The RoggBlog

The topic of convenience in shopping in Japan is one that quite honestly deserves far more space than I’m actually going to give it.

Suffice it to say:

• It’s 1:14 am.
• I leave for home in 4 absolutely jam-packed days.
• I need a motorbike cover for Betty to cover her shame while I’m gone.

A quick Google reveals a 24-hour Don Quixote a 10 minute ride from my house, that manages to fix me up for about 3700 yen.

That, my friends, is convenience.

(Thanks to Cam and Taka-chan for the heads-up.)

Oi! Freitag!

Two words: motorcycle bags.

I lost a map the other day after the heavens opened and I forgot to bring my current tank bag’s stupid little shower cap. I demand something with the robustness of ten trucks.

Get back to me.

After the rider skills course, the manager of the bike school sat me down, and congratulated me for finally getting all the way through the tortuous licence process. Much stamping of forms was accomplished. And then he said this:

On a motorcycle, you fly down the road, open to the elements, but you must remember: that power is not your own. It’s from a machine. And if you forget this, you’ll come to grief.

A salutory reminder for us all.

That said, there are plenty of big roads up around Ariake and Tokyo Bay that are almost empty even on a Sunday, since the whole area is still under redevelopment. So if you really - I mean, medically - need to put the hammer down, try there.

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At the bike shop this morning…

Assistant: Yeah, the new Ninja’s pretty popular.

Rog: This the first time the 250’s gone on sale in Japan, right?

A: Right. Look at this.

Grabs a fistful of recent orders from the drawer behind him.

A: … Ninja in black, Ninja, Ninja… Ninja in green, black again… Five people in two days.

R: Wait, out of five bikes four are black and only one’s green?

A: Yeah. Weird, huh.

Weird? It’s madness, I tell you.

Ah well. I heartily recommend SCS on Hakusan-dori to anyone in Tokyo, just because they threw in the pillion seat cover and a year’s breakdown service for the low, low price of free.

Incidentally, they once had a visit from Orlando Bloom, who bought a bike for export back to London. The guy dealing with my bike, Masaru, is front left in the first photo.

No, not the Pirates of the Carribbean cover.