It’s only a hop, skip and a jump from Offenbach to Frankfurt airport, and just a short hop to Heathrow in England. That’s when time and space take on a new dimension. The flight from London to Tokyo takes 10 hours. No question about it, it’s great to go on a world trip. But you don’t experience the enjoyable feeling of being a globe trotter, you have to sit far too long above the clouds at 30,000 feet for that.

Our group for the Japan trip was made up of 14 journalists in all from four European countries, plus a small handful of assistants to look after the media.
From Germany, there were editors from three trade magazines in the group: from MOTORRAD, “Motorrradfahrer” and “Motorrad News”.

After we landed in Narita, a bus took us about another 60 kilometres. The first time in Japan, and then to be chauffeured through Tokyo is a thrilling experience. The Japanese capital numbers more than 8 million inhabitants and is extremely spread out, with more than 20 different city districts, the traffic is the equal of any European metropolis. It’s an experience just to sit in the bus and marvel at the skyline. The architecture and the road system fully deserve the appellation gigantic – all of us were just gaping with eyes like saucers, in some places roads and the city motorway run past the buildings at roughly the level of the 10th floor.

After about a two-hour ride, we reached our hotel, the Keio Plaza, and after an evening meal with sushi we fell into bed exhausted. Of course we were served raw fish and raw meat. I can reassure anyone who is shuddering right now. Sushi in Japan is much more refined, both in taste and in its presentation, than anything that's occasionally served up to us at home. No, living animals, that you hear about now and then, were not set in front of us at the table.

But one journalist recounted a humourous anecdote concerning Soichiro Honda. The company founder had invited Freddie Spencer and tuner Erv Kanemoto to his house after winning the 500cc world championship in 1983. Of course, there was sushi, which was anything but a thrill for the young American. Clearly embarrassed, Freddie fidgeted for quite a while without touching a bite. Of course, the “Old Man”, as Soichiro was known to his employees in the company, knew exactly what was going on, he had made inquiries ahead of time about Freddie’s eating habits. At any rate, Mr. Honda enjoyed the scene whole-heartedly before he took pity on the world champion and put a bag on the table with hamburgers specially ordered from McDonalds, practically doubled over with laughter….

The next day found us at the Tokyo Motor Show, on the Makuhari Fairgrounds. This event is not quite as overwhelmingly large as is sometimes imagined in Europe, but, at any event, it is important for the Japanese car industry. For 2009, the show was held primarily in two halls, with the motorcycles concentrated in one hall, the remainder being reserved for automobiles. It was noticeable that the global economy is not exactly revving in the red sector. This year, there were no European manufacturers present, even one of the large Japanese motor cycle brands passed up the opportunity to showcase itself and its products.

Remarkable: None of the manufacturers showed its complete model line up, which seems not to be unusual in Japan. Instead, major themes were established, and numerous design studies vied for attention.

At Honda, there were interesting studies from the two-wheel and four-wheel area, and also from the unicycle field. In addition to several mobility concepts with alternative drives. At any rate, it was extremely impressive to see vehicles that come about when creativity is given absolutely free rein.

The highlight on the Honda stand was, of course, the VFR1200F, that was now being shown to a wider public for the first time after our media introduction in Offenbach on October 8. The air-cooled CB1100F was also the object of interested admiration. Both models were introduced on a stage by Honda president personally, along with the four-wheel studies “C-RZ” and “Skydeck”.

The newly unveiled U3-X attracted enormous attention, a cute unicycle with a folding seat and electric drive. Fancy computer technology from the robot ASIMO
ensures that balance is maintained as though by magic.

The Tokyo Motor Show was the first opportunity for end customers around the world to evaluate Honda’s new V4 machine in the metal. As far as I can judge, the reaction was very positive.

In the late afternoon, our group travelled on the JR bullet train, also known as the Shinkansen express, to Sendai, about a two-hour ride outside Tokyo.
We spent the night there in the Mitsui Garden Hotel.

Before that, we had completed a few stages on the underground. It’s not easy to find your way in Tokyo, what with the signs being in Japanese characters, but it’s not completely impossible. Now and again you catch sight of direction signs written in English. Fortunately for us, we had brought a guide with us, the very pleasant Ms. Yoshie Kitahara.

On the following day, we rode by bus for about an hour and a half to the “Sports Land Sugo” race track, for the very first test ride on the VFR1200F. I’ll tell you how this event went off in the second part of my Japanese impressions. Coming soon...   close