Hi,

I'm thinking about a trip from north-east asia back to europe, starting in May 2018.
Ideally I would buy a small bike in Japan (or South Korea, or Russia) and ride it through Russia, Mongolia, Kasachstan, the other stans, Iran Armenia, Georgia, Russia back to Europe (Germany).

Starting to plan I do have some questions I hope you can help me with:

a) Can I legally buy and register a bike in Japan / South Korea / Russia as a non-resident? (Geman Citizen)

b) Can I ride the bike through the countries mentioned?

c) If not: Can I do the trip the other way round: Buy in Germany, ride to Japan? In which country can I leave my bike after the trip? I assume that it will not be worth shipping the bike back to Germany…

Thank you in advance, and I'm sure that I will be back with more questions once I have advanced planning.

Niklas

Riding from Ger to JPN is no problem, I did it 2015.
Although it wasn´t easy, but doable. Riding in Japan ist gorgeous.
If you want to socialize, contact the Gajinriders.
Buying in Japan is easy, Red Baron ist the biggest dealer, they can provide any bike, but registering is not possible, unless you are a resident (which is also almost impossible). Entering South Korea on an alien bike is almost impossible unless you are US citizen and entering with a US registered bike.
Leaving the bike will cost you the customs fees and the taxes, in most countries, so not advicable.
I shipped my bike from Japan to Bremerhaven for 1290€, and it was easy, the only thing which was easy in Japan, but the company was german and had a branch in Tokyo/Ginza.
No more harbor, shipping storage or other fees, all incuded. Thats very rare in the shipping business.
My suggestion would be: ship the bike from Ulaan Bator via Oasis, and fly to Japan and rent/buy a bike there. You have to have your international drivers licence translated by the JAF (jap. ADAC). DBS Ferries has an awesome service. I had a luxury car with driver from them for 70€ to get my drivers license translated which was another 30€.
And you`re free to ride up to 6 months in Japan.
Riding is awesome there. I visited Kyushu, Honshu of course and Hokkaido. But I wouldnt go there on my own bike again. The Jibaiseki (?), the insurance for injuries of third party is mandatory, but its hard to get it, as it is not totally legal for germans to get one. Contact me if you need one, I know a place where its easy to buy one, if you ride without one and get stopped by the police, youre screwed, as it is the first thing the cops ask about.
And don´t carry any knives or other weapons, they freak out about that.
Keep it with your camping gear.f you want to do it anyway, contact Yuri in Vladivostok, its about 1000$ for you and the bike to go to Japan, and another 100 or so for the JAF and landing.Yuri is professional and does a good Job, although some destinations can get very expensive. My friend shipped to Vancouver, and it was crazy expensive as the shipping company charged more...step by step, as reported here in many cases. But this wasn´t Yuris fault. So my advice would be: not on my own bike, and not with a rented car.
Max speed is 60, often 40 km/h, and the highway is really expensive. The most expensive was 1,50€ for a stretch of 180m.
On a bike the roads are big enough and you can ride vey safe, with a car it is a drag.

Sorry for my late reply, I was busy reading your blog… ;-)
Thank you for the answers you provided!

Reading your post, buying and registering in Japan or Russia seems to be out. Also leaving a bike there seems to be too costly/difficult.
So I do have two options:

Ship DE->JPN/RUS, Ride back
Ride DE->JPN/RUS, Ship back

Do you have any suggestions about the direction of travel?
I would like to ride the transsiberian railway one way and spend a few days in Beijng and HongKong before/after my trip.

Riding back seems to be attractive as I would have all the pre-booked stuff (shipping, planes, transsib) in the beginning and will thus be more flexible about riding and taking breaks.


Which route did you take through Mongolia? I read that the north route seems to be quite difficult on a heavy bike such as the one you were riding.

If I read it correctly, you took the ferry from Vladivostok to Hiroshima. Is that a RoRo Ferry or did you have to pack your bike?
There is a ferry from Russia mainland to Sacchalin and there is (or at least was) a ferry from Sacchalin to Hokkaido. I will do some further research on that, but I would assume that that could be the cheaper option.

Greetings from Karlsruhe Oststadt ;-)

I'm planning to drive from GER to Japan in September 2018 and leaving my car there.

Tatiana from DBS Ferry wrote me an email, saying it would be around 20% import duty of the current value of the car.
I just asked in another thread, if anyone has done anything similar, like entering without a carnet and leaving the vehicle there

Just some random thoughts...

If you start out from Europe, you will have the progression of Home >>> Far Away, with the sense of achieving a magnificent destination. The other way around, you will have culture shock followed by slowly coming back to boring old reality... So ride to the end of the world, don't ride to your house!

Looking at a map, if you are doing Europe>Russia>Kazakhstan>Mongolia, you would come back into Russia around Irkutsk, from where you can ship your bike back (maybe even on the train to St Petersburg, where it will be easy to pick it up later and take it across the border, maybe go to Finland-Norway while you are at it). You can take a passenger train to Beijing from either Irkutsk or Ulaanbaatar, from there a train to Hong Kong is pretty straightforward. Or you can ride to Vladivostok, send the bike to Germany, and hop on a quick direct flight to Beijing...

With buying a bike in Japan, beyond anything else, remember that you will have to do the paperwork to get it through customs and registration back home.

The ferry from Sakhalin to Hokkaido is now only passengers. No vehicles.
The only options are from Vladivostok to Sakaiminato or from Korea.

For Japan, you will need a carnet unless you (say that you will) both enter AND exit by ferry (even then, there is no guarantee customs will let your vehicle in without a carnet).

Please don't enter with a temporary import and abandon/sell the bike in Japan.
That is the reason customs in Wakkanai stopped doing temporary import without carnets before the RO-RO ferry stopped service.
If it becomes a regular phenomenon, they will stop accepting temporary imports without carnet for everybody.

An option is to ride from Europe to Vladivostok and send your bike home from there. Then take a plane to Japan and rent/borrow a bike in Japan for a couple weeks. In total, it could be less money than bringing your bike to Japan.

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Japan touring information

Thank you, for your advice!

Chris, you mentioned that it could be cheaper to ship from Vladivostok and Rent a bike in Japan. As it is quite hard to get reliable information on this, do you have sources or could you give me a rough estimate of prices:

a) Shipping a bike from Vladivostok to Germany
b) Shipping a bike from Vladivostok to Japan
c) Shipping a bike from Japan to Germany
d) Renting a bike in Japan for 3 Weeks

Also, will it be shipped with a ship (taking multiple weeks), or will it be transported by air? I'm asking because if my bike flies to Germany, it will arrive before I do and I cannot pick it up because I might still be in China…

Regarding shipping from Vlad to Europe, contact Yuri and Links, Ltd.
He is the "go to" guy for shipping there.
Vlad to Japan is by DBS Cruise Line ferry.
For shipping costs, see the shipping page on this website. Shipments by Travellers | Horizons Unlimited
Rental, https://www.rental819.com/english
https://japanbikerentals.com

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Japan touring information