Harley to restore a motorcycle the Japanese tsunami washed to Canada
Ikuo Yokoyama lost the entire town he lived in, his home, and three of his family members in the Japanese tsunami a year ago. His beloved Harley was also washed away to sea. Canadian Peter Mark was casually searching through some rubble on a beach in British Columbia when he found the bike, and he went back to retrieve it the day before yesterday. It seems to have floated all the way across the ocean (3000 miles!) in the detached cube storage container of a Japanese van.
Mark did an interview with CBC, and explained that he found the bike while riding his ATV, said “you never know what you’re going to stumble upon when you go for a drive. Lo and behold you just come across something that’s out of this world.”
“I gotta say, the first thing that popped into my mind when I was looking at the scene [was] I really wonder what happened to this person. I really hope this person is OK,” Mark told CBC. “It’s quite a shock to actually see it and to actually walk into it. … [It's] quite an eerie feeling, knowing what happened to Japan and to those people. It kind of hits home quite a bit.”
Harley heard about the story, and used the VIN to identify the owner—Ikuo Yokoyama—and have arranged its return. They’re also planning to restore it to running condition. No word on whether they’ll go all the way or leave some “tsunami patina.”
The bike was rusty and had bounced around in the back of a van bobbing in the ocean for the past 14 months, but otherwise looked okay. Ikuo is understandably excited.
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