My Scooter in Japan

I lived in Japan from 1989 to 1992 in Tsuru City in Yamanashi prefecture west of Tokyo. Mt. Fuji stood between my prefecture and Tokyo. 

It was not a scooter drive from my home to Tokyo. By train, it was around two hours as distance from Fuji to Tokyo was 100 kilometers. Neither of the two scooters I owned could really go over 45 kms an hour. And you never knew which weather conditions you might ride in. It could easily rain on any given day. And the early sunset by 7 every day could mean a colder ride later on.

I used to take the train for two hours on Chuo Line from Shinjuku to Otsuki, Yamanashi and transfer to the expensive Fuji-kyu Line. My home in Tsuru was about 30 minutes from Otsuki. All of 1989 I walked or took train or bus. But my 1990, I felt the walk to my closest train station which was 30 minutes from my apartment just didn't cut it. The above picture shows Shinjuku which is a major downtown for the city and the highway and railways extend west to Mt. Fuji and around the right of it to Yamanashi prefecture. 

The main school I taught at was 20 or so minutes away from my apartment. I taught at another school in another town which entailed walking 30 minutes away to Yamura train station, travelling for 30 minutes by train to Kitafuji at the base of Mt. Fuji and walking 20 minutes to work. Luckily, a teacher drove me home any day I worked out of town. However, that did not happen immediately. So a commute twice a week could be over 2 hours long.

I didn't mind walking as it is a good way to get to know your area but two hours commuting for work is tough. Part of the problem was that my apartment was on the mountain beside Tsuru University. Brand new and with amenities, I really did well with it. And location-wise beside the university and full furnished was great. But it was 30 minutes walking to either rail station. The university was halfway between them. In 2004, they actually built a station five minutes from my apartment. Would have loved that.

Above, in Kofu with fellow travellers from around the world. Me in the middle. Think this is an instant of where I drove to Otsuki with the scooter and then train on JR line.

For those of you who ask what I didn't have a bike. The answer is I did. I was donated a bike which was functional and had poor brakes that I had to fix. This was after I soared down a mountain and into a rice patty. Once the brakes were fixed, I gave it another try and a few days later, while I stopped on a sidewalk with no curbs, I was hit by a young driver who was not looking and tossed over the car and my my bike was wiped out. My fellow teachers were convinced I must have been in the wrong because "you don't know Japanese roads."

There was some mumbled apologies from staff when a huge gift basket of various coffees arrived at the school along with a confession that the driver was on the wrong side of the road, had been stopped at a shop and drove off without looking and hit me. One teacher said they are probably grateful that as scraped up as I was and with a damaged bike, I didn't file a police report. I didn't even think to do so. However, it was last time I ever road a bike in Japan. It could be that the bike was just jinxed as I never again had a road issue save for a speeding ticket on my scooter returning from Kofu. It was quashed from a faulty reading. My scooter was not able to do the speed they said I was doing. I was told most Japanese would pay the ticket but I went in and made my argument and it turned out the machine was wrong.

By 1990, despite discouragement from my school, I went and got my Japanese driver's licence and purchased a 1984 Honda scooter. I didn't get an International driver's licence. Always managed to go the hard way but I got a Japanese one. No one said I couldn't so I did it. I bought my used scooter from a Tsuru dealership. Lots of students would have a scooter for three or four years at the university and would sell them so there was always a supply. I bought a helmet as well. The helmet was blue, the scooter was red. I loved that scooter.

No longer did I take the train to work twice a week. I drove my scooter which took about 30 minutes from home. I still walked quite a bit as I went to Tokyo nearly every other weekend and going to Shinjuku or Rappongi and other places could amount to 20,000 steps and lots of stairs. What I did differently though was to take my scooter to Otsuki on the main Japan Rail line thereby avoiding the expensive private Fuji-Kyu line that took me home.

Least you think that theft doesn't happen in Japan, I returned home from a trip to Tokyo and got off the train in Otsuki and went to the bike and scooter parking area and my scooter was stolen. I had to take last train home. I reported the theft to the police and my staff said I would likely never see again. I waited a week and no report so I went shopping for a new scooter and got myself a Yamaha Champ, a 1989 scooter. It has storage inside the seat for helmet. My last scooter had a place to lock my helmet to but since the scooter was stolen, I lost both. I bought a new helmet.

I was pretty pleased because I was fairly dependent on the scooter for work and social life. I was teaching businessmen and tutoring university students as well as my regular job. It entailed at least travelling a half hour to work and then socializing as you see in the picture above. The business owner wished more of his staff was conservational in English for customers. My Champ was was was maybe only a few kilometers faster but I loved it.

Three weeks later I got a call from the police. They had found my scooter and helmet. I expected it to be trashed but when I arrived the thieves had only peeled back some plastic and hotwired it. So now I had two scooters. Luckily, I was able to sell me older scooter to a student at  the university for a shade lower than what I bought it for and she loved it.

So I was back in business and able to commute to work, tutor and save time and money by going to the main rail line when going to Kofu or Tokyo. There was maybe only a handful of days where snow fell that I could not ride the scooter. And I had raincoat for the rainy season and a heavier leather jacket for when it was colder.

One thing to point out is that Japanese drive on opposite side of the road like the British. They have steering wheels on cars and trucks on right. The acceleration for motorbikes is the opposite side handlebar as well. I got used to pretty quickly but when travelling home and tired, I had to get used to North American left hand drive.

A very few of my colleagues who were in multiple schools had to have cars and an international driver's licence. I was the only one who got a Japanese licence and a scooter. One of the teacher colleagues from Britain had this tiny four seat car and we took a road trip to Osaka and stayed in a capsule hotel and had a blast.

I drove to Kofu a few times which was about an hour away and maybe 50 kms. Tokyo at 100 kms was possible but it would be 2 or 3 hours one on windy roads and tunnels. Even to Kofu was through tunnels. And they are scary and loud. I once walked back from Kofu because the trains stopped running. It can take 9 hours walking and that didn't scare me. The tunnels scared me. I actually had police pick me up in the tunnel and take me to Otsuki where I caught a taxi the rest of the way home. I never did that again. In more recent years there is now an alternative and safer walking route that avoids those tunnel for both walking and scooters. Would have loved that when I was there.

I have thought about a scooter in Winnipeg. The prices for buying them are higher, insurance is not terrible but shorter season of use and it is dangerous sharing roads with cars. Still, I'd love to have one again.

Northwest Airlines Memorabilia 1989

In August of 1989, I went to live in Japan and work for the Japanese government. At the time, the Japanese Consulate was on Garry Street in Winnipeg and the Consul House was a Japanese styled house on Wellington Crescent near Kingsway.

I have detailed some of that experience elsewhere in the blog.

There were about 30 of us from Manitoba and Saskatchewan who made the trip to Japan to begin one year contracts with the Jet Program. One week orientation in Tokyo and then by planes, trains and automobiles (and a few ferries for some) to their homes where they would teach.

The flight route for the Manitoba and Saskatchewan JET participants was Winnipeg to Minneapolis for a little more than a one hour fight in business class about a 727 which was fairly noisy compared to many aircraft today. 

There was to be a layover planned for around three hours in the Twin Cities while our luggage (which was three full suitcases and carryon for everyone) was transferred to our Minneapolis-Seattle-Tokyo leg aboard one of the Northwest's new 747s. Travel was to be business-class all the way.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International is a lovely airport. It was from there first international flight within North America took place with a trip to Winnipeg in 1928. The route has never stopped since although Northwest Airlines is lost to the mists of times as is Delta Airlines now.

As business-class travellers, passengers had the private first and business-class lounge to layover at as their connecting flight was receiving baggage transfers and then passengers. The WorldClubs lounge was pretty posh and a revelation that they served alcohol at 8 AM in the morning.

Once in the WorldClubs lounge, we barely had a chance to even look around when a Northwest attendant came by and said that business class on chosen 747 flight had been double booked and that there was space on another 747 leaving within the hour in first class!

I don't think my arm shot up faster to volunteer for those seven spots. Better yet, the three hour layover was no longer in the offing for our original 747 flights. We were boarding now! Luckily, I was aboard with two new dear friends Shelly and Nicole along with four other from the Manitoba/Saskatchewan group.

I've never been first to board a plane till that time and once we were on board, it took 75 minutes to pack everyone else and their luggage in. For those of us in First Class though, the drinks and snacks began the moment we sat down.

It was a four hour flight to Seattle where we would deplane, have a two hour layover and take on more JET participants. During that Minneapolis to Seattle flight, I had a brunch of quiche to die for. And food and drink never stopped. In the landing at Seattle we noticed on the ground the Concorde which has been in Washington for some sort of airshow on July 31, the day before. It was spectacular.

In Seattle, we deplaned but left everything in the seats we were assigned as we would be back. We just had time to go to the Duty Free store to pick up some additional omiyage (gifts) for our schools of employment. Once that was picked up, we got called back again for First Class Boarding call. 

There were 14 seats in the nose of the 747-400. The curtain was pulled but we could hear additional rows of first class to row 14 followed by business and economy classes being filled behind us. There were also 22 first class seats above us in the second deck behind the cockpit. For the next hour as we enjoyed snacks and drinks. Soon we were taking off and having one long last look the Concorde on the ground and for me, my last look at North American soil for the next 18 months.

It wasn't far into our flight that the main course of in flight meal was ordered. I had the Cornish Game Hen. However, there was a lot of sharing and I ate from fellow JET program people  like Shelly and Nicole who ordered Jumbo Shrimp and Makunouchi. This was elite level chef created meals and we ate for three hours when economy was done in thirty minutes.

Sad to say but I couldn't sleep. Even with the space, I was too excited and as spacious as it was, and with more legroom and recline in the seats, best I could do was watch movies and listen to the variety of stuff on the 18 channel stations. There were no seatback TVs back then. A big projector took up the nose of the aircraft.

Around five or six hours in, I went for the first of a few walks through the plane. It widened immediately out of the nose of the plane but got considerably more crowded two aisles and stretching way back where 500 people were seated. It was quite the aircraft.

Upon return to my window seat in Row 4, I saw another Delta 747 below ands away some distance but same course. I could only assume it might have been the other originating flight from Minneapolis with the rest of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan JETS aboard. It was blue skies and very few clouds and the expansive Pacific Ocean below went on forever. The 920 kilometer speed meant we stayed just ahead of the sun. We eventually crossed the dateline and it became Monday.

At 10 hours we began out descent. From my window there has been some evidence of coastline as we approached Japan. It was still bright out but as we got lower there was evidence of streakiness and cloud. Rain. Still far off. The green of Japan was very evident and shipping activity below was more evident.

Attendants started clearing stuff away as we crossed over land and over Chiba prefecture. It was remarkable green and well ordered. Rice fields, cities and towns. Lower over Chiba till we were on final approach to Narita International Airport and their very long runway.

We had arrived August 1, 1989 Tuesday around 6 PM. As we taxied in, the sun was starting to dip and the clouds began to close in and light mists have way to spitting rain. 

1990 Yatsugatake Jazz Festival

I attended more jazz events in Japan that at any time previous from 1989 to 1992. Jazz clubs, restaurants and festivals abounded. The Yatsugatake Jazz Festival was in the mountains on the way to Kofu in Yamanashi prefecture. Just shy of two hours outside of Tokyo by slower trains. About one hour from my place. 

The big names for jazz were reserved for the Mt. Fuji Jazz festival which I attended twice. The picnic like atmosphere of Yatsugatake was amazing and the crowd relaxed and had fun.