Meet Ben and Owen. They studied Japanese at college back in the states and now live,
work and ride in Tokyo.
Sometimes I feel like we shouldn't be getting this much attention, but you know, people really are
into the idea of, you know, Americans coming in on Harley-Davidson. You know, this is the real biker.
You know, it's silly, but it's a lot of fun. I mean, especially since we're always riding the two of us,
so it's kind of the easy rider thing.
The desire to be cooler and more of a badass than everyone else is not as big a deal here.
In some ways, having an interesting character is cooler than just being tough.
When the boys first arrived in Japan, they experienced serious culture shock.
I was raised in Buffalo, New York, which is a mid-sized city.
My first impression was just awe of the sheer mass of people and cars and buildings and neon everywhere.
It was just overwhelming.
They joined a motorcycle club called Splenda and found real soulmates in the ranks.
They took us in almost immediately and I think the whole biker subculture here has just a huge group of people
that are far more interesting and far more easy to get along with than mainstream Japanese people.
They seem to have embraced the freedom of American culture along with their motorcycles without giving up
the richness of their own Japanese culture, which just makes them a great group to hang out with.
At weekends, the Splenda club can be found escorting newlyweds around Tokyo
or on the water, dragon boat racing.
We often, when we're speaking English to each other, mistakenly use the word freeway,
but there is nothing free about it. It's ridiculously expensive for one thing
and for another thing, it's very seldom clear.
But there are certainly some areas on that road that are really wonderful to ride over,
especially the rainbow bridge that we cross tonight.
That's just breathtaking every time you do it.
It doesn't matter how many times you cross that thing.
It's always beautiful. It's almost otherworldly.
Ben is the only guy I know who has to shop for motorcycles like he shops for clothes.
He has to make sure it fits his body first before he can ride it.
Ben is well over six foot and towers above the natives.
He's had to modify his bike accordingly.
Obviously, I've got these to work with, so I had to move the steps out an extra four inches,
just in order to be able to shift comfortably.
And then I put the eight bars on because I want to be able to put my arms in a normal comfortable position.
It turns out that my head is extremely large and I can't buy helmets here
because Japanese heads are generally rounder.
It just happens to be one of those basic problems that comes from being from a different gene pool.
You just really feel alive when you're traveling by motorcycle.
More than any other experience that's free, that's legal.
It's better than any drug I've tried so far.
