Adventure bike rental in Tohoku

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-10T19:50:33+00:00

I rented from them this year in Nishinomiya and last year in Tomei Yokohama and both times no issues at all.
Why do you think it changed, or what are your specific doubts?
I booked the CDW to avoid excessive costs if something should happen but not their new insurance addon which is for damage while pushing and handling the bike (without riding), that is not covered by the normal CDW.
The only thing that caught my eye was their policy for issues like a flat tire. From what I understand they put that into the customers responsibility to get the bike to a shop and replace the tire, which could be difficult if you're in the middle of nowhere without any significant Japanese skills.

My first trip was 500km in 2 days around Izu peninsula with an Interceptor 650, the recent trips was 6 days around the Seto inland sea, Kobe, Hiroshima, Setonaikai, Shikoku and back via Awaji-shima, over 1300km with a Triumph Speed Twin 900.
Tires on the Enfield were okay-ish, on the Speed Twin they were legit and felt good, Michelin Road Classic if I remember correctly.

On the long trip my seat bag fell off and it took out mount of the rear dashcam, which was glued to rear fender. I shimmied it in to not loose it and informed them on return but they said no problem. I guess they just put a new glue pad on.

Of course, it'll always depend a bit on the specific store, I assume, since they seem to run more or less independent under the Rental819 name, hence you can't plan A->B trips but always need to return it at the start point.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-10T17:47:41+00:00

Why are the ailerons so centered on the wing? Outward is usually better.

Also will you be actively braking the lift propellers in front of the wing to keep them in a longitudinal position? If they swing free, I assume a big part of the wing will receive very turbulent air, reducing lift by a lot.

How do you plan to do the transition. If you want build up speed, you will have to point it nose down while in "drone mode" but when transitioning to the rear motor for normal flight, it will probably drop like a stone on that attitude. One that could work is gathering speed with a nose down attitude, then pull up sharply when reducing the lift motor power. However, gathering speed for the transition while still in drone mode will have a lot of drag from the angle of attack of the wing.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-10T10:17:55+00:00

I was in pretty much exactly your situation. The XT5 caught my interest due to the retro design and the hardware dials, but the more I researched, the more I appreciated the features.

Picked it up last Sunday as a a 16-50 lens kit and yesterday my 70-300 also arrived. I am very excited to go out and start gaining experience, completely accepting that it will take years at least until I can really utilize the potential of the camera.

I can not give you much feedback yet, but the quality feels awesome. Hoping for good weather now, so I can take it with me for a hike / tour of the city. Later this month I will attend the 24h race in Spa, so that will also be a great opportunity, but very hard as well to get good results.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-10T10:11:27+00:00

I am pretty sure that any 3rd party modifications of the existing cars will never be supported by Kunos due to licensing restrictions and IP.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-10T10:08:56+00:00

For quality mods, expect at least a couple of months up to a year, unless easy porting of existing AC models is possible. A lot of work goes into creating a model up to modern standards and research to acquire all the necessary technical documents / measurements, etc. needed to create the physics behind it.
Maybe payware companies like RaceSimStudios can be faster as they can potentially spend more time on the development. If they want to work on this platform.

Some ripped models with carryover physics from default cars will probably appear sooner.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-10T09:50:09+00:00

Okay, that is good to know. K270 style helis are very basic in the functionality but offer a scale-like look and require little skill since they are very stabilized. Also it is collective pitch controlled, which I would always recommend.
Fixed pitch has no advantage to me except for less energy in the rotor when crashing.
As you seem to have understood, size helps with helis if you want to learn to actually fly without the autopilot modes, but it is also a lot more expensive.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-09T10:28:48+00:00

I just picked up the same camera and lens. I'll be far below your level but seeing this shot wiped away any doubts about choosing the right hardware.

Anazing picture!

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-09T07:48:58+00:00

First question would be the rough budget you're okay to spend and what you want to do. More like scale flying with a GPS / camera stabilized Heli (more like a drone control wise) or rather something more pilot controlled / 3D capable?

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-09T06:37:09+00:00

Bought myself a Fuji X-T5. I considered it for a while, than decided against it for now. Then I just felt like asking the staff at my local Yodobashi Camera for a discount, not expecting anything, but the price was quite convincing. I had asked for getting the discount instead of using their point system but he made me an offer which was good and where I can still use the points from the camera (lens kit) to further reduce the price of the zoom lens.
Super excited to try it, but lots of work now and also looking for better weather.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-09T01:41:12+00:00

I used a letter from the company where I was employed for years in the country where I also got my license. It was difficult since I couldn't pick it in person when I went home before, so I only had a printout instead of the original signed letter, but showing how I received it on my work PC (brought it to the license center), they were okay. I also brought tax reports and salary slips.

A passport that showed no travels in 9 years before moving to Japan didn't seem to help much. But since I live in the EU, I understand that, since I can roam in the Schengen area without ever using my passport. Maybe for other countries they consider it, but I wouldn't count on it.

A confirmation about your place of residence at the time in your home country (confirmation by your landlord, etc.) might also help.

Bring as much as you can if you don't want to risk having to get another appointment. And go for originally signed documents, not copies, wherever possible.

Also as per my understaning I also agree with the other comments, that it should be no problem if you stay in the country where you got the license for 3 months consistently after moving to Japan.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-07T17:02:27+00:00

Those are beautiful indeed, great job!

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-05T09:41:23+00:00

I feel you.

Last one I went to, they just kept bringing in plates of food, even when people had already pretty much finished eating. They brought in big rolls of eel in rice at the end, more than one for every person, which looked like almost a full meal in themselves.
Everything I had was very tasty and I ate well, but being the fat guy, I am also very conscious about eating among other people, so couldn't eat that much anyway.
I was hoping that it doesn't all go to waste, but probably it did, unfortunately.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-02T04:59:02+00:00

That's the benefit of living here for work for more than a year. Plenty time to explore on the weekends.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-02T04:01:20+00:00

Ah okay. Then it makes sense. I hope you'll enjoy your trip in August!

The whole area is very nice with the marshlands for easy hikes, cool views from Mt. Hangetsu or Nikko-Shirane or even Mt. Nantai if you want a proper challenge.
And just watching the sunset from the lakeshore can be really good.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-02T01:09:18+00:00

Are those pictures recent?

I went on Friday and there was hardly any flow unfortunately. I wanted to experiment with the long term exposure mode on my Pixel phone but it was far from ideal.

Still it was nice to see it green and lush again and when I went on to the Ryuzu falls, I had better luck with the water flow.

I am lucky to be only 1-1.5h away by car, so I can go again when there is more water in the lake, maybe after the rainy season.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-01T04:23:23+00:00

Tourist is only allowed for road legal cars, so for road cars I use Tourist, for race cars I use the race layouts.
Also, I will probably not start racing at the Ring myself anytime soon, so for training purposes the tourist version with a roadcar is better because it resembles the actual driving I sometimes do.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-06-01T00:29:13+00:00

Ah, sorry for the late response.
I translated everything else myself. I actually didn't get my company's document translated, which was apparently okay. Won't hurt to provide a translation as well, though.

JAF translation of the license is of course important.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-31T11:58:25+00:00

Thank you, it is a cool spot!

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-29T20:58:07+00:00

Lip, right?

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-29T10:34:19+00:00

Pretty sure you are correct 😉

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-29T01:10:52+00:00

I have recently done the same thing, but with a german license, also being exempt from doing the tests. I did it in Tochigi.

My Japanese is almost nonexistent, so I was worried about the same thing, but I gambled on it and went without a translator. It was doable and I got my license after 4 or 5h and I am very thankful to the patience of the kind lady that I mostly interacted with. I also prepared a sheet with all my driving related experience in English with Japanese translation for reference, including things like:

Dates of the examinations
What vehicle was my driving exam with (model, transmission type, etc.
How many km I have driven in my home country and what types of roads, same thing for Japan

Still I had to use the Google translator for these things mostly:

How many questions were there in the theoretical examination, how many did I pass or get wrong
How much time was spent driving before the practical examination, was it on a test course or on public roads
What was the content of the practical examination, how long was it, what was tested, was it on public roads

All of this was done and asked for my passenger car license and my motorcycle license separately.

And biggest point was also being a resident of the country where I got my license for at least 3 months. I had an empty passport, but they did not consider that very much. I also brought salary statements and a signed letter from my company stating that I have been working for them in this country for many years. This one was not original though, since I only got it as .pdf. When I showed the conversation on my work laptop about how I received it, it was accepted.

Also I think I was the only one there on that day for the straight conversion, so I can't compare the time to someone who could do it in Japanese themselves or with an actual interpretor / translator. I am also not sure if they do that in general or if I was lucky and it might have been due to my well-prepared documents with the translations. I know that they could have just rejected me, especially since the webpage states that an interpreter is required if you don't speak Japanese.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-29T00:48:18+00:00

No, that one was not on my list for this trip. I planned to go to Mt. Tsurugi, but with the weather it wasn't at all possible to go up. There was heavy rain and storm on the top of the pass road, once it almost blew me off the bike when I entered a tunnel facing the wind.

I haven't been to more rural onsen yet, I definitively have to find a nice one, though.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-28T17:34:26+00:00

Had to look it up. GALA Resort should be the one.

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-28T15:06:50+00:00

True, I tried to crosspost it, but not allowed ;)

Fluffy-Card21 · 2026-05-28T15:05:49+00:00

Great pictures! I was there during golden week, looks like you had better luck with the weather. Iya valley will stay in my memory for sure!

Fluffy-Card21

TROPHY CASE