Thursday, August 30, 2012

Beach Race 1




























 August 26, 2012
Chirihara Sand Flats Speedway
CycleHeadz Street Vintagebike Meeting....

On the beach. 

At approximately 10:30 on the night of August 25, 2012, my friend A.G. calls.  “So how’s everything going?...Thats great...Um, this is really short notice but do you want to go to Chilihara for some vintage bike racing on the beach?”  The beach in question was 280 kilometers away and the event began at 9 a.m. “Sure! Brandi and I have no plans tomorrow.”  “Ok, my wife will pick you up at Maibara station in the morning.  You Americans are crazy!”  

The first train to leave our neighborhood station leaves at 6:20 a.m. and we were on it having had very little sleep.  This would transport us to the bullet train station in the city where we would take the second earliest bullet train possible to Kyoto and the change to a slower train to take us to a smaller bullet train terminal in Maibara, just a bit west of Nagoya.  Being a smaller terminal, the train we were on stopped to let the non-stop trains blow by.  My wife waited patiently on the platform while I stood at the edge waiting like a little kid to watch a Nozomi Super Express fly by at 200 mph, which is as terrifying as it is fun.  Sixteen coaches scarcely 20 ft in front of you, carrying the scream of its wind stream and the high pitched whine of its 25,000 V AC power supply dragging against the power line above.  The entire station moves and one's body is actually pushed in the direction of the train by the wind created.  The 16 coaches pass in less than 3 seconds.  Back to business.  Yuka and A.G. are already waiting at the east gate.  Three more hours in the car would get us to a small beach in Ishikawa prefecture on the Sea of Japan.  A.G. rode his motorcycle as we watched the middle Honshu mountains run by until we were following the sea side.  The pictures can tell the rest of the story.  

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Tom Fugle, June 30, 2012.  Born Free 4.  The end of the day.  Splitting time.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Awa Odori
































Tokushima City, Shikoku Island, Japan, August 14, 2012.  Awa Odori festival is a regional dance festival in Tokushima city which is a part of the greater Bon holiday, where it is tradition to invite your ancestors to come visit you from the dead.  At this festival the traffic lights are turned off and the streets overflow with people and dance troops.  Not professionals, but neighborhood groups, friends, co-workers gather in large groups to wear traditional clothing and do a dance that is part choreographed part free style, in the streets.  Some dances are scheduled into parades and others are renegade with teams commandeering an intersections and going for it (the best ones I saw where of this variety).  They each bring along their own set of drummers and some bands even include flutes (shinobue).  Drinking contests follow, traditions of politeness are dashed, and old drunk men fall on your friends as they are crouched eating street food made of octopus.  Wikipedia describes the situation as anarchy. 

Picture captions from the top down: Number 1: The graceful ladies of Japan Railways taking an intersection over.  Number 2: Aggressive male beauty salon employees make a floating stage quiver.  Number 3: Taiko drummers.  Number 4: Yoshino River. Number 5: Drinking contest on the shoulders your friends.  I believe the object may be to drink until you fall off.  Number 6: A street.

Sunday, August 19, 2012











Shane has good chopper karma enough to last him through this life and into the next.  We are lucky to have him in Alabama.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

panhead bros.

Hachi and Kazu killin it in Odaiba Tokyo. Aug 5 2012.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Evening

Wide


Yama

 Gen


August 5, 2012, riding from Tokyo to Yokohama.  

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Daytime
























































Mooneyes Swap, Odaiba Tokyo, August 5, 2012