Good Weather Days

Sunday here in northern Okinawa was beautiful. I left the house and was planning on doing a few things in Nago. As I sat down in the driver's seat of my car, the door still open, I felt the heat of the sun on me and knew that I was doing something wrong. I remember thinking, "I'm about to drive 40 minutes to Nago in this weather."

I opened up the glove compartment and took a look at the atlas of Okinawa. Where had I not been on the bike yet? I chose a route that took me south on the 331, turning into the 329 along the coast of the Pacific, into Ginoza. I would then cross the island going west on the 71, head north after reaching the 58, cross back east on a different section of the 329, then retrace the first 30-40 km of my trip south.

I took everything back into the house, changed into my riding gear, and took off on the bike a few minutes later. It was an awesome ride. It was also my first ride with my new full-face helmet, a black Arai that cost me just under 30,000 yen. Not only did I feel safer with the chinbar encompassing my face, but the helmet kept me warmer and reduced wind and engine noise; I felt like the bike was purring along yesterday.

There were a few points on the trip where I really got the bike going. I was passing some slow cars at a long straight downhill section of road when I hit around 95kmh, just under 60mph. It's a very different feeling doing that speed on a bike, let me assure you. But perhaps more fun were the twisties in the roads. I usually took those around 30-40kmh, but the balance and precision required to get through the turns made them for enjoyable challenges. And of course, cruising along the coast at 60kmh was simply divine.

I racked up 100km yesterday and it didn't even feel like it. I'm a lot more comfortable on the bike that I was even a month ago. I'm glad I went through with getting the license and putting the money into this hobby. It's a little bit more adventure in this big adventure I'm enjoying right now.