Page 3, Monkey Bikes and more gates

The next morning we got up folded our futon mattresses up and took off. We went for breakfast, kind of Denny's like with good coffee. The restaurant was across the street from Lake Yamanake so we had a nice view. It seemed like bizarro world to me. Everything around me reminded me of places I would ride to in the States, the lake, the restaurant, but the people, the language and most signage was Japanese. I had to keep pinching myself "I'm in freaking Japan".

After breakfast we rode down the street a bit a came across a group of Monkey bikes. We just had to stop and look at these things. A monkey bike is basically a tricked out Honda Mini-Trail. Normally these are bikes for kids, or used as pit-bikes as stock they only have 50cc of displacement. But these monkey bikes had been heavily modded out. They use larger motors some 110cc and others bored out to 138cc; the larger capable of 90mph. They put things like performance exhaust, oil coolers, disc brakes, carbon fiber, and aluminum to make them fast. Since the bikes are not stock, they are very illegal. So the riders are basically squids and they scatter in all directions when chased by the police. So these guys were on some sort of group ride, standing in groups chatting. Nice guys, they seemed pretty cool. With the monkey bikes were other types of bikes, a few sport bikes, I saw a CBR600 and a Hyabusa. A very modded scooter was with them too. It was funny to see men straddle these puny little monsters. When they took off it looked odd to me, but they seemed to be having a great time.

Today our goal was to loop around Mt. Fuji. We went around the north side first, eventually dropping down to go back east with the mountain to our left most of the day. Today we explored more tight twisty mountain roads. The roads are used for selective logging and have been paved. At the side of most roads concrete retaining walls hold the bank back. The roads usually have a concrete trough/ditch for water runoff. It is amazing how much work has been done on these roads. They are in great condition and look like they will last for many more years. As we had practiced the day before, going around gates led us to many desolate roads. James had a map with tons of squiggly roads we were looking for. He also had a GPS so we had some idea of where we were most of the time. We kept looking for roads that would take us higher up on the mountain. Sometimes the road would turn to gravel, sometimes to a soft dirt road. Both the DR and Dakar handled any condition well. On some downhill sections of road we turned our engines off. We were hoping to see some wildlife. At one stop, we saw what I think were antelope? in a field below. Then James matter of factly said, “There are wild monkeys out here too”. Like this is a normal thing. (freakin Japan). We continued our coasting but didn’t see any monkeys. We kept getting glimpses of the mountain, we were so close. Later in the day clouds kept trying to hide the peak from us.

We had gone around enough gates that we weren’t sure how to get back to the legal side. On one road we saw a sign that claimed we would be cited for trespassing, and James was hesitant. His Japanese side wanted him to not break laws, but my American side wanted to. ;-) I told him let’s keep on exploring past the sign and I will pay the ticket if we get caught. Thankfully we didn’t get caught. On the west side of the mountain we started to drop down to more major roads. But at one point we saw some troops in fatigues on the road ahead of us. So we paused so they could march away from the gate we wanted to go around. They were gone pretty quick, so we headed down to the gate. This one was pretty well blocked, we had to go down a little swale, then climb a pretty steep bank, then up over the top we got around the gate. It was easy on the dual sports, but no way could I have done this on a street bike. We started to see more riders out enjoying the day. Once in awhile a bike would pass us. I saw a bike coming up fast, it flew by. It was a twin two-stroke bike like a TZ Yamaha, and he was on the pipe. He past us just before the entrance of a corner, he just swung his leg out and flicked the bike down on the right and railed the corner. The bike sounded very cool, and the smell of bean oil was awesome. Two strokes on the street, freakin Japan. Up the road we stopped and took a little break where some fellow riders had congregated. Some came up to talk to the weird Gaijin. While standing there, some Bosozoku riders roared by. We got on our bikes and followed hoping to run across them.

Here are some video links.

Video of twisty mountain road 13MB
Video of first night’s evening ride toward Mt. Fuji 8MB

Continued on Page 4 of 5...

Jeff

View more of my Japan photos