Shinnenkai Ride to Izu

The second weekend of the new year was the date for my riding group's 新年会. A shinnenkai is the first meeting of the new year. It's basically another excuse to get drunk, under the guise of the "meeting" moniker.



These guys are from SBKjapan.com. The site is an offshoot of gaijinriders.com. Both are forums for foreign motorcycle riders in Japan. The first, apparently, was started after a fight (flame war) on the second. So now there are 2 websites that basically serve the same purpose.



But SBK has lucky stickers! (last year someone's bike was stolen, and recovered when a forum member saw the sticker on an abandoned bike)



My adventure was to sack up and camp on the beach in the Bat Cave. Here's it is:



The Bat Cave is out secret camping spot. Don't mind the sign at the entrance. You can't read Japanese anyways, can you?



But when I got there, my sack literally went up into my body... it was cold! So I sucked it up and bunked with the others in the hotel.



Food was rad down in Shimoda. The Paradise Cafe next to our hotel, Earnest House, had some tasty breakfast going on. British people always act amazed when they see beans in Japan. Then you get to listen to them talk about their stupid ass "full English" breakfasts for ten minutes. Whatever, it's no Moons Over MiHami!



I have no photos from the actual shinnenkai drinking part of the night. There was a 96 percent bottle of Polish "single malt whiskey" involved. There was also arm wrestling with a guy who owns specialized arm wrestling exercise equipment and hella Japanese arm wrestling magazines. He won.



On the way back, I split from the pack so I could take it slow and explore a little bit more. Lot's of great views.



Some local kids running laps in the sand.



More locals.



More locals (of the permanent kind).





I found this random beach:



Just a big sand hill with a bunch of rocks at the bottom. I guess you could ski it.



About halfway up the coast I cut east, and ran the Nishi Izu Skyline. Fuck yeah!



It was cold. Fuck no!



The roads are almost empty. Fuck yeah!



The 2 skyline roads on Izu, despite being ass cold this time of year, are where it's at. You've got Mt. Fuji in front of you, the ocean on the left, and a drifting Subaru behind. Someone warned of ice, but it was clean driving the whole way.



Lunch was ise ebi ramen. That's ramen with a Japanese spiny lobster on top. It sucked. I don't know why I tried it, I knew the second I saw the empty ramen shop that it wouldn't be any good. And I paid a small fortune.



Focus on the good memories.