Just wanted to say a big hi to all the people who've been ordering from the other side of the Atlantic recently. I've now sent boxes to the UK, Netherlands, Germany and even Hungary. Most people still come here via TotalRuckus but it's good to see Zoomania spreading into other areas with sites like Bonsai-Scooter giving us the Euro angle as well. The naked scooter will rule the world soon, I'm predicting it here. Honda Australia, though, are still standing their ground against the style tsunami.

At this stage, I figure I'm just the foreign orders contact for Tokyo Parts. It's where 90%+ of my orders go anyway. Tokyo Parts are a pretty small operation and don't have the resources to (a) employ more people or (b) deal with orders in English. BowlsLA have saved me a lot of time & effort by dealing with the most-requested items, but there are still plenty of things that wouldn't be economical to import in bulk. Someday, maybe, TP will be big-time enough to have a whole department dedicated to foreign orders, but this is what we have in the meantime.

the best part about having a proxy shopping service is going shopping for gear i'd be too cheap (or broke) to actually buy for myself. i still cry a little when it comes time to ship, though; i kind of understand how surrogate mothers feel when it comes time to hand over the baby... kind of... OK yeah, i know it's nothing like that.

every so often i get a request that impresses me above & beyond the usual. here are a couple of things i've bought lately that made me feel special when i forked out the cash:



a "Bison" leather holster bag from Boat Rap. Boat Rap is a small custom shop for large bikes but one of their specialties is original leather goods. these bags are about the nicest, well designed and solidly constructed accessories out there. with a price to match. believe me, they're worth every penny... or would be, if i had that many pennies. btw, the guys at Boat Rap were surprised to hear people in the US are checking out their site. they gave me a leather keyring flashlight as a thankyou gift. it's the most stylish keychain flashlight in Tokyo.



the almighty Daytona 12" rear wheel and hub set from Tokyo Parts. yep, someone will actually own this thing of beauty soon. no-one can get a Daytona rear wheel hub these days; negotiations between the manufacturer and distributor broke down and now new ones are for the elite only. i can't stop looking at it.

aaaahhhh... nothing like the new year week in japan plus a healthy dose of freedom. out of the hospital tuesday, back on the scoot wednesday to celebrate three things:

(1) riding with full vision again (suzuki van delivery guys: yeah, i can see you coming from the left side now, you bastards)
(2) no traffic, the roads are deserted
(3) no cops. oh thank god, tokyo with no cops. scooting just got 10x more fun. i can ride over 40km/h and pull big right hand turns without fear!

damn cold, though.

... and it's starting to drive me nuts. i haven't been outdoors for a week now. i have to stop reading totalruckus everyday, this lack of riding is making me jealous!