Japan Ride
The Back Road
To Mount Fuji
March 2016, I’ve travelled to Japan with two friends, one who has been a couple of times previously, I however have never been and the opportunity to go with someone who had was to good to miss. Having spent a week and a half travelling through Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Kanazawa and back to Tokyo I’m ready to get back on two wheels and arrange to rent a Ducati Scrambler for 24 hours. Having never ridden one I’m looking forward to checking it out and heading off on my own to explore the roads of Japan.
I pick the bike up at 10am and wanting to grab a couple of things in Tokyo before heading out of town so I've dressed light and plan to put on a new sweater I saw earlier in the trip, however on arriving at the store I discover it doesn’t open until 11.30am and in reality it’s more like 12, but finally I hit the road with a nice warm torso.
Having spent an hour and forty minutes getting familiar with the Scrambler and just to get out of Tokyo I hit rural Japan and pull off the freeway, The bike so far has been pretty good and has brought me out of town in comfort, cruising along with the freeway traffic easily, but now for some curves. I’ve picked a back road through the mountains from google maps that looks to be fun and after a few wrong turns I eventually find it. Here the Scrambler really comes into its own on this single lane road with tight hairpins and flowing curves, hugging the cliff edge I swept into the mountains and forests of Japan.
After the ride through the mountains I emerge back into urban Japan witch is never far away no matter how off the beaten track you think you are. A quick fuel stop where I had no idea what was going on, I had to be rescued by the attendant who explained with no English how I had to have my recite scanned by a separate machine to get my change.
At this point I thought I would be able to see Mount Fuji, but it was shrouded in cloud, so I got on the bike and plunged back into the exceedingly polite Japanese traffic, shortly I had left the small town where I had refuelled and was gaining altitude again still hoping Fuji would reveal its self to me, only to be confronted with a sudden change in air temperature as I climbed along with a couple of cars with snowboards on the roofs going in the other direction, the thought of turning back at this point did cross my mind, but I had come this far all the way from Ireland to Japan, and from Tokyo to Fuji, I had no intention of giving up.
Shortly after this I gave up.
It suddenly began snowing quite heavily and began covering the road as slush causing the bike to hydroplane. This and my lack of wet gear made turning back to only sensible thing to do, I turned and headed down, what followed was some of the most stressful riding I have ever had to do. I stopped at a Seven Eleven after 20 minutes to get a coffee and warm up / dry off as by now I was soaked and very cold. The Seven Eleven staff where very nice even if you could tell they thought I was mental. I found the nearest North Face outlet and purchased a pair of waterproof pants and headed for Tokyo.
Back on the freeway and at lower altitude the temperature soon warmed and I could feel my hands on the controls again, the bike felt good and I began to enjoy myself, so I pinned it for the city, using the speed limit as a guide, rather than a hard and fast rule the Japanese traffic moved out of my way and the truck drivers where especially obliging.
I arrived back in Tokyo’s urban sprawl as the dusky south east Asian evening begun and the raised freeway started to snake between the buildings, animated billboards lit up trying to sell me unknown products, and I imagined the atmospheric Akira soundtrack playing as the buildings flew by. I was heading to Yanaka in the east of the city and my route took me over Shibuya, I slowed down and the view of the futuristic hub of the mega city emerged from between the high-rises, I’ll honestly never forget that view, made that little bit more special for being seen from a motorcycle.
In the morning I had just enough time to make a pilgrimage to Bratstyle, who gave me a quick behind the scenes tour of their work shop before I had to return the Scrambler, my curiosity satisfied, it sounded good but the styling wasn’t the only retro thing about the bike, the gearbox was vague and clunky and certainly not to be operated without the clutch. The extremely wide bars really hindered the ability to lane split in town as I got stuck a few times as the mopeds filtered past. I do like looks and the chassis is fun and really rewards in the turns, I just couldn’t live with the gearbox and engine.
