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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by Moronic on Today at 04:05:58 pm »
Thanks for the post. Sounds fascinating. How much motor traffic did you meet on those roads, and how courteous were the drivers? Your comment about the 30km of no-car bliss suggests there were enough cars elsewhere to get your attention.

It's easy to imagine the bliss though, whether or not things got sketchy in other parts.

Interesting on making yourself understood. On my one Japan visit, a brief work-related trip 30 years ago, I met a Japanese couple on my flight home who wanted to practise their English but said they could read and write the language quite well, since like most Japanese they had learned it in school.

I didn't get to test that, and had found it easy to order food and the like where I was staying in Tokyo, but I wondered afterwards whether resorting to writing might help sometimes when travelling.
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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by Andyb1 on Today at 09:08:18 am »
Thanks for the reply Ron.
Google translate - I had not thought of that - a very useful tool, although on the rare occasions I have used it I have tried to be careful to speak using simple words as there is a lot of ambiguity in the English language.  As you say, wherever you go it is sensible to learn a few basic sentences in the local language - rather than playing the role of a Colonial English Officer abroad.
And once you gain a toehold in a country it does allow you to explore other areas on future trips (I don’t know how Google translate would cope with that sentence!).

AndB1
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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by RonS on May 30, 2024, 11:25:55 pm »
A silly question, do you speak Japanese?
Hi, Andy

That’s not a silly question at all. Feel free to ask as many as you need.

 My Japanese proficiency is very limited. I have learned enough to tell people about myself and about my trip, where I’m going and where I’m from. Simple things. I can ask directions, although I don’t always understand the answer. I can order food and ferry tickets  My grammar is probably painful for people to hear, but I usually get my point across. When that failed, there was Google translate.

Or do enough people in Japan speak English?

The level of English speakers in Japan varied. Usually in the larger cities that have a  tourist base most people in the service industry either could speak a little bit of English, or were very familiar with using Google translate.  In the hinterlands the amount of English dropped to almost zero. Again, store staff were comfortable with Translate apps.  The only time there was a real communication problem, though, would be with the older folks that wanted to talk to me, who could not speak any English and were also uncomfortable with talking to a phone to use Google translate.
Many restaurants have picture menus and english menus, and you can just point to what you want. When there was neither, I would use the phone to translate, then order in Japanese. A lot of restaurants have a menu board and a ticket machine to order. i would usually just ask the person beside me in line which button corresponded to the picture. Everyone was always happy to assist.

I would say anyone who learns a few basic phrases like good morning, please, thank you, and most importantly, I'm sorry I don't speak/read Japanese, do you speak English? will not have any problem

Did you have prior knowledge about your route or was it all new to you?
Two of the places I visited, Aso and Goto,  as well as Fukuoka, where I started and ended the trip, I had been to last September. The rest of it was all new to me. I had sketched out a rough route, using Google and Komoot, before I left.

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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by Andyb1 on May 30, 2024, 09:43:40 pm »
A silly question, do you speak Japanese?
Or do enough people in Japan speak English?

Looks a great ride.  Did you have prior knowledge about your route or was it all new to you?

AndyB1
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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by RonS on May 30, 2024, 09:39:38 pm »
That "other green isle" is on my list of future rides. I know where to go for advice!

 To the trip!

After a 22hr layover in Seoul, where I had booked an airport hotel to sleep, and a full day in Fukuoka to buy the things on the no fly list and get used to the 8hr time difference, I was off.

Starting my ride in Fukuoka, the first week saw me ending just north of Miyazaki, by way of Aso, Takachihio Gorge, and Nobeoka.
I travelled open valleys and forests, coastal roads and mountains, and crossed the 2nd biggest volcanic caldera in Japan (the biggest is a lake). I had bright sun and the worst rain of the trip.

 Oh, right. And a magnitude 6.4 earthquake.

1 Clear of the urban sprawl of Fukuoka on day one. Yes, I had to go over those mountains.

2  Nabegataki waterfall near Oguni. At 9m high and 20 across it’s no Niagara, but the rock has been carved out over the millennia making it possible to walk behind the falls.

3  Grinding up and out of the Aso volcanic caldera. The scorched earth is not the result of wildfire, but Noyaki, controlled burning every spring to keep trees from overtaking the grassland. It has been practised in this area for 1000 years. By the end of April the hillside is green once again.

4  Leaving Takachihio Gorge. Thanks to a new highway, far up the hillside, and a washout that blocked the road for cars but not bikes, I followed the Gokase River for 30km without seeing a single car. Riding bliss.
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Bikes For Sale / Re: Thorn Raven Tour 21” frame for sale
« Last post by nigeldryden on May 30, 2024, 06:41:04 am »
Frame size is 587s
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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by Andre Jute on May 30, 2024, 06:13:06 am »
From the other green island, thanks for sharing, Ron.
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Non-Thorn Related / Re: +++Rides of 2024+++Add yours here+++
« Last post by Andre Jute on May 30, 2024, 06:06:05 am »
I watched part of the pre-race goings-on from the roof of the pits. (Imagine doing that today!)

What a charmed life you led, John.

Today the Mounty sniper on the tower will shoot you on principle before you can commit a terror attack. The security services are paranoid about overlooks and other heights. We used to be a lot freer in the last century.

Hey, Mike, your omelette-scarfing at the Royal in Durban reminds me of the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne in the early 1970s. The first reporter to interview me when I settled in Melbourne introduced me to their omelettes; they were served in only one of the restaurants, so you had to know where to go. But what impressed me even more than the omelette was that the weekend chef could make an outstanding split pea soup. I was disappointed when I discovered he too was a South African, as I had hopes of split pea soup being an Australian specialty -- nothing warms you through faster after a cold winter ride. The swill that you could get when the pubs emptied on Spring Street from a man with a cart, which had a meat pie in the so-called pea soup and was called "a floater", was "a national and international disgrace" according to Bruce Cavalier (you might remember him as the cartoonist Cav); I didn't try it twice for fear of becoming a floater myself. Buzz, the resident wit of our circle said, "The floater is an Oz manhood passage: if you hurl a duke, you lose."
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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by RonS on May 29, 2024, 06:14:52 pm »
Is that a bicycle registration plate?
Japanese bicycles need to be registered, but foreign visitors are exempt.
It's just a sign I made up (the same one as last trip, with the year changed) that says "Japan 2024" on the left and the right side said "day number XX' that I would fill in with a whiteboard marker in the morning. At the bottom I added "Hello. I'm Ron"
Interestingly, after having this on the bike for two trips totalling 11 weeks in length, and having talked to hundreds of people, on the last week, someone i was talking with looked at the sign and said "You spelled your name wrong". And he was right! In all my interactions, no one had mentioned it. I think most Japanese are too polite to point out such a thing.

soooo green!!

I don't think that Japan has a large problem with wildfires because the hottest part of the year is also the wettest. And when it rains, it really rains. There were two mornings when the weather app was showing expected rainfall of 20mm per hour. Luckily all I had to do was hole up in a warm restaurant for a few hours and wait for it to pass.
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Cycle Tours / Re: Kyushu, Japan
« Last post by John Saxby on May 29, 2024, 02:57:17 pm »
Wonderful, Ron -- soooo green!!
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