Motorcycle

Eight years ago I became a motorcycle freak by chance, when I rode a scooter in Lang-tao Island, Taiwan. As soon as I returned Japan, I rushed to a motorcycle riding school. Two months after taking a motorcycle license, I made a motorcycle trip in New Zealand. On the fifth day of my tour I was crashed by a car, but I fortunately survived the accident. The following year I visited New Zealand again and finished my motorcycle journey around the country. Afterward, I motorcycled in the USA, Australia, Mexico and Vietnam. Motorcycle is now my indispensable traveling partner.Traveling by motorcycle gives you more freedom. You neither have to make sure of the bus station or stop and the departure time nor have to make a reservation of your seat. As the mileage of a motorcycle is much better than a car, a motorcycle liberate a poor young traveler a little from financial difficulty. As the price of the gasoline in the countries where I have traveled is 25 - 35 cents per litter, the traveling cost is about one cent per litter on the assumption that a motorcycle travels 30 km per litter. If only the cost of fuel consumption is taken into consideration, then it is less expensive than a bus trip. In addition good mileage means good for the environment issues. A motorcycle is not only soft for the environment, but also useful as a guard of the tent at a campground. Although I cannot sleep with the bike, its constructional, functional beauty fascinates me. It is, in a sense, a sweetheart to me. Once I put a fire in the engine in the morning, it takes me to a hidden hot spring in the deep mountains or to a rocky seacoast. If there is an enough room for a man to walk, it can go into and travel.

During a long trip, a motorcycle becomes ill at times. If this happens at a deserted area in a foreign country, it can be fatal in some case. A rider must be not only a lover of a motorcycle, but also a doctor of a bike. I have been learning a motorcycle maintenance, helping my master, since I took a motorcycle license eight years. Before motorcycle maintenance, I spent time on recycling or remodeling of thrown-away bicycles. The techniques for a bicycle, however, never can be applied to a motorcycle maintenance. A motorcycle is an extremely advanced vehicle made by the full use of the essence of the technology after the Industrial Revolution. I majored in technology at university, but the knowledge from there is of no use. With that kind of superficial knowledge, one cannot keep a motorcycle going or cannot repair it. Thanks to a motorcycle, I was able to learn technology a little.

However, in this savage country, motorcycles are granted to be a symbol of evil and riders suffer the social accusation as bad boys. At most schools students are not allowed to commute to school by motorcycle. This is the same as another forbiddance, where the schools take pencil knives out from the students for the reason that a knife is dangerous. It must be naturally the duty of school that teachers teach the proper way to use knowledge, scientific knowledge, not evading their responsibility. Although I do not expect for Japanese schools to be philosophical, is it at least impossible to have a class concerning a motorcycle, showing it before students, not only using a book with abstract characters or pictures? Through motorcycle school can teach physics, chemistry, mathematics and in addition by a motorcycle maintenance manual, even Japanese and English. I will not say any more, but I want you to remember that great aid made by young volunteers on motorcycle in the occasion of the earthquake in Kobe.

I am thinking about riding in the South India this winter. The most important thing about making a motorcycle trip to a foreign country is how to get a motorcycle. In my case I usually buy a used motorcycle, because my trip is always only for a month. As it is not easy to bring the bought motorcycle back to Japan, I sell it in the country after the trip. It is very difficult to find a motorcycle shop in advance in Japan. So, have asked the help from my friend in the visiting country before. Concerning the trip to Mexico, however, I did not have a friend. I wrote a letter to the headquarters of Mexican Esperanto Association and asked their help. The information from them ended up in vain, because used bikes were too expensive for me. However, I really appreciate the efforts that a Mexican Esperantisto made for me. I am proud of the fact that I can arrange a motorcycle in any country of the world through Esperantists. In this respect I am a special rider who is different from other riders.