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Aerostich 3 Island tour
If you go on the Aerostich website you can see a map of the route and other info. The trip is mostly on Kyushu and Shikoku, the southernmost of the main islands that make up Japan. They are very rural, and there are several large national parks, so the roads are mostly open and traffic is light. The home base is a Triumph dealer in the small city of Okayama that also sells Kawis and an assortment of used bikes which are the source of its rental fleet.
The trip is very expensive, but that's generally true for travel in Japan. The basic tour price includes the rental of a 400cc bike; if you opt for something larger it will cost from $400 to $1000 more, depending on what you rent. Aside from that, the tour price includes everything except alcohol and a few lunch stops along the way (typical tour policies in my experience).
Accommodations are in traditional small hotels and inns, which means using communal bathing facilities (like a health club here), tatami mats on the floors (shoes verboten) and sleeping on futons at night. The area is very volcanic, so most of the inns are built around hot springs which are the source for the hot soaking pools in the bathing areas. You have not lived until you finish a hard day's riding by slipping into one of those pools and let the hot water soak away the aches. After which you put on a kimono and go to a private dining room where you will sit on a cushion on the floor and be served a dinner of 14 to 20 dishes some of which you may even recognize.
More tomorrow.
If you go on the Aerostich website you can see a map of the route and other info. The trip is mostly on Kyushu and Shikoku, the southernmost of the main islands that make up Japan. They are very rural, and there are several large national parks, so the roads are mostly open and traffic is light. The home base is a Triumph dealer in the small city of Okayama that also sells Kawis and an assortment of used bikes which are the source of its rental fleet.
The trip is very expensive, but that's generally true for travel in Japan. The basic tour price includes the rental of a 400cc bike; if you opt for something larger it will cost from $400 to $1000 more, depending on what you rent. Aside from that, the tour price includes everything except alcohol and a few lunch stops along the way (typical tour policies in my experience).
Accommodations are in traditional small hotels and inns, which means using communal bathing facilities (like a health club here), tatami mats on the floors (shoes verboten) and sleeping on futons at night. The area is very volcanic, so most of the inns are built around hot springs which are the source for the hot soaking pools in the bathing areas. You have not lived until you finish a hard day's riding by slipping into one of those pools and let the hot water soak away the aches. After which you put on a kimono and go to a private dining room where you will sit on a cushion on the floor and be served a dinner of 14 to 20 dishes some of which you may even recognize.
More tomorrow.
