As has been posted earlier, we returned to Japan again over the christmas holidays leaving the hot and humid summer and gratefully exchanging it for sub zero temperatures, tons of snow, great food, huge smiles...... well ...... you get the picture.... It was fantastic.
So after a fabulous week in the Japanese Alps pretending to be a downhill skier, I left by train for Kyoto and then Kameoka to meet up with my trials mates and also shake hands with our local hero Kyle Middleton. Kyle was over to take part in the Rocky Trial new years event which is a competitive trial but more of a new years celebration where everyone is pretty laid back. I was at the same event last year, made lots of friends and it was such a blast to have people that we could barely communicate with, running up to greet us and just say g'day.
- Rocky Trial.jpg (35.86 KiB) Viewed 2220 times
(From left to right) Shintaro, Kyle, Ryozo, Andy, Kojiro and Cameron in the front
This time I took my son Cameron along and organised for him to ride my mates aging twinshock. He was the only junior to be taking part so along with his western face and red hair he managed to get lots of attention and also quite a few 'high fives'.
Unlike last year when it was very cold but dry, this years event was held the day after a heavy snowfall. It had been years since I had ridden in snow although memories of sliding down scottish hillsides didn't take long to re-emerge. I got to plod around on a 1986 Honda RTL250S chasing Kyle and Cameron around the twelve sections.
Kyle mixed it with the likes of Kenichi Kuroyama and proved he was certainly competitive in such illustrious company.
The photos on the attached link are a bit biased toward the two Aussies but there are plenty of images which show just how much fun we all had.
http://picasaweb.google.com/10673812497 ... qXiuYTXPA#
After the event we drove about half an hour further into the mountains to a very nice spa resort for a well earned onsen and dinner. I highly recommend it.
I'm trying to persuade a few of the japanese riders to come here mid year so with a bit of luck we can reciprocate their hospitality.
Enjoy the pics.
Andy