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Silver Bullet is one of only a few Websites worldwide that receives Desiree Crossman`s newsy behind the MotoGP scene column (not always PC).
She reports on #21 John (Hopper) Hopkin`s MotoGP exploits and her own as they travel the globe.
Check out - HOPPER`S WEBSITE:
You can send your support to John - HERE:
From Japan
Hello everyone.
Yes we are here in Japan, at the Motegi circuit. We arrived here on Tuesday afternoon and met up with the team.
The past week was good. I picked up John from the airport after the Rio GP and he was in a bit of pain. So for a few days he didn\'t do anything and just relaxed. On the Monday after, we drove up to LA because we had to go to the Japanese Consulate and get John\'s visa. The consulate is in the heart of downtown LA where all the sky scrapers are at. I\'ve never been in downtown LA before but I couldn\'t handle it after so long. Anyway, we dropped it off and then drove to the LAX to pick up Gaz McCoy and his girlfriend, Gemma. They were flying in from Rio and had about a 11 hour layover before heading to Australia, so we picked them up and cruised around that day. We drove over to Jeremy Stenberg\'s house aka Twitch to have Garry meet him. Then we drove back to the consulate and picked up the visa. Once we got that out of the way, we drove them to the airport and told them we\'d see them in Japan.
John didn\'t do hardly any training until Wednesday. His foot had swollen up a bit and his calf was a bit sore as well. He also had a decent size gouge on his back side from the footpeg hitting him. It\'s not so big anymore but it wasn\'t pretty the first few days. About mid-week, he started training again. He couldn\'t run so he just cycled everywhere and lifted weights. We did get some emails from family in England saying John should consider riding bucking broncos for rodeos cause\' of his crash. I\'ve yet to see it still.
Nothing much happened during the week, except getting a few things done before we had to leave.
Sunday night before we left, we packed everything up. We\'re going to be gone for a month so I had to make sure that we had all sorts of stuff packed. We\'re going to be in some different weather conditions, so I was double checking everything. The suitcase I had was already slightly heavy without clothes, so it was really heavy when I was finished. It looks like I overpacked but I\'m not wearing a uniform like John so being a female, of course I have to make sure I have enough.
Monday morning we were walking to the check-in counter and we had to go up the escalator. My suitcase fell down and I tried to catch it but I ended up going down with it, so YES my &^% was sticking up in the air backwards. It was funny, but I couldn\'t pick it up, John had to pick it up for me. Anyway, we checked in and waited until our flight to San Jose. While we were waiting, we saw a friend of ours from highschool who works for KTM waiting for his flight. Not like it was a big deal but it was just a coincidence to see him at the airport that early in the morning.
We flew to San Jose, waited for our flight and then headed onto Tokyo. We arrived at 4pm and waited for the team. It\'s cool cause\' there is a Starbucks\' at Tokyo Narita so of course I went and had a coffee. They finally arrived and we all boarded the bus to Mito city. It takes about 2 hours and we had to drop off the team there cause\' we\'re staying at the track hotel which I call the mental facility. It\'s a big yellow brick building, windows don\'t open, absolutely nothing to do, nothing to watch on tv, the beds are HORRIBLE, and to top it off, there\'s a bus that takes you to and from the track which says \"Enjoy the ride\" on the side. That\'s enough to make you go crazy!!! Where the circuit is located is a nice area cause\' it\'s surrounded by nice mountainous scenery but you would think they would have a pool or gym or some shops knowing there isn\'t nothing to do. It sounds like I\'m complaining, and for the most part I am but I can bet money on it that I\'m not the only one thinking that. Some teams stay in Mito which is about a 50 minute drive from the track, but at least you can check that place out.
Anyway, so we are here now. The weather is alright, and I\'m planning on blading around the track a few times. Until then, I will write more tommorrow after the day is done. 4 weeks of traveling for us, it\'s going to be pretty fun but I\'m sure after the final race, we\'ll be a bit burnt out. I was starting to get ancy being home for 3 weeks straight, I was ready to board the plane. It\'s nice to be home, but once you\'re in a routine and it stops for a long period of time, you get kind of spacey. I did anyway.
Alright, so the intense fly aways start here, 3 weeks straight. Should be fun.
Bye, Des
