JNCC Blog: Days 1 and 2

Posted by Jason Hooper on Friday, October 31, 2008

 Comment (0)   Email Print

 

2

1 of 4

 

Checking out the food offerings at the Aeon Shopping mall.

 

It's 7:20am here in Sendai, Japan and we're about to head down for breakfast so this first blog post of my trip may be cut a little short. Anyway, a little background as to why I'm here in Japan: Every year the JNCC promoter, Masami Hashino, invites over a couple of the top GNCC stars to race their final round of the season. This year he invited GNCC pros Nate Kanney of the Red Bull/KTM factory team and Thad DuVall of the AmPro Yamaha factory team. I got to come along to blog/shoot photos/shoot video/write a Racer X Feature along with Nate's man-friend Jerry Bernardo, Thad's dad Chad DuVall and my girlfriend Krista Shaw who all came to hang out and support their rider/journalist.

The DuValls, my girlfriend and myself all flew out of Pittsburgh on the 29th (Wednesday) and had a quick layover in Washington, DC at Dulles International Airport before the long 14-hour flight to Tokyo. Kanney and Bernardo would be meeting us the following evening at the Tokyo airport to catch a connecting flight to Sendai, which is close to the race track. This meant that we (DuValls, Krista, me) would get an extra night and part of a day in Japan to do a little sight seeing. The flight here was pretty uneventful, just incredibly long. I had never flown longer than 10 hours, Krista, Thad, and Chad had never flown out of the country so it was their longest flight as well. One valuable lesson I learned was that row 21 on a Boeing 777 has an insane amount of legroom for not being an exit row. So, if you're booking a long flight, snag that seat early! Being able to stretch your legs on a 14-hour flight is damn nice.

2

1 of 5

 

Lots of goggle options at the local snowboard shop

 

We made our way through customs with no problems and took a shuttle bus back to our hotel, the Narita Tokyo Hilton. It was only 6:00pm but we were all really out of sorts from the flight so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat then call it a night. Thad had a $21 (2100 yen) hamburger and I had a $18 bowl of soup and two $10 Asahi beers. Apparently food isn't cheap in Japan!

After a quick hot shower I was asleep about as quickly as my head hit the pillow. Unfortunately I woke up around 2am (1 PM EST) and couldn't get back to sleep. The TV got one English channel so I watched a marathon of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on Discovery Channel until the sun came up and we enjoyed a $40 buffet breakfast. Carrie Jo is going to hate me when she gets my expense report!

With quite a few hours before we had to head to the airport for our flight to Sendai, we decided to check out a local shopping mall that had a shuttle from our airport. I'm running short on time here so I'll try and include some pictures to give you an idea, but the fashion here is pretty wild to say the least. Not only are the styles wild, there are so many different options. We went into a shoe store that honestly must've had 600 different styles of shoes all jammed into this tiny store.

For lunch we hit up a McDonald's thinking that it would possibly be our last "real" meal before heading out to the more rural area of Sendai. The food was decent, but definitely didn't taste like an American Mickey-D's. After a pretty wild cab ride back to the hotel we were waiting to board our flight and had met up with Nate Kanney and Jerry Bernardo at the gate.

Okay, it's time for breakfast then a 20-minute drive to the Sugo track (home of a MX GP) for a practice day. I'll give another update this evening when we get back!

 

 

Posted by Jason Hooper on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 7:32 pm

 Comment (0)   Email Print

 

 

RECENT COMMENTS

 

ALL COMMENTS

 

In order to post comments you must be logged in. Log in HERE or create an account HERE

• 2009(30)0
• November(1)0
• Thinking of Sgt. David Cho
• October(2)0
• Bercy Blog: Day 1
• We Are All Americans
• September(3)0
• The Racer X FFL: Week 1!
• The Racer X FFL: Week 2
• The RX Office: Where Work Goes to Die
• August(2)0
• Mud's Creek
• What Was Travis Thinking?
• June(5)0
• Luke Burkhart Back on the Bike
• Matthes Travels
• Matthes' Road Trip To Berlin
• Matthes' Second Day in Germany
• The Matthes of Venice
• May(2)0
• Daniel Blair's Season Review
• The Weege is Wrong!
• April(4)0
• Bowyer's Seattle Blog
• My Racer X Gas Card Experience
• The Racer X Gas Card Experience
• The Scoreboard and the Wildcards
• March(4)0
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure: Day 2
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure: Day 3
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure: The End
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Florida Adventure: Day 1
• February(2)0
• The Dark Days of The Dog
• The Wisdom of the Weege
• January(5)0
• BBMX On The Information Superhighway
• Blair's Houston Race Report
• Jacob Saylor's Houston Report
• Maddison Triumphs at the Triomphe!
• WWHHD?
• 2008(87)0
• December(10)0
• 22 and Counting: Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki Rolls Towards Anaheim
• East or West?
• Favorite Riders
• Foust In, Pastrana Out for Race of Champions
• HHR Mini Olympics 2008
• My First Motocross Race
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 13
• Racer X FFL Results-It's Over!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 12!
• Rattray Coming to America!
• November(12)0
• Even More Items Added to the eBay Auction for Blair Morgan
• JNCC Blog: Day 3--Practice!
• JNCC Blog: Race Day!
• Metal Mulisha Blog
• Only Two Days Left in Blair Morgan Auction!
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 11
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 10!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 9!
• Racer X FFL Results: Week 10!
• Swiss Supercross Update
• The World Vets
• Third and Final Wave of Stuff for Blair Morgan Recovery Released
• October(22)0
• Another Energy Crisis - by DC
• Blair Morgan eBay Auction Update
• Doublin Gap: Day 1
• Evil Knievel?
• Ferry on KROC
• Getting Even and Getting Odd
• Grant-tastic?
• High Point
• High Voltage: Reed and Moss Jolt Super X Australasia
• It's a Major Step for RC, and We Can All Watch it Live
• JNCC Blog: Days 1 and 2
• Larry Hughes Flashback
• Missing McFarlane
• Racer X FFL Results, Week 8
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 5!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 6!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 7!
• The Big Picture at the Australian Grand Prix
• Top Gun Showdown
• Top Gun Showdown: Day 1
• Top Gun Showdown: Day 2
• Who's Going to Win?
• September(43)0
• "Blogservations" After the First MX1/MX2 moto
• "Blogservations" after the MX1/MX3 moto
• "Blogservations" after the MX2/MX3 Moto
• "Blogservations" From MXDN
• "Blogservations" From MXDN - Saturday Morning
• "Blogservations" from MXDN - Sunday Morning
• A Parade In Sweden?
• A Steel City Saturday
• Blah, blah, blog...
• Blair...
• Brothers in Arms
• Durham Signs?
• English Vacation
• Goodfellas: Italy and World Championship Motocross
• Is There a Wey?
• Jacob Saylor's GP Experience
• James Stewart in New York Times
• Looking for MXoN Info?
• Matthes on Throttle Jockey TV
• Memories of DV and Swedish SX Results
• Mike Alessi Update
• Motocross of Nations
• Must See: Rick James Stewart
• MXoN Road Trip: Day 2
• MXoN Road Trip: We're here!
• New Poll! Check it out!
• Poll: Class Names for 2009 MX
• Racer X Fantasy Football League - Week 1 Results
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 2!
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 3!
• Racer X FFL Results- Week 4!
• Remembering RC vs. K-Dub
• Road Racer X at the Indy Moto GP
• Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open Tracks
• Saturday's MXoN Blog
• Silly Season-of-the-Century
• Stewart's MXoN Goggles
• The Racer X Google Calendar
• Welcome to the Racer X Staff Blog
• Well I’m Not a Doctor, But I Do Race Motocross
• What Will Pro Circuit Do?
• What's MDK/KTM Going to Do?
• What's Yamaha Going to Do?

• Racer X Staff Blog
• Blogandt
• DMXS Radio
• Sarah Smile
• Road Racer X
• Solitaire
• Whipped