Motegi MotoGP 2024 - Part 1

 

Day 1

Following on from our boycott of the Phillip Island GP last year when we went to Sepang in Malaysia instead, Steve and I decided to take a look at the Japanese GP at Motegi this year. Like the Malaysian GP, Motegi is basically in the Aussie time zone - well, only two hours behind - so no need for a fatiguing long haul, multi meridian journey.

As Japan is about as foreign as it gets as a culture and a language for us Aussies, we decided to book via a tour company which specialises in Moto GP (and WSBK) packages. Pole Position Travel proved to be fairly priced, very easy to deal with and as they have been doing this for twenty odd years, well organised.

Steve and I flew out of Brisbane on the Wednesday before the race weekend so that we could find our feet and have a very quick Look at Tokyo. We arrived at the airport earlier than strictly necessary but I had a plan to surprise Steve with breakfast in one of the lounges. It is also nice to not be in a mad tizz at the airport. We certainly weren’t for this trip!

We chose to go Jetstar to Narita as the flight was dirt cheap. 

Narita is also on the Motegi side of Tokyo which I thought would make it easier but to be honest, the rail system is so good that flying into Haneda airport would not have been an issue for access. We were on a 787 and I chose the aisle seats in the centre row of the aircraft, hoping that the middle seat would be unoccupied and we scored a win there, having the row of three seats to ourselves!

I had purchased the meal and entertainment add-ons for our flight. I was surprised that the meal was actually not bad and the time zipped by as we watched a couple of movies and sipped a beer. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji during our arrival but the combination of thick haze and our not-optimal-for-viewing seating saw us miss out.

The whole disembarkation/customs process was as painful as always. Once through we grabbed some Japanese cash from an ATM then went in search of a train into Tokyo. 

I think we messed up here by not catching the AirPort Express, instead getting an “all stops” jobbie that took about an hour and a half to get us to our hotel.

Steve had booked the hotel and it was a good-un. Near a train station so we could walk the short distance but also near a street of restaurants. We wandered around trying to figure out what to eat. Here, my recent work trips to Japan came in handy as many restaurants are hidden upstairs and not right on the street front. We followed some signs into a lift, went up six levels and hopped out in some sort of chicken restaurant. Trying to figure out the menu, the easiest thing to order was beer…..so we did! 

The food (and beer) is so cheap that we decided to just order a heap of dishes and if we didn’t like something to just push it aside and order more of what we did like. Luckily, everything was very tasty and was washed down with another bucket of beer while I got to giggle at Steve trying use chopsticks.

Day 2

We got up reasonably early this morning and made our way down for the buffet breakfast. While there seemed to be a lot of westerners having breakfast, the western style breakfast was pretty ordinary fare and the Japanese version was not very enticing at this hour of the morning, so we ate like sparrows.

That done, we dumped our suitcases with the concierge and hoofed it. Steve wanted to have a look at the massive SkyTree tower and as it was only a few blocks away, why not? 

Straight out of the hotel we came to a park with a temple in it.

 It was a cool, cloudy morning and the setting of the temple in the trees was stunning. 

We took a few photos then kept walking…

Only to discover that the first photos were of the rear of the temple! The front was even more impressive! 😆

There were some relics in the park that had been badly burnt. We assumed that they were WWII wrecks but applying Google Translate to the signs revealed that they were from a massive fire that ripped through Tokyo after the great Kanto earthquake in 1923.

Pressing on we marvelled at how clean and tidy the streets were for such a huge city. Not a scrap of rubbish or a dot of chewing gum to be seen anywhere. Refreshing!

After quite a hike we were at the base of the Tokyo Skytree. It is an impressive building at 2080ft (634m) high and a mighty feat of engineering.

Finding our way inside we were there about fifteen minutes before opening time. Perfect timing! At $35 Aussie for a ticket it isn’t cheap but how often do you get to go up a building this tall in the middle of a city this big? Not often for a couple of bumpkins from the bush!

There are two observation levels, one at 350m and the other at 450m. 

We decided to check out both even though the upper level looked to be in cloud.

The view was pretty impressive, despite the haze and by the time we got to the upper deck the cloud had lifted to reveal more of this massively spread out city.

Touristing done, we headed back down in the fastest lift I have ever ridden at something like 600m a minute. Exiting the base of the SkyTree we were greeted with an Oktoberfest beer hall. Ah, that’s right, it’s October! It was approaching lunch time so best we take on some fluids and munch on something more to our taste!

This dinky little car was outside the sword museum. The sword museum that we didn't want to pay to get into....

After what felt like a looong walk back to the hotel we collected our bags and took our chances catching a train to Tokyo station. Here we would transfer to a Shinkansen (bullet train) to our base for the next few days, Utsunomiya. 

Tokyo station was an eye opener. We found the Shinkansen ticket office easily enough but it took about 25 minutes to get to the head of the line and purchase our tickets. I thought we had missed our train, it being a special train but no, these special trains are just part of the everyday transport solution here and run every half hour or less! Finding the right platform wasn’t easy but Steve found an English speaker who pointed us in the right direction.

The train itself looked like some sort of dragon snake with its long, aerodynamic snout followed by a long  snaking body. Ours was actually two Shinkansen joined together. We had reserved seats in a specific carriage so I liked how the platform was marked with the carriage numbers and that is exactly where the train pulled up!

Once on, it was immaculately clean and very airplane like but with a lot more leg room than your average aircraft. Steve had purchased a couple of beers on the platform so we enjoyed them as we watched the countryside scroll by at 235km/h. When I say countryside, I actually mean urban build up because it seemed like we were in town the whole way to Utsunomiya.

Once there we walked the kilometre of so to the hotel. After this mornings trekking our legs were cooked. We should have cabbed it…..

Checking into the hotel, it had an old American hotel feel about it. It was clean and comfortable though. We met another tour group member almost right away. Chris from the Isle of Man was clearly happy to see some other MotoGP tragics and it took some getting away to our room!

Pole Position had put on some welcome drinks and Gordon, the owner, playfully cursed his luck that so many thirsty Aussies were in attendance, driving his bar bill up!

Welcome packs were handed out then we retired to a little Irish bar that Gordon knew for Guinness and Gyoza. Now that is a combination I wouldn’t have picked! We met and chatted with many of the others on the tour here. 

This was going to be a fun few days!

Day 3

The tour bus was slated for a 0745 departure so we were up early for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The food here was more to our liking with a good selection of western style breakfast that tasted like a western style breakfast!

Then it was onto the bus for the ~ one hour drive out to the Honda Motegi Mobility Resort - the track in other words! 

We arrived nice and early and Gordon set our meeting time and place before we all headed our seperate ways. 

Steve and I decided to check out the Honda museum this morning as it was right by the entrance to the track and not a lot happens on a Friday morning, MotoGP wise.

The museum is pretty unassuming looking from the outside but is a treasure trove of all things Honda. 

We wandered around for about an hour and a half but could have easily spent most of the day in here. I’ll just do a bit of a photo dump of some of what we saw. 

My phone camera photos don’t do it justice. Steve had his real camera and took much better shots here.

I had one of these back in '93. CBR900RR, brand new,  same colour. I wish I still had it.

Entering the track complex we were impressed with how picturesque it is, set into the hills and surrounding forest. 

Entry was sooo easy with no bag checks or metal detector wanding like we get back in the Nanny State. Nope, just scan your ticket and walk right in!

We decided to check out our stand, the “Z” stand which is located on the tight right corner at the end of the long back straight. It was just open seating on timber planks but as long as it didn’t rain, we were sweet!

Alex Rins - 340km/h down to 80km/h!

Wildcard rider Remy Gardener with front brake discs glowing red hot!

Like we always do at a GP, we decided to walk right around the track today. Our legs were still a bit weary from yesterday’s hiking but we revived our energy levels for the trek with some tasty micro brewery beer. 

Luckily we did that as it was a looong way around this track.

Steve stopped here and there to get some more awesome photos.

 A big portion off the end of the main straight is not visible due to the safety barrier on the NASCAR oval track(where the Twin Ring in Motegi's original name comes from). Luckily the forest off to the right along here was very pretty and made it feel like we were on a bush walk of sorts.

Thankfully for our legs, we finally came to the main grandstand and civilisation! Another beer to revive us plus a bite to eat and we were set. Did I mention that the beers were bloody good?

And cheap? Under half the price they are at Phillip Island and it is tasty full strength stuff too!!

 Taking a seat at the back of the grandstand we chatted to an Aussie bloke from Toowoomba. It turned out he was the guy that had left some Tripadvisor reviews back in 2016 and 2018 that I had referenced when planning our trip? Small world, right?!

The Honda merch stand was a ghost town. Only thing missing were the tumbleweeds....

A Marini replica was on show as a photo prop. They were very protective of anyone trying to touch it though.  Dunno why as they are plowed through the gravel traps at circuits all around the globe on a weekly basis. 😆

This lean machine looked like fun and I decided that as nobody knew me......so, braaap! 🤫

The day over and done with we loaded back onto the bus.  The trip home was a slow one at almost two hours and all were glad to get off that bus. 

My merch haul for the kids was considerable!

We had a hot turn around for dinner. This proved to be a fun night at a Japanese restaurant across the road from the hotel.  Most of the food was edible and ALL of the beer was drinkable.😉

We had a special guest speaker for about an hour. Can't remember his name but he was a Spanish MotoGP journalist who has been in the Paddock for the last 30 years. He had some very insightful information that we, the general punter, never gets to hear about the riders and teams.

It was a fun night for everyone. Our group proved to be a great bunch of people with Dutch, German and Isle of Man....ers sitting with us. Many beers were harmed that evening.

Part 2 is here.

Cheers....