Touring in Japan on a two stroke sport bike has been quite the experience! However, between the premium gas and the amount of oil this bike burns through, it has not been cheap. Gas in Japan is expensive (usually around 1.4/L) as are the toll roads (I spent around ¥5000 going from Tokyo to Nagano!!)
I have also not had the easiest time finding two stroke oil. When I left Lake Kawaguchi,I made 2 new friends at an Eneos station who filled up my empty bottle of Ocha with oil and gave me a screwdriver and small wrench as a “personal gift”!
This really came in handy, since a screw driver was required to top up the oil, but was not something I anticipated needing. I had the oil topped up at Lake Kawaguchi, and then rode for about 160 kilometers to my hotel in Tokyo to spend the weekend. On Monday morning, I figured I could make it to Nagano before topping up the oil again. But this was not the case, about 50 kilometers into my trip, I noticed my oil light flashing and was forced to exit the toll road to remedy the situation on the side of the highway.
After topping up the oil, I was cognizant of the fact that I now had none left, and was concerned about messing up the bike before even bringing it back to Canada!
I stopped at multiple gas station garages on my way to Nagano, and none of them had 2 stroke oil they could sell me.
I finally found some at a gas station on my way out of Nagano.
Looking at the bottle, I notice that it is labelled as “2 cycle oil”, which I didn’t think was a big departure from the “2 stroke oil” I was asking for, but noticed that when I started referring to it as 2 cycle oil, it was much easier to come by. Either way, not taking any chances, I bought as many bottles as i could fit into the tail bag!