TOKYO // It must have been a wild ride. Japanese media say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle lost in last year's tsunami has washed up on a Canadian island about 6,400 kilometres away.
The rusted bike was found in a large white container where its owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, had kept it. He was located through the licence plate number, Fuji TV reported yesterday.
"This is unmistakably mine. It's miraculous," Mr Yokoyama said when shown photos of the motorcycle.
Mr Yokoyama lost three members of his family in the March 11, 2011, tsunami, and is now living in temporary housing in Miyagi prefecture.
The motorcycle is among the first items lost in the tsunami to reach the west coast of North America. In March, an Alaska man found a football and later a volleyball from Japan; their owners were located last week using names that had been inscribed on the balls.
Peter Mark, the Canadian who found the bike and its container, told Fuji TV that he "couldn't believe that something like that would make it across the Pacific". The report said he found it on April 18 on Graham Island, off the coast of British Columbia.
The motorcycle was caked with "a lot of corrosion, a lot of rust," said Mr Mark.
When he saw the Japanese licence plate, Mark wondered if it might have drifted from Japan after the tsunami, and contacted a local TV station.
The Fuji report said the motorcycle would be shipped back to Japan, and that the shop that sold it to Yokoyama would help with paperwork and storage.