Expressways

Woke up a little late, but I was determined to get down to the Hachioji area for some hiking today.

In Kawagoe, Route 16 says Hachioji on it, so I took that down. It got me where I needed to go without much fanfare. The normal roads in Japan are kinda teh suck. Packed with lots of red lights. If you are from the San Francisco Peninsula, think El Camino. Los Angles, think Wilshire. If you are from somewhere else, sorry. Also, there are a ton of big rigs. Bleh.

The other option is the expressway. Japan's freeway network is whack. It's fairly sparse, and they are toll roads. When you get on, you get a ticket, and when you get off, you pay all sorts of fees. Basically its more the farther you go, plus whatever else they want to charge you. I took the expressway back today, maybe about 50km on it and it cost me 1250 yen. Ouch! That's more than $10. I looked it up, to ride from one end of the country to the other on these roads would run me close to $400. Dasai!

But enough complaining. Instead of a 2 hour train ride that costs about the same, it only took me 1 hour to get home. And the expressway is gorgeous. Huge tunnels, no traffic, cool futureistic looking signs and blinky lights and shit. The speed limit is 80kmph, which is about fuck-if-I-know mph. 80 felt like normal highway speed. I got it up to 120 at one point, which aint super fast. It was kinda cold to be going fast. Once I get some good gear I can drive at better speeds. The best part was when I gunned it coming on. Instead of yelling "Woooohooooo!" or "Yeeeeeehaaaaaaw!" (yes, riding a motorcycle is like riding a roller coaster, it's the shit) I instinctively yelled "Suuuuugoooooiiiiiiiiii!"