MOTORCYCLE TOURING

When we say motorcycle touring, we include both riding for riding's sake and exploring/sightseeing from a motorcycle. Part of the reason for this is that Vicki doesn't ride and, in Japan at least, a motorcycle with a pillion passenger isn't allowed on expressways.

Sample a bit of our fun!

JAPAN

Chiba

The first impression most people, including us, have of Chiba and the Boso Peninsula is the industrialized area around Narita Airport. So, when we were invited by a friend living near Kisarazu, Shuhei Itoh, to visit him for a week-end in May, we weren't very optimistic about what we would find. Since Kisarazu is halfway down the penninsula on the Tokyo Bay side, we decided that the most pleasant way to get there would be to take the ferry from Kawasaki (near Haneda Airport). Although the day was overcast, it was still a pleasant crossing.

Shuhei met us at the ferry landing and led us through town to one of his favorite noodle shops for a quick lunch. The ride through town was exciting enough; we nearly got creamed by a truck turning across traffic (we were the traffic). After lunch we grabbed some fishing gear from Shuhei's house and headed out.

Spring and early summer are among the best times to be in Japan. We rode through valleys of rice paddies interspersed with houses, temples, and stands of bamboo. We stopped in a small town to pick up bait and then pulled into a little farm that turned out to be a flower farm owned by friends of Shuhei. We had fun poking through their greenhouses and enjoyed a cup of coffee with them.

Although our visit was pleasant, we had to tear ourselves away since our goal was a spot of fishing (did we mention that fishing is one of Shuhei's passions?). It was only another 20 minutes to the spot where we left our bikes, clamored over the guardrail and down the embankment to a very small stream (no more than a trickle in some places). We walked upstream about a kilometer to one of Shuhei's secret fishing holes. Given the scant water supply, we were convinced that there would be no fish. Imagine our surprise when we found that we got bites as soon as our lines went in. Imagine Shuhei's surprise when the fish we caught were the size of one's little finger! (He kept them anyway but since he didn't feed them to us we don't know what he did with them.)

When it was getting close to dark we gave up and went back to the bikes for a nice twilight right back through the valleys to Shuhei's house, where Shuhei's girlfriend Kyoko had already started to fix dinner.

The next morning we saddled up again. This time we were out strictly for the ride. With Shuhei leading the way we headed southeast across the peninsula. At first we travelled east on Highway 409 through farmland, which in Japan means rice paddies the size of American backyards (or smaller!). We headed south on Highway 410, crossed the Kameyama Dam and then headed into Yoro Gorge. We went as far up the gorge as we could, coming to a nature preserve where vehicles we not permitted. We walked up the trail a ways, alongside a stream that, while more than the trickle of the day before, was--judging from the condition of the rocks and the waterway--significantly less than usual. John spotted a "swimming hole" at the base of a small waterfall and there was no way to stop him from ripping off his clothes and jumping in. He managed to talk Shuhei into joining him and they splashed around for a while until John discovered a few leeches. You never saw two guys jump faster than that moment. Fortunately we got rid of all the leeches before they were able to attach themselves, but it was an ugly moment.

That little adventure left us with an appetite, so we headed back to the dam to a fish restaurant Shuhei knew.

After lunch, we continued south toward Kamogawa, stopping to explore a stream with water so clear we could see the fish. They were a decent size and Shuhei moaned about not having brought his fishing rods today.

By the time we got to Kamogawa it was getting late so we didn't have time to explore this seaside resort. From what we saw as we passed through, though, it looked like seaside towns the world over. Apparently the beaches on this, the southeast side of the peninsula, are actually clean enough to spend time on. Unfortunately we didn't have any time to spare. We had to speed back up Highways 410 and 409 to Kisarazu to catch our ferry back to Tokyo. There's never enough time to do everything but we had enough time to discover that the Chiba Peninsula is highly underrated. We will surely try to visit again!

Tokyo - Nagoya - Inuyama - Hida-Takayama - Matsumoto - Tokyo

One of our earliest explorations in Japan. Stay tuned for details!

Izu Peninsula

As one of our earliest motorcycles adventures, Vicki decided that we should visit the Izu Peninsula. She had visited the peninsula by rail about 5 years earlier and had fond memories of various sights. The first challenge to the trip was just finding the peninsula. We discovered that if we followed the signs on Highway 1 when going through Yokohama we wound up on an expressway without trying (remember, motorcycles with pinion passengers aren't allowed on expressways). We had to sneak through the tollgate (that is to say, Vicki got off and walked through) and then continued on.

We reached Jogasaki Beach in late afternoon, with about 30 minutes of good light left. That was long enough to walk around on the lava flow beach and get a good look at it. From there we continued on to Kawazu, where we had made arrangements to stay at a Kokuminshuku for the night. Although the dining room was like a large cafeteria, our room--overlooking the river far below us--was great and so was the bath.

The next day our plan was to go around the bottom of the peninsula and over to the west side, to the outdoor onsen at Dogashima, and then take a small road across the peninsula back to Kawazu and back to Tokyo. It almost worked.

We got a slightly later start than we had intended, sleeping late after enjoying a late-night bath the night before. We had no trouble driving around to Dogashima and found the outdoor onsen, at the bottom of a cliff right on the beach. We soaked for a while, got out and jumped in the ocean for a while and then soaked again. It was great! We had a leisurely lunch at a local hotel, hung out on the waterfront looking at the fishing boats for a while and then set out to find the road that was on the map--our shortcut.

The road followed the river that was flowing out of the mountains and we enjoyed the beautiful contrast of the rice paddies, the river, and the mountains behind it. Just after the road crossed the river, though, it became an unpaved track. It turned out our road was a logging road but one that was very nearly abandoned. We didn't realize how abandoned until we'd been on the road nearly an hour and noticed that the only trucks we had seen were just as we crossed the river. The road wound and climbed steadily; we didn't see any more trucks.

Finally we reached a pass. Much to our surprise, there were two possible roads we could take down. Fortunately, although it was beginning to get dark, we saw a small sign and Vicki thought it indicated which way to go. We set out.

An hour passed. The road narrowed to something more like a wide hiking trail. We didn't see any signs of civilization. Had we chosen the wrong road? We didn't dare to go back to find out. We kept descending. Finally the road began to widen a bit; we noticed a few houses, and a few more. At last, an intersection to put us back on the main road and back to the kokuminshuku, which was holding our luggage; it was almost 8 pm.

Somehow the people at the kokuminshuku didn't seem surprised when we asked if we could stay another night. There was no way we were driving back to Tokyo that night.

The nice thing about the enforced extension of our visit was that it left us with lots of time to explore the Kawazu Nanadaru, a small hiking course along seven waterfalls in the middle of the peninsula. We poked around there for half a day, having lunch and even trying a bit of rock climbing (you can imagine what a spectacle we were to the Japanese!).

After hiking the waterfall course we got back on the bike and continued up the middle of the peninsula. Because of the sudden rise in the mountains, the road had a most unique "loop bridge" that took traffic from the valley to the pass in a concrete corkscrew. John enjoyed it so much that when we got to the top he turned around and went back so we could climb it again! After that highlight there was nothing to do but drive back to Tokyo.

Although we had a good time, one thing we learned is that it's probably easier to see Izu by public transportation.

Wada Pass

One of John's favorite day trips from Tokyo--come back later and we'll tell you all about it!

TAIWAN

Taroko Gorge

When we visited Taiwan, a friend recommended that we take the train to Hualien (about halfway down on the east side of the island) and see Taroko Gorge. With the help of Larry, a young American we met as the train was pulling in, we managed to rent a motorcycle for 24 hours so that we could explore the gorge freely.

It took less than 20 minutes to reach the mouth of the gorge. At first the road ran along the north side of the gorge, perhaps half way from the top of the gorge. The road was narrow, didn't wind much (there wasn't much room for that!) and carried a fair amount of traffic. The road didn't climb as rapidly as the mountains did, so that by the time we crossed to the south side of the gorge we found we were about two-thirds from the top.

A kilometer deep in some places with marble walls, the gorge was, forgive the pun, gorgeous.

We passed through only a few short tunnels and so had a good view of the sides of the gorge; sometimes pretty sheer and other times more sloping and tree covered. As interesting as the sides of the gorge was the winding river flowing below us; often we could see rapids. About three-quarters of the way up the gorge is a wide spot that could be called a village; a place where traveller's seem to stop overnight. The main "lodge" had apparently been destroyed by fire just a week before we got there, so we wound up billetting ourselves at an extremely run down Youth Hostel. (That's not a slam of youth hostels, we often stay in youth hostels; this one was just in pretty poor condition.) Interestingly, although this was the only place where people could stop in the gorge overnight, the restaurant closed at 7:00 pm (we went hungry). It seems most people explore the gorge in large tour buses that go up to this point, feed the tourists lunch and then take them back down to Hualien.

Ok, so we couldn't have dinner and our accomodation left something to be desired. We were lucky to run in to Larry again--he was just on his way to a hot spring just a little further up the gorge. He wasn't going to be deterred by the fact that it was dark; he had brought candles. So, off we all went. It was only a couple more miles up the gorge, so driving up in the pitch black wasn't a problem. We parked at a little pull-out and started down the trail to the bottom of the gorge. The trail was a good one, paved for at least the first third. We could hear the river rushing below us and even crossed a couple of little bridges on the way.

Finally we arrived at the hot spring, in a grotto alongside the river. The spring was at the back and low stone wall had been erected across the front to hold the spring water in. Thus there was a large pool in the grotto with water flowing over the top of the wall.

Once in we found that this was VERY hot water! So hot that there was no way we could get to the back of the grotto to the source and even sitting in it was hard, not only because the water was hot but also because the bottom was hot. Of course, once we got used to the water, it was really wonderful. There we were sitting in hot mineral water in a candle-lit marble grotto with no noise except the bubbling sound of the river flowing past.

Our bath completed (and our candles nearly so!), we made our way back up to the road, hopped on our bike and went back to the youth hostel for a very sound night's sleep.

After breakfast the next morning we hiked around a little in the area and then decided to go back up to the hot spring once more. Much to our surprise, the bridges we had crossed in the dark the night before were narrow, swinging suspension bridges that, when one could see what was below them (nothing for the first 10 meters!) were rather difficult to cross. We made it and enjoyed another bath in daylight. A completely different perspective makes for a completely different experience.

Finally we headed back down the gorge for Hualien to return our bike. By the time we got to the mouth of the gorge it was starting to drizzle, so our timing was obviously just right. We returned the bike, had lunch and got on a north-bound train.

FRANCE

Cote d'Azur: Cannes to Grasse

One sunny, late summer (well, late September, actually) day we rented a motorcycle in Cannes and decided to explore a bit of the Route Napoleon (after all, if it was good enough for Napoleon...). The original road has been replaced for an expressway known as N85, which made our trip much easier than Napoleon's would have been. In case you're wondering, when Napoleon escaped from exile on Elba in 1815 he landed in southern France and marched north, gathering troops as he went. It was only a few months later that he was defeated by Wellington at Waterloo.

We had no intention of going all the way to Belgium, we just wanted to explore a tiny corner of France, so we only went a few miles beyond Grasse, up into valleys of flower fields with fabulous views of the ocean, some 14 to 20 miles away. We had read about some caves with excavated remains of stone-age inhabitants and wanted to visit. We found the spot only to discover that it was closed on Wednesdays. (sigh)

That quest having failed we decided to return to Grasse and check out the perfumeries for which it is famous.

The city of Grasse is nestled into a hillside (the flatter land is all used for growing the flowers used to produce all those famous perfumes!) so it has that lovely Mediterranean feel to it. Before finding the perfumeries we checked out the clock tower, cathedral and the view down the valley. Finally we found the Molinard Perfumery, where we enjoyed their showroom with all those sweet smelling goodies while waiting for the English language tour. The tour was an interesting explanation of how perfumes are produced (although it began with a demonstration of soap production). Perfume production is a lot like alcohol distillery. The Molinard building we toured is now only used for tours and seemed to contain equipment that would rank as antique. (Modern perfume production takes place at a secret location outside of town.)

We decided to visit the Fraginard factory as well, just to have a point of contrast. The biggest lesson learned there was that lemon grass and citronella are the same thing. We'd been trying to find citronella plants for our garden as we've heard that mosquitoes don't like the smell, but never could. Next time, we'll ask for lemon grass.

We returned to Cannes by way of Antibes, a small seaside town with more than 2,000 years of history. Particularly interesting were the ramparts remaining from a 16th century fort. They followed the coast for a short distance. Underneath one corner was an Archeological Museum containing a number of interesting displays about the town's history as a shipping port. Nearby was a park where we had our first chance to observe old men playing boules. Ah, the local culture!

© 1997, Vicki L. Beyer