Hi. Happy new year. Oh, it’s April already...
So, what’s been happening here? Well, it looks like winter is finally over. Days are getting a little warmer although it still snows occasionally. There is still snow everywhere outside, though the snow on the road has mostly gone. January and February were particularly bad this year. There was a stretch of about 6 weeks in which I almost never saw the sun because it was constantly snowing. I heard from someone that 21 metres fell over winter, which is a little more than average.
All that snow was great for me though, as I spent a lot of winter on the slopes. I’m not exactly sure, but I think I spent about 30 days snowboarding this season, and that was only December, January and February. In the last week of February it was unusually warm for a few days and it even rained a little, which pretty much ruined the snow at all the slopes in Japan. The rain melted the top layer of snow, then when the weather returned to normal all the melted snow froze, creating a nasty layer of ice. Unfortunately this coincided with my annual snowboarding trip that I take with a bunch of friends from the town I used to live in. I ended up driving for 4 hours to a resort that was like an ice rink on a slope. I probably would have had a better time using ice skates instead of my snowboard. However, I can’t really complain as that was the only day all winter that the conditions weren’t outstanding.
April is the start of the school and work year in Japan. This means that in April there are lots of new faces in town and at work. Quite a few teacher who are good friends were transferred this year, so I hope there are some good teachers coming to replace them.
What else? Well, nothing particularly exciting has happened so far this year. I turned 30, which is another milestone I guess. The day before my birthday I caught a bit of a cold, the only cold I had all winter, so my birthday was a non-event. I spent it doped up at home in my warm bed, if I remember correctly. I usually don’t make new year’s resolutions, but sometime during January I decided that since I was turning 30 I should make some. I live a simple life, so I figured simple resolutions would be best. I came up with three.
- Eat more healthy foods. Actually, because I cook for myself I generally cook healthy well balanced meals, so this resolution wasn’t really a ‘change’ as much as a ‘reinforcement’. The biggest problem I have is getting enough fruit and vegetables, as fruit in particular is quite expensive and the selection is not so great (not like Australia anyway). So, to fix this I started getting frozen fruit in bulk from Costco. My freezer used to be jam packed with frozen meat, but now there is an equal balance between meat and fruit. Every morning I make a fruit smoothie with the frozen fruit, which is not only delicious, but manages to incorporate about 3 or 4 servings of fruit, making it much easy to reach the daily recommended intake.
- More exercise. This is also not so much of a resolution. Around May last year I started jogging most days. At first it was awful as I really, really hate long distance running, but I forced myself to do it. By the start of November, when it became too cold and snowy to run, I was not only enjoying running, but was able to run some reasonable distances. I think I was averaging about 40km a week, which is about 39km more than I was doing the year before. After not being able to run during winter, I’ve had a chance to go running a couple of times over the last fortnight. It’s hard to start again, but it’s nowhere near as hard as it was starting last year.
- Read more books. This is a real resolution. During my youth I used to read a lot of books, but since I’ve been in Japan I’ve hardly read anything. I guess the main reason is that there are very few places you can get English books around here. I know that I can get them on the internet, but I much prefer actually going to a bookshop and browsing there. In Asahikawa, the city that is about an hour from where I live, there are two bookshops that have a small selection of English books (maybe 300 - 400 books between them). One of the bookshops is obviously having trouble selling English books as they are having a permanent 50% off sale. In January, I went to this bookshop and bought a bunch of books. My goal was to read 2 books a month. It’s April now, and I think I’ve read about 12 books, so I’m well ahead of schedule. I think I’ll write a little about some of the books I’ve read, but not in this blog entry.
And that’s it. Three simple resolutions. I guess the simpler the resolution is, the easier it is to stick to it.
==THE FOLLOWING IS RATED ‘M’, FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY==
Ok, so when I said nothing much has been happening, that was not entirely true. Actually, during the last few months it’s been hard concentrating on work because my mind has been focused on other things. One thing in particular has been the focus of a lot of my attention.
As you may or may not know, I’ve been in a relationship for quite a while now. Like all relationships, we have our ups and downs, but generally there are a lot more ups than downs. It’s not a marriage, but it’s more than just a casual relationship. We spend most days and many nights together, and it’s reached the point where we know almost everything about each other. Often, I know what she’s going to do before she does, and she often reacts to what I’m thinking before I even say anything. It’s a really great relationship.
However, even the best relationships can start to lose their excitement after a while. Both parties get older, a little more tired, a little more worn. Don’t get me wrong. There are still times when I look at her and my heart skips a beat, just like it did when we first met. I still marvel at her outstanding looks and (in my opinion) perfect body, and we still turn heads when we’re out an about. I often find other men looking at her with envy, and that reminds me how luck I really am.
As much as we love each other, we both agree that it has reached the point where our relationship could benefit from a little more excitement, something to try and reignite that passion that we had when we first met.
Over winter we talked about what we could do, and we came up with a number of ideas.
We thought about taking a long trip together, hoping that the time alone would give us time to explore our relationship more deeply.
We thought about ‘exploring our passions’ in unusual places. Maybe at the beach, or on the snow, or in a secluded mountain area.
She even suggested some body enhancement, though I dismissed that instantly. I like her just the way she is.
Finally, we worked out what we could do. The perfect thing that would keep us both happy, help us ignite that lost passion, and would keep us both satisfied on those occasions we couldn’t be together. We needed to introduce another party into the relationship. We needed...
..a threesome.
So, once it was decided that a threesome was the way to go, we had to work out how to organise it. I spent a lot of time scanning sites on the internet, looking at various bulletin boards and talking to people with experience.
We also had to discuss what we were looking for in a partner. Japanese? Foreign? Big? Small? Young? Old? After many weeks of research and discussion, we narrowed it down to a Japanese that was big, but not too big, and young but with experience. Once we had worked out what we wanted it was just a matter of finding the right partner. That took about two months of work, but finally, last week it all came to fruition.
When she came to my apartment, and the three of us were together, we knew it was going to be great. It just felt right. And when I saw her for the first time, just like before, my jaw dropped and my heart skipped a beat. I was in love again. We were in love. Together. All three of us.
So, I have some pictures of her. Would you like to see them?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There she is. Beautiful isn’t she. She and my other partner (my WRX, of course) and I are going to have some fun together.
In case you were wondering, I spent most of January going to driving school to get my motorcycle license. Actually, getting my motorcycle license was last year’s resolution (inspired by riding in Vietnam), but I didn’t have time to do it last year. This year, I figured that I would celebrate turning 30 by getting my license and spending some of my savings on a nice bike. Getting my license was a long and expensive trial (though it was good fun too). I wrote a long post about that on a website for foreign riders in Japan. It’s not really interesting, but I’ll copy and paste it at the end of this entry.
The bike itself is a Honda Shadow 400. Due to licensing and tax restrictions, most bikes in Japan are either 250cc or 400cc. I wanted to get a cruiser style bike, so and there was no way a 250cc cruiser could drag my fat arse around properly, so I got a 400. I got it through a foreign guy that works at the main bike auction place in Tokyo. I told him what I wanted and we spent a few weeks looking for the right bike. Finally, a couple of weeks a go, we successfully bid on this one. It turned out to be quite a bit cheaper than buying from a shop, though with the auction fees and shipping fees from Tokyo, the savings weren’t quite as large as I’d hoped for.
The bike arrived on Monday morning this week and has been sitting in my garage since then. I still need to register it and get the shaken inspection done. Before that, I need to fix a few things. The bike is generally in good condition, though there are a few scratches and dents here and there. The major problem is the brake pedal, which you might be able to see in the photos. The previous owner obviously dropped the bike before selling it, because the pedal is bent out of shape. I spent Tuesday afternoon pulling the bike apart to get the pedal off (it was a lot more difficult than it should be), and now I have to find a new replacement. Once that is done, I need to organise some free time to go get the registration and shaken done, and then I can ride.
What this means is that at the moment, I have a license and a bike, but I can’t ride it. So, as you might expect, I’m a little bit frustrated. Actually, since getting my license at the start of February, time has been moving slower than it ever has before. March was just awful. I couldn’t ride, I couldn’t snowboard (because of the bad weather I mentioned before). I was basically stuck at home twiddling my fingers. I’ve downloaded and watched pretty much every bike movie ever made, and everyday upon waking I would open the window praying that the snow had melted and the road was ridable.
Now, after an excruciatingly long wait, the snow has mostly melted off the road and the end is in sight. Until then, I have to make do with sitting on the bike and riding it backwards and forwards in my garage.
Anyway, here is the post I made about getting my license. As I said, it is not very interesting and it is VERY long. Feel free to skip it.
I’ve just finished the futsuu license course up here in Hokkaido, and since Dualta wrote such a useful and informative report I thought I’d write one too. My experience was mostly the same as his, but I’ll add a few little things in here and there that might help people who are thinking about taking the course. This will probably be LONG, and probably won’t be very interesting for people who already have a license, but hopefully it will be useful for those people thinking about taking lessons.
ABOUT ME
I’m a 29yo Aussie, and I’ve been living in Japan for most of the last 8 years. For the last 3 and a half years I’ve been living in a tiny little town in Hokkaido. To give you an idea of the size of the town, the population density is about 1 person/km, and there is no convenience store. Yes, it’s pretty small.
*My bike experience is pretty much zero. When I was about 8 years old, my family took a trip to our cousin’s farm. My cousin took my brother and I for a ride on his farm bike. My brother wasn’t holding on properly and fell off the back, smacking his head on the ground (he says there was no permanent damage, but I’m not so sure). Since then, on mum’s orders, our family was a “no motorbike” family. Despite that, biking was something I was always interested in and always wanted to do. I love cars and love driving (I drive a WRX), and I’ve always felt that I would learn to ride at some time.
My main reason for wanting to learn to ride was that I like the idea of motorbike travel. I love traveling, and I feel that traveling by motorbike gives you the perfect balance of being able to see and do things, but also travel long distances when required. In January 2009 I spent a month traveling around S.E. Asia. I was in Vietnam trying to negotiate a taxi ride from Danang to Hoi An, when the taxi driver suggested I might like to get a lift on a bike instead. He called his Harley rider mate over and he took me there on the back of his bike. It was the first time I had been on a bike in over 20 years, and it was an amazing experience. I knew that I had to learn how to do it. When I arrived at my hotel I found out that they rent bikes, so I hired one for the day (a 125cc auto). Despite having no riding experience and nearly crashing on the way out of the parking lot, I had a great day riding around the town and nearby countryside. I was hooked.
Fast forward to January 2010. I had a long winter vacation and I was getting sick of snowboarding everyday, so I finally decided to take the leap and enroll in bike school.
*ENROLLING AT SCHOOL
In the middle of January, I went to the ATM, took out a wad of cash, and went off to Hokuoh Driving School (北央自動車学校 hokuou-jidousha-gakkou) in Asahikawa, which is about an hour away from where I live. The reason I chose this school is simple. It’s one of only two schools in Hokkaido that offer bike lessons in winter (I think there is another school in Sapporo that does winter lessons). Obviously, people don’t want to be taking bike lessons when there is a meter of fresh snow and it’s -20 degrees, so most bike schools close during winter. However, the clever people at Hokuoh decided to build an indoor bike course, so you can take lessons during any weather conditions.
*
So, I went to the school and told the lady that I wanted to enroll in the futsuu (普通二輪 futsuu ni-rin) bike course. The futsuu license is the new name for the old chuugata license. It allows you to ride bikes up to and including 400cc. If you want more than that, you need to get an oogata (大型二輪) license, which involves more lessons, bigger bikes and a harder test.*
I have a Japanese car license, so my course consisted of 18 hours (17 hours on the bike and 1 hour in the class), split into two stages (stage 1 and 2). If you don’t have a car license you have to take extra classroom lessons for learning the road rules and road safety before you can start on the bike.*
The cost for this course was a whopping 140,000 yen (which includes everything – all lessons, tests etc.). Yes, it’s pretty expensive, but there is a reason for it – the winter surcharge. In Hokkaido, places like gyms, sports clubs, jukus etc. add a winter surcharge to cover heating. It’s a very common thing and there is no way to get around it. If you take the course during summer, I think it’s about 115,000 yen or so, which is quite reasonable. Anyway, I wanted to do the course during winter so I would have the maximum amount of time to ride during Hokkaido’s relatively short riding season, so I was happy to pay.
After filling in some forms and paying, I was told that I could come back in the afternoon for the school entrance class, a class you have to take before you start lessons. So, I went off to have some lunch and then came back at 2:00pm. First I had to take some passport photos at the machine on the second floor, then I had to wait in one of the classrooms on the second floor. Although there were about 50 or so high school kids there for lessons, I was the only one taking the entrance class. The teacher came in, checked my papers, then had me do an eyesight test on a machine in the class.
Next was the “Mental Aptitude and Psychological Test” (I can’t remember what it was called in Japanese). This test has about ten parts. Each part is timed. The teacher explains the part, you get about 30 seconds to practice, then the teacher says go and you have complete as much as you can within the allotted time. Next page, repeat. Putting it simply, the tests are stupid. It’s stuff like “circle which image matches the one on the top of the page”, or “cross out all the images that don’t match”, and stuff like that. One test was just simple subtraction exercises (eg. 112-65=?) – complete as many as you can in one minute. One test was so ridiculously easy that I had to have the teacher repeat the instructions three times (I thought I was hearing him wrong). There were about 100 little squares on the page, and you had to draw a diagonal line through as many as you could within 30 seconds. Real hard stuff…*
The final part of the test was the psychological test. This part had about 60 questions and was untimed. You could answer “agree” or “disagree” to each question (you could also answer “I don’t know”, a fact I only discovered about 3/4 of the way through the test). Like the rest of the test, the questions were stupid. Some questions I remember:*
“When you sleep at someone else’s house, do you often have trouble sleeping?”
“Do you often feel like you want to die?”
“Do you like making other people feel bad?”
“Do you like talking?”
“Do you feel old people should be treated differently?”
*
Great questions, eh?
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I did the test (and the riding course) in Japanese. I would rate my Japanese level as “upper-intermediate”, and I was able to understand about 2/3 of the questions on the test. The teacher was nice and helped me with anything I could read or didn’t understand, and seeing as there was nobody else in the class I was able to take as much time as I wanted. I’m pretty sure it’s a standard test, so they could probably get their hands on an English version if necessary.
After that, I was sent over to the bike course (which is on a separate part of the property) to meet the teacher. There is only one teacher as far as I know. He’s a little guy, middle aged, soft spoken and really nice. He has a really great teaching style, never gets angry, just teaches things simply and thoroughly. I don’t think he speaks English, so if you’re planning to take lessons here you should probably brush up on your Japanese.
First, he showed me round the course. As I said before, it’s an indoor course. I’ve seen some Youtube videos of other courses in Japan, and I’m pretty sure this course is much smaller than average. However, it has all the obstacles that you’d find at any other school. There is a small office with some desks and sofas right in the middle of the course, and all the bike related stuff is run out of there. During the course there is no need to go to the main school building (you can just go straight to the bike course), and all the lesson bookings are done there too.
Next, he explained what I had to bring. I needed to bring a warm jacket, some gloves (the cheap white work gloves you can get at the local home center were fine), and a pair of boots (bike boots or rubber boots from the home center were fine). They would supply the helmet and bikes. Actually, I had a bit of a problem with the boots. I have mammoth clown feet (32cm) so I couldn’t get any proper boots. I just wore some hiking boots. The teacher said that “in my case” (clown feet), they would be ok, but if you have regular sized feet then you should bring proper boots.
I wasn’t able to book a lesson for that day (Tues.), so I was booked in for my first two hours on Thursday. Before I left he gave me the course testing maps. I think Dualta mentioned that he had to memorize 2 courses. At Hokuoh you have to memorize 3 courses. The teacher said “you should start memorizing these straight away”, and this is probably the best advice I was given throughout the whole course. When you start riding the courses, you want to be focusing on your riding rather than on where to go next. Over the first week or so, any time I had a free 5 or 10 minutes during the day I would get out the course map and memorize the courses. By about the 3rd and 4th lesson I had them all memorized. It made the rest of the time much, much easier and allowed me to focus completely on learning to ride.
*
One more thing. During winter, Hokuoh only offers lessons on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. You can take lessons from 9:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night, and there is a 1 hour lunch break (1:30-2:30, I think). Generally, you can only take 2 hours of lessons each day. Having said that, they are pretty flexible when it comes to scheduling. I was also able to take some lessons on Wednesdays and Fridays when the other days were full, and there was also a guy there who was taking 6 or 8 lessons a day (he lived about 6 hours away and was staying in a nearby hotel while he did the course). Usually, there are two or three students in each lesson, though sometimes I had the course to myself. Futsuu students and Oogata students are not allowed to ride together, so sometimes I couldn’t take lessons when I wanted to because the slot was taken by Oogata students. However, I was usually able to take two or three two-hour lessons each week.
LESSON 1&2
During the first 20 minutes or so of the first lesson, the teacher explained the workings of the bike that I would be riding, the CB400 - things like how to use the gears, how to get the bike up on its rear stand, how to use the indicators properly etc. He also explained some things that I probably could have worked out myself – “This is the gas tank. Gas goes in here.” Ok, got it.
Next, he introduced the proper procedure for getting on and starting the bike. It may seem stupid, but it’ very important to learn the procedure because it is part of the test. If you don’t do it properly during the test, you’ll lose points. Here’s what you have to do:
Stand at attention (気をつけ ki-wo-tsuke) on the left side of the bike, facing the bike.
Look to your right.
Look to your left.
Grab the front brake and lift the bike off the stand.
Kick the stand up.
Check behind you again.
Mount the bike.
Right foot on the rear brake.
Adjust the left mirror.
Adjust the right mirror.
Clutch in.
Turn the key to on (right hand).
Start the engine (right hand).
Front brake on.
Head check behind right.
Right foot down.
Left foot low gear.
Head check behind left.
Left foot down
Right foot rear brake.
Right indicator on.
Four point check (４点確認 yon-ten-kakunin) – check over your left shoulder, check left mirror, check right mirror, check over right shoulder.
Start riding.
It’s pretty long, but once you do it a couple of times it’s easy to remember. A note about the 4 point check: you have to do this quite a few times during the test, basically any time you come to a complete stop on one of the obstacles. If you forget, then you’ll lose points quickly.
Getting off the bike is basically the same, but in reverse.
Stop the bike.
Check behind right.
Right foot down.
Left foot neutral gear.
Check left behind.
Left foot down.
Right foot brake.
Indicator off.
Engine off.
Check behind.
Dismount.
Kick stand down.
Turn the handlebars to the left.
Stand at attention.
Look right.
Look left.
Finish.
Another thing to remember, anytime you do a head check (right, left), it’s important to do it slowly. Check right. Back to center. Check left. Back to center. At first I was doing it too quickly, so the teacher told me to make sure I stop in between the right and left checks.
The rest of lesson one was spent riding around the outside ring of the course. The purpose of the lesson was simply to practice starting and stopping. Start, ride round two corners, stop at a designated point, 4 point check, start again, repeat. Nothing very difficult here. As with all the lessons, the teacher took me round on the back of the bike a couple of times before I had a go. Along the way he pointed out all the important things I had to remember – stop here, head check here etc.
Before the lesson I’d read many things on the internet about which bike is best for a beginner rider (250cc vs 400cc), where people often mention that 400 might be too big or too powerful for a beginner. I think Dualta also mentioned that at first it was a bit of a shock jumping from a scooter to a 400. When I first climbed on, I was expecting the 400 to be a big powerful beast, so I was surprised by how easy it was to ride. If anything, it felt underpowered. I guess coming from a background with zero riding experience, I didn’t really have anything to compare it to, but I was definitely glad that we weren’t practicing on 250s. The size was also a bit of a surprise. I’m tall, and as I mentioned I have big clown feet. At times I felt cramped on the bike, and occasionally my foot would get jammed between the brake pedal and part of the engine. I also had to constantly focus on keeping my feet raised so that I wasn’t resting on the brake pedal or the gear lever (I guess this is the same on most bikes, but I also think having long legs and big feet made it much harder). When I do get around to buying a bike, I’ve decided that I’m definitely going to get a 400, and preferably something at least as big or bigger than the CB400.
In between lessons there is a 10 minute break. During this break the teacher gave me the results of the aptitude and psychological test I did the other day. He said my results were really good. There are about 10 categories that you are marked on. I had “no problem” in all the categories except one. It suggested that I might have the personality of someone who “likes to do dangerous things on the road to show off in front of other people”, and that I should keep that in mind when on the road. I don’t really know how they worked this out, but I do quite like doing burnouts and donuts when I see some hot chicks walking by (...just kidding, of course).
So, after a 10 minute break, it was time for lesson 2. Lesson 2 was simple. It was just basic riding, this time going anti-clockwise around the course. The important part of this lesson was practicing getting it up to 40km/h in 4th gear. As I mentioned, the indoor course is quite small. You really have to accelerate hard out of the corners in order to get it up to 40, and just when you hit 40 it’s already time to brake. Again, the teacher took me around on the back of the bike, pointing out what to do and where to do it. Accelerate, 4th gear, brake and indicate at the shutter door, head check at the fire extinguisher, lane change at the oil can etc. There were markers like these all over the place to remind you when to do something.
Towards the end of the second lesson, the teacher introduced the obstruction obstacle (障害物 shougaibutsu). On many courses, the obstruction is simply an area marked off with cones, but on this course there is actually a car parked on the side of the road. The procedure for passing the obstacle is:
Indicate right.
Head check right.
Drive towards the center line.
Indicate left and head check left (I don’t know if this is necessary on all courses, but on this course there is a quick left hand turn right after the obstruction so you have to do this before crossing the center line).
Cross the center line (about one wheel width across the line).
As you pass the obstacle, bend down and check that there are no kids hiding behind it about to jump out (yes, this is a necessary part of the test).
Come back across the line.
For the test: Failure on any of these incurs penalty points.
Right after the obstruction is a children’s crossing (横断歩道 oudanhodou), so you have to do another quick right and left head check to make sure no people are crossing.
If I remember correctly, the teacher also introduced the S-bend obstacle (S字 esu-ji) at this time. The S-bend is just as you would expect, a long sweeping S shaped path. The procedure for this obstacle is:
Indicate (left or right depending on which way you enter it).
Check that no one is coming from the other direction before you enter.
Enter in second gear.
Indicator off.
No brakes or throttle, just cruise through in second gear.
About halfway through, indicate left (we always exited left).
As you approach the exit, head check right and left.
Exit.
For the test: Putting your foot down or hitting a cone is automatic failure.
As with most lessons, the teacher introduced these things with about 15 minutes to go, so I had about 2 or 3 chances to try them before the end of the lesson. I think I put my foot down on the S-bend the first time, but after that it was easy, and the obstruction is easy too. These are both gimme obstacles that you really should have no problems with.
LESSON 3 & 4
Lesson 3 was basically more of the same, just practicing the two obstacles. I think the teacher introduced a new course for practicing the obstacles which included more turns.
Around halfway through lesson 4, the teacher introduced 4 new obstacles all at once. First was the dreaded ipponbashi (一本橋). This is a kind of like a raised bar which is about 5cm high, 30cm wide and 15m long. You are required to ride the ipponbashi for at least 7 seconds. The procedure for the obstacle is:
Indicate left into the ipponbashi area (this might differ from course to course, I don’t know)
Stop at the white line.
Indicator off.
Low gear.
4 point check.
Accelerate onto the ipponbashi.
Ride with half clutch using the rear brake when required.
Indicate left before the end of the ipponbashi.
Ride off and turn left (again, this might differ)
For the test: Putting a foot down or falling off the bar is an automatic failure. Each second under 7 seconds is 5 penalty points. Bad posture is also a small penalty.
The reason many people find the ipponbashi scary is because the penalty is very harsh. Basically, if you make a mistake, you fail the test. It took me a couple of lessons before I was completely comfortable doing it. Mostly, it’s just a confidence thing. If you approach it confidently, you’ll do fine. It’s really not that hard. If you approach it with fear, you’ll undoubtedly tense up and fall off.
My teacher gave me some good advice. First, you only need to be on it for 7 seconds, and there are no points for being on it longer. Don’t try and go too slowly, just long enough to pass the 7 seconds. Second, posture is very important. Have a good, tight knee grip and keep your back straight and head up. Don’t focus on the bar, but focus on a point ahead of you. I kept my eyesight on a point halfway up the wall in front and it seemed to work well. Third, keep your shoulders and arms loose. If you tense up, you’ll fall off.
As for speed, I found that the best method for me was using low gear with the clutch out to get on the bar, then using a mix of clutch out/half clutch and tapping on the rear brake to get across.
Also, one point the tester told me just before my test. The penalty for going too quickly is pretty severe, but it’s better than the penalty for falling off, so if you start to lose balance then throttle up to regain it.
Next obstacle was the railroad crossing (踏み切り fumikiri). It’s really not hard at all. Here is the procedure:
Indictate into the railroad area (left or right depending on where you are coming from).
Indicator off.
Come to a stop at the white line.
Low gear.
Indicate right (this might differ from course to course).
Head check right and left (this is one of the few times you don’t need to do a 4 point check).
Accelerate and cross the railway in low gear.
Once across you can continue on the course (for me it involved a head check then a right turn).
For the test: I don’t know how people would lose points here. I guess forgetting to stop or forgetting a head check would incur penalty points, but really, you’d have to be a bit of a dummy…
Next obstacle was the Slalom (スラローム suraroomu). This is a slalom course which involves slaloming around five sets of cones, about 4.5 meters apart. You have to complete the course within 8 seconds. The time starts when you pass through the two entrance cones, and ends when you pass through the two exit cones. The procedure is:
Indicate left into the course.
3rd gear.
Indicator off.
Pass through the entrance cones.
Sweeping left, right, left, right, left.
Indicate left before passing the exit cones.
Pass the exit cones.
For the test: Putting a foot down or hitting a cone is automatic failure. Taking too long incurs penalty points.
The first few times I tried the slalom course I smashed over some cones. At first, I found it very unnatural leaning over to the side and turning the bike so suddenly. However, after a few times it became natural, and for the rest of my lessons I don’t think I messed it up once. The teacher didn’t really give any advice for this, so I’ll just let you know what helped me. First, 8 seconds is plenty of time as long as you’re not going at old lady pace. I found that accelerating quickly into the entrance then engine braking before the cones worked well. I don’t think I used the front or rear brakes at all. Once I got confident I added a little burst of throttle as I passed each cone.
The final obstacle introduced in this lesson was the Crank (クランク kuranku). This obstacle is just like it sounds. It’s a narrow crank-shaped path. You turn 90 degrees left into it, then another quick 90 degrees left, then a straight part, then a 90 right turn and another right turn out. The purpose of this test is to check tight maneuvering at slow speeds. The procedure is as follows:
Indicate left.
Check for bikes coming from the other direction.
Low gear.
Turn left into the crank.
Indicator off.
Left again.
Straight.
Indicate right.
Right turn.
Right turn out of the crank.
For the test: Putting a foot down or hitting a cone is automatic failure.
I actually found the crank quite hard at times. The teacher advised using half clutch and the rear brake, but I found using no clutch and no brake helped me keep balance better. Using half clutch and brake usually left me running too slowly to keep balance, and I would end up putting a foot down. Also, posture is important – look ahead of you, not down at the cones.
LESSON 5 & 6
Lesson 5 was simply practicing the obstacles introduced in the previous lesson.
Lesson 6 was more of the same, then in the last 30 minutes the teacher introduced the final two obstacles. First was the Hill Start (坂道 sakamichi). The hill start is just as it sounds. The procedure is:
Indicate left.
Turn left into the hill start left lane.
Immediately indicate right.
Head check right.
Merge into the center lane.
Stop on the hill in low gear.
4 point check.
Front brake off.
Slowly accelerate and slowly release the clutch.
When you feel the engine catching, slowly release the foot brake.
Once over the apex change to 2nd gear.
No throttle, just roll down the other side.
Head check right and left
Right turn.
For the test: Stalling is an automatic failure, and rolling back might be either a failure or penalty points (I can’t remember which).
The hill start is just like in a car. For me, the hardest part was coordinating the quick right indicate, head check and merge to center just before you stop (the course is particularly small and cramped). But after the first few times, I had no problem. No real advice here, just have a go and you should be fine.
The last obstacle was the Emergency Stop (急制動 kyuuseidou). This involves getting the bike up to 40km/h, then braking as you pass between two cones. You are required to brake within a certain distance. The purpose of this obstacle is to practice sudden braking without locking the brakes. The procedure is:
Check that there are no bikes in the stop area.
Accelerate to 40km/h in 3rd gear.
As you pass through the cones, apply front and rear brakes and then pull the clutch.
Don’t change gears.
Once stopped, head check right.
Right foot down.
Low gear.
Head check left.
Left foot down.
4 point check.
Ride out of the area.
For the test: Stalling or failing to stop in the stopping area is an automatic failure. Failing to reach sufficient speeds is probably penalty points, but I’m not 100% sure. It might be a fail.
I didn’t really have any problems with this obstacle, except for the first few times I did it (my left foot kept changing gears even though my brain said don’t do it). I think it might differ from course to course whether you should ride at exactly 40km/h or at more than 40km/h, but for this course hitting 40km/h was sufficient. There was a shutter door about 10 metres in front of the stopping area. The teacher said you should hit 40 by the door, then at the door throttle off. By the time you hit the stopping point you’re actually traveling at about 37 or 38, but the teacher said that was fine. I think the speed camera actually measures your speed at the door, not as you pass the cones to enter the stopping area, but I’m sure this would differ at other courses. Another bit of important advice from the teacher was to try and use as much of the stopping area as possible. You don’t need to stop in the first 50cm, you just need to stop before the stopping line. He pointed out a whole lot of scratches and gouges in the floor and said “this is what happens when you try to stop too quickly”. Good advice. He also explained that the best way of braking was 70:30, 70% front brake and 30% rear brake. This is also really important for not locking the brakes.
LESSON 6&7
Lesson 6 was basically just practicing the two new obstacles.
During Lesson 7, all the obstacles were put together and I got to ride course 1. Fortunately, I had memorized the course well by then so I was able to focus on riding technique rather than on where to go next.
LESSON 8&9
Lesson 8 was more practice on course 1.
Lesson 9 was the last lesson in Stage 1. By the end of Stage 1, the student should be able to ride a bike competently, and should have the basic skills to ride the obstacles. From Stage 2, the student is basically left on their own to practice the test courses. Of course, the teacher will be there to give advice and point out any mistakes, the end of Stage 1 basically marks the end of the main instruction. I heard that at some schools there is a small test to make sure the student is competent enough to progress to Stage 2. My teacher didn’t mention anything about that, but during lesson 9 he did ride his bike around course 2 and have me follow him on my bike. At each point he stopped and checked that I was doing it properly. This was the only time I followed him (usually he took me around pillion), so I assume this was kind of a mini test.
LESSON 10-14
Lessons 10-14 were spent practicing course 2 and then course 3. There was nothing of particular note in these lessons, so instead I’ll point out some random observations.
I might have mentioned it earlier (I can’t remember - this post is becoming too long), but it is important to try to get the bike up to the speed limit in the straights. Many people feel that it is better to ride slowly during the test (to demonstrate that they are safe drivers), but actually the opposite is true. The purpose of the test is to show that you are able to ride well enough to be on the road. Slow drivers are as much a danger as drivers who break the speed limit. You have to show the tester that you are able to keep up with regular traffic, and that means getting the bike up to the speed limit. You can actually lose points (and at some courses fail the test) if your riding isn’t genki enough.
I know I mentioned this before, but posture is important. Straight back, head up and a strong knee grip. You can lose points for forgetting these. Also, it’s important to keep your hands and feet in check. This means keeping your toes straight ahead rather than pointing out, and keeping your hands on the grip rather than resting on the levers.
One more thing, the bike is equipped with a special set of lights on the front and back. These lights are there so that the teacher or the tester can see what you’re doing to the gears and brakes. There are six lights: rear brake (red), front brake (blue), low gear (green), second gear (yellow), third gear (white) and fourth gear (purple). One advantage (or disadvantage?) of these lights is that the rider can also see what they are doing. Sometimes towards the end of the two hour lesson, I found that I was getting tired and resting my foot on the rear brake. Having a red light there to tell me when I was doing that was helpful for reminding me not to do it. At first, it was also helpful to have lights showing me what gear I was in. However, I soon realized that this was also detrimental, as I was getting used to looking at the lights rather than remembering in my head. Also, constantly looking down at the lights was throwing my balance off a little. When I began focusing on not looking at the lights, I found that my riding improved a lot.
Finally, a note about the courses. At this school you have to memorize three courses. At first this seems quite hard, but once you look carefully at the map you’ll notice that the courses each have similar patterns. Instead of remembering the obstacle order of each course individually, you can remember certain patterns. For example, the Emergency Brake obstacle is always last, and the route from that obstacle to the finishing line is always the same. Also, the ipponbashi, the slalom, the railway and the hill start generally enter and exit the same way on every course. The S-bend and the crank are always mirrored - if you enter the S-bend from the top, you enter the crank from the bottom. Patterns like these make memorizing the courses much easier.
LESSON 15&16
Lesson 15 was the mandatory simulator lesson. I wasn’t really looking forward to this lesson - I felt it would be better to just spend time on the bikes rather than playing computer games - but this lesson turned out to be the most fun I had during the whole course. The other student with me for that lesson was an old guy, a fisherman from Shiretoko. Shiretoko is in the far north-east corner of Hokkaido, about 6 hours drive from Asahikawa. This guy was staying at the nearby hotel and was doing 6 or 8 lessons a day. He was taking his test on Saturday morning (it was Thursday night at this time), and he was pretty nervous. He was also a very friendly guy and was constantly making me laugh.
So, we went off to another building where they had the bike and car simulators. The bike simulator is basically just a regular CB400 hooked up to a computer and put in front of big screen. The fisherman had already done one simulator lesson, so he went first. His first course was simply navigating through a city. Sounds simple, but it isn’t. This city is filled with crazy, suicidal drunk people. People are constantly jumping out from behind cars, cars and trucks regularly drive on the wrong side of the road, most people completely ignore the traffic light, and there are some Yakuza BMWs that actually try to hit your bike (probably some kind of insurance scam). The fisherman was giving an awesome running commentary as he rode the course, and I was pissing myself laughing every time someone in the game did something completely suicidal. After a few minutes he hit some person that walked out from behind a car, and he exploded with curses. A few minutes later he ran into a white car that drove out from behind a building. He didn’t see the car, and even after he was knocked over he didn’t know what had happened. He started shouting, “WTF!?! Did I ride into a fucking manhole or something? You didn’t tell me there were fucking manholes in this game!”. It was so funny I was literally rolling around on the floor with tears streaming down my face. After the course you get to watch a replay. The replay was just as funny as the actual ride, and by the end I had stomach cramps from laughing so hard.
Next it was my turn. It was my first go so I started out on a simple course. No obstacles, just left and right turns. After a minute or the teacher changed the course to a braking course, basically the same as the kyuuseidou. It was very unnatural trying to emergency brake the bike while you’re actually not moving. Next was another kyuuseidou test. This time I was told to ride as fast as I could down this road that had big walls on each side. I got it up to about 120km/h then all of a sudden a big truck emerges from one of the walls (it’s a magical truck that can apparently move though solid walls). I tried braking but ended up slamming into it and dying a horrible death. I’m pretty sure that this test is designed so that everyone crashes. The teacher read out some statistics about my speed and how long it took to brake. Next was my turn to drive the dangerous city course. It was the same city as the fisherman, but I took a different course through it. The one thing to remember about this course is that if it looks like there might be something dangerous about to happen, then something dangerous is definitely going to happen. You have to drive around expecting people and cars to do the most dangerous things possible. However, anyone who grew up playing video game should have little problems with the course. I managed to clear it without any crashes and both the fisherman and the teacher were impressed. There was one point in particular that I nailed. I came up to an intersection to turn right and there was a big truck coming from the opposite direction. The truck didn’t have its indicators on, so it looked like it was going to head straight through, which meant I had to stop and wait. However, the truck stopped just before the intersection and started flashing its light (the common Japanese sign for “you go first”). I heard Admiral Ackbar in my head telling me “It’s a trap!”, so I waited. A a few long seconds a scooter came blasting past from behind the truck. Had I gone when the driver flashed his lights, I would have hit the scooter. So, I stayed still as the scooter passed. The truck driver started flashing his lights again. Again, I stayed still. This time there was a long wait (maybe 15 or 20 seconds), then another scooting came screaming past (another scooter I would have hit had I gone). Finally, the truck reversed back into a warehouse and I was free to go. When we watched this on the reply the fisherman said he couldn’t believe that I waited, because he definitely wouldn’t have. The teacher said that absolutely everyone crashes there, and I was the first person he’d seen do that intersection without crashing (he might have been exaggerating, but it was a nice little confidence boost).
After the simulator, we went back to the course for lesson 16. Lesson 16 was supposed to be the mandatory 1 hour safety lesson an a classroom, but the teacher said that we both had plenty of experience on the roads so if we promised to keep it a secret we could spend the time on the bikes instead (don’t tell anyone, ok...). At the start of this lesson we had to do the mandatory practice on the 400cc Skywave scooters. The teacher briefly explained the workings of the scooter, then sent us off to do three laps around the outer ring (about 90 seconds riding). I’m not sure about other schools, but the teacher said that three laps was enough and we could go back to riding the regular bikes for the rest of the lesson. Cool guy.
It was during this lesson that the teacher booked me in for my test. Tests are done on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, and because I work during the week I could only make it on Saturday. The next Saturday was already booked, so I had to wait until the following Saturday for the test (a grueling 9 day wait). My final two lessons were booked in for the Friday night before the test (this is standard for everyone). It was at this time that I found out what course I would be riding on the test. The teacher told me “So, I can’t promise that the test course will be what I think it is (wink, wink), and it’s always possible that there might be some last minute changes (wink, wink), but I think it’s probably a really good idea for you to practice course 3 for your remaining lessons (wink, wink)”. Roger.
So I spent the rest of lesson 16 practicing course 3. By now I was able to complete the courses perfectly about 14 out of 15 times, so I was pretty high in confidence. However, the last two times I did the course that night I managed to screw up the crank (losing balance and putting my foot down). At the time, I wasn’t sure why I was screwing it up, but I suddenly started to get a bad feeling.
LESSON 17&18
So, a week later I came back for the last two lessons. I met the other guy who would be taking a test with me. He was pretty quiet and shy, and we didn’t speak much. I watched him do the course and although he was riding pretty slowly he seemed to be quite competent.
For the first time in 18 lessons there was a different teacher there. Actually, he was a car teacher not a bike teacher (though he had some experience teaching bikes). I don’t know where the bike teacher was, but I guess he was sick or something. The new teacher explained the procedure for the test and told us when and where we had to be. In this lesson we also got to ride the ‘test bike’, the actual bike we would be riding the next day. We each spent an hour riding the test bike. I’m not sure what the difference is between the test bike and the practice bikes (apart from the color - the test bike is blue and the others are grey), but it handled a little differently. It’s hard to describe the difference, it just... felt different.
I went first on the test bike. During the previous week I had spent a lot of time mentally preparing and running through the course in my head, but the fact that I had messed up the crank a few times was still in the back of my mind. My first two runs through the course were perfect, and I started thinking I had nothing to worry about. Then, all of a sudden, I lost it. The next 4 runs in a row I messed up the crank. I wouldn’t say I was panicking, but I was definitely concerned. The crank had become my bogey obstacle.
During the break between lessons 17 and 18, I went over to the crank and just walked through it, having a good think about what I was doing wrong. After 10 minutes I thought I had worked it out. For lesson 18 I switched back to a regular bike and rode the course again. This time there were no problems, I did 4 or 5 runs in a row perfectly. Just to make sure, I spent the last 10 minutes just doing loops of the crank. No problems. It turns out I was simply riding too slowly which put me off balance. As I mentioned before, although the teacher suggested half clutch and rear brake, doing that was putting me off balance. Rolling through with no clutch and no brake gave me the right amount of speed to keep balance.
TEST DAY
I got up at seven on Saturday morning and went off to the school. It was a lovely, sunny winter morning (the temperature in my town was a crisp -18 degrees). I hadn’t had much sleep the night before because I was so focused on the test. Even though I thought I’d worked it out, the crank was still worrying me.
I arrived at the school and by 9:20 was waiting in the lobby, along with the other guy who was taking the bike test and a whole bunch of people taking other tests. I asked the other guy if he was nervous, and he said “I’m not nervous now, but I probably will be just before the test”. At 9:30, everyone doing other tests was called away for a briefing, while the two of us had to wait. At around 9:45, the tester came over, checked our licenses and explained the basic procedure and rules for the test. After that, we were sent back to the bike course to get ready. At about 9:50, it was test time.
I really wanted to go first. I wanted to go first because I felt that no matter what happened to the other guy, there would be more pressure on the person going second. If the other guy passed, there would be pressure to pass too. If the other guy failed, there would be pressure to pass so that at least somebody did. However, the order was decided by someone else and I was forced to go second.
During the test, the tester watches from a raised platform up near the ceiling. There are also a couple of other spotters around the course. Interestingly, the test was conducted while other people were doing there lesson. Not only were there 3 other bikes on the course, but they were all Oogata bikes. I guess the rules for having a maximum of 3 bikes and no mixing of futsuu and oogata don’t count for the test.
So, the other guy stepped up and did his thing. Just before he started, he came up to me and said “Yep... I’m nervous now”, and he looked it too. He was going really well - S-bend no problem, ipponbashi no problem - then as he went into the crank there was a slight unnatural movement. I wasn’t sure what had happened as I couldn’t see properly from where I was standing, but the tester immediately crossed his arms in an X shape and told the teacher to stop the test. The other guy rode back to the start and dismounted. He was devastated. It turns out he lost balance just a little and put his foot down in the crack, which was instant failure.
As soon as he was off the bike it was time for me to start. Here is the procedure for the test:
Step into a white circle.
Look at the tester.
Tell the tester your student number, name, age and if you are wearing glasses or contacts you should mention that too.
Say “yoroshiku onegaishimasu” (kind of like “Be nice to me please”).
As soon as you leave the circle and walk towards the bike, the test starts.
After the test, get off the bike, face the tester and say “owarimashta” (finished).
I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say that I rode the course as well as I had at any time during the last month. Even the crank was no problem. By the time I got off the bike I was beaming. I knew I had passed.
I waited for the tester to climb down from his perch. First, he talked to the other guy, explaining what he had to do now. Then he came to give some advice to me. Apparently, no matter how well you do, the tester will give each rider some advice. The teacher said that it’s important to listen and then thank the tester for giving the advice. The teacher said that sometimes people try to justify something (eg. the tester advises “you should ride slower in the corners”, and the student says “but I was doing that because...”). This is a bad idea and the tester has the power to fail you just for being insolent and not listening, so make sure you nod and say thanks. In me case, the tester told me to focus on keeping a strong knee grip. He said that because I’m tall my center of balance is high, so a good knee grip is particularly important. After that he told me to go back to the main building and wait in the lobby.
After about 30 minutes waiting one of the office ladies called me over. She said, “Congratulations, you passed”, then explained the procedure for exchanging my graduation certificate for a license at the license center. I was a little surprised that there was no real review of the test (eg. you lost points for doing this or that). All of a sudden it was over. Bang. You passed. Congratulations. Bye bye.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I know this has been very long, so apologies for that. Overall, this was a very worthwhile experience and I would absolutely recommend Hokuoh driving school. I didn’t have one bad experience there during my whole course.
Now I have spend the next 2 months or so waiting for the snow to melt so I can get out and start riding. I guess that will give me plenty of time to do important things like buying a bike.
