"Bloke trip" to Japan...

[javaman]

Now that's a trip report

[Phil]

A Z1-R and a GPZ900R, two bikes I would love in my shed, along with the Z900 but everyone wants one of them.

I am hoping to go to Japan next year with the family, thanks for teh pics, great to see.

Forgot to add, my Uncle had 3 S800's, 1 x convertable too and at least 3 S600's, great little cars.

[un_majstk]

So I’ll put up an ‘album’ or ‘slideshow’ for each of the days/visits including one of the day in Kobe and KGTW – no promises on write-ups, but I’ll answer any questions that I can.

wow great trip and write up.
funny, i also had a laptop stay on the train longer than it should have. must be a gaijin thing

looking forward to more pics and info on driving around there, and how you fit in as much as you did !
just the subways were enough to do my head in, but next trip im determined to drive!

most useful jap phrase ever: toi re wa doko deska????

[BrettZZR]

Driving around in Japan was not as big a challenge as I expected. I would be quite happy to drive in Tokyo - maybe this is because I learned to drive in and survived 30 odd years driving on the streets of Johannesburg! The big challenge is not the driving, but knowing where the bloody hell you are! As it happened we only drove around the area of Himeji, a medium sized town and the rural area around it. That was the only way we could be sure of being able to get to the track at Okayama, ~40km away.

Did some research and stuff on the Net before the time. Sometimes you have to translate websites and not all the info is a easy to get to as it could be. Some things were pre-booked, eg the Mazda factory tour - got an eMail confirmation of the booking before we left. Other things we went to without knowing if or how successful we would be. Finding addresses usually also required translating Jap websites, and then having the address, meant a bit of trolling Google maps. When I found the location of Mugen I went onto street-view and saw that there was a big tenpin entertainment complex called 'Round1' over the road. SO got ourselves to the nearest station, and then asked the cabbie to take us to Round1...

But it all was pretty much go go go. We literally did not stop. If the trip was any longer we would have had to schedule in a couple of 'slow' days!

My 'spelling' will be wierd (I learned listening to the spoken word) but you could add: "Chi-kako ne" before your phrase, and "ona gaishi masu-ta" and you would have (in literal translation):
Near by toilet a where it is (?) please

(-&

... Forgot to add, my Uncle had 3 S800's, 1 x convertable too and at least 3 S600's, great little cars.

Now THAT's a shed! I love those little cars. Pity I could never fit into one!

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