we went down a smaller road to the ocean and found Earnest House. The place itself looked very nice, very close to the beach, and you can imagine the whole area packed in the summer. In an adjacent building is the Paradise cafe, a nice bare wood place, where we got some good food for a not completely outrageous price. We chatted with the staff, what seemed a brother and sister team, who both seemed to speak some English, and we ended up having one of those conversations in both languages. A good bunch of people. I think we’re already planning a trip down there for the Spring with the family.

The trip back was uneventful - it got dark and cold, and the traffic level was a lot higher as usual on the #135, but we still made OK time, slipping down the side, and pulling in for hot drinks as required. All in all, a good run, and a great start to the year!

Door to door: 328Km.

Fuji Bike Tour of 2007

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:11:26 +0000

Thanks to Frank, Chie and Dave for coming for today’s Fuji bike tour - I think we can all agree it was a great success!

We met up just after 7am at the Royal Host near Chofu, had a bite to eat, and was on the road by 7.30am. Once on the Chuo, we stopped at Dangozaka, then headed to Kawaguchiko, did the Subaru Line run to Gotemba gogome on Fuji-san itself, where we had another drink, before heading down to lake Kawaguchi, and stopping at Cafe Sun for lunch. We then took route 137, but only until its main tunnel, turning off onto on an old back road, meeting back up with the 137, and continuing on to the Ichinomiya IC, and heading home that way, stopping for a bite of dinner at the return Dangozaka services.

Mapion Links:
Cafe Sun

Backroad turnoff from 137

For the stats freaks, we covered about 300km on the trip, with my own trip meter clocking in 320.7km door to door.

Again, thanks to everyone who could make it, and look forward to seeing you on the road again soon!

For those who are interested, we try to organize [cough!] our trips on this forum:

Bike trip to Nagano

Fri, 25 May 2007 14:12:15 +0000

Yesterday myself and a couple of friends (who are much more experienced bikers) went from Tokyo up to the mountains of Nagano. To get the stats out of the way, we did about 500Km from between 7am and about 9pm.

We jumped on the Chuo Expressway at Chofu and ran up to Chino City in Nagano Prefecture, biked around the mountains, having stopped at a faux English Garden for some (very tasty) gingerbread biscuits, then relaxing over a real Indian curry for lunch, before taking in some awesome vistas around the mountains, including the Venus Line run and Suwa.

After running up the mountains we then dropped down into the valleys where life is simpler, slower, and three guys coming through on bikes actually turns heads.

What was interesting is that as far as we could tell, the main vehicles in the area are small white Suzuki mini-vans. Anyway, when we got a little confused on the twisting mountain roads between tiny, almost stereotypical rice fields, the men who seemed to be patrolling in these vans were very happy to help us out.

One thing I wont go into details on is the ‘Summer only’ road. Yes. That was interesting.

I managed to take a few photos at stops, and though they don’t capture the fun, they should, I hope hint at some of the beautiful scenery we saw along the way. As before, the weather was fantastic as you can see in a few of those shots; even up high in the mountains it never got cold or wet.

The way back wasn’t too bad either; the Chuo was relatively clear, and the Dangozaka service station was relatively empty meaning the run back was smooth, without any jams.

Bottom line: a great trip, maybe even better than the first one, and a big driver for me to actually organise one or two of my own one day trips over the Summer, in spite of what will be blistering weather!

2026 Trips to Shiga Kogen

First Bike Tour

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:20:14 +0000

Yup, I’m very happy to say that today I got rid of the ‘chalk marks’ on the tyres of my bike on my first real bike tour. Myself and a couple of friends took a day off and did a run through Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures.

We met up near Chofu in western Tokyo at about 8am, and headed off, mainly along the Chuo Expressway as Route 20, until we got to Otsuki, turning to Route 139, stopping for a bite to eat (and the infamous soft cream) before getting off the Chuo, and getting into the real riding - our first destination was Gotemba Gogome on the side of Fuji-san (the 5th and final road access point) via the ‘Subaru Line’ then back down and off to Kawaguchiko town for some lunch, before what turned out to be the best section of the day, running twisties through villages and valleys around Ashigawa (Road 36) before getting back on the Chuo and heading home.

All in all it was a fantastic day, with fantastic weather. In those few moments of being stationary, I also managed to take some pictures! I’m looking forward to another tour out, and yes, I’m very happy I decided to go with a 400cc bike instead of the 250cc I was thinking about!

Bike-Tour on Nanikore

Coast to Coast 2025

Off to Jougashima

Twistybutt 11 - Coast to Coast

The Day After

Original Comments

Empty Beach in Golden Week

Tetrapods

Empty Beach .. but Always Someone

Wall Art

More About The Waves

Not a Life Boat

Maybe Another Day

Twistybutt 8 - Coast to Coast 2018

All in All

Navigation

Original Comments

Coast to Coast Twistybutt?

Shimoda and the Hosono Highlands

明けましておめでとうございます 2016!

Bike Tour: Lakes, Tea and Senbei

The Classy Meet Up

Doushi Road

Tea Time

Bike Tour: Shouganai Dam

Original Comments

Bike Trip to Tanzawa

Original Comments

Bike Trip to Manazuru

That Old Skyline Again

Another quick motorcycle trip to Chiba

A Quick Run on the Skyline

The Best Way to Meet Japan

First Bike Run of 2011

Tokyo Toy Run 2010

Bike trip-ette to Izu Skyline

On the ferry on the bike

Through Wasabi Country

Fuji Bike Tour of 2007

Bike trip to Nagano

First Bike Tour