It was about a ten hour flight from San Francisco to Narita, not too bad considering the typical 14 or so hours from the US west coast to OZ, I usually take. I had a friendly seat mate from Arizona, the food was palatable, I took in a movie I'd been wanting to see (don't bother with the Dax Shepard/Michael Pena re-make of CHIPS), and also managed to sleep a few hours. The seats on long-haul aircraft (777) aren't really for comfort, but more for packing 'em in, tho' there's something ethereal about slicing through rare air at 12,000+ metres in a thin, aluminium tube with the vast blue of the Pacific and a wisp of moonlit clouds beneath you.
Landing at Narita, near Tokyo, the group of seven from our company and three Japanese from their company, took a bus for a couple of hours to Tsukuba, home to JAXA, Japan's version of NASA. On the bus, the esky (cooler) was full with snacks and drinks of varying 'hardness'. We stopped for the first two nights here, shuttling to and from Motegi due to location and the fact that a person couldn't get a room for many kilometres around over that particular weekend. Our hosts were ever eager to please us.
In my comfy cubicle for the night, the TV sensed something entering the room, and greeted me with this view.
Toto's excellent toilets. Cold seat? No problem. Two settings: warm and too warm. When you plant your backside, water automatically trickles to save the 'embarrassment' of your own trickle. Time to flush? No dramas. We have a warm water splash, a boot sole cleaner spray, or if you're praying to the porcelain gods after a tough night out, a jetstream will flush that 'awful taste' in your mouth, post spew. I simply unplugged the bloody overly complicated thing to simplify.
A typical night out after our day's activities consisted of drinks to loosen up, then a multi-course meal of the exotic and the mundane. I had to steer clear of the raw egg over raw horsemeat. That sort of thing is not my 'gag', baby.
Next morning, after much good food, many sips of sake, glugs of beer, and snorts of whiskey, and other merrymaking, with the guests doing their best to medicate their hangovers with thin, Japanese coffee, we boarded the bus for the famous Twin Ring, in the rain.
The breakfast bento box held any hangover at bay for me. You don't see many large Japanese, even with the ubiguitous Macca's around the place.
The anticipation of entering the famous Motegi Twin Ring for the GP was palpable, the buzz in the bus like a gaggle of schoolboys seated at the dinner table for dessert. We knew it would likely be a wet race. We were not disappointed. The rain continued throughout the weekend, unabated.
I wandered the track in search of a good vantage point. There would be a lot of standing done, as we didn't have tickets for a seat, but were free to go just about anywhere except in front of the actual paddock where the 'big boys' were housed. In spite of this, I managed a few good photos of the rockstars out the back where they walk the gauntlet to their respective pit. You can tell straight away which one gets the most request for an autograph, with the Japanese fans almost rabid in guest for a scribble from their heroes.
Motegi doesn't allow the clearest view at track level as Phillip Island does or Laguna Seca did. This was the closest I could get to the end of the front straightaway.
The 'brolly' girls were quite accommodating.
Since Honda built the track back in about '97, and it became a Grand Prix circuit in '99, conveniently, the Honda Collection museum is situated right near the main entrance. I scrambled over there as soon as there was a break in between free practice and qualifying on the Saturday. I was not disappointed. If you like anything two wheels, don't mind an exotic car or two, and are fascinated by engines in particular, this is a place to be gobsmacked!
Who knew Honda made this flat twin scooter in the '50s?
Soichiro Honda as a ride-along mechanic in a roadrace event from the '20s.
Next up, the Sunday races, the beautiful Japanese countryside, museums & architecture, the RK chain factory, Tokyo, and the Shinkansen (bullet train).
I've never won anything of consequence in my life. Mon Sep 18, 2017 7:53 pm
K1 Black 1993 60K Km 
