Trevor Bollinger’s JNCC Trip – Day One

After months of counting down the days until we leave for the Japan National Cross Country (JNCC) race, the time has finally arrived and before I knew it I was on the 4:30 a.m. shuttle to the Pittsburgh airport. As if that wasn’t early enough, somehow I managed to check in and go through security in a total of 15 minutes, yes 15 minutes. With that being said, that means I had a very boring two hours in what I believe was the most uncomfortable terminal chairs ever.

Trevor and his mechanic, Eric Siraton, flew from Charlotte and we all met in Chicago to board our plane to Narita Airport. Japan is approximately 13 hours ahead of the US Eastern Standard Time so we arrived on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

When we went through customs we also had to undergo a health check where they took a photo of our face and the system could check to see if we had a fever, therefor signifying some sort of sickness. In Japanese culture if you start feeling sick, you wear a mask in order to help prevent others from getting sick. I find that particularly interesting, because I have heard other reasons for their masks.

Our bags came down the baggage claim as soon as we got there so we grabbed them and connected with Hide who is originally from Japan, but now works for Honda in California. As soon as we walked out the door we were warmly greeted by Yoshi and Takeshi’s wife (Ayako) and daughter. A quick exchange of currency and we were out in the parking lot. 

The drive to our first hotel was scheduled to be about 45 minutes, but ended up being longer because of the holiday traffic. Japan was celebrating their constitution so the schools and most businesses were closed.

Once we arrived at the Mitsui Garden Hotel and checked in we headed across the street to the mall for dinner. There were plenty of places to eat at, but we decided on Hana Akari. In Japan you push a button to alert the wait staff that you are ready to place your order, once they come and write down you order it doesn’t take long at all to get your food!

After eating we walked around the mall and visited some specialty Japanese stores before heading back to the hotel to get some rest! That concludes our first day here in Japan, tomorrow we will be heading to Nagano to the test track where Trevor will ride the brand-new Honda CRF 450 RX.