« Lolo, t’es bo en moto » (approximative translation: Lolo is great on a bike) Special Campaign. Look at the picture on your left, Lolo is born to be wild on a bike, no??? YES.

What we want: Lolo to pass his motorbike license (400cc will do);

When: ASAP

Why: We want Lolo to come touring with us. Second reason: Lolo is great on a bike (already said before).

How You can help him (and Us): Add a comment , add one of the numerous reason Lolo should pass his license and buy a long-touring-able-bike, Help us to convince him with your deepest help…. Any suggestions for Lolo’s new bike are also mostly welcomed.

How You can help him (and Us) More: Ask your friends to add a word. Any donations are also welcomed …

Some info from my dear Fukuda Bike dealer,

- ITALIAN MOTO FESTA is to be held on 5th July 2003 at Fuji Speedway, dedicated to Italian motorcycle.

Italian Moto Festa Website

Entrance Fee: 2,000 JPY

- 2003 BMW National Rally is to be held from July 18th to 21th at Nagano (site of the Nagano Olympics).
BMW National Rally Flyer

Other Links:
Fukuda Motors Website
Fuji Speedway Website

GO!GO!7188 latest Album: 鬣（tategami), released Feb 2003. I first discovered the band watching TV and the SpaceShower TV programs. Still looking for the successor of Sheena Ringo in my personal chart, I happened to view the video-clip of the first single (うきふね）. I immediatly loved the combination of the visual and the modern traditional (japanese paradox?) composition of the song. There was something of Sheena Ringo in Yuu and Akko’s voices. I immediatly bought the album at the first HMV I could find (no big deal, shibuya is the closest one). It can appear as a bit too much basic Rock’n'Roll, but de-structured enough to keep your ears interested. It’s vivid energy, and should be fun in concert… Japanese good rock bands are unfortunatly quite rare…

Links:
GO!GO!7188 Official Website
Buy it at Amazon.co.jp

Very good news!!! Enki Bilal is releasing a new album « 32 Decembre », in stores June 3rd 2003. This book is the second part of his new trilogy, following « Le sommeil du Monstre » released in 1998. We will follow the same protagonists: Leyla, Amir and Nike, 3 Sarajevo Orphans, around the world. Reading a few first comments and looking at some pictures, the atmosphere seems as dense and tortured as the first opus. I can’t wait.

For more information:
Link to the FNAC Mini-site (In french): Presentation of the story, some wallpapers, Interview with Bilal, …
Buy it online at Alapage.com
Enki BILAL Official Website

A lot of updates this time on the page. I added the Weblog page where I will try to give general updates on the site from now on, it will be also a kind of diary, puting together the stuff I like, the experiences I went through, a bit more of my impressions living in Japan… I hope it will be usefull in some ways… Well, I’m quite exciting as it’s a nice thing on the site. Hope I will have enough time to update it regularly. Also, I’m back from a nice bike trip at Shirakawa-Go: check the weblog for the short report and the pictures section. I’m still not decided if I will have this news part replaced by the weblog, as I’d like to have this last one separated from the main site, as an add-on somehow (that’s why I created a sub-domain for it)..

Monday, May 26, 2003 at 19:42 JST
TOKYO: A powerful earthquake rocked northeastern Japan on Monday, causing blackouts and forcing authorities to temporarily shut down highways, railways and even Tokyo’s main airport, more than 400 kilometers away. Eight people were reported injured.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered 64 kms below the sea floor off the coast of northeastern Miyagi prefecture, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

Source: Read more at Japan Today

09:30: We started our trip from Azabu-Juban (as usual, in front of Pierre’s flat) after a quick coffee. Obsiously, we are not following the japanese way of touring, waking up at 6am. After joining Sylvain around Shinjuku, the first challenge was to find the Chuo Expressway entrance. Anybody has an idea if there is a real entrance to the Chuo?? After looking around for 30 min, asking the police, we could not find any. We guessed the only way to reach it is through the Shuto, and it’s another trick to have the drivers to pay the 700 Yens to enter the Shuto.
Takayama is at around 300 kms from Tokyo, we had quite a long time to re-think our lifes on the way. By the way, I could reach for the first time 180km/h for the record. Pierre was testing his brand new Fazer 1000 on a long trip, and I guess Sylvain customized his engine to release that much power with his old CB400. So finally, after a few stops and the horrible route 158 full a tourist bus, we reached Takayama for another 100 kms to arrive to Shirakawa-Go. It was not the first time for me to visit this authentic village (cf, Takayama & Shirakawa-Go during winter). We enjoyed a lot the kanja ryokan where we stayed for one night.
Next day was a little bit of sightseeing. As you can see on the pictures, weather was quite nice. Shirakawa-Go is a popular place for photographers, we were part of them. Have a look at the Pictures page. Far from being professional of course…..
Sightseeing is nice but, now is time for some pro-biking through the montain roads. We joined Iku chan (Miss VMAX) and Satomi chan, for part of our way back to Matsumoto, through the highly recommeded Route 87. Have a look at the view we got sometime from the top of the montains, kind of lost. At that time, I realised how nice it is to escape from Tokyo from time to time.
The way back from Matsumoto was not that fun with the usual Traffic Jam entering Tokyo (17kms without any reasons…).
The first touring expedition of this year was fun. Looking forward to leave again for the countryside…

Links:
Link to the Photos Page (pictures by Fred and Pierre)
Link to Iku’s Website, あと　 ツリングレポート

We are just back from Shirakawa-Go. I’m so tired, I can’t hardly type anything on my keyboard. The region of Takayama is great for biking and not so crowded. I would say it was pro-biking this time, and will dream of montain curves this night. I’ll post the pictures later on, probably tomorrow. ‘night.