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Growing up motorcycles were for Hells Angels, Evil Knievel, Fonzie, and Peter Fonda. They were always dangerous high powered machines for rebels, lunatics, and punks, that my dull, button downed soul would never consider riding on, let alone driving. To be honest, I only learned how to ride a bike at the age of 25.
And yet…
Living here in Japan you can’t step outside the front door without seeing a motorcycle, motorbike, or scooter buzzing past. They’re everywhere and used by everybody from the mailman, to the ramen delivery guys, and even little old ladies, so how hard could they be to drive? While in Thailand on honeymoon M and I had the chance to ride on the back of a few bikes, but never mustered the courage to try driving ourselves.
Still the thought never left my mind, as I’d often joke that I wanted to try riding a Honda Super Cub while living here. For a little history, the Honda Super Cub is the world’s best selling motorbike/motorcycle of all time, FACT.
Granted it has about as much horsepower as a golfcart, but from an economic, emissions, and ease of riding standpoint it is one of the finest machines ever built for mass consumption, plus I think it looks really cool.
To my surprise, M not only listened to my babbling, but set us up to ride for my birthday. On Saturday morning we set out after breakfast to Akasaka to the Japan Bike Rental shop. M managed to find them on Google. When we first arrived we both explained we had no experience riding and if possible would appreciate a brief tutorial. Ron and Pete didn’t hesitate for a minute to help, especially for my bike as it actually has a 3 speed manual transmission requiring a little bit of coordination to operate.
Yet after a couple of laps around the block, I actually got the hang of handling the gears and how to maneuver the bike thanks to the guys help. Soon it was M’s turn to give her scooter a try and she too managed to get the hang of it within 15-20 minutes of practice and more expert tutoring.
And yet…
We really weren’t sure we could handle the mean streets of Tokyo. As if Ron and Pete hadn’t already done enough in getting two novices riding, they kindly suited up and offered to take us around the block on a quick tour to give us some real road experience. What we all imagined would probably end up being a trip to Starbucks down the corner and back, turned out to be a impromptu guided tour of central Tokyo that lasted the better part of the afternoon.
To say it was one of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever had would be an understatement. By the time we pulled up back to the shop I was hooked and oddly enough, so was M.
A morning of misgivings and fear has now turned to genuine enthusiasm, so much so that the two of us have been looking online at Vespas and Super Cubs. Now I’m not sure either of us will purchase one any time soon; nevertheless I wouldn’t rule out the two of us riding again in the future.
Special thanks to the guys at Japan Bike Rentals http://www.japanbikerentals.com as they took care of all the details with helmets, gloves, and bikes in perfect working order. On top of that Ron and Pete not only taught us the basics, helped us safely navigate through Tokyo, and showed us some sites we’d never had the chance to visit, but they were a lot of fun to hang out with. So when in Tokyo and in need of a bike, check them out, you won’t be disappointed!
31 years ago today T was born (man, you are old!).
To gizmo’s dad
The world traveler…
New vegetarian…
Spa lover…
and nerd
Happy Birthday!!!
You’ve come a long way…
sorry. i had to.
Is it strange that I have the majority of my vacation time planned out through the end of 2009? Well, I also have plans for 2010 but that’s a different story.
With the plans for OZ all set and the trip to Europe pretty much figured out I’ve moved on to bigger and colder things.
Yes, Antarctica! I’ve always liked penguins and cold weather so it seems only fitting to go. There is also the educational aspect of it as after watching the March of the Penguins my husband looked over me with a rather confused look on his face and questioned “but how do they know which one is the emperor?!?” (For those of you who are equally confused: No, the penguins do not have a monarchy. Emperor penguins are a species.)
That said, in November of 2009, we’ll be headed down to Argentina to board a ship that will take us down to Antarctica. Once in the area, a smaller boat will ferry us over to put our toes on the coldest continent and meet the penguins. While it is quite a ways off, we can’t wait! As access to the area is a bit of a challenge planning well in advance is key to secure a spot.
Prior to that we’ll hopefully be headed to India in the spring for my birthday. While dates and such haven’t been set, I think we’ll pry be there either around my birthday or in May for the next Golden week. Beyond that, I’m hoping to see Tibet and Nepal in the near future and maybe a little Bhutan in there as well.
Sadly, my trusty old passport won’t be making many more journeys with me. Full of visas and stamps it seems my passport isn’t even going to survive until its expiration date of April 2009. It’s full and extra pages are not an option. Thus, upon returning from OZ in July I’ll be carting myself over to the US embassy for a thorough strip search (only a slight exaggeration) to say goodbye to my trusty old friend (I will get it back with the cover sliced in half to keep though but still, it won’t be the same).
I know, such problems I have…
My apologies for my absence, I’ve been pondering the meaning of life and well, you know how that goes.
Each morning as I arrive to work I take a bit of time to check blogs, emails, facebook and such and this morning was greeted by two sets of pictures. One set was the weekend wedding of two friends on the New Jersey shore the other of the recently completed renovation of the brownstone my roommate from college just completed (it looks amazing by the way, I’m more than slightly impressed). As I went through the sets of photos it occurred to me how different each of the lives of my friends are.
All through school and even up through college most of your peers are doing moderately similar things. The social circles vary depending on lifestyle choices but widely, most people aren’t living drastically different lives.
Cut to five years later.
Facebook tells me that people I knew in college are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversaries. Others have just given birth.
While some are taking trips down the aisle, others are taking trips to bloomingdales. It’s just interesting that at one time we all had so many things in common and now everyone seems to be at a different stage in their life.
It’s strange really how many different paths friends can take but then again, that’s what makes it interesting.
Speaking of interesting (or not) I’ve added a list of things I plan on doing to the site. Please feel free to make suggestions or add your own thoughts.
I’ve come up with 50 and challenged T to add 50 more. I’ll update them as we go.
Now back to my sushi and Antarctica trip.
If you must go to Ikea, do so at 4pm on a saturday. The lack of people, screamers and chaos might actually make for a borderline (dare I say it?) pleasant experience. This may mean hell has frozen over..
Regardless, mission accomplished. The bookshelves will arrive one week from today and more photo frames were purchased for our photo wall. Sadly though, it seems 8×10 (or even the metric conversion) are not universal. thus still I need some frames. Who can I bat my eyelashes at and promise souvenirs?
My theme for this week:
Some Random things from this week:
- The announcement that the wet season had officially begun kicked off our rather damp week. Although it’s already been raining for nearly two weeks straight, they just got around to announcing that the season has begun so now we just wait for it to end. Let me tell you, the dog is less than thrilled.
- Someone from our London office is having a going away party…and accidentally cc’d the global network. 100 emails from around the world later (which itself was actually kind of cool) we’re all invited! The head of Europe volunteered the global CEO’s budget to pay for a worldwide party…somehow I’m doubting this one.
- T has shaved his head…um…baldish. It looks good and I like it.
- We’re all booked and set for our various OZ activities and are now counting down the days. Scuba! Climbing! Eating!
- We’re going to Ikea this weekend. Oh the joy. I loathe Ikea only slightly less then I loathe the bookshelf my husband brought into our relationship from his old apartment. I’ve been plotting the demise of this bookshelf for years now and have finally resolved to throw myself into the pit of hell known as ikea. (please note: it isn’t the furniture I loathe, it’s the 10,000 people, screaming children and the chaos.)
Onward we will march. My next adventure is to call the delivery people and try and get my summer clothing from JCrew re-delivered. Always a thrilling adventure aren’t I?
It is really no secret that the ticket to my happiness is actually a literal ticket.
I tend to twitch a little less when I have a travel itinerary to pull up and drool over and I am lucky enough that T has started to develop this habit as well. After our recent trip to Vietnam we knew we’d need a mid-summer escape from the heat of Japan and started negotiations on where to head next. This weekend we’ve gotten all booked and are now all set to head out on our next adventure.
So! Our next adventure (starting July 18th) will be here:
Our first stop will be in Cairns in the north to do a little of this at the great barrier reed¥f:
After a few days of swimming with the fishes we’ll head down to sydney to do a little of this:
(yes, we are climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge) and hopefully hug a few of these (though I hear they are actually rather cranky in real life):
Needless to say, we can’t wait!
