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.

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.

From the other green island, thanks for sharing, Ron.

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.

The riders in the Isle of Man TT are practising this week

Saw the great Bill Ivy race at the first (and only ) Canadian GP in 1967. He had won the NI 200-miler earlier that year. At Mosport in Ontario, he had a 125 cc Yamaha, and broke the existing lap record on his first lap. (It had been set by a Toronto rider on a 500 Manx Norton.)  His 12-spd Yamaha made a colossal row at 16,000 RPM on the back straight.  He also raced a Yamaha V-4 against Hailwood's 250 Honda 6 in the 250cc race.  The two of them could've been covered with a blanket for 8 laps, when Ivy's engine seized. (It was a cold Saturday in late September, and the Yamaha's motor probably wasn't used to such things.)  The Honda at 20,000-plus and the Yamaha 4 at 16,000 made an unforgettable scream.

The 500 race featured Hailwood on Honda's 500 four, and Agostini on the MV triple. Hailwood won--Ago had only to finish in the top 3 to win the championship.  I watched the race from the outside of the hairpin. Hailwood used all of the track to get through--the 85 bhp Honda was barely controllable. Ago was much tidier--he was giving away 15 bhp.  The only rider to stay on the same lap, about 30 seconds behind, was the Canadian Mike Duff, a former factory rider for Yamaha but riding that day as a privateer on a Matchless G50.  (The Matchy was about 30 bhp down on the Honda.)  Duff was the smoothest of them all.

That race was Hailwood's last FIM race, and Duff's last as a professional rider. I met Duff in 1990: he had transitioned to Michelle Duff, and was speaking in Ottawa about that change, and his history with AJS 7Rs and G50s in the early 1960s, before he signed with Yamaha.  She signed a b-&-w photo of her former self on the Matchless, which I'd taken during that race.

I watched part of the pre-race goings-on from the roof of the pits. (Imagine doing that today!)  One of the 500 bikes was a single-cyclinder Vincent Grey Flash -- I never knew there was such a thing.

Grand times.