Ibaraki Fall Colors Touring

While the crowds take the bullet train to Kyoto to see the autumn colors, I've got other plans.

But first this pond in Ikegami, where Nichiren delivered his final sermon. Pretty rad to some people; completely meaningless to others.

Anyways, Ibaraki is a couple hundred km north of Tokyo. My touring map doesn't recommend much in the area; an idea that my friends who live there expanded upon. The general consensus is that you should head north or west for really great motorcycle roads.

But just riding around randomly yielded some cool things.

Like this little temple up an inconspicuous hill on some tiny road. We wouldn't have had any idea if we hadn't have stopped to take some pictures of red leaves.

Seriously, this awesome little temple was full of beautiful relics. The place was totally unmanned and nowhere near any city. Why hasn't anyone jacked this stuff? By the way, please don't. Japan is good like that.

It was worth getting stuck in some mud for this shot.

A part of every inaka visit for me involves 3 things. Good food, good onsen, and good touring. The food was part of my Ramen Adventures. The touring you've had a look at. How about the onsen? On the way back to my buddy's place, the touring map noted a few hot springs to jump in. The one with the largest font is usually the best one. Logical, right? So we drove some crazy route (for some reason my GPS took us through a rice field) to get to Yagawa no yu. When we got there, the dude was like, "Why are you 2 giant foreigners here? You want to take a bath?" It was less of an onsen and more of some family's home. And not in any sort of rustic-wilderness-culture sort of way. They led us in to a bath that might have fit 1 tiny Japanese man, but there was no way 2 massive white dudes were getting in. We got out before we got in.

Later, a Japanese friend showed me the character for hemorrhoid (痔) in the description. So our dumb asses drove to the middle of nowhere for some sort of medicinal hot spring for people with anal problems. Great. I recommended a bran muffin instead.

Coming back we got all kinds of lost. At one point we were on what seemed to be the muddy construction of a future 8 lane expressway. It was whack, but worth it to see the look on the construction crew's faces.

The next day we went here.

That's more like it!

Good food.

Good touring.

And a good onsen.

Rock on Ibaraki, I'll see you soon (from the expressway as I drive north!)

Donate to the Tokyo Toy Run 2010

I swear I've done something interesting in the last month. So why the lack of updates?

I bought a new TV, maybe that has something to do with it. Also the ramen thing I do has had some developments. Also getting ready for our annual motorcycle charity event.

You can see some pictures from last year's here.

The gist is that we get toys and what not, strap them to our bikes, and ride from Tokyo Tower to an orphanage somewhere to give the kids the gifts. Last year we had something like 80 bikes, with at least half the dudes (and chicks) dressed like good old Saint Nick.

Actually, this sort of event is really popular worldwide. I've heard tales of thousands of bikes showing up. But Japan never had anything like this, so my motorcycle club, Gaijin Riders, set it up.

If you'd like to help out, you can send me some money on paypal and I'll use it to buy some cool stuff. I'll throw you some mad props in a follow up post as well. The run is in 2 weeks, on December 12th.

October 2010

十月

My High School's open house.

When I took this photo, I knelt in monkey poo.

So good.

Not so good. Next is the diablo version, followed by the carbonara.

Pizza and Perv III

More tidbits from my mailbox. (Part 1 and part 2) These flyers aren't sent through the mail, but hand delivered by some poor schmuck who's job it is to walk building to building wasting trees. Actually, at my previous job, we had to do this. The key to delivering a few thousand flyers is to hit up the high rises. Lucky me, I live in one of those.

First the pizza!

Let's play guess-the-pizza. Go!

Did you guess New York steak with barbecue sauce? Try a medium for about $30.

The massage ads keep getting more and more boring.

Yawn. But what's this...

"Sponsor Bank"

This one stumped me, and I enlisted the help of some of my more fluent friends. It's basically a matchmaking service for one to acquire a sugar-daddy. "You too can feel loved while making up to 10 Gs a month." I guess the overkill of information legitimizes it somewhat.

ルンルン!!!!!!

And as a bonus, an apartment ad. I get about 20 of these a week. Finally one that is (relatively) interesting!

Power Rangers?!?

A Power Rangers comic?!? Awesome! But instead of fighting evil space aliens, each ranger represents... a train line. Go go Yamanote Red! Toden Arakawa Street Car... "Jyan!"

And they never give props to where the apartment is, but give mad props to what it's near. "If you live in North Otsuka, you are a short walk from a train that is a short ride from Ikebukuro... where you can shop!"

バン!

デン!

ドン!

ボン!

ジャン!

KTM 950 Super Moto

Crazy cosmic powers grant me use of a rad motorcycle. Read on!

I'm into a lot of what could technically be called "new age bullshit" type teachings. I may make some underhanded references to said bullshit, but I promise not to preach the stuff. Everyone hates that guy, yeah?

So, have you heard about The Secret?

Every thought we have is a powerful energy force. You can use this to your own benefit, and by focusing your mental thoughts on something, the universe will bend to your will. The Law of Attraction governs everything in life, including love and material wealth.

Sometime during the summer, I decided I would move on from the Honda CB1000 and ride something new. The choices we all over the place, but in the end a supermoto was the perfect choice. And, being Austrian made, a KTM supermoto would be superb for someone of my height. So I started thinking about it a lot.

Oh snap, dinosaur fight!

I put a KTM as my computer background, I watched videos, and I drew mental images of myself on this bike.

Then a few months ago, a friend calls. He's at one of the few KTM dealers in Japan. And they want a weekly English lesson.

Sure enough, I became the staff's teacher, coming once a week to teach travel English that they can use on their overseas motorcycle rally tours.

After a month of teaching, I mentioned that I was going riding for 4 days up in the mountains. Boss looks at me and offers one of his bikes for a test ride. A week long test ride. Say what?!

So there you go, the universe handed this one to me on a silver platter. Ok, I know I don't own it. And until a little more money is saved, the blog won't be featuring many bright orange bikes on it anytime soon. But still, I was riding this thing for a week all over the mountains of Nagano. Just like I imagined! Scientific proof that my thought waves permeated the universe and created the same outcome I dreamed.

Check out the promotion video for this bike:

Back on the CB1000, hopefully there are a couple more good rides before it gets too freezing.

French Fusion from Pierre Kanazawa

Local Nagano salmon, minced with Japanese mountain vegetables.

Savory egg custard with red and white seafood.

Chu-toro and squid sushi.

Clam soup.

White fish with local beans.

Shinshu beef.

Buckwheat tea pudding.

Wedding cake.

Served at my good friend's wedding reception at the Sierra Resort in Hakuba.