Preparations for Adventure

It was almost 2 years ago now that I my mate Lucas and I began to muse about a motorcycle ride through the mountain villages of Japan's main island of Honshu. With interest from Lucas' long time friend Richard sealing the deal, the date was finally set and plane tickets booked to arrive in Tokyo on the 23rd of October 2015. What we're hoping for is 8 days of motorcycling and onsen Nirvana.

With the ride just 1 short week away, the excitement is really building now!

Not wanting to even contemplate the obstacles (and cost) involved in shipping and importing our own bikes to Japan, we three decided to rent touring bikes in Tokyo. We decided to hire our bikes from Japan Bike Rentals in Akasuka and, being a bit slow off the mark, we had to take what bikes were still available. For me, I snagged a BMW 650GS - basically the bike I was actually after. I didn't want something as large as my own 1200GS for unknown mountain roads - something lighter and more agile for me!  For Lucas and Richard, they had to settle for BMW F800R's. To be honest I think they are pretty happy with their lot.

A BMW G650GS for me.

BMW 800R. Lucas and Richard should be happy.

With a week to go, preparations are being made in earnest. First there was the international drivers licence to be acquired from the NRMA - check. Helmet camera's to be purchased - check. Merino underwear, a balaclava and new gloves and boots for those cold Japanese days to be sourced - check. But apart from the equipment, the route had to be finalised and transferred into a form compatible with the Garmin Zumo 660 that we will be taking delivery of with our bikes.

The major obstacle in getting our routes onto a GPS is that official Japanese maps (in English or any other language) are not available for us Aussies from Garmin. This really throws a spanner in the works because without the maps it's impossible to work on the route using Garmin's own tools and take advantage of the easy integration they provide. What we would have to do is come up with routes between pre-booked accommodation using Google maps and then transfer these routes into the Garmin Zumo prior to climbing on the bikes.

Long, story short, it turns out that, after much internet research and floundering around with USB cables and SD Cards, that it isn't too difficult to take routes planned in Google Maps and transfer them to the Zumo. More about that in the next post.