Terry.  I miss Terry. I miss the debauched translations.  Thanks for trying. See you again Terry.

Goodbye Japan for Now.

 On a bus and 3 planes for 24 hours with 2 hours to go.  A sad day.  I just want to turn around and go back.  Japan almost damaged me physically.  My nervous system started malfunctioning.  I have zero doctors in America and I had five in Japan by the end of one year.  I was having some absurd nervous physical reaction I was having to life in another country where I was often confused and always overworked.  Getting out from under the thumb of my employer and into the baffling islands around me, picking up a skateboard again, making Japanese friends who share my interests in life, not just work, regaining my mental autonomy to roam when I got the urge in the the past months did something to ease the fire in my joints.   

I spent the three months prior to leaving in a state of elation.  Happy to enjoy Japan as much as possible, knowing I would see my family of friends in the States soon, ride a motorcycle and generally get back to a kind of life that was familiar.  Now on the plane to Alabama, it is setting in that the familiar has shifted.  Japan was everyday.  Japan was familiar.  Riding my bicycle to a train station, then the train to work was familiar.  The people where infinitely kind and accommodating for my lack of understanding both of the language and intricacies of the culture.  The mildness.  The very parts of being Japanese that I wanted to learn and take back with me and see.  The patience.  The trust.  The wa.  The we.  

Even before getting on the plane in Osaka an American pushes through the line to get ahead of others.  Maybe he hasn’t been here long.  He doesn’t realize that this is not how we act here.  I say we because I feel more like them and less like him, even  in the fact that I am not angry at him.  I just find his selfishness to be foreign.  Strange.  Why be that way?   

Speaking of, my wife and I made virtually no American friends while in Japan and we tried to get to know the the Japanese folks around us and that interested us, to limited success.   Sometimes to what felt like short term but great success.  We were only getting to know them, as it turns out.  Now we leave.  Sad.  

My wife and I lived in Japan for almost a year.  Prior to leaving we thought, it will be nice to return to the familiar idioms of my daily life and family and friends.  Then when you board the plane, or go to your goodbye party your heart sinks and cries out for more familiarity.  I barely know you.  I can’t leave now.  I wan’t to know you better.  I wan’t to know my friends more.  I want to learn their language.  Again a piece of my gut sinks and exits my body, to be stored on an Island in East Asia.  It can’t go with me.  I only borrowed it and it has to stay until I return.   Family beckons  but Japan must be a permanent part of me now.  It must be a permanent part of my marriage now.  We left with an open invitation to return.  I believe we may.  

First picture by my camera.  Second picture by Rie, thank you Rie.

Alabama Bound

We're coming home.

Also BORN FREE 3 BOUND

This is the first summer in 5 that I have not crossed the country on a motorcycle.  I have work obligations in Japan.  I have many friends that will make the trip to Born Free from both sides of the planet this year.  While you are at Born free, I will be on an Airplane bound for Alabama.  My contract ends the day Born Free 3 begins.  My plane lands in Birmingham, Alabama the next day.  To those of you who ride, take great care, and for those who drive....... well try to have fun anyway.  

Born Free Bound

Not me of course.  But Mox (left) Yoshiki (right) accompanied by their ladies Ikue and Rie.  IMPORTANT: Mox and Ikue got married yesterday so tell them "omedeto gozaimasu" and if you can't pronounce that they understand high fives and fist pounds too. Hugs and kisses are even better.

The top left picture is from Maya's Hungry and Angry webspace.
This is is Maya. 

Flatty

Car Show Japan

Yoshiki eats chilidog.

Terry and I called eachother the day before about wearing the same shirt. Maki drinks with me. 

T.G.  =Tough Guy.

Terry 's trans went boo. He joined us in the van.

Yang (on the left) drove the van , thank you, while  his lady friend Hanayo  split lanes and high fived me through the window of the van.

Terry and KenGOlow discuss   KenGoLow's Cool Grease pan.

 It was a car show.  My wife looks hot when she thinks.

50 cc

Vise Part Two

Outside of Vise.  

A.G. didn't get to ride

 A.G. broke it off.  Actually, Yang did after A.G. kicked his leg out.  Anyone out there know any tricks to dial in a magneto on a shovel?  I am afraid he is gonna break his knee. Yukari, his wife, rubbed it in by splitting lanes well over 80mph.

Ride to Suzuka Car Show

PHOTOS: Brandon
 Maki took pictures too.  To see his go here http://photo.sparetime.jp/go_suzuka_vise_coolgrease.html and this might make you laugh http://blog.sparetime.jp/