Winter is approaching but I have too much rubber left on my tyres for the year. Time for a ride. The FJR is very comfortable protecting me from the cold air. Overseas I rent cheapest bikes but this is so much nicer. Just three hours away yet this is the […]

Another item ticked off my list, I rode up to Motegi to visit Honda. I was waiting for two fine days in a row, I had to settle on one and a half, the finest period for the month. To get north is either a 120km detour to avoid Tokyo […]

In between heat waves and typhoons a fine week appeared. Time to ride. Previously I toured the remote Goto islands then Tsushima. Now Sado island was beckoning me. I decided to trace some of the route used by an annual event here known as Coast to Coast Twisty Butt. An […]

I love lookouts. Viewpoints. Or observatories as they are called in Japan. I decided to ride around visiting the best ones I had found on Google maps. I waited until after the Japan golden week national holidays to ride south to avoid the crowds but depart straight into rain. The […]

Tsushima at it’s furthest point from Japan is less than 50km from South Korea. The above map shows where Tsushima is located. History or war buffs might recognise the name as where a famous naval battle took part in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese war. It was the first using the […]

Last year on my return from Hokkaido I stayed in Aomori prefecture and enjoyed one of Japan’s major summer festivals. I actually did not know about it prior to arriving and by sheer chance got a room thanks to a late cancellation. I was so impressed I decided to design […]

Kanagawa to Wakayama People tend to think of Japan being all crowded cities and bullet trains but it consists of over 7000 islands, a similar figure to that which is celebrated by the people of the Philippines. Many of these islands are populated by small communities and a network of […]

I am embarking on my biggest ever motorcycle journey around Japan. 17 days, four ocean ferries, high mountains, lush green valleys, remote country roads and blue ocean vistas island hopping around Nagasaki. As Doc Neeson said, this is it folks over the top. Before that I need to escape the […]

Since first visiting Japan I have been told Hokkaido was the best riding so I decided it was about time I went for a look. Every Summer many riders in Japan head north to cooler weather in Hokkaido. You can ride or take a ferry all the way. I chose […]

I wasn’t planning any riding when out of the blue a week of sunny weather was being predicted prior to the arrival of Japans rainy season. I set off one day later with part of a ride worked out on a bike that was not running the best but a […]