By Mike Huber
As I wrap up writing about my experience motorcycling in Japan, I am starting to notice that for the most part it was a fairly uneventful 8 days. I didn’t crash, I didn’t get arrested, and I stayed mostly on paved roads. I prefer minimal planning on my motorcycle adventures. This allows plenty of flexibility to adjust for roads, weather, and highlights I discover along the way. Every morning my routine was to just wake up, look for what I thought looked like a fun path on the map while having a coffee and go. Throughout the day if I stumbled upon other riders, I would obtain current road reports from them, but otherwise it was just fire up the bike, smile, and enjoy whatever came my way.
Along my ride there were a few highlights I made it a point to hit, such as a hike to see the snow monkeys bathing in hot springs, and a short stop in Nagano to visit the home of the 1998 Winter Olympics. Usually, I spent lunches or coffee breaks in tiny Japanese villages that few tourists are fortunate enough to experience.
Other than driving on the opposite side of the road, most of this journey felt so similar to a fall ride through New England. Which for me was paradise with roads and tunnels that followed rivers flowing out of the Japanese mountains down to the sea. The tunnels were quite frequent and some of them were extremely long with minimal infrastructure once I entered them.
The Hida Tunnel was close to 6 miles long and was like going through a cave as there was just the rock above with water flowing in, and it was freezing cold. Between the minimal lighting and reflection of the water at times, I lost all depth perception and it became almost impossible to tell if and when there was a corner coming up. Upon exiting the tunnel, I pulled over to warm my hands and take a breather in the sun only to learn it was a dead end and I’d have to return through the cold dark dampness again to get back on track.
One of my favorite things about motorcycling in Japan was that no matter how cold or wet I was throughout the day each evening, I was almost always guaranteed to have an onsen (natural hot springs) in my hotel. These onsens were the perfect way to warm up and cap off a day of riding, especially if I had a cold and wet ride that day.
Throughout the 8-day motorcycle trip I hit a plethora of topography. This ranged from beachfront roads to mountain passes with the roads the width of a golf cart track with mirrors on every corner so I could forecast how wide I had for turns, to pine forests with sweepers that went on for hours. Although motorcycling Japan for me proved uneventful, it did not mean it wasn’t fully appreciated. Japan is a country I fell quickly in love with and will visit again.
Read the entire Japan adventure!
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I am usually comfortable with no planning, but before arriving in Tokyo (one of the largest cities on earth), I was feeling overwhelmed. Within 30 minutes of landing I learned there was no need for those feelings, though. Tokyo is one of the most organized, safest, cleanest, and well laid out cities I have ever visited. As I traveled through Japan for the next five weeks, I learned the people are some of the most beautiful in the world, and that is coming from someone who has seen quite a bit of the world.
