Shanghai and Tokyo trip.

[Kiwifruit]

Suzuki Motor Museum.
This is the bike ridden by Ernst Degner with which he won the world title.

[Kiwifruit]

Been getting over a bad cold or is it Bird Flu ?? Damn aircraft aircon l guess. Will put some more pics up soon. Didnt know it but Suzuki started out making weaving looms.

[Kiwifruit]

A bit about our trip.
China was never a place I thought I would visit. I dislike many of their traits as I see them when viewed from within New Zealand. Our country has a free trade agreement with China that I believe to be very one sided. It was with some trepidation that I booked our visit her to see her son Daniel who has lived in Shanghai for the last three years teaching English.
He booked an apartment for us to stay in until he finished work a few days later. Culture shock city..... we were down a back alley in an older area. We passed people cooking in doorways, there were scooters everywhere, there were people everywhere. We just flopped in to bed. 

We were going to the Automechanica Show at the Expo Centre the next day, it was about 45 mins away by the Metro (subway). Daniel was working but gave us instructions and so we set off. Get on the train, change here to that line and so on. We got to the show and the Metro is in the Expo facility. Security is tight, thought better of taking a photo of the bomb dog. Scanners for bags, arches for you, stand still arms out while they run a wand over you, the whole 9 yards. Why does everyone have dark hair, we look like beacons.
This place is massive !!

[Kiwifruit]

This is where we stayed for 5 nights in Shanghai. Turn left at end of second photo into lane, our door is the last open door on the left.
Third photo is standing on our.....deck 

[Kiwifruit]

Some of the crazy contraptions..........
You think you have handling problems Chop ? We saw it ride past !!

Had my eye on the 4 pots in the last photo, was thinking the Ohlins on the back might need a reco. This is the fully optioned dual side stand model..........built to deliver !!
I may make fun of it but they really carry some stuff......While ridden one handed and with fag in the mouth, and its raining. 
Lastly, perhaps an new screen for the 14.

[KiwiCol]

"Culture shock" is the term that comes to mind looking at those pic's.   Just so different to what we consider normal.   Your alley looks narrow & confined, but clean, the wiring is a bit of eye opener.

[Andre]

"Culture shock" is putting it mildly for me.

[Kiwifruit]

The wiring........

[VladTepes]

The wiring........

I know isn't that just the best in 3rd world places !  India had the best (worst) I've seen....

[Sweaty]

It's great to see and experience the way the rest of the world lives Col, and makes realise how good we have it over here.
I remember my first trip to Thailand, I couldn't stop taking photos of the power lines just running & hanging everywhere

[Kiwifruit]

I bought a 'thank you' card and wrote a brief note to my wife thanking her for challenging me to go to places and experience things l would never have done. The memories we have of this trip l will never forget.

SD card is away getting some photos printed from it. I took photos of some of the third world things we saw. Wiring was just one thing.

Security was another, it was every where. In Shanghai they seem to have different tiers of Police. Some, the old people really don't like. I was told they shout at them "get out of our street." I've seen Police tucked away on a chair slumped over fast asleep. There are Police directing traffic, very smartly dressed with their white gloves and whistle in the middle of chaotic intersections keeping things moving. It was actually great to watch. He stopped the whole intersection and people flooded the street and crossed....bur don't loiter or you get a blast from his whistle.
Taking photos of the security is something l didn't do and l was pleased l didn't. One evening the wife and l got lost. I had no trouble asking for directions as best l could. This particular time l asked a couple of cops to direct us to the river. Anyway this cop has me speaking into his phone which then translates into chinese. Tried a couple of times and all he got was 'riber'. Then l had the bright idea to show him a photo l'd taken earlier looking across the river. He took my phone and showed his mate. They got it straight away...... but he flicked back through my photos. I hoped he wouldn't land on the shot i'd taken of some graffiti saying "fuck Trump and Putin". I took the shot because it was the only graffiti we had seen. We took their directions and got to the river.
Daniels flatmate, who was from Christchurch told us to be aware of what we said to stangers as a quarter of the Police were plain clothed. We had a stranger stop us and ask if we could speak with them so they could practice their English. One fella mid conversation asked me what l thought of China. I'm sure the question was innocent enough but l was still careful with my answer.
For all the masses of people that we saw, we never witnessed any trouble. There was a story of a foreigner who had got into a dust up in a bar recently. The CCTV footage clearly showing he was not the one who started it. Didn't matter he didn't have any connections, the other fella did.
The bars are busy, huge numbers of foreigners gather together to get on the turps. Such a great atmosphere. One evening we were at a rooftop bar looking out across the surroundings, the lights were amazing for as far as the eye could see. Lots of Russians there, Nigerians too, the blokes selling coke and the women selling themselves. We were told they had all disappeared for about four days a while back. They normally approached  people on the street selling their whares but had been told by the local cops not to show their faces as the big cop boss was visiting. Then they were back. Apparently thats just how it runs.