Suntory Whiskey 3D on the Rocks

The first whiskey for me was Suntory

Project nineT

This is your brain on motorcycling

 
    Riding a motorcycle every day might actually keep your brain functioning at peak condition, or so says a study conducted by the University of Tokyo. The study demonstrated that riders between the age of 40 and 50 were shown to improve their levels of cognitive functioning, compared to a control group, after riding their motorcycles daily to their workplace for a mere two months.


   Scientists believe that the extra concentration needed to successfully operate a motorcycle can contribute to higher general levels of brain function, and it’s that increase in activity that’s surely a contributing factor to the appeal of the motorcycles as transportation. It’s the way a ride on a bike turns the simplest journey into a challenge to the senses that sets the motorcyclist apart from the everyday commuter. While the typical car-owning motorist is just transporting him or her self from point A to point B, the motorcyclist is actually transported into an entirely different state of consciousness .

   Riding a motorcycle is all about entrance into an exclusive club where the journey actually is the destination.

    Dr Ryuta Kawashima, author of Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain, reported the outcome of his study of “The relationship between motorcycle riding and the human mind.”

   Kawashima’s experiments involved current riders who currently rode motorcycles on a regular basis (the average age of the riders was 45) and  ex-riders who once rode regularly but had not taken a ride for 10 years or more. Kawashima asked the participants to ride on courses in different conditions while he recorded their brain activities. The eight courses included a series of curves, poor road conditions, steep hills, hair-pin turns and a variety of other challenges.

  What did he find? After an analysis of the data, Kawashima found that the current riders and ex-riders used their brain in radically different ways. When the current riders rode motorcycles, specific segments of their brains (the right hemisphere of the prefrontal lobe) was activated and riders demonstrated a higher level of concentration.

  His next experiment was a test of how making a habit of riding a motorcycle affects the brain.
  
  Trial subjects were otherwise healthy people who had not ridden for 10 years or more. Over the course of a couple of months, those riders used a  motorcycle for their daily commute and in other everyday situations while Dr Kawashima and his team studied how their brains and mental health changed.
The upshot was that the use of motorcycles in everyday life improved cognitive faculties, particularly those that relate to memory and spatial reasoning capacity. An added benefit? Participants revealed on questionnaires they filled out at the end of the study that their stress levels had been reduced and their mental state changed for the better.

  So why motorcycles? Shouldn’t driving a car should have the same effect as riding a motorcycle?

  “There were many studies done on driving cars in the past,” Kawashima said. “A car is a comfortable machine which does not activate our brains. It only happens when going across a railway crossing or when a person jumps in front of us. By using motorcycles more in our life, we can have positive effects on our brains and minds”.

   Yamaha participated in a second joint research project on the subject of the relationship between motorcycle riding and brain stimulation with Kawashima Laboratory at the Department of Functional Brain Imaging, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer at Tohoku University.

  The project began in September 2009 and ran until December 2010, and the focus of the research was on measurement and analysis of the cause and effect relationship involved in the operation of various types of vehicles and brain stimulation. The study measured changes in such stimulation over time by means of data gathered from a long-term mass survey.

 The reason for Yamaha Motor’s participation in this project is pretty obvious and not a little self-serving, but further research into the relationship between motorcycle riding and brain stimulation as it relates to the “Smart Aging Society” will certainly provide some interesting results.

   The second research project was divided into two time periods throughout 2009 and 2010 compared differences in the conditions of brain stimulation as they related to the type of vehicle and driving conditions. A second set of tests measuring the changes in brain stimulation over time involved a larger subject group.

Yamaha Motors provided vehicles for the research and made its test tracks and courses available for the study. What the study revealed is that what you’re thinking about while you’re riding – and your experience on the bike -  changes the physical structure of your brain.

 Author Sharon Begley concurs with Kawashima’s findings. In her tome, Train Your Mind – Change Your Brain, Begley found much the same outcomes.
“The brain devotes more cortical real estate to functions that its owner uses more frequently and shrinks the space devoted to activities rarely performed,” Begley wrote. “That’s why the brains of violinists devote more space to the region that controls the digits of the fingering hand.”
And you may also get some mental and physical benefits from just thinking about going for a ride on your machine.

  A 1996 experiment at Harvard Medical School by neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone had volunteers practice a simple five finger exercise on the piano over five days for a couple of hours each day. Pascual-Leone found that the brain space devoted to these finger movements grew and pushed aside areas less used.  A separate group of volunteers were asked to simply think about doing the piano exercises during that week as well, and they dedicated the same amount of “practice time.”

  Pascual-Leone was somewhat take aback to discover that the region of the brain which controls piano playing finger movement expanded in the same way for volunteers who merely imagined playing the piano.

  Along with the obvious benefits of riding motorcycles; like saving money (motorcycle insurance is relatively inexpensive), motorcycles take the edge off the grind of the daily commute, and that appears to make your brain a better place to be…

Via Krtong.com

After The Rain

It is a 1999 Akira Kurosawa tribute movie. Features people who have worked with the legendary director. Its screenplay is written by Akira Kurosawa. I personally annoyed by the crappy acting done by a son of Toshiro Mifune, Shiro Mifune. Other than that it is fairly a nice movie especially those who misses the feeling of typical Kurosawa movies of the 60's.

Little Honda

１９６６ Little Honda P25 ad from Japan.
It has got nothing to do with the song by Beach boys. As you see, this 2 wheeler was marketed toward mostly women. The motor was mounted inside of its rear wheel. You start the motor by pushing a lever on left handle bar and pedaling. 4 stroke, 49cc single cylinder OHC. Leading bottom link shocks on front, Rigid on rear. Top speed was about 18mph. If you got legs, you can pedal home even if you are out of gas. It was replaced with PC50 in 1969, and motor was installed toward front. The turn signals, and rear shocks were added. Also better top speed though it was still 49cc single. I would buy one if I find it. Even if it is a non runner. You can still use it as a bicycle.

By the way, This is our 666th post. Yey!

T-shirt Ninja Mask

I could translate the caption but it is pretty self explanatory. It is always handy to have extra shirt. I carry one in my purse, I mean satchel.

Marc Marquez's incredible first lap at Motegi

Marc Márquez Motegi Onboard 2012 - Lap 1 by Alfonso_SomozaMrquez

Suzuki SW-1

Suzuki SW-1 was introduced in 1992, to gain the market from suit wearing hip businessmen. The retro looks that blend in any environment and modern brakes and shocks sure looked like a hit, but it was huge miss for Suzuki; its production ended in a year and never got exported to the US.

It is equipped with Single cylinder, SOHC 249cc motor and 20 ps/8000rpm. Should get 60-70 mpg.

Rikuo Type-97 and back history

By the early 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was determined to stop importing machines and parts, especially in strategic or defense-related industries. The IJA aimed to sponsor or help found companies that could do the same job domestically, so the army approached a drug-manufacturing company in Tokyo called Sankyo Seiyaku. (They're still in business today, making cold remedies and so on.) Sankyo was "asked" to manage a new motorcycle business. When the military asked for help back then, few companies were in a position to refuse.

The IJA was already happy with Harley's 1200 cc flathead bike, which it had been using for many years, so in 1932 Sankyo sent representatives to Milwaukee and arranged to purchase the entire 1200 cc factory. Times were lean in the U.S. then, and Harley Davidson agreed to the deal.

In 1933, the factory was broken up, sent to the coast, shipped to Japan, and rebuilt at Kita-Shinagawa, Tokyo, where Sankyo still manufactures pharmaceuticals today. The money for the land, the facilities, and the wages for 100 employees was provided by the IJA, and the deal was brokered through a proxy company that the army set up in Tokyo. Several of Harley's technicians went along to help erect the plant and set up the machinery. Harley provided all the necessary tools, dies, presses, and heat-treating secrets. The licensing fee paid by Sankyo was spread out over the next four years.

Domestic production was soon underway, and the machines were sold initially as Japanese-made Harley Davidsons, with the name "Rikuo," or "Road King," given to them to make them seem more like a domestic product. The army-use versions were known as the Type-97 motorcycle. The Rikuo was so successful that in 1936 Sankyo decided to change the subsidiary company's name to Rikuo Nainenki KK (Rikuo Internal Engine Co., Inc.). In that year, Harley Davidson wanted to add their new EL "knucklehead" design to the licensing deal, but Sankyo wasn't pleased with its performance, so when it refused, the relationship basically deteriorated.

Rikuo would build the 1200cc flathead design right through the war, and five other Japanese companies would also build various versions of the Type-97 machine as well. They later added a transaxle and rear differential to drive the sidecar wheel, which was essential in the muddy terrain of Manchuria and China. I also discuss some of the other firms in detail, such as Meguro and Orient Industries (later Mazda), both of which also built the Type-97 during the war era.

Harley Davidson's decision to sell the factory to Japan in 1932, the year after Japan's invasion of Manchuria, was not seen as especially controversial then. Sankyo was a civilian firm, and the fact that the money came from the IJA was not disclosed by Sankyo. Also, the deal was brokered by a proxy company, so it wasn't direct support of Japan's military or Japan's foreign policy by Harley Davidson. The 1200cc motorcycle was sold to wealthy civilians as well as to the army, both in Japan and in Manchuria, and was used throughout the Japanese empire until 1945.

Today, Sankyo refuses to discuss the subject, but I've read their published Japanese histories, which can be found in major research university libraries. They're not proud of the episode, especially their sale of the machine in occupied areas, so they keep quiet about it. As far as research is concerned, I don't think these episodes have to be celebrated in order to be studied.

Via: Dr. A's post from Rider info.com

RZ ( RD)250LC

RZ 250 was a supersport model developed with the TZ250 as its base. (TZ250 was a pure racing machine that Yamaha sold to public.) During 70's, emission control was getting stricter; the fate of 2 stroke bikes were not bright at all. Yamaha decided to build last 2 stroke sport model. It immediately created a big sensation after its debut at the 1979 Tokyo Motor Show. "R" basically meant 350cc in Yamaha, but they kept it for some reason and "Z" meant water-cooled, but there also is a hint of "the Last" or "ultimate".
The bike was not available for over a year since it was introduced in various motorcycle magazines and its debut at the show, so many of potential buyers had to wait at least 3 month since ordering to actually throwing their leg over the model.
Its liquid-cooled 2-stroke, 2-cylinder engine pumped out high power equivalent to 140 hp per liter of displacement. (35 ps @8000rpm). It had 6th gear and its top speed was bit shy of 100mph.
The motor was bolted on a double cradle frame with a Mono-cross suspension, and featured latest technology at the time like a big halogen head light, newly designed lightweight cast wheels to produce unprecedented running performance.

It rode exceptionally well and often out-performed 4 stroke 400cc class. It soon obtained the nickname, "400 killer".

Export model was called RD250LC. RD was used on any 2 stroke motorcycles that Yamaha produced at the time so they kept it for easy marketing. LC is short for Liquid-Cooled.
RZ250 was extremely popular and was impossible not to mention the model when you talk about motorcycles in early 80's.

Later models came with nice Yamaha graphics and a bikini cowl as well as dual front disc.
Even today it remains a legendary model with a devoted following. Its exhaust note still makes me excited....

Asobi

Graduate thesis work of Yasutoshi Kariya, a student of Musashimo Art University

Kuratas The robot

Was unveiled at Japanese Summer Wonderfest 2012 You can own this this for about a million bucks.

1/4 wars -250cc bikes in the 80's Japan

Have you ever wondered why Japanese company started to make 250cc bunch more in the 80's? Here is the reason.

Around 1980 in Japan, 400cc bike were most popular among youngsters. There are 3 motorcycle license: small, middle, and unlimited motorcycle license. Small covers up to 125cc and middle is up to 400cc. It was quite hard to obtain unlimited MC license; majority of them failed over dozen of times and some never received the license. Needless to say, a lot of them rode 400cc motorcycles at least till they can pass the unlimited MC test. Smaller displacement bikes like 250cc class were considered as utility motorcycles, until Yamaha's RZ250's arrival and started out-performing 400cc class bikes on the street.


There are pretty strict vehicle inspection on over 250cc vehicles. The inspection cost you huge chunk of money (Like over 1000 US dollar worth of Yen just to get it done. If it needs to be fixed, that would be more, needless to say) and as your vehicle gets older, the inspection has to be performed more frequently. So for a 10 years old vehicle, you have to cough up extra money for the inspection every year, making it cheaper to buy brand new vehicle sometimes...Yep, keeping old vehicle is luxury in Japan. Or unpractical... whichever you prefer to call it. That might be one of the reasons Japanese automotive industry grew so fast.

So 250cc bikes actually being 249cc, they don't have to go through the inspection. Making it way cheaper to maintain. And if its performance was equivalent of 400cc class and being able to get on highway with it, which one would you choose?

In the way, the RZ 250 was as sensational as CB750 in 60's.

RZ250 forced other Japanese companies to build their own sporty 250cc models. Honda made VT250(4 stroke motor , the Honda thing),
Suzuki put out even more sporty RG250 (it was basically a racer replica) and Kawasaki was little late on the game but kept up by releasing GPz250.

Many of them had some type of cowling, which was not allowed on street models in Japan for some reason, so the manufacturers claimed that they were "meter visors". Haha.
Each model kept adding sporty features, VT250 had the first hydraulic clutch lever and RG even had twin disc brakes on front and its tachometer reading started from 3000rpm, just like a racer.

The whole 250cc war was called quarter boom. And pushed the limit of 250cc models.

Cone Custom Cycles

 Cone custom cycles, a Japanese custom motorcycle shop that specializes in Honda scooters and mini bikes-mainly Super Cubs.

My favorite is the Monkey-Davidson.
They used genuine Harley headlight and its visor, put twin megaphone muffler ( the lower one is a dummy) to emulate the XR750 look.

The other one I like is dragon fly, which is somewhat of a tribute to early American motorcycle.

Female Gymkhara Rider

Top female Gymkhana rider Momoko Tsukihara on her ZRX1200R

Paper Craft bike

This is a bit of an old news but it worth mentioning again. I originally wrote about this at other site I was contributing.

As a part of advertisement, Yamaha has paper craft of their popular motorcycle models such as YZF-R 1, VMax, SR400 and so on. The most detailed one is MT01 , which is one of the biggest V-twin motorcycles available (1670cc) . I don't think it is sold in the US.


The paper crafts are all meticulously designed by a Japanese designer, Nobutaka Mukouyama. If you have a lot of time to spare, you should print them out and built one. That will be good hobby for you and your kids if you have any. By the way, the page also have bunch of animals like Panda, Orang-utan, Lion and all so if your kids have no interest on bike, they can still have fun. Kids who do not have fun building stuff with their hands are sad kids. If you do not have kids to build them together, you can pretend you are a kid. I do not recommend luring kids from your neighborhood with candies to build the paper craft in your basement together.

This is the page you can download the paper craft for FREE though you have to have paper (preferably thick kind) and ink in your printer. Enjoy!! Realistic Paper craft/YAMAHA

Addition.: You know if you got a printable realistic paper craft, then you realize that you can build a bigger one by simply print them up enlarged.  This Australian guy, named Jack Chen did just that.  It is not 1/1 scale, but he managed to make it about 60%,  made of card board. Pretty neat huh?

 Jack Chen's original site

Nissan Clipper Van

Nissan Clipper Van is a light weight vehicle in Japan. You see, over there, there are smaller class vehicles, under 660cc, yet cranks about 64 hp, which is enough for city driving. Called Kei cars. Many of those light weight van over there have wheel chair accessible version. It is basically a  2 seater van with an electric ramp. According to some sources, many of dog lovers purchase those for injured or elderly dogs, who are having hard time to hop in a car. Also if you are a motorcycle enthusiast, you can easily load a bike in there.  There are already belts to secure your bike.
  Those wheel chair accessible version comes with higher roof (of course) and get taxed a lot less than the normal version. So kinda stupid not to get those especially you love animals and motorcycles.

Iseki Pet50

Iseki is a Japanese farming machinery manufacturer that established in 20's. However they had produced motorcycles when Honda Cub's popularity was booming. It is pretty much a copy of Honda Cub. 50cc air-cooled single cylinder, 4.2 hp.  It is called Iseki Pet50 and came out in 1961. It is approved by Japan Agricultural cooperative, just like any other farming machinery in Japan.

Riding Abandoned national highway No. 222 in Japan

Sorry about the BGM. I never understand those music.

Caturday

Grandma and a cat     Photo sets by Miyoko Ihara