Japan by Motorcycle?

[dansk]

Here's a crazy thought I've had for a while now: I want to take my motorcycle, a Honda CB-400, over to Japan and tour around the country this summer, hopefully staying in a tent along the way.  I went last year and did the big cities by train, this time I want to get out and see more of rural Japan, and my motorcycle would be an ideal way to do it.  (Not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper.)

Has anyone ever done such a thing?  Is it even legal to ride a Korean-licensed motorcycle in Japan?  (I assume so, since you can take cars on the ferry from Busan to Shimonoseki.)

Barring a full-on trip to the main islands, a couple days on Tsushima would be fun as well, and probably even cheaper yet...

[LemonWater]

Japan by motorcycle?  You may want to consider trading in your motorcycle for a a jet-ski or something more buoyant.

[dansk]

Japan by motorcycle?  You may want to consider trading in your motorcycle for a a jet-ski or something more buoyant.

A ferry is a large boat which typically carries people, cargo, and/or vehicles from one coastal destination to another in exchange for local currency.

[andyfoggy]

not as crazy as the idea i had about taking the ferry from Sokcho to Vladavostok then riding my 125cc daystar all the way to europe on the trans siberian highway.. :)
some day this will happen (maybe not a daystar though)

[aiden]

I'm really interested in doing something like this too!
Honda Shadow 400

[dansk]

not as crazy as the idea i had about taking the ferry from Sokcho to Vladavostok then riding my 125cc daystar all the way to europe on the trans siberian highway.. :)
some day this will happen (maybe not a daystar though)

OoooOOOOOOOoooooo.  I've thought about doing that trip too, but my limited knowledge of Russia has kinda scared me off of it.  The country has a reputation for being a pretty rough place, I'd be worried about the bike being stolen or something like that.  It's definitely not something I'd attempt by myself either, I'd want a riding partner.

What a TRIP, though.  Man.

Another one I've thought about doing is taking the ferry to Qingdao and riding through China, then south into Vietnam.  However, I've heard you need a Chinese license if you want to ride on Chinese roads, and they won't let you exchange a foreign one.

[andyfoggy]

I used to live in Pakistan and we had a lot of traffic going past my house on the way to China
However China did not allow Motorcycles to enter the country
that was in 1998 and might have changed
it was a pity as all the bikers i met really wanted to go across ther border but had to turn back at the Kungerab pass
Maybe the chinese didnt want the people to see foreign bikes BMW, HONDA etc with engine sizes like 750 and 1100
but you are right a trip across to china on the boat to waihai then on to vietnam would be great :)

[dansk]

Yeah, just doing some quick googling and it looks like China is a brutally difficult place to be a rider even without the hassles involved in bringing a foreign bike into the country.  Scratch that off the list.

Well... why not just go around China?  Ferry from Sokcho to Vladivostok, then ride across Siberia to Kazakhstan, south through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, cross into India through Kashmir, through Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia!

Not dangerous at all!   :D

[andyfoggy]

you could write a book about it lol :)
but maybe you could buy one in china and drive it about and sell it when you leave
a friend of mine spent 2 months in vietnam, he bought a Minsk motorcycle and drove it from hanoi to saigon and actually made a slight profit selling his mike to another backpacker going north, i am sure this would be do able in china, dont know if this was legal though, probably didnt have insurance/tax/licence :)

[ironopolis]

Here's a crazy thought I've had for a while now: I want to take my motorcycle, a Honda CB-400, over to Japan and tour around the country this summer, hopefully staying in a tent along the way.  I went last year and did the big cities by train, this time I want to get out and see more of rural Japan, and my motorcycle would be an ideal way to do it.  (Not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper.)

Has anyone ever done such a thing?  Is it even legal to ride a Korean-licensed motorcycle in Japan?  (I assume so, since you can take cars on the ferry from Busan to Shimonoseki.)

Barring a full-on trip to the main islands, a couple days on Tsushima would be fun as well, and probably even cheaper yet...

If you were asking about taking a car there for a summer trip, then I'd say that most definitely was an utterly crazy idea, which I wouldn't ever recommend. In fact, I'm sure someone else on here asked and that's what I said.

But although I know a fair bit about driving in Japan, having done so for 10 years, I'm not and never have been a bike rider so I'm a lot less sure that'd be such a bad idea.

Looking on the Pukwan Ferry (Busan - Shimonoseki) website, it says that it'd be 370,000 won return trip for a motorbike, which includes the basic fare (cabin etc. would be extra) for one rider only. You also have to make any vehicle reservations at least 7 days in advance.

If that price doesn't put you off, your next concern would be however much Japanese Customs want from you to bring a bike from overseas into Japan and whatever you had to pay in insurance and other charges to use it on the road there. I don't know the answer to those questions, but I do know that Japanese bureaucracy is pretty adept at extracting completely insane amounts of money for things like this, especially out of road users. For example, the 20 minute government safety check for cars done after 3 or 4 years and then every 2 years, which costs 15,000 won in Korea, costs very nearly 100 times that amount in Japan.

Having your own transport to see Japan away from the cities is something I would absolutely recommend. Even just in Western Honshu and Kyushu, the most accessible parts from Shimonoseki, there'd be a lot to see for a rider/driver.

To whoever it was asking about taking their car to Japan, I suggested it'd a much better idea to hire a car there instead. My guess (and that's all it is) is that might be the best advice for you too. You could certainly hire a bike in Japan as long as you had an International Driving Permit based on a home country (or Korean) licence which allowed you to ride a bike. Going on what I recall hearing from friends I had in Japan who were bikers, I think probably hiring a small car would actually be a lot cheaper than a bike though.

[dansk]

Makes sense, thanks for the info!

[mattstella]

I am considering doing this trip as well.

Please post any more info that you find. I will look into it further with some Korean friends and post back what I find out.