If you have spoken to me recently, you are likely aware of the fact that I am still sorting out the exporting situation. My bike remains in Yamanashi with John as I try to figure out the exporting. As some background, my initial export contact (the one I had when I left Canada) ended up falling apart in Japan. The Logistics coordinator (based in Canada) passed me off to his agent (based in Japan). We went as far as obtaining the list of all the documentation and bike prep that would be required to crate and ship it to Canada. After that, the agent completely disappears. I’m not sure what happened there. I am starting to explore other avenues. Although, theoretically you can export on your own, dealing directly with the exporters is an incredible challenge, particularly in Japan. I am told that many exporters would prefer not to deal with a client shipping personal items since the country is incredibly stringent with their regulations.
I currently have a few leads on the go, so I am pretty confident that something will come through for me soon. I am also simultaneously shopping for parts. Despite its age, bike runs perfectly and won’t need a lot of serious work done to it- other than a malfunctioning speedo, almost everything else is aesthetic.
As expected, I have hundreds of pictures and they literally took me weeks to go through! Notably missing is any picture of me and the NSR together other than this one where the bike is missed almost entirely!
The reason I am posting this picture is because- although the bike is not pictured- my solution to the overheating phone/GPS is, in the form of socks stuffed between my phone and the tank to absorb some of the heat. It actually turned out to be a good solution!
I was feeling pretty nostalgic looking through my pictures. I also have a ton of helmet cam videos that I am going to try extracting still images from. Although I am still working my way through the videos, if you would like to see any, shoot me an email!
Going through my pictures, there are a couple of notable memories such as:
Scariest Ride
Irohazaka in the rain. Those pictures were taken at the top of the mountain between the up slope and down slope. I had just finished the up-hill stretch and when I near the top, it starts to rain- so there is no other way to get back other than completing the down-hill stretch! The good thing about this was that traffic was pretty sparse.. The bad thing about this was riding Irohazaka when you could barely see a meter in front of you!
Favorite Ride
I know this sounds like a generalized, non-commital response, but I honestly loved all the rides I had in Japan.There were so many great memories on the bike; Tokyo at night on the expressway and seeing the city and Tokyo Tower lit up as I sped through the Hirai Ohashi bridge, the twisty hairpins and switchbacks, the ride along the coast near Joetsu or the long sweeping turns with a scenic mountainous backdrop around Fuji Five Lakes. I loved all the experiences for different reasons.
Favorite Memories out of the saddle
