Honda's engineers have tested ideas in Wako for decades; the company's research and development arm grew up here, and the name still turns up on buildings around town. So does RIKEN, Japan's largest research institute, whose headquarters and laboratories occupy a large campus in the city. For a rider ending a long weekend, there is a pleasing symmetry in finishing a ride where so many motorcycles were born on drawing boards.
Wako lies on the north-western edge of Tokyo, just across the boundary in Saitama, where the Arakawa river and the big expressways meet. It is a residential city of apartment blocks, schools and parks, with a small-town feel despite its size. The Arakawa riverbanks, broad and grassy, are popular with joggers, cyclists and baseball teams, and on a clear day you can see Mount Fuji from the levee.
Coming back from the north, the Kan-Etsu expressway and the Gaikan ring road deliver you to Wako, and the final stretch is a short ride through local streets. Traffic can be heavy, especially on Sunday evenings, when the expressways fill with people returning from weekends in the mountains.
Around the station, counters serve ramen, curry and set meals until late, and that is the right way to close a weekend that began on the Bandai Azuma Skyline: elbows on the counter, helmet on the next stool, steam on your glasses.