My Buddy's Impressions

I have just returned from my motorcycle tour of Japan and I’m sorry for the lack of correspondence while on the road. Even though many of the computers we use today are made in Japan, Internet access was limited and hard to find. I may not have been looking in the right places but I never found an “Internet Café” and the hotel computers generally had a line form so usage was suggested at fifteen minutes. Anyway, here I am to tell you the trip was a major success, well beyond any expectation I may have had. We traveled 6000 miles in six weeks from Tokyo to the northern tip of Hokkaido, down through Shikoku to the southern tip of Kyushu and back to Tokyo. We tried to stay off the beaten path and we did, motorcycling at its best, amazing country, fantastic food, great roads and the friendliest people anywhere on earth.

Several months ago when my riding-friend, also a motorcycle enthusiast, mentioned he knew Japanese so I said lets tour the country, the whole country. We met in Tokyo on September 12th and spent that first night wandering the streets of downtown Tokyo eating raw octopus, drinking fresh Japanese beer and nicely decorated porcelain jars of Sake which we become experts of later on in the trip. The next day we picked up the bikes, (two brand new Honda ST 1300s) loaded our gear and headed right into the thick, hot, congested Tokyo traffic. No problem, we were on motorcycles and lane splitting is legal. After weaving and bobbing our way through the stalled traffic for what seemed like hours we made our way to the beautifully cool, refreshing, Pacific Ocean. It was a long weekend so rooms were scarce and after being rejected from several really nice Ryokans (Japanese hotel where you sleep on Tatami mats) we found a great little spot right on the ocean, no Westerners in sight and no English spoken, just what we were looking for. Dinner, which was included in our room fee, was the main event for the evening. We sat on the floor (Tatami mats) at a low table covered with dozens of small, brightly painted Japanese dishes filled all kinds of unidentifiable food products. There was so much on the table I kind of expected more people to sit down with us which didn’t happen…. all for us! Of course we accepted the offer of “Nama Biru” (fresh beer from a keg) and with chopsticks in hand, we dug in!!! There was Sashimi style (raw, thin sliced) tuna, mackerel, scallop, and octopus along with whole squid, urchins, sea snails, and slugs. Another beer, please!!!! The large sea bass staring at me from across the table was delicious and the variety of Japanese vegetables with big hunks of tofu, swimming in squid ink, seasoned with Wasabi and Soy sauce, was fantastic. Food is a huge part of the Japanese lifestyle and it became a huge part of our trip. In most cases whether it was a large hotel, a small Minshuku (four or five room Japanese Inn) or someone’s home, the quality, the presentation and the atmosphere was always outstanding even if it was only a bowl of rice with a piece of fish.

The next day we headed north along the coast. We took our time enjoying the landscape on our left, the beautiful, smooth road straight ahead, and the ocean on our right. As Robert Pirsig explains in his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “….on a motorcycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with all. You are in the scene, not just watching it any more….” and that’s why I ride a motorcycle, to be apart of the landscape, to be apart of the road and the ocean and everything else I am in at that moment. Anyway, enough of that nonsense, at the end of a great day of riding, we found another beautiful Inn on the coast with another fantastic dinner and breakfast……and so it went, through the amazing fish market of Kesenuma where a hundred Tuna the size of my motorcycle lay on the gleaming floor as buyers poked and inspected, over mountain roads with the Pacific Ocean in view most of the time and all the way to the ferry in Oma which took us to the big, northern island of Hokkaido. This was some of the best motorcycle riding I have ever experienced on perfect roads, beautiful weather in a beautiful country with a great riding partner and it was only the first few days, WOW.

I could ramble on forever but I know this is more than most people will read so I will stop here. I will pick it up again, when we stay in a tiny Minshuku where we are the first foreigners in nine years, visit a wonderful Sake factory, experience an Onsen (Japanese bath) and travel through the mountains of Hokkaido to the most northern tip of Japan. Until then, Kampai!

Daily Routes - Motorcycling Japan

1. 12 September 2008: Tokyo
2. 13 September 2008: Tokyo - Awa-Katsuyama (Tatayama)
3. 14 September 2008: Awa-Katsuyama (Tatayama) - Kashima
4. 15 Septemer 2008: Kashima – Aizu-Wakamatsu
5. 16 September 2008: Aizu-Wakamatsu – Matsushima, Miyagi, Tohoku
6. 17 September 2008: Matsushima – Kesenuma, Miyagi, Tohoku
7. 18 September 2008: Kesenuma – Hachinohe
8. 19 September 2008: Hachinohe - Kaminokuni, Hiyama, Hokkaido
9. 20 September 2008: Kaminokuni – Otaru
10. 21 September 2008: Otaru – Asahikawa
11. 22 September 2008: Asahikawa – Wakkanai
12. 23 September 2008: Wakkanai – Abashiri
13. 24 September 2008: Abashiri - Monbetsu
14. 25 September 2008: Monbetsu – Aomori
15. 26 September 2008: Sukayu – Akita
16. 27 September 2008: Musashi Sushi, Sakata, Yamagata, Tohoku
17. 28 September 2008: Sakata – Yunishigawa Onsen
18. 29 September 2008: Yunishigawa – Nikko
19. 30 September 2008: Nikko – Isesaki
20. 1 October 2008: Isasaki – Takayama
21. 2 October 2008: Takayama – Tsuruga
22. 3 October 2008: Tsuruga – Osaka – Nara
23. 4 October 2008: Nara – Ise
24. 5 October 2008: Ise – Kobe
25. 6 October 2008: Kobe – Himeji – Tokushima
26. 7 October 2008: Tokushima – Yuki
27. 8 October 2008: Yuki – Tosa
28. 9 October 2008: Tosa – Matsuyama
29. 10 October 2008: Matsuyama – Miyazaki
30. 11 October 2008: Miyazaki – Kagoshima
31. 12 October 2008: Kagoshima – Hiroshima
32. 13 October 2008: Hiroshima – Tottori
33. 14 October 2008: Tottori – Kyoto
34. 15 October 2008: Kyoto – Takayama
35. 15 October 2008: Takayama - Lake Kawaguchi
36. 16 October 2008: Lake Kawaguchi – Tokyo
37. 17 October 2008: Tokyo

Perfect Sushi - Motorcycling Japan

• Ika - Squid
• Tako - Octopus
• Sazae - Seasnail
• Awabi - Abalone
• Umi no Kusa - Algae, Seaweed
• Hokki - pinkish clams (“Quahog”)
• Uni - Sea Urchin
• Kanitsume - Crab
• Hotate - Scallop
• Tsubu - Seasnail
• Maguro - Tuna
• Samma - long blue seasonal fish, red meat, delicious with intense garlic
• Hirame - Flunder
• Hirame no Enkawa - Fillet tips of Flunder
• Unagi (Anago) - Eel (Sea Eel)
• Kajitori - Fin of Blue Marlin
• Ikura - Salmon roe
• Hakaku - (nasty looking fish)
• Saba - Mackerel
• Soi - Perch
• Kurame - (very red fish)

Drinking - Motorcycling Japan

Do not drink and ride!

Japan has strict drinking laws. And no restaurant is allowed to sell you drinks if you pull up in a vehicle. If you park across the road, civilian vigilante guards are likely to spot you. There's only one way to enjoy the alcoholic delicacies of Japan: Leave your motorcycle parked at your hotel.

The national drink is Sake, and there are 10,000 different lables. The top brew is Dai Ginzoushu, which is made of the essence of rice grain. For the best sake 60 % of the rice grain is polished away leaving only the best and most fragrant core to be fermented and brewed. Sake matures in drums at 16° Celcius similar to the way wine is cellared in France. As a patron told us in a Sushi-Ya in Otaru, top-grade Sake should neither be drunk hot nor cold, but Jo-On, or cellar temperature. Granted, no Gaijin would ever be expected to understand such finesse. But try it out! The next time you are in a Japanese restaurant, Izakaya or put order your Sake Jo-On and the world will come to a stop.

In Yuzawa, where Japan's best Sake is supposed to come from, we inquire about visiting a Sake brewery and eventually find Kimura Sake Brewery. Mr. Kimura, the owner, personally welcomes us on a rainy day and shows us all around his brewery. It's late September and the rice harvest is not yet in, so Mr. Kimura has time. He allows us a sampling of his best and we leave his brewery with a bottle of fine Dai Ginzoshu, high-level sake, for Yen 3780.

The most impressive way we were served Sake was at Ari-No-Michi, or at "The Ant-Road" restaurant in Tokushima. The Sushi-Ya-San first placed a narrow glass into a wooden cup and poured the Sake until it reached the brim of the glass, then he continued pouring as the reaches the brim overflowed into the wooden cup, and again continued pouring until also the cup was about to overflow with the precious liquid.

The other great passion we developed was for Japanese Whiskey. Some of the best single-malt distillates come from Nikka Whiskey Distilling Co., its Yoichi and Miyagikyo whiskies. Suntory Ltd. has an attractive selection, too, including Yamazaki and Hakushu whiskeys.

Drinking is a serious pass-time for people in the evening. It is not uncommon to see a patron empty a large bottle of Shochu all by himself. Also women indulge in beer and Sake, and on the whole Japan is refreshingly honest, pragmatic and tolerant about alcohol consumption. I like that.

Which does not go to say that there aren't unhappy situations. In Takayama, a most picturesque place in the Japan Alps, we stumbled into a bar named Desolation Row, as in a Bob Dylan song. Ken the owner played one great vinyl record after the other and insisted “This bar is a mistake”. We ended up comforting each other until 2 AM, and in the end we had difficulty making Ken accept money for the wine and whiskey.

Gourmet Food - Motorcycling Japan

In Ginza the first night we ate at an Izakaya. The owner didn’t want to admit us for fear that we couldn’t speak Japanese or eat his raw squid swimming in black ink. However, some words and a daring bite and we were into our first delicious meal, flushed down with refreshing Nama Beeru.

Being rejected is common and in Japan. You get used to it. Restaurants or hotels may simply be full, or sometimes just wary of any embarrassment serving foreigners. But you'll find that even local patrons are rejected. Once a Sushi-Ya is full, newly arriving guests are turned away and asked to come back another day. The point seems to be to serve those guests that are already in the establishment best.

There's a technique for finding the genuinely good places. More often than not they seat no more than a dozen, see few Westerners enter and do not offer English in any form. But it's wonderful when you slide open a door, move aside the Noren and are greeted by the Chef personally: "Irrashaimase!"

In Sushi-Yas and Izakayas you rarely pay more than Yen 5000 a person, get top attention and meet guests, who may speak English and tell you what and how to eat and drink. In a Sushi-ya in Otaru a patron taught us to gradually increase the intensity of the fish’s texture and taste during a meal, and how to drink Sake.

Sashimi – be it raw tuna, mackerel, scallops, octopus, squid, oysters, sea urchins, sea snails, star fish, slugs or any other unidentified floating object – triggers the most unusual sensations: To the eye it’s moist, colorful, silky, lustrous and sometimes shocking; to the nose it’s oceanic and fresh; to the teeth it’s either soft, chewy or even crunchy; to your palet it’s brackish and raw.

Occaisonally, Sashimi is presented as an art, as absolute perfection. But mostly its plain and straightforward, crude, natural and fresh, though never casual or random. Some say eating Sushi is war, but to me it’s a celebration of the sea and its creatures that have been unfortunate enough to jump in to your plate.

Among the more exciting dishes we had Uni (sea urchin) mixed in scrambled eggs that looked like: “No thank you, I’ve eaten”. But you better dig in if the Inn-owner is sitting next to you, watching every morsel entering your mouth. You may let it slip through your chopsticks a few times, but eventually you swallow it. There was the raw beef in Matsushima, the Chef seared for a second in front of us with a big blowtorch. Or Kajitori (Fin of Blue Marlin) soaked in Jellyfish sauce, that looked like a creature from the movie Alien. You suck the flesh from between the bones, and you can’t refuse it because it’s the speciality of the house. “Two more beers please”.

At Kesenuma, the biggest fishing port in northeren Japan, you’d think they bring in the entire marine life of the North Pacific every morning: hundreds of tons of Tunas, Sharks, Swordfish, Salmon, Scallops, Mackrel and Crab; a bloody spectacle. The auction worth millions Yen proceeds unnoticeable, but the stink of fish-guts gets stuck to your shoes for weeks.

Eating raw food does not stop with fish and beef. In Matsushima, Shikoku, the Lonely Planet asks: “Have you ever thought of eating raw chicken?” When we entered Kushihide Tori Ryori Honten the chef immediately knew we’d come for Ehime Chicken Sashimi. No menu required. To my buddy it seemed unthinkable to eat raw chicken, but here we were in Japan, the only place in the world where you might do such a bizarre thing. It turned out to be okay. The red meat was more tasty than the white, and the jug of Nama-Beeru was not seriously required. We cleaned up our plates. Still, I won’t be looking for Chicken Sashimi too soon again.

Motorcycling in Japan

Months before my Rhode Island buddy and I met in Tokyo for our motorcycle tour of Japan, our preparations began. I had lived in Tokyo for 5 years at 22 and got to know the city and its nightspots inside out. However, I had failed to see Japan. After 30 years it was time to take a closer look and answer a question. Why did I ever leave?

To get ready, I went back to study the Japanese language for half a year. This was essential, because a motorcycle takes you to the most unseen places and where ever you stop, you're in contact with the local world. Without some Nihon-Go this trip would not have been possible.

To many the idea of touring Japan by motorcycle was strange. The Japanese consulate in Boston asked my buddy: “Don’t you know that there are excellent train and bus networks in Japan?" Many wonder why people ride motorcycles at all. Is it dangerous? Don't you get wet? Aren't big bikes hard to maneuver? There are as many answers as questions, but to me riding a motorcycle it’s the solution. I don’t know for what problem, but it is the solution.

And there's another aspect. A motorcycle allows for little baggage, so here's a great way to find out how little you really need.

On 12 September 2008 – the weekend the world’s banking system disintegrated - my buddy and I rented 2 big HONDA ST1300 PAN EUROPEANS in Odaiba at the hefty cost of Yen 11,000 a day, plus insurance. The two bikes, however, were in near-pristine condition. My white HONDA had 1960 kms on the odometer and my buddy's 3600. And except that his front-wheel developed a slight wobble, the bikes performed without incident.

We initially were unaware of - and later ignored - the unfolding financial cataclysm, and rode 35 days and 10,000 kms around Japan: north to Hokkaido and Japan’s most northern point, south through Honshu, across to the islands of Shikoku and Kyushu, and back along the Japan Sea and through the Japan Alps to Tokyo.

The ride took us off congested main roads, into mountains, down coastal roads, over ridges, into gorges, through amazing country, with the friendliest people on earth… and fantastic food. (See Gourmet Food - Motorcycling Japan).

We had a discipline. To ride and move on every day, regardless of how much we liked a place. And we rode without pressure, destinations decided daily.

Many places I’d visit again: Hokkaido, the mountains of Gifu, the Tottori coast, Shikoku Island. Shikoku was a discovery. Unknown Japan: remote, scenic, rugged, colorful, beautiful. People friendly but also willful and independent. Roads narrow and isolated. No traffic. The mountain routes unique. The best we’d ever ridden.

Japanese people: practical, consistent, precise, serviceable and friendly. In a post office with all counters are busy the post-master jumped up from his desk and opened another counter to serve us immediately. And a manager of a business hotel in Akita ran around, clearing his parking lot for us to park our motorcycles in a wind-sheltered spot.

It can be hard though getting people's attention and you will require a small magic word: “Sumimasen”. Without it you’ll be talking to the wind. But Sumimasen unfreezes anonymity and signals the receiving brain that it’s being spoken to. The response “Hai” – contrary to popular belief – does not mean “Yes”, but more like “I’ve heard that you said something”. But once the ice is broken, you’ll find better hospitality than anywhere else.

As we didn't have a GPS, we often need to ask for directions. More than a few times we were assisted with phone-calls, or being led to a destination by a car or even by a pedestrian. In one case we were even served a delicious seasonal dish of Samma Sashimi garnished with intense garlic. Eventually shaking off our rather inebriated hosts was not that easy, especially since they insisted in leading us by car to the hotel they had reserved for us. We did not think of that as such a great idea.

At a small gas station in the south-western corner of Hokkaido near Ogiishi, Minshuku Hakutu was recommended to us. In a fishing village by the sea. The gas station attendant scrutinized our ability to speak, eat and sleep Japanese and then drove ahead for 3 km. He took us to this tiny Minshuku where we were not only the only guests that evening, but the first foreigners – ever! Kasaya San, the Inn-owner, cooked dinner at our table, and oversaw our eating of Cuttle-fish Shabu-Shabu, Hirame-no-Enkawa (fillet of Flunder), Tara cooked in salt, Hoke in Miso-sauce, Tako in herb-butter, and fresh, redish mussels. Meanwhile, his wife kept us – and Kasaya San – amply supplied with beer from the vending machine in their living room. All for less than Yen 15,000 for both of us, including food and accommodation.

On the flip-side of the coin: there are cameras everywhere, unmarked police cars, public loudspeaker systems, vigilant civilian guards, and other failures. But no place is perfect.

We enjoyed the best motorcycling and the best food ever. We didn’t find the Japan you’d imagine, but the one you’d hope to discover, with great hospitality from Wakkanai to Kagoshima.