Travelling by Motorcycle from Kyushu Island to Tokyo
Update 53 (March 2024)
Kyushu Island to Osaka by Ferry
At this point I had about 6 weeks before I had to leave Japan. My 90 days had been refreshed when I left Japan over Christmas. It would be over four months and I was ready to move on, but still did not know where.
I went to Hamada again and found a mechanic to do some work on the bike. Surprisingly, finding someone in Japan that would work on it was difficult. Many reasons came up, they don’t work on Yamaha, it is a foreign model so they don’t have the service manual, too busy, it is not registered in Japan.
Eventually, prior to leaving I did find enough mechanics to get all the bike’s maintenance completed. The only thing that has never been done is having the valve clearance check completed. But it doesn’t seem to be any the worse for it.
I needed to work out whether I was really required to leave Japan by ferry to satisfy the bikes temporary import conditions. I was almost at Hakata Port where I had entered Japan, so I contacted Japan Customs Moji office. They had already been very helpful in getting me into Japan and overcoming the reluctance from the ferry companies in South Korea. It just took a couple of emails to confirm there were no conditions on how I left Japan. See Update 47 South Korea to Hakata, Japan for more background.
So I decided to finish off touring the southern end of the Japan mainland and then quickly get back to Tokyo to work out where I was going next.
This is Kagoshima Bay. Godzilla actually passed through here in 1994, during Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.
Some surfers enjoying the water. I was a little closer to the equator now but it was still quite cool.
This is Cape Sata, the most southerly point of Kyushu and the mainland.
The Sunflower Ferry runs from Shibushi to Osaka. It was my best way to quickly and easily get back to Osaka and then ride to Tokyo. The ferry left in the late afternoon and arrived in Osaka around 8am the next morning. It probably saved me about 4 days and time in Japan city traffic which was becoming tedious.
It didn’t seem particularly busy. There were quite a lot of large trucks that entered from other other end. It seemed like a very popular option for the drivers.
Leaving the bike to get tied down. I have never had any damage from this process and I have caught a lot of ferries now.
This is my private cabin. From memory my ticket was around 350 AUD for me, the bike and cabin. Compared to 4 days travel and accommodation it was an easy choice. There was a nice restaurant onboard
My first photo out of a hotel room window with a moving view.
Entering Tokyo. After getting off the ferry I pushed through pretty quickly. I did call in and see Suspension Edge in Nagoya for a follow up tweaking of the suspension which he did a great job of. I also stayed right next to Mount Fuji but never saw it through the cloud.
I made for Kashiwa City which is fairly close to Narita International Airport. I figured that might be a good place to find a freight forwarder to ship the bike. With not speaking the local language, I have found that it is best just to approach the local motorcycle, shipping and crate building companies face to face and see where it leads.
But where did I want to go? I still wanted to keep travelling, so heading towards Europe was the obvious answer. And I still wanted to go through Central Asia. Going through Russia was off the table. The Australian Government has rated Russia as a Do Not Travel country. This means my travel insurance policy does not cover me.
So I started investigating going through China. However, to take your own vehicle into China requires a guide and someone to do all of the paperwork. It soon became obvious that it would be too expensive to do this on my own.
I then learned about a motorcycle tour company with a space available in a tour from the Laos Border to Kyrgyzstan. It seemed like a good solution, even though I am way more of a solo traveller. Unfortunately this all meant going into Mongolia was not practical either.
So I needed to be at the Laos/China border at the start of May. But the trouble was that the close off date for the tour was imminent and I would have to start paying for the tour very soon.
About the same time I did stumble across a motorcycle import export business that looked promising to help me.
In the end I did work out the logistics enough to gamble my tour deposit that things would work out. After trying to decipher the vehicle import rules for the South East Asia countries, Cambodia became my entry country of choice. Air freight was the only viable choice in the time so in the end the bike was going with Eva Air (Taiwan), Narita to Taipai to Phnom Penh.
It is still very cold in Japan. A snowy morning viewed from my Kashiwa hotel. There was a large shopping centre next door which worked out well.
Supermarkets in Japan are very good with take out meals. Many of the larger supermarkets have commercial kitchens on site to prepare meals. The prepared meals section is often almost as big as the fresh fruit and veg section. I would normally find a proper meal for lunch and get something like the above for dinner. The prices are about $5 AUD.
Another Hotel Route Inn breakfast. Luckily they change it daily so I don’t tire of it. Most days I look forward to it. I have had miso soup for breakfast for 4 months now and still enjoy it.
I became quite adept at traversing Tokyo on the motorcycle. As it turned out most of what I needed was on the other side of Tokyo. I went to Yamanashi for some electrical repairs on my after market indicators, bought new tyres (Motoz Adventure Tractionator), applied for and then collected my Chinese visa.
Eventually my plans started coming together. About a week out from my departure to Cambodia I dropped off the bike and gear to be crated. It was really just a matter of waiting for others to do their job now. So I decided to buy a 5 day Japan Rail East Pass.
I took the chance to see some of the North West corner of Honshu Island that had been too cold for the motorcycle. 320kmh in a train is fun.
Arriving at the Ho Chi Minh Airport to transfer to my Phnom Penh flight.