Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Redmurty wrote:
How could I forget my 50th birthday prezzie off the Mrs, a ticket to Japan so I could climb Fuji to watch the sunrise. cheers Spud

I finally got to Japan two years ago. My son was coming to the end of a gap year in China and had gone to Japan as a three week stopover on the way back. He went down with a bug or something soon after arriving and asked us if there was any way we could get him back earlier. We checked out all of the possible options (even including him going to Vladivostok and coming back on the trans siberian railway) and concluded the cheapest option was for one of us (me) to fly out and look after him. Fortunately he recovered fairly quickly and we had two weeks till our return flights.

We did a trip to Mount Fuji. We got a bus to the fifth station and nearly froze to death (35C in Tokyo, 10C and raining on Fuji!) Everyone there was in state of the art climbing gear and we were in T shirts and flip-flops.





I thought Tokyo would be a biker nirvana but was really disappointed and hardly saw any. I dragged my son round all the dealers in the bike district near Ueno station but they were no better than the local ones round here. At least we found a huge street market that we didn't know about on the way back to the station which made the day worthwhile.

I'll post a pict of me on Fuji, that's if you can actually see me. I climbed from the bottom lots of people go to station 5.

After sunrise and a 1000 foot down
cheers Spud

Redmurty wrote:I'll post a pict of me on Fuji, that's if you can actually see me. I climbed from the bottom lots of people go to station 5.

cheers Spud

That's impressive if you climbed from the bottom. It's a loooong way! Hope you could see a bit more of the mountain than the vis in your pic would suggest.


We had to do it as a day trip from Shinjuku so it was the fifth station on the bus or nothing.


Back to the original topic, earlier in 2009 we'd adventured round Shanghai and Beijing. First time in China and very impressive. Highlight was probably Tiananmen Square and queuing up to see Chairman Mao in his mausoleum. The queue was eight wide and went round the square - twice! Being spoilt softie Westerners we were give preferential treatment and pushed into the queue halfway along so we only had to go round the square once. As you get near the entrance to the viewing chamber you can buy flowers to pay your respects and just about everyone does. Once you've placed them at the barrier near the casket and left they're scooped up, returned to the stall and sold again!

There's lots of airport style security round the square and to get in bags etc have to go through X ray machines although it's a mainly relaxed atmosphere. What amused me though was the soldiers - steely eyed, armed to the teeth, muscles in places that I don't even have places, were all about 5' 3" tall. I towered over them and I'm only 5' 8". God knows what they thought of some the Dutch tourists we met who were about 6' 6".

Trips by bike would include all over France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany several times and some off roading in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Rode to Malta and back this summer for a mate's wedding.......I really must post a trip report!:whistle:

No Round The World trip for me (so far).

My trips are limited to 10 days or less, but I have been North to Skye, South to Marakesh and East to Krakow and a few places in between.

Trips on my bike have varied, but I recently finished a rather long trip from dubai where I was working through Oman, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, Ukraine, eastern europe, europe, then canada up to the arctic cirlce in alaska then down to the US. Also I have been riding in India, which was more of a survival course than a holiday and Australia and Indonesia. Bring on S.America and Africa!

heres a few snaps from various places...

"riding in India.......... (is) more of a survival course"

couldn't agree more.................

Re Fuji, what you see is what i got. 1000 feet down and 45 minutes after dawn I was getting sun burnt. 19 hours from bottom to top and back down to station 5, then caught a bus and watch a Sumo tournament. cheers Spud

I have given this a little bump, bit selfish I know but love reading your tales keep em coming please..

You are all a great source of inspiration

Other than the UK & Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Mexico.