Ibusuki, Japan

指宿市

I was about to head to the campsite to meet the rest of the riders, when this rad old dude starts staring at me.



I exchanged some pleasantries, then he just busts out, in Japanese, "There's a bunch of big, red koi fish in the river!" Awesome. So we chatted about fish for the next 5 minutes, until a woman, maybe his daughter, came out of a nearby house. She yelled at him to come back inside, "He doesn't understand you!" Then looked at me, realized I can speak enough Japanese, pointed at her head and did the universal symbol for crazy. It was kind of a dick move on her part, as rad old dude just wanted to tell me about the fish.



Speaking of fish...



I ate some for lunch.



This was a locally famous somen nagashi restaurant. What's somen nagashi?



Noodles that are perpetually moving downriver, waiting for you to grab them with your chopsticks. The logistics of actually having a ton of noodles flowing down a river is an easy fix, just build a round aquarium and hook up some water pumps.



But Ibusuki is most known for one thing, the hot sand baths.



Lie down, and a friendly fella will bury you alive. The steam from down below turns your sandy tomb into a sauna. Fresh!



As always, a group of a dozen Westerners will gravitate towards the barbecue. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be continuing on with the group. One of my interests in Kyushu was visiting Yakushima, an interest no one else shared with me.

So the next morning, I said goodbye to the group, and headed 60km north to Kagoshima port.



Great roads, with views of some massive fossil fuel tank area.



Dropped the bike off at a tire shop. Think I need a new one?



Paid way too much for a tire, and way to much for a 2 hour ferry, and set off into the sunset.



Which had a nice color due to the exploding volcano behind.

Up Next: The land that inspired Princess Mononoke.

Ironbutt Ride from Tokyo to Kagoshima

The concept of the IBA (Iron Butt Association) is simple. Ride hellllla far in one day.



I loaded up the CB1000, attached the camera (video in the making), and headed off at 5am.



Remember Pooey? Anyways, this ride was with my friends from SBKJapan, some sort of motorcycle club I guess. I don't know what the acronym stands for.

The idea was to shoot down to the southern tip of Japan, then spend a few weeks touring around. Someone worked out a map:



The direct route was only 1400km, but to officially be an Ironbutter (yeah, there's paperwork involved), you need to do at least 1600km, 1000 miles, in less than 24 hours. So we actually had to first travel north of Tokyo, up to the Sea of Japan, then over and down.

Some of the dudes I rode with:





With an official start time of 6:10am (time stamped receipt), we were off. It was raining, but looked clear in the distance. By the time we got up to Toyama, it was sunny and beautiful.

And my rear brake was gone. My bad. If I wasn't always listening to some hyphie mix tapes on high volume when I ride, I might have heard the grinding, metal-on-metal sound that I was making.

$60 and an hour or so later, I was back on the road, with shiny new brake pads.

I was also a bit behind. Turns out, though, that I was actually somewhere in the middle of the pack, as a few dudes had run out of gas along the way. Playing catch-up, I rode on.



Here's the thing about riding a thousand miles in a day. It fucking sucks and no one should ever do it (on a normal bike). Seriously, it sucked. The first 14 hours, in the sunlight, were ok. Enjoyable even. But once it got dark, shit went sour. It was cold, my brain was tired, and my motorcycle was designed for shorter Asian fellas, not 192cm tall, lanky dudes from America.



I went from doing 250km between stops to about 50km. Music wasn't helping me concentrate, but standup comedy was. I listened to the Aziz Ansari routine as I slowly made my way over the bridge from Honshu to Kyushu.



Finally, 23 hours later, I pulled into a McDonalds in Kagoshima, drank some coffee, and looked for the nearest onsen.



I did it. I may have fucked up the paperwork though. You are supposed to get all sorts of witnesses and receipts and shit, then submit it through the official channels. Whatever, I don't need a plaque on my wall telling me the stupid shit I did in Japan.

That's what this blog is for.



After soaking in the Ibusuki city onsen, I was greeted by the local cops, lights flashing. Some things never change, and like a darker skinned man in Arizona, this white guy in Japan went for his papers. I know the drill, it's not a big deal anymore. Just as I find my wallet, the cop gets out, hands me a map to local attractions, and in broken English says, "Welcome to Ibusuki, please enjoy." Then he drove off. Life's different down here.

Next time: Relaxing in Ibusuki, an onsen city in the far south of Japan

Golden Week in Kyushu

The plan:

Ride 1600km from Tokyo to Kagoshima with my motorcycle club. Eat some hella good food. Chill with 7000 year old cedar trees. Ride the fuck out of Kyushu.

And that's totally how that shit went down.

Stay tuned.

Kushiage Time

Can you eat 170 sticks? Probably not, but until you tell them to stop, they just keep feeding you random fried things.















By they way, if you try and break the record, I suggest corporate sponsorship. This place is pretty pricey-

Shibuya Beer Crawl

We hit up some of the good craft beer bars in Shibuya the other night.

If you like good beer, come with some bills in your pocket.

Keep your eyes on http://howtojaponese.com/ for a real writeup.











Yeah, Mr. Big tagged up the wall in Amusement back in the 90s.





It was actually fucking delicious and I wish every slice was covered with their "spicy evil death" sauce.

















If I had more money, would I live differently, or just buy more expensive booze?

Here's the video:

Shibuya Station Circumnavigation Great Beer Pub Crawl from Daniel Morales on Vimeo.

Budweiser Izakaya

Along the Yamanote line near Hibiya.



According to the internet, it's rad.



For like $40, you get:

• Edamame
• Some sort of triple appetizer platter
  
• A "Budweiser" salad
• A plate of fried food
• Shrimp with chili sauce
• Gyoza
• Some steak thing
• Udon noodles
• Popsicles (!)

And all the Budweiser you can drink.

And there is a "live show".

This shit is kinda stupid, but I could probably convince my next American visitor to take me there. You know how we think! I'd like to see the the Japanese take on the club sandwich. I bet it's smaller and more efficient.