it all. This is bliss, this is peace, this
is Japan.
We’ve been here for five months
now and it feels like a lifetime ago
that the old Russian ferry door
slammed down onto the concrete and
our muddy tyres touched Japanese
soil for the first time.
It’s a country we have always want-
ed to visit, but we never thought it’d
be so hard fought to get here. Riding
32,000 kilometres in a year from the
UK, two-up on a Yamaha XT660R took
its toll. We broke down more times
than we can remember, battled sand
storms, thick snow, -15C blizzards,
40C arid deserts, ran out of fuel in
Uzbekistan, got lost in Mongolia, the
bike fell apart in Afghanistan and we
froze in a Siberian hell ride.
We rolled in battered, bruised and
ready for anything. But we weren’t
expecting to be immediately thrown
off guard. We checked our map and
booked a hotel for the first night …
which turned out to be a ‘Love Hotel’.
TRAVERSE 86