In my last post I talked about getting my new bike. It arrived at the start of April, if I remember correctly. Before I could ride it I had to get it registered and do the shaken roadworthy test. The testing centre is in Asahikawa, on the other side of a mountain, and it's only open on weekdays. This meant I had to wait until all the snow had melted on the mountain pass, and then wait until I had a weekday off. I also had to wait for a new brake pedal to arrive from the Honda factory. Fortunately there hadn't been much snow during the last week of March and the first week of April, and most of the roads were clear. I also happened to have a Friday off (April 16th), so I figured I would make a booking at the shaken center for that day. In the week leading up to the 16th I spent quite a bit of time running round various places collecting the paperwork I needed. Then when the brake pedal arrived, I changed that and replaced the brake pads while I was at it. By April 14th, I had picked up some temporary license plates (which you can only keep for 3 days) and I had everything ready to go.

Unfortunately, when I woke up on April 15th, there was about a foot of snow on the ground. There had been one of those weird sudden snowstorms overnight. This meant I had to cancel the appointment at the testing centre, return the plates, and enduring at least another week of having my bike but not being able to ride it.

After a few days the snow melted again and the weather became warmer. I managed to organise the afternoon of the 23rd off, so I made another appointment on that day. That whole week, from the 17th to the 22nd was fantastic weather, and I spent all of my time sitting around at work wishing I was outside riding instead. On the 21st, I went and picked up another set of temporary license plates. As the 23rd approached, I began to get excited about finally being able to ride. However, when I woke up on the morning of the 23rd and looked out my window, I was again greeted with a layer of snow on the ground. This time there wasn't as much snow in town, and I figured that there was a good chance it would all melt away by the afternoon, but I knew that there would probably still be snow on the mountain pass which would make it unrideable. Once again, I cancelled my appointment and returned the plates.

From May 1st to May 5th was Golden Week, a long public holiday, and I knew I had to get my bike registration done by then (as I had planned to spend 3 or 4 days riding around Hokkaido). The only day I could do it was April 30th, so I made a third appointment for that day. As it got closer to the 30th, I began checking the weather reports. Unsurprisingly, the weather report looked something like this: 27th-29th Sunny, 30th Thunderstorms, 1st-7th Sunny. Once again, the one day I was able to go to the testing centre was the one day of the week that had bad weather predicted. This time though, there was no way I was cancelling. On the 30th, I woke up to find dark skies and light rain. I rugged up, put on some rain wear, and went of to the testing centre. As I rode over the mountain pass the weather got a little worse, but luckily it improved as I got closer to Asahikawa.

I went to the testing center, showed them my documents, filled out a lot of forms and got sent to various places to pay for various things. It was basically the same procedure as for my car (I wrote about that a few years back). Typically, it wasn't quite as smooth as I had hoped. On the form that I had to fill there weren't enough boxes for all the letters in my name (Japanese people have short names), which caused a lot of "umm"ing and head scratching. After a few minutes they told me to leave it with them and they would work something out. Once the administrative stuff was done, I had do the actual physical bike test. The test was quite a bit easier than it was for my car. First, a guy checked that my bike was in order, all the lights were working, the engine numbers and body numbers matched etc. Then I put the bike on some rollers to check that the brakes were working. Next, they stuck a tube up the exhaust to check the CO2 levels. Finally, a robot came along and checked that the beam from the headlight was at the right level. The beam was actually pointing too low, so I had to take it to a mechanic across the road who adjusted it for a small fee. Then I went back and had it rechecked, and was given the all clear. Back to the office, where they had worked out what to do about my name, a few more forms get stamped, then off to pick up my new number plates and finally it was over. Actually, the whole process was much smoother than I expected, and I think it was all over in about half an hour. What was even better was that the bad weather had cleared and it was sunny for the ride home.

So, just in time for the Golden Week holiday, I was finally able to ride my bike. I was a happy chappy. I spent three days riding around Hokkaido and clocked up about 1000kms. This may not seem like much in Australia, but in Japan it's quite a lot. Most of the places I rode were places I had already been to, though I managed to spend a few hours riding on roads I had never been on. I took my camera with me, but didn't realise that the batteries were almost flat before I left. I managed to take a few photos before the camera died, though most of them are not that interesting.

The whole first day I was on roads like this. Nice and smooth, very little traffic, winding through the mountains, past lakes and rivers, with occasional tunnels or small towns to break the monotony. I stuck mostly to back roads which meant I often had the road to myself (a blessing during Golden Week, when half the population takes to the roads).

I had lunch at this ramen house.

The second day I was riding closer to Sapporo, so the roads were a bit busier, but still there were occasional periods of calm.

All over Hokkaido there are rest areas (literally called 'road stations') that offer food and drinks, toilets, and sometimes an onsen hot spring or other tourist sight. They are a good place for meeting fellow riders.

Oh, I forgot to mention, it was amazing how many bikes were on the road. Motorcycling is popular in Japan and the most popular place in Japan is Hokkaido. Before Golden Week I hadn't seen a single motorcycle on the road for about 5 months (except postie bikes). All of a sudden Golden Week came and it seemed like 2 or 3 out of every 10 vehicles was a bike. It's amazing how friendly they all are too. Almost every single rider I passed going the other direction gave me a wave or a head nod, which is very unusual for Japan.

Around midday I stopped at a special spring, one of Japan's "100 famous springs". The place was packed with people who had come to collect the magical spring water. Some people came with trolleys filled with empty botttles, probably enough for hundreds of litres. I went down and tried the spring water. It was cold and refreshing, but it was just water. It's amazing how excited Japanese people get about this kind of thing.

During the middle of the day I rode past a couple of big mountains.

In the afternoon I headed to the coast. I quite like driving and riding along the coast. There is a coastal road around the whole of Hokkaido, and though it can be busy, some of it is quite similar to the Great Ocean Road. Other parts are not quite as visually impressive, but I enjoy riding them anyway.

Along the way I stopped at another road station that had a BBQ going on outside. No snags or hamburgers here though. I ended up with some yakitori and some barbecued scallops.

In the afternoon I headed up to a cape on the west of Hokkaido. The weather was warm and sunny, but there was a nasty wind blowing. In fact, it was so strong that I had trouble keeping the bike upright. After about 15 minutes of riding on a 45 degree angle, I decided to head inland for some better protection from the wind.

Around 3:00 pm I arrived in Otaru, a big tourist town and port about 45 mins from Sapporo. I had the choice of riding through the town or taking the bypass around, but Otaru is a nice place to visit so I decided to ride through the town. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that it was Golden Week, and the place was absolutely packed with day trippers from Sapporo. There was a traffic jam about 10 kms long, which looked like it would take a couple of hours to get through. I wasn't in any particular rush, so I wasn't too bothered. As I was sitting there enjoying the warm weather and my new bike, it suddenly hit me. Hey, I'm on a bike, not in my car. I don't have to put up with this. I worked my way to the outside lane which was filled mostly with parked tourist buses. There was no way a car could get through, but there was plenty of room for my bike. I was able to cruise along at about 30km/h, laughing at all those people stuck in their cars. It was great, and I suddenly realised how much fun bike touring can be.

I spent the night in Sapporo, then on the third day I headed home via another coastal road.

Ok, that's all. Sorry about the lack of good photos and mostly incoherent writing (I'm tired), I'll try better next time.