Day 22. Motorcycle Day 1
Motorbikes!!! I had been looking forward to this since I started this trip back in July. I had packed my day pack with only the necessary things the night before and left at 8am to get to the motorbike rental place at 9am.
After a short briefing on the roads and certain things pertaining to the bike, I had my rented gear and I was ready to go!
The bike I rode was a Yamaha MT-07. The 90 degree upright riding position was great for the long ride. Third gear also proved to be extremely versatile and could be used for most situations I found my self in.
After getting on the road and out of Tokyo I settled in. After about an hour I was riding along the coast. The views started to become better with each passing minute. The GPS I was using was the greatest and I ended up going down the wrong way for about 30 min whilst trying to circle back to where I should have been going. This added about an hour to my journey on the first day.
No big deal though. I drove though country towns located in valleys with picturesque views. I stopped and took many pictures.
At this point, the route started taking me up and down mountain roads with involved a lot of twisty roads and switchbacks. That was some great fun. Even when the road was a two lane road but only a single lane wide. There were a lot of blind turns around the corners. :) At first it was very disconcerting, but I got used to it. But wait there's more!!! Fog! I was nearing my destination for the night and coming down a mountain road when the visibility dropped to about 50ft. Thankfully there weren't any cars on the road at the time. So I was able to wind my way down the mountains at a reasonable pace.
Upon arriving in the town it was already dark and I had a bit of trouble finding the place. Being placed up a hill a bit a way from the street I had confused the hotel with another building that looked closed.
After having checked in and being shown to my room, I hurried downstairs to try to find something to eat. It was after 9pm so I assumed I might not actually get any food that night. The front desk surprised me when they said that I could get food from their restaurant.
Good thing no one spoke any English, so I knew exactly what I had ordered... All I understood was that was some sort of ramen. The lady waiting on the tables did a great job dealing with my inability to speak Japanese.
Because of my rush to leave the room I had neglected to wash my feet and after being on the bike all day this was necessary. It being Japan, you take your shoes off anytime you go inside, so as you may imagine my embarrassment when I had to take off my shoes to sit down (on the floor) for dinner.
Too worried about getting out of the restaurant as expediently as possible because of my stinky feet and wanting to get to bed early, I was not able to take in as much as I probably would have if I did not have such constraints.