Project 47 - Ride Thru Japan 🇯🇵 Interview & ADV Cannonball Rally News

🎙️ The boys crack open some craft IPAs 🍻 and dive into another wide-ranging episode of motorcycle-adjacent chaos. Aaron celebrates a fleeting #1 Amazon ranking for his book Chasing Legends, shares an update on his flooded apartment saga (spoiler: it got worse), and reveals his motorcycle has arrived safely in London, shipped for £1,500 all-in. Taylor's 16-year-old son takes second place at a Swedish battle of the bands, proving the Lawson legacy of "number two" runs deep.

Featured Interview: Adam Lewis – Ride Through Japan
The heart of this episode is a fantastic conversation with Adam Lewis, creator of the YouTube series Project 47. Born in Tennessee, raised in Australia, and a 26-year resident of Japan, Adam is solo moto-camping his way through all 47 Japanese prefectures, filming stunning rural roads, connecting with locals in fluent conversational Japanese, and telling Japan's story in a way even Japanese viewers are celebrating. He shares how his wife's cancer battle inspired a "life is now" philosophy, his upcoming six-month ride to finish the remaining 35 prefectures on a loaned Harley Pan America, and why the best of Japan is found on the forgotten mountain roads far from the tourist crowds.

Also in this episode:

• Real estate disclosure horror stories (buyer beware!)
• Sound surveillance cameras in London
• Shipping tires as checked luggage experiments
• Aaron's Ride Out: Back of the Dragon
• New rally signups for 2026 Americas & 2027 Europe
• Next episode preview: Riding gear deep-dive + AndyMan Cam's accident debrief

Adam Lewis is Ride Thru Japan

• Fundraiser Link for Project 47 https://ridethrujapan.com/support-the-ride/

Buy Adam a Coffee 

• https://buymeacoffee.com/ridethrujapan 

YouTube 

• https://www.youtube.com/@ridethrujapan

Websites

• https://ridethrujapan.com/
• www.

Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:02

Welcome to the ADV Cannonball Podcast. Where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle-related nonsense.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Season four, episode 12. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball Podcast. I am your host, Taylor Lawson, and today I am joined by the number two best-selling author of a motorcycle book in the adventure category, better known to you as Aaron Puffall. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_07 0:46

Cheers, buddy. Here we go. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Oh yeah. What are you drinking there?

SPEAKER_07 0:51

There is. That's my last one of the backcountry brewing widowmaker Hazy IPA. Cheers, bud. Thanks for having me on the show. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah, absolutely. Um, all of our viewers, and we don't have viewers, do we? We have zero viewers.

SPEAKER_07 1:08

No one wants to see this face. I have got a face for radio, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Face for radio, baby. Here we go. Um, well, I am drinking um I'm drinking a beer in IPA that's called Deep in the Bush. It's motorcycle beer. That's B-U-S-C-H. Wow.

SPEAKER_07 1:25

There was a when I read this backcountry, I was gonna make a like a broke back mountain kind of reference, but I thought we should start off on the right foot here. But hey, seeing as though you brought us into the gutter, welcome to the gutter.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Right down, right down the tears, right off the bat. There goes your clean rating.

SPEAKER_07 1:43

And this is why we have no sponsors and absolutely no monetization. But hey, welcome to the show, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Welcome to the show. There's a there this sounds like there's a sponsorship opportunity waiting to happen there.

SPEAKER_07 1:52

If you're into sheep edging, you know, and beer.

Book Update

SPEAKER_02 1:56

I was gonna talk about where we were number two this week, and then I thought it could be overplayed a bit like sheep edging. Yeah, that was hilarious. Oh my god. All right, so um, let's get right into it. I want to hear an update. Like, I saw a uh a clip from you or this week on Chasing Legends, your book. So um what tell me what you sent me? The big red arrow pointing to the bottom.

SPEAKER_07 2:22

There was this hilarious algorithm glitch, which for the first time ever, we were number one for a fleeting accidental moment in a very narrow and specific category, which was new releases in motorcycle books on Amazon. I think it was North America Marketplace. So for a brief moment, we were number one. So I immediately took a screenshot and showed everyone that we're number one for once.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

You gotta put that, you definitely gotta that's gotta make it to the to the uh to the website for sure.

SPEAKER_07 2:59

That's right. Can you say number one best selling?

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Number one bestseller.

SPEAKER_07 3:03

I don't know. Oh no, but that doesn't sound right. No, it's definitely not number one best selling, but anyways, for a fleeting moment, it was number one. So congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

So, yeah, congratulations. That's great. I just wanted to have a funny comment about that. So uh to the listeners, so last night we were gonna record and we pushed it back because my son, who's 16 years old, had a battle of the bands contest in a in a public setting in a big in a the uh mall of Scandinavia. So there were 10 performers, and um, Aaron, what what what place did he get?

SPEAKER_07 3:36

He has your legacy solid and a number two win.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Yeah, they crushed it. They sang uh they did yeah, they got number two, and I guess a monetary reward. And um they sang, they had a bunch of, they had nine of them on stage. They had backup singers, and my son uh played lead guitar, and they sang um Olivia Newton John and John Travolta's uh I Need a Man from Greece.

SPEAKER_07 4:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And he's like better shape up. He's like, I'm in. And it was fun. It was a really fun, uh, it was a fun, fun evening to watch. So it was it was worth the delay, but I did give you a call for some of it, which was fun.

SPEAKER_07 4:13

Yeah, I thought it was super cool. Here's the American young man with the long hair shredding the guitar surrounded by these, you know, beautiful Scandinavian women. He's like, This is the greatest. This is this is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Yeah, what's interesting is he doesn't have a comparison. He doesn't know what it's like.

SPEAKER_07 4:31

Yeah, like trust me, kid, this is great. Enjoy it while you can. Enjoy your youth.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Exactly right. I mean, come on, Fort Lauderdale's got a lot to offer.

SPEAKER_07 4:38

Yeah, well, yeah. Anyways, we're not gonna grab a hold of that third reel.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Let's not, let's not, let's leave that one and move right into um your book. So talk to me a bit about when they uh when when the audio version will drop.

SPEAKER_07 4:50

Yeah, the audio book won't be around until the end of April, but I just wanted to quickly thank the people who actually made an Amazon review that made a big impact. And for uh everyone else, thanks for nothing. And and for the people that I begged and ignored my text messages, you know what I mean? I will not be sending you an IPA. In all seriousness, a big thanks to ADV Rider for posting an article that was unexpected, and men's insider as well. So thanks very much.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Cool. I didn't know you got men's insider as well. I hadn't seen that. Awesome.

SPEAKER_07 5:22

It was really unexpected. It it was factually a bit off. They said Aaron was a former yacht captain who sailed in the Caribbean and Florida. I'm like, I'm much more accomplished than that. Like, how dare you?

SPEAKER_02 5:33

But, anyways, it was how dare you how you dare you drag it down to just the Caribbean.

SPEAKER_07 5:38

Just the Caribbean, but anyways, yeah, it was awesome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

So a little bit of housekeeping here. So in in previous episodes, I believe, we mentioned Stewie MK. And um, he was the one that you referenced to that you you you thought he was fantastic because he gave you his training video for the eco. Was it eco the eco rod eco challenge? The Africa Eco Race, yeah. Africa eco Africa Eco Race.

SPEAKER_07 6:04

Which has nothing to do with eco, but anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Right. So he's he's he's on a uh he's on a treadmill. He's on a treadmill with a cigarette or something.

SPEAKER_07 6:12

And he popped a beard, had a cigarette. It was like, this is my this is my hero. I have to talk to this guy.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

So here is the uh the truth. So I actually had to pick this up, but Stewie uh spell spelled S-T-E-W-E. In Swedish, the W is pronounced like a V. So it's actually Stevie.

SPEAKER_07 6:33

Ah, well. Let's uh make this a blanket statement that uh I will screw everything up culturally, and I apologize, and I don't mean it, but uh but anyways, my apologies.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

You don't mean that you're sorry, or you I'll just say yes. All right, so um apartment number one one zero. So let me ask you, Aaron, is there an update to your real estate situation, your your your story?

SPEAKER_07 7:03

This is hilarious. So before we get there, I just want to mention about Steve Stevie. Anyways, Stevie, Stevie, Stevie, so Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder. He is not Stevie Wonder, so my Sherry Number three. Number three. We want to do this interview, but I'm like, I could see a really good segment here, right? Just because he's just such a badass. Yeah. So I'm gonna delay it until you or I or both of us can go hang out with this guy and do an informal hangout and chat. So that's my plan is I'm gonna push this guy back just because I think it's worth it. I think the content's much worth it. Let's move to the real estate story. This is hilarious. So everyone knows the flooded apartment I walked into. So we also went on MLS, we saw the listing disappeared.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Oh man, that was after the flooding, after you walk in.

SPEAKER_07 8:01

Yeah, like instantly the listing disappeared. And good for it. Take it down, take that down. And screw them, right? We know we all know the story. So, and then my wife finds another listing in the same uh same building on the ground floor, and we're like, oh man, this is great. No, no, no. It's the apartment next door to the one we were looking at. No, instantly for sale, like a hundred grand lower than market. And it's strange because one of the photos of one of the bedrooms, yeah, has nothing in it but a lamp and a freshly painted wall.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Oh man, so so everyone is everyone down. Obviously, water you know rolls downhill, and he damaged the people in the upstairs damaged more than one apartment.

SPEAKER_07 8:51

Uh-huh. Because you know, the load-bearing walls go up both, you know, go up the whole structure, if you know you know anything about our architecture. But that's not a waterproof membrane. So no, it's the water flooded in the apartment, and then not only did gravity do its job, you know, pressure, water pressure pushed it laterally into the apartments in either side. So this moron, well, I don't know if he's a moron, but this guy flooded his apartment, probably the apartments adjacent on the second floor, and at minimum two apartments below. So this one person has caused a nightmare in this very prestigious building. And I'm just like, holy moly, I'm like, wow, shocking.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Is this guy still on your payroll?

SPEAKER_07 9:42

I wish, I wish I was that smart. But like, we're out. I'm like, and so I was talking to my real estate agent about this, and you know, pro tip listener, that all of these disclosure forms and rules and laws are all as a result of lobbying from powerful real estate groups. So don't think for a minute that they need to disclose that there was catastrophic water damage. The only thing they need to disclose in in these agreements is if there is water damage. So if there was repeated water damage, like in this case, and they've repaired it, they don't need to tell you that. So no one's out to help you. Not your real estate agent, not the board, not anything like this, not the government. They're all just it's it's capitalism, right? So let's just sell units and keep money flowing and screw the little guy. So buyer beware. And we've learned that lesson, and we dodged the bullet, which is rare for me because I never dodge anything.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

No, no, no. It's it's it's it's true. I thought there were some rules around having to disclose latent defects, even things like someone passed away in in the house. You have to disclose those things.

SPEAKER_07 10:59

No, absolutely not true. These are all this is all BS. The only thing you have to disclose if there is something currently affecting the building or the apartment or whatever. That is totally untrue. And if it used to be true, all of these groups have lobbied away your rights uh for the sake of just moving property.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Let's move to a happier topic. Well, maybe this, maybe this topic isn't quite so happy.

SPEAKER_07 11:26

Yeah, it's all good. It's the you know, it's the way it is. You know, we do have an important happy interview coming up.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yeah, we do indeed. That guy is so chill. Adam is so chill. So let's talk a little bit about our trip to India.

SPEAKER_07 11:39

Yeah, so this is crazy. So we just talked before we pressed record, and I said, is my recollection correct? And I distinctly remember when we were hanging around Dahl Lake, which is in uh Kashmir, which is on the Pakistan border, is very Muslim. Well, it's 100% Muslim. And I distinctly remember being taken aback. We were on this island on this bridge, and the bridge had like an arch over it, and it had an image, an effigy essentially, of the Ayatollah, the uh supreme leader of Iran. And I was like, well, that's kind of interesting, and that's part of travel, but let's just quickly move on because I'm an infidel and a heretic, so I'm gonna run across this bridge quickly, right? But can you imagine if we were there now and what happened, you know, an American and a Canadian walking around with beers in their hands underneath this arch that is celebrating this guy that, you know, people that look like us and sound like us just offed. I'm like, we dodged that bullet as well. What an interesting thought, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah, but just to be clear, if it really came down to it, I'd be like, I'm sorry, he's Canadian, North American, I'm Swedish. I can show you a passport. I can show you a passport, I can show you a passport. Yeah, but it was interesting. I remember your comment. I took a picture of it. It was when we were in the we got up at like 4 30 to catch the 5 a.m. Shikara out to the floating vegetable garden. And um, we had to take the boat apart, had to take the roof off the boat to get under the bridge because the tide had you know it had rain and the water was high. It was really interesting. And then you were like, there's a hard example of soft power. And you are absolutely right. Here we are. Here we are today. Interesting.

SPEAKER_07 13:31

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. When people talk about projecting soft power, that's what that is, is is um, and you know, one of the greatest examples of that. Now we're really off topic here, is Thailand. So Thailand has a great big program, and believe it or not, it's Thai restaurants. So they have created our version of a Thai menu, which is what we're used to, which is you know fairly accurate. But there's a whole program that if you want to go abroad and you want to open a restaurant, that there's a whole soft power structure to project that image for tourism. So when you think of Thailand, you obviously think of amazing food, right? Yeah, and that's another example of uh soft power. But, anyways, what a what another crazy story that uh you know our travels have brought us into. But, anyways, yeah, shocking.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

It is what's shocking is the the tangents that we managed to find our way on. Yeah, this is a motorcycle story.

R1250GSA arrived in London, England

SPEAKER_07 14:29

So, hello, let's watch this. We're gonna bring it back because you know I'm gonna bring it right back. So, my motorcycle arrived in London just yesterday, and everyone was asking how much does this cost for our rally or for your travels? And this is full retail. I didn't get any discount. It was 1,500 pounds sterling, and that was the slow way. And it's not that much more if you want to stick it on a plane. Kathy at Moto Freight has taken out of the crate. This is all part of the service. Uh, she reconnected the battery, and I learned my lesson this time. I only disconnected the negative terminal and I taped it up. Uh, and it was easy for them to reconnect it. And uh, they started it up, and hopefully, someone rode around the parking lot if I'm if I'm not lucky. And she says, Everything is great, all is good, and I'm just so happy that the bike is sitting there. It starts, it started up, and I just need to show up and hop in a black cab for five minutes, and boom, I'm on my bike. So excited.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Nice, very cool. Um, two things I wanted to say. I just looked up online. 1,500 British pounds sterling is equivalent to$2,08.58.

SPEAKER_07 15:44

Which is on the high side. So shipping is a little high right now. Uh, but that includes everything. That includes coming from the porch of the warehouse, sitting in the warehouse, it includes the temporary import fees. That's it. There's no other, there's no other fees, there's no other taxes, there's no nothing. So if you you know, if you're a cheap Canadian um and you're thinking about renting a motorcycle or something, this is a great example of having your bike with all your stuff on it, with all your important farkles sitting there for 2,000 bucks. And that bike's never coming back. It's just gonna stay there. So in my case, it's just gonna stay there. And my friends can use it, you can, you know, whatever. People can use it. It's it's uh there was a bad joke there somewhere, but I'll just let it go.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

But let that go, yes. Let it go.

SPEAKER_07 16:33

Very highbrow. But uh, anyways, yeah, so happy about that. And then I want to say special thanks to Robert and MeetAS tires. They dropped off a set of tires for me because Robert shredded shredded because Robert just thought about a motorcycle, yeah, from the last time he used it. And then I'm also bringing a set of tires over because I will definitely burn a set in May. So I will check a set of tires. My plan is now I'm really rambling here. My plan is to take two tires and wrap them with that cling film moving material. So you have like a big donut ring. Yeah. Yeah. And then just check that as luggage, I guess. So I will report back when I arrive in London with a field note if if my tire is made as checked luggage.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

You may have to take them as special luggage, but I don't know that they have an additional charge for that. Like if you have a snowboard or a surfboard or skis or something, right? That's a special luggage area.

SPEAKER_07 17:29

Yeah, but it's smaller than a bag, right? Like two tires shrink up together. They're it's smaller than a bag. But yeah, anyways, if it has to slide down the special thing, that's fine. They actually do that for some reason to my luggage because I travel with Pelicans Air Series, the maximum size, international maximum size, which is actually quite small, yeah, of checked bags. For some reason, they almost always shove it down the special baggage area. And I don't know why. People react strangely to a pelican case. And I had a woman one time, a security agent or guard, whatever she was called, some rent a cop in an airport. And she's like, Whoa, let me see your bag. It needs to go for a special screening. And I go, Well, what do you think's in there? Like, my riding boots are in there and my underwear are in there, right? And I'm like, Well, it's a hard pelican case. I go, like, do you think if I'm transporting guns or biological weapons that I would bring that to something that screams you should pay attention to this? Like, is this the level of security in the world today, which you assume people have no basic trade craft? I'm like, what is happening? Anyways, whatever. So it seems to get treated differently for some reason, and I have no idea why.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

This reminds me of the story when we were doing a rally and we were crossing from through like out of Seattle into uh Canada, and I will comment on what you did then, and you were like, like you were just so irritated at because you make this crossing all the time, and the guy's like, So, what are this? What's all this livery on this on the side of this vehicle? What are you doing? And he's like, Well, what do you, what do you do? And you're like, I'm a fixer. And then he goes, Well, what do you mean by that? And he said, You know, I uh like if if like like rich people have problems, like you know, I like like I work for one guy, and if he has things, I'm like, I fix it, and he's like, You mean like buried bodies, or or like what? And and I was like, let me step in here. Um, like uh it's like we we're not gonna be able to finish this rally day one. It's like let me let me what he means is like the guy buys a house and it has calcified high-end shower fixtures that can only be manufactured in a special village in the very top of a mountain in Italy. And Aaron fixes that. He makes sure that he sends the he sends the Sherpas in to get the mold off the backside of the mountain and and make the special tea. Anyway, the guy's like, oh, okay, okay, okay, I got that. Anyway, it was it was I was like, so in this particular situation, she's asking you about the Pelican case. I can see you saying something like, I've look, I've got weapons somewhere else, but they're not in this case, so you're wasting your time here.

SPEAKER_07 20:15

Yeah, it's the most bizarre thing, right? Like, and more to the point with that guy at the border crossing, I'm like, oh, here we go. Like, this guy's the professional, right? Yeah, this guy's the professional, right? I'm like, yeah, there's problems like that that I solve, but why would you automatically think that you your first solution to a problem is murder and disposing of bodies? I'm like, that is the very last thing that you're tool that you reach for. I'm like, it is not, this isn't a movie. Life isn't a movie. It's like, get rid of this car because I screwed up, or something bad happened and I need a solution to it. But it's never ever murder, right? I'm like, why is this customs agents watching too much bad spy TV?

SPEAKER_02 20:59

But anyways, I expected the next thing to come out of his mouth was uh proceed to secondary.

SPEAKER_07 21:04

Yeah, I'm like be a full cavity screening here. Yeah, if you read my book, we talk about secondary quite a bit. But uh um, and talking about transporting weapons, so I do have a couple of nice pelican cases uh for transporting weapons. Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

So I'm sorry. Carry on. Yeah, really don't let me interrupt you. You just go with it.

SPEAKER_07 21:30

So it's interesting. The last time I flew to Fort Lauderdale, because they had that shooting in the baggage area a little while ago, tragically and terribly. And what's interesting, if you ship, if you check weapons destined to Fort Lauderdale, they have a special procedure there where they take these giant zip ties and they zip tie the exterior of your case and put a special tag on it and a baggage handle. Handler walks it out to a sheriff who you have to go find, and then they walk you out of the baggage area. Wow. It was a very bizarre thing. I'm like, I get it, like it's reactionary and all that. Uh, but it was like, and then he put me outside, and I always find these perimeter security solutions hilarious and like clearly chess performative. I'm like, whether it's hardening the outside of a building or something like this, or moving this weapon to the curb, I'm like, that's an automatic sliding glass door. If if I was intent on causing harm, which I'm not, I could unpack, you know, my Glock and I could walk back in through the automatic door. Like I found the whole thing to be to be funny. Uh, but anyways, screw screw that customs agent. That lady at uh that lady at the security was funny, and uh sometimes security measures are performative.

UK Travel Plans

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yes, I I I'm with you on that. And um, and with that, what do you say we talk a little bit about motorcycles?

SPEAKER_07 23:06

Oh my god, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Is this a motorcycle podcast or is this my other well it was it was up like up until about five minutes ago and then it stopped being, but we're gonna bring it back.

SPEAKER_07 23:14

All right, so let's go back to the UK thing. So let's do it. I'm excited that I booked my ferry. I'll be in Victoria, British Columbia that week. And I'm pretty excited because people know I'm a transportation geek. So I'm taking a high-speed ferry from Victoria Harbor, which I can just walk from my apartment, and it's taking me right downtown Seattle. It's about a two-hour ferry ride. And then I guess I'd hang out for a few hours in Seattle. I will visit my favorite bookstore, I'll hit my favorite dive bar and then hop into Uber and head to the airport. So I'm pretty uh excited about that. And then when I get a whole evening in London, nice, and I go to my favorite pub. It's called the Warwick Arms. They have the best curry. It is a 10 out of 10 curry. You have no idea how good it is, and it's in this dodgy pub. It's fantastic. Nice. And I booked my regular hotel. Uh, we've actually done some podcasting from that hotel, you and I. And it's a great podcasting hotel because it's the size of a shoebox. Uh, yes, indeed. And it's made like for one sad single man. Or two. Not, I guess, you know, whatever floats your boat, but it's this tiny little room they have on the top of this old building, and it's super inexpensive and it's really, really nice. It's called the Byron, uh pro tip right downtown uh in central London. And I've also decided to up my photography game. If anyone follows me on Facebook, you'll see some of my photography there. And I have a private lesson with Linda Wisdom, and she's going to teach me a thing or three about photography in downtown London. So fingers crossed, we have some good weather. So I'm gonna hit the pub, grab some curry, do some photography, and go in my sad little hotel.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Are you sure that's the right order to do things in? You think maybe you should like catch a little bit of like photography lessons and then hit the pub? You're right.

SPEAKER_07 25:14

You're right. I will adjust my schedule accordingly to your counsel.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah, do that. But you're using just to be clear, you're not using there's a lot of classes out now for iPhone stuff. You're talking about the Canon, the the like the big, the whole massive setup that you've got, right?

SPEAKER_07 25:26

So during the rally, my primary job is photography because to have a photographer roll with us would be impossible. So I have a pretty substantial, you know, Sony uh photography rig. But the problem is I have so much time between using that camera is I literally forget how to use it. And one little setting wrong is that fleeting moment of a bike ripping by is lost. And I'm actually not a very good landscape photographer, but I would like to be. So, anyways, like all things, that if you want to learn something, hire an expert and do one-on-one for a compressed period of time and move on. So, my goal when I'm traveling in the next few years is wherever I go is hire uh an instructor for an hour or two to go, you know, learn something one-on-one. So that's my goal when I'm in London.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Smart. I just had a flashback to in India when you arrived on the houseboat, and the whole place was loaded with eagles. Remember that? And then you're like I do. And then you're like, it's talk about the one setting, and you're like, all right, this camera can zoom in on the eye of that bird and focus on that. And you're like, and and then you're like, and you kept taking the shot, and you're like, no one can get that shot. And I pulled up my iPhone, better picture with my iPhone than you did with that big ass camera, and you were not pleased with me.

SPEAKER_07 26:51

That's true. I was not pleased with you. However, I will say that if you would like to put your photos from India and my photos India in print, we can have a little competition. But but you're right. And actually, it's funny because the rig that I have is is very old, the the body. I'm actually going to bring it to a place to update the firmware, and I may purchase another body because the current version has AI focusing and I don't have it. Nice. And you make a good example, whether it's a motorcycle ripping by in the desert with dust flipping or a bird that's flying by. If you want to have a 60 megapixel picture of that eye, the new cameras use an AI that say, right, this is a bird. That's an eyeball. That's my focal point. Right. Or this is a motorcycle, the helmet is where I want my focal point to be. And then the AI takes over. And it seems silly and it seems, you know, nonsense, but it's a huge difference. And you just made a great example of that was silly at the time, but it was two great examples. One, it was I hadn't used that camera in a long time and I was fumbling with it and making a fool of myself. And two, I wouldn't say that. And and and and two, um, yeah, I had it, I had an old camera, and uh, I should really invest in another one, but it's kind of hard to drop, you know, another$4,000 that I don't have on a on a camera body.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah, maybe in you know a few years. I think that one's gonna be just what you need for these next few rallies.

SPEAKER_07 28:23

Yeah, and those pictures are really good. So some of those got published actually. They got and the PR person that I used actually commented positively on the on the picture, so I was really flattered by that. So some of those are in print. So that's a great example of okay, this rig costs a lot of money. I invest some time in it, but it made it to print, right? So it's a really, really big deal. And my last comment of London was I just happen to be watching, I follow this guy called London Eat. And he's this nice, he's this cool dude that rides electric scooters and he delivers food.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

You I remember you sent me this guy's videos. This has been like it seems like a long time ago. You sent me this years ago.

SPEAKER_07 29:05

Yeah, and he's his channel's growing. Is there really he's just a generally nice guy that delivers food? But, anyways, so he's got this electric scooter, which is perfect because it's silent. He like rips around town and you know, you can park it in different places, but he stopped and he showed this camera system. And we all know London is the most surveilled place on earth. Florida's getting close with all the flock cameras and stuff in America starting to catch up, but you can't touch London because they've been doing this for years. Really? And he pointed out a sound camera. Really? Yeah. So one of the, you know, and I'm a hypocrite here, but one of the big problems with downtown uh settings anywhere in the world is noisy scooters and these Muppets with these like dirt bikes with aftermarket exhaust systems. And I know you're all yelling at the headphones right now. I believe in don't be a jerk. So if I'm in the Himalayas or if I'm ripping through the desert, yeah, we're gonna go wide open and we're gonna make some noise, and I'm gonna giggle and put a smile on my face. But if I'm in downtown Paris, like we were a few years ago, trying to get a night's sleep, yeah, and the windows are open because it's hot, you're just being a jerk, right? So that's what these sound cameras are for. Is if you are on your 50cc scooter with straight pipes, it's 1 a.m. and you're doing wheelies down this back street in a residential area. Well, the local Bobby's gonna come give you a visit.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_07 30:43

Well, I have mixed feelings about it because I'm like big brother, you can go F yourself, right? But at the same time, if I lived on that street, I'd be like, I need to go to sleep tonight, right? So, anyways, I've kind of neutral on it. I did find it fascinating that they do have sound cameras, and London Eats pointed that that out.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Yeah, that's interesting. I was thinking about when you said the safest, one of the most surveilled cities. I was thinking about uh when I spent time in Moscow and also in Dubai, I know Dubai has a huge amount of cameras.

SPEAKER_07 31:10

Yeah, the most cameras I've ever seen actually were in China. They are front facing, rear facing every motorway, every intersection, every crosswalk. They have that whole social credit system. But you can't go anywhere in China on any motorway and any road without being uh you know high-end facial recognition, so on and so forth. So if you're going to commit crimes, don't do it in China.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Good to know. Thanks for that. Pro tip. Hey, speaking about other pro tips, uh, about Asia and not China. Wow, what a good segue.

SPEAKER_07 31:49

Did you see that listener? There's a this is why he's the host of this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

So we got a great interview with Adam, and it's uh he has a YouTube series and he's the creator of Ride Through Japan.

SPEAKER_07 32:02

Oh my god, is he gonna listen to my rantings and go, this guy's an insane person? Oh, I feel really bad about the whole prologue to this interview. Adam, I swear I'm not a crazy person. You gotta believe me.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Adam, you should call me.

SPEAKER_07 32:18

We should create an Aaron support hotline for people that have been afflicted with my my sadism.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

We did, we did. Actually, I think it was you rolled it out as a book and we all gave it five stars. And I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_07 32:32

Adam is the opposite. Adam is this genuine, awesome dude. He has this series called Project 47. I'm obsessed with Japan. Everyone knows that. I spend at least 20 minutes a night watching some YouTube video about Japan, and I've discovered how amazing the motorcycling is in Japan. And the ADV Cannonball Rally will go there one day, and it will be a burden that I'm willing to take on for you guys to find an ADV route for you for the cannonball. I will I will do that for you guys.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

That is so altruistic.

SPEAKER_07 33:12

Yes, that's me. I'm all about altruism. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

And with that, I think we should roll the interview.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

Adventure, endurance, glory. This isn't just a ride. It's the ultimate test of rider and machine. The ADV Cannonball Rally challenges you to ride from coast to coast, navigating checkpoint to checkpoint by GPS and pushing past your limits. Take on every off-road stage, and you'll learn bragging rides and a coveted Rough Rider trophy. Own the twisty tarmac and you'll claim the checkpoint crusher award. Every mile counts, every choice matters. Rack up the points, and your name could be etched forever on the winner's gun. This year the routes are harder, the mileage is longer, the glory is greater. The ADV Cannonball Rally is open for registration. Fortune favors the bolt. Sign up today.

SPEAKER_07 34:12

Adam Lewis from Ride Through Japan. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_08 34:17

Uh, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_07 34:19

During our setup here, Adam and I realize there is a massive delay in our audio because I'm in Seattle and obviously Adam's in Japan. So hopefully, listeners will give us a little bit of latitude here.

SPEAKER_08 34:31

Yeah, no worries. Yeah. It could make for some fun moments.

SPEAKER_07 34:35

I wanted to have you on the podcast for you to introduce your new series called Project 47. But I think we should take a moment and introduce you to our listeners. Let's start with the obvious. How did you end up in Japan?

SPEAKER_08 34:50

Oh, yeah, well, that's that's a crazy story. Um, I'll try to tell it in a way it's not too boring, but it was uh 1999. Uh I had a a little bit of time on my hands and a thousand bucks in my pocket. I was off to buy a big TV. Um, and uh right next door to the electronic shop was um uh travel agent and it said Tokyo 999 or something like that. I was like, oh yeah, that sounds cool. Maybe I'll do that. And so I went for a two-week holiday, landed in Japan with not a clue, not a hotel booked, no language, anything, right from the countryside in Australia into the heart of Tokyo. Um and uh somehow it just kept on getting longer. And now I've been here 26 years.

SPEAKER_07 35:38

Wow, 26 years is quite a long time. But I'm immediately struck by your accent. It's a little confusing. I hear a little bit of America in there. I obviously hear some Australian, but I also can hear the local influence. Maybe we can start at the beginning. Uh where were you born? Where are your parents from?

SPEAKER_08 35:56

Yeah, so uh I was born in Tennessee, uh a place called Franklin, Franklin County. But you know, I don't have any real recollection of that. I was a little kid uh when we moved out of there. Um my my mother's English and my dad's from the States. Uh so when my parents separated, my mother moved to Australia where her family were and uh sort of grew up in Australia. But uh it was kind of a weird time to be there because I still had an American accent a little bit when I was a kid. Um and it was kind of very also influenced with my mother's family role, northern English. I always kind of felt like I was a visitor, like I never really felt Australian. So I kind of doubled down on the American side of who I was, you know. And this is, you know, this is the 80s. This is you know, Top Guns coming out, you know, America is just like every movie, it's the coolest thing in the world. And so I just leaned into it, you know, Bruce Springsteen, born in the USA. Yeah, that's me. No idea it was a protest song. And um uh yeah, so it kind of stuck with me a bit. Um coming to Japan though, I I spent a fair bit of time on the island of Okinawa, and I was working a lot with the US military there, so that started to bring the American accent out again a little bit more. So I'm yeah, I'm a real mutt when it comes to my accent. It is it also depends on my mood. If I'm like kind of mellow, I'll be way more American. But if I'm starting excited, I start to sound more Australian. So it's just kind of a weird vibe. Yeah. And then on top of that, I speak slower now than I ever did before because um just living in Japan, trying to communicate, you you automatically slow your cadence down. Um and I I just don't speak English very often. I think since I started the series, I started to speak English more, but you know, I kind of dream in Japanese these days, so um a lot of times I I kind of fumble over words uh in English. So I have a bit of an unusual delivery, I think. I didn't realize until I started the show. But people tell me that.

SPEAKER_07 38:07

Well, we think your delivery is great, and that's one of the reasons why we like your series because the storytelling, the history, your perspective. And one of the things I really like is your Japanese is fantastic. And whenever I travel internationally, the trouble is no one talks to you because you don't really understand the local language. Yeah, so I think that's what uh viewers like is that uh interesting combination of being, you know, having the Western background and we share actually the same family background. My mother was also from northern England as well. I used to get sent over as a kid. So I understand that feeling of not really belonging anywhere as well. Your Japanese really gives you access, and I've noticed some amazing relationships. You'll just roll up to a museum or something and you just get invited in. How would you rate your Japanese and how long did it take you to get to that level?

SPEAKER_08 39:01

Uh yeah. So I've never studied Japanese, I've never picked up a book or anything. So I kind of just learn it as a child does through hearing, repetition, things like that. My Japanese is very much conversational. I don't do business in Japan, so I don't learn the traditional business. I can read and write, all that kind of stuff. But I've kind of learned from just like talking with people, uh, a lot of times at bars, things like that. You know, when I was younger, I used to go out a lot more. It's very easy to strike up a conversation in conversational Japanese because I think I kind of shock people because I come at them with phrases that a normal Japanese person might say when they're hanging out with a friend. It sort of breaks down walls a bit easier that way. But it it's really been unusual with this trip because I'm not a very outwardly social person. I'm very much stick to myself a lot of the time. And I've found that this journey has sort of brought that out of me and made it easier. Like when I first started, I didn't talk to anyone on the road. I was just like cruising around, film stuff, next place, next place. And it wasn't until the third episode in Kumamoto where I just had this run of amazing people that happened to cross paths with that it hit me that that's what the trip should be about. You know, it should be about the people. And so once that clicked, it just started to feel more organic. And uh, you know, I kind of walked in with that feeling already in my you know, within me that I think that translated across. But in general, in Japan, people are pretty easy to communicate with and talk to, even without the language. They're very open, they're very curious. Um and a lot of places, especially in the countryside, they're they're kind of excited to see a foreigner come in, um, in some regards. So you add on to that the Japanese being able to communicate, that just alleviates their stress. And I think that creates a more open environment because they're like, oh, oh no, a foreigner, uh oh, what do I do? And then you're just like the little Japanese are like, oh, thank you. And then bang, you're you're in.

SPEAKER_07 41:06

Um, yeah, I was really impressed with uh the conversations that you had at campsites, for instance. It just really felt like they wanted to take you in. And I think the motorcycle is a bit disarming in a way. Yeah, like here you are showing up on your motorcycle. Maybe the weather is isn't so good, and they want to put their best foot forward, and they're also alone in a campsite and want to have a conversation with you. Is that kind of the impression you get when you're rolling on a bike?

SPEAKER_08 41:32

Oh, yeah. I I think the bike itself just dis it sort of attracts people because of the freedom, the adventure. Once you get a bike packed with gear, there's something about it that uh instantly draws people to you. Um I've traveled a whole bunch in cars and all other kinds of like modes of transport, camping cars, and you never get that. But on a bike, it's just random people at convenience stores everywhere. People come up, like, where are you going? What are you doing? I think it's the the freedom aspect of it that just draws people to you. Um at campsites, yeah. I think yeah, campsites are a little different. I think people, especially lone travelers, you know, it's the idea of like, hey, I've been on by myself for a few days. Oh, a human, let's communicate, you know, and I I get that way too.

SPEAKER_07 42:18

So that brings up a great point is that you started this journey with a unique motorcycle, and I understand you have another one on the way, but uh perhaps you can introduce that motorcycle to us.

SPEAKER_08 42:30

Yeah, it was a it was a bit of an unusual story. So I I didn't pick the bike and start the journey so much around the bike. Um, it all kind of happened organically. Um I I moved to uh Kyushu with my wife um from Okinawa, and uh the roads here are just unbelievable. We came here to surf. Uh and I had been on a bike for about 10 years at this stage. And uh I was driving around looking for surf spots, and I kept seeing all these people ripping on motorbikes through the mountains. I was like, damn, that looks good. I gotta get back on a bike. And you know, as you do, you start looking at bikes and listening. And there was this uh little Honda that they have over here called the GB350. It's just a long stroke single, air-cooled, right? Just that old dump dump dump. And I heard it start up one time and I was like, that's the bike that my friend's dad had when I was a kid. Yeah, that sound. I want that. And a couple of weeks later, my wife surprised me and she bought it for me. So I ended up having this bike and I'd never toured or done anything. I mean, I'd ridden a whole bunch, but never touring and started riding around on it. Um when I was doing that, my friends and family would hit me up, like, what are you doing? What are you doing? So I just started the YouTube thing uh so I could put videos so they I didn't have to keep explaining what I was doing. Um so it was never really about starting a project or touring Japan at that stage. It was just hey, family and friends, here it is. Um so that was that little Honda, um which the problem I had with that Honda for Doing the trip once I got started was I love it too much. Like, if I drop that bike, I'm gonna sit on the side of the road and cry for about half an hour. Um, it's just sentimental to me. So um, I ended up doing a series with a couple of YouTubers that traveled across Japan, um, a guy named Ludwig and Michael Reeves, they're like gamer guys. And uh I was like a fixer on that series and arranged the bikes for them. And one of the bikes was a 400X Triumph. So that was given to me at the end as part of my payment. I was like, wow, I don't really have any emotions about this bike. I can trash this bike a little bit, so I'll jump on that for a while. Um but yeah, that bike, yeah, it's a fun bike, but it's a terrible tour. Like it's just so unbalanced with gear on it. I've dropped it a bunch of times, I've gone down a bunch of times, it feels real sketchy all the time. So I just shifted over to the Harley Davidson Pan America um because I wanted a bigger platform. I've got a lot more distance to travel to. And uh the folks at Harley Davidson Japan got behind the series and have loaned me a bike uh to ride across Japan on. So I mean, I'm still well, like I say that, and I'm kind of like, is that a dream? Did I imagine that? But no, it's there in the garage.

SPEAKER_07 45:18

So well, I think that you touched on something important here is that your videos are filmed really well, they're edited really well, and you have some background in that. So maybe you can tell us about your film background.

SPEAKER_08 45:30

Uh yeah. So I mean, I started studying film when I was in like high school. Um, when I moved to Japan, there was no option to get into film production. So that kind of stalled out and I did a whole bunch of other stuff. Uh when I moved to Okinawa, there's I saw the opportunity to get back into it because there's a lot of international community coming through Okinawa. It's kind of a hub. And so I started a production company then. That was uh about 2008, I think it was. And uh for until the COVID, that's what I did. I just uh basically made uh local videos, things like that. I worked a lot with like the BBC and Discovery. They would come over, I'd do fixing, you know, b-roll shooting, maybe help out in the production. So uh my focus had always been on like documentary filmmaking, um, but it was always in the the sense of old like broadcast TV, which is a very different beast to like YouTube. It's actually kind of the flip, right? Yeah, broadcast TV, you come up with a concept, you pitch it, you get the go-ahead, you get the budget, you go and film it. And you've got to kind of stick to that original script, whereas like YouTube is kind of on the flip, you film it, and then you start chasing the distribution and that sort of thing. So I found with YouTube, I could be a little bit more honest. Um with broadcast TV, a lot of times you've got markers you're meant to hit, and the story can sometimes get lost in that, um, which never appealed to me. So that was it was it was a kind of a topsy-turvy world. Like I was doing what I loved, but I was always kind of getting clipped by the the business side of it. It was kind of felt fake and a little phony, kind of love and hate for a lot of it.

SPEAKER_07 47:12

Well, now you have this series, Project 47, and you finally have a chance to tell your story. You have a finally have a chance to, you know, ride that motorcycle that uh you started off with your wife giving you, and uh now you can tell Japan's story. So maybe you can tell us in broad strokes for people that don't know the series, what the series is and what the mission is and where you are in that series. That's kind of a lot right there. Maybe you can parcel that out, but maybe just tell us what the what the concept of the series is.

SPEAKER_08 47:38

Okay, yeah. Um, so look, it just started uh because of I was on a quick little tour, you know. Like I thought I'd do a couple of nights, never done motor camping before. I'll go do that. And uh on that trip, I I thought I'll make a little video for YouTube. We'll see what happens. The world just threw everything at me on that trip for my first trip. Uh a volcano erupted while I was having lunch right in my path. Uh, huge monsoon kind of storm was blowing in from the other coast. It was, you know, around one or two degrees Celsius. It was freezing cold. I had none of the right gear on a naked little 350. I had to just call that trip. You know, it was like if I keep pushing forward, I'm in like a little trekking tent. It's about the size of a coffin and it felt like a coffin. I'm gonna spend three days just lying in the rain. Like, no, all right, I gotta call it. I hate giving up on something that I decided to do. It's like the worst thing that can ever happen, you know, not seeing it through. So I have this thing in my brain that happens where if I have to give up on something, I don't just allow myself to I'll go back and try again. I just double down. Like it's like a subconscious click that goes on. So I'm riding home and I'm like, you know what? Maybe I'll just ride every single prefecture of Japan, just one at a time, and just do a film on each thing, you know. Yeah, why not? That'll be something. Um so I kind of gave myself that challenge on the ride home to like make my ego feel better, I guess. And then yeah, shut off and started doing it. But I had no real plan uh other than just go for a ride around and see what's cool and see what I could find. At the start, uh, I kind of approached it like a filmmaker in you know traditional documentaries. It was more like a travel kind of style thing. And then, like I said before, I when I got to that third prefecture at Kumamoto and I met all those amazing people, the switch went. And it was like, this is this is something I've I've been doing this wrong. This this needs to be about the journey and not about the place. And so from then on, it was more about uh showing the journey as it happens for me, not showing the area of Japan. So basically, what I'm doing is solo motor camping across Japan. There's 47 prefectures across the whole country, and I'm spending about three to four days in each prefecture just checking it out, and whatever happens, happens. There's no script, it's just me trying to make it across this place. And um once I started looking at it that way, it's become amazing. It's sort of almost transforming the way I look at the world because of the people I'm meeting and uh sort of humbling and exciting. I don't know, it's it's hard to put into words, it's very much an emotional kind of feeling.

SPEAKER_07 50:30

But you mentioned earlier that the riding is amazing, and I totally agree. When I see those rural roads, they're empty, they're on the sides of mountains, they're on the sides of the ocean, they're unbelievable. Um, and that's really special to watch uh on the screen. How far have you gotten so far? And uh, how much more filming and part of the series do you have uh still to do?

SPEAKER_08 50:55

Okay, so I'm I'm at uh 13 prefectures recorded now. Um I've just about to release the 12th one. Uh the editing is a bit of a delay. Um, and up until now I've been doing kind of strike missions. I live in the south of Japan, so I've been going out for a few prefectures, coming home, recalibrating, editing, etc. That all changes from next month. So um in about two and a half weeks from now, um jumping on the road to ride the rest of the last 35 prefectures in one big hit. So it's looking like it's gonna be about five to six months uh motocamping on the road solo, just trying to make it. Um, so that that's a bit of a yeah, it's a bit of a nervous challenge coming up soon, but I'm like also giddy and excited about it. The roads, like you like uh you mentioned, those roads are they're kind of the old roads of Japan before the boom kicked in and the expressways and bypasses, but they still maintain them. So while they can be a little wild with you know moss and you know rocks and stuff, they're not overly like potholed out and they're kind of somewhat maintained. So you can find these little roads that are barely wider than a car that you can spend two hours on, and you might see three cars in those two hours coming the opposite direction or whatever. It's such a strange feeling within Japan because this country is so concreted out and industrialized and like city, town, urban sprawl. But if you just skip slightly to the side and take one of these old roads, you can just get yourself lost in the mountains, no phone reception, no other people, just views. It's uh it's a really unusual place to ride. Um, because when you come off one of those, you ride back into a town with convenience stores and everything, just sprawl as far as the eye can see. Yeah, that's probably the coolest part about the riding in Japan. It's getting out of that.

SPEAKER_07 52:50

It strikes me as interesting that you have essentially a foreigner telling Japan's story and and doing it really well from the perspective of a motorcyclist. Are you getting any feedback from the Japanese people about your series, about your storytelling?

SPEAKER_08 53:05

Yeah, um, I I you know Japanese people in general are pretty reserved with their opinions. So um they don't sort of offer them out too much, but I have quite a few people that watch my series um and will get back to me and be like, ah, thank you so much, you know, for showing this part of the country in a way that maybe hasn't been shown before, things like that. There's a big sort of movement in Japan right now with the massive influx of tourism as a bit of an anti-foreigner sentiment that's not actually happening across the country, but as it does everywhere in the world, it's presented heavily in the media, so it feels like it's happening. Um and uh it's kind of nice, I think, from what I've been hearing from people is that this is the way we want people to show our country, not you know, running through Kyoto or doing silly things in Shibuya or something like that. You know, we we don't want that to be seen, we want this to be seen. And and that was a little bit kind of a driving force for me, too. Because I, you know, I've lived here 26 years, I've lived in Japan longer than any other country I've lived in my life. While I am a foreigner, it it is a big part of who I am. So in some ways, I'm telling the story of my home, even though I may not have been born here. You know, I definitely have made it my home. So it's a little bit nice to see that because it it does irk me a little bit when I see a lot of the like the social media influencer stuff going online. I'm like, oh, don't that's not Japan. You know, that's it's it's that's just felt wrong.

SPEAKER_07 54:39

Yeah, that's kind of like saying that when you land in Times Square in Manhattan, you know, that's America. That's that you know, that's a slice of it, but has very little to do with the massive land mass and the diversity of culture that is America. And the same holds true with Japan. And I think you do a really good job of uh of showing that on film.

SPEAKER_08 54:59

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I 100% agree with that. You know, I think uh I think it gets lost in the noise, but yeah, I do get asked a lot, especially recently with the politics in the US about oh, America's this, America's that. And I'm like, oh dude, America is so much more. Like, you know, there's so much cool, awesome stuff going on there. You know, you're just hearing these little noise pockets, and it's like watching a movie and thinking you've seen an entire culture or something. You know, it's like, no, man, that place is seriously cool. There's some freaking awesome people in the States, you know, and I'd say more so than the noisemakers.

SPEAKER_07 55:33

For sure. This is this is the same everywhere, right? Um, I've also noticed that, you know, you went to a museum one time. I've also noticed some really interesting subcultures of motorcycle, uh, motorcycle culture in Japan. It's really fascinating. How have those people in those subcultures reacted to your filmmaking? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 55:54

So, Japan, the motorcycle culture is really I found it really unique. Um, it's very clickish, right? Like motorcycle culture tends to be everywhere, but it's not outwardly clickish. Like it's super common to see like a guy riding on like a Harley with ape hangers and the guy he's touring with on a Honda Cub or a Tenera or something like that. Like, there's no real you have to ride this bike to be in our group. Um, the culture here is is really unique. Like the the people are really, really into what they ride. Like, you know, their bike. It's a big part of their their identity. But they're super stoked the fact that they meet people on whatever you're riding, you know. So you could be riding the most bizarre bike in the world. People just come up and be like, what is that? That's so cool. Um, and you'll have guys with like the full leather, you know, the the real like Japanese brother looking guys coming up and talking to a uh a kid on a Honda Cub and just be like, Oh, where are you going? What are you doing? It's this real passionate kind of culture. It's uh very accepting. The feedback I've gotten directly on what I'm doing is just like that's awesome. I wish I could do that, is probably the biggest part of it. And I tell everyone, I'm like, well, just go do it. You know, like that's all there is to it. Just, you know, just go out and do it. Do it if you want to do it, you know. Like the fact you're on two wheels in Japan, it makes you part of the part of the family. Um, it's nice too as a foreigner because people don't know I'm a foreigner until I take my helmet off. So sometimes I'll be standing there with my helmet on, my visor down, someone will just come up and start talking to me. And we'll be two-thirds of the way into a conversation before I get a chance to get my helmet off. And they're like, oh, oh wow. I didn't even realize you were Japan, you weren't Japanese. But it doesn't, yeah, it's it's really, really positive here. Everyone waves. Like, if you're riding through the cities and people are transiting to work, whatever, they don't wave. That's pretty normal. But anywhere else, you're out touring, people are out doing their Sunday ride, you just ride down the road, and people are just waving at everywhere you go. Like, my arm gets tired. Even the police wave at you. It's it's freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_07 58:02

I had really messed up when I was traveling through Japan a few months ago. I had reserved the bike through rental place, and I didn't know that my international driver's permit expires after one year. It doesn't say like on the front cover, anyways. Yeah, so there's a few really good uh rental agencies in Japan, and they're quite accepting of foreigners. Well, until someone screws it up, so don't go screwed up everywhere. Um but anyways, you have to have this uh this driver's permit. But it's quite common for people to hop on high-speed rail and go to a different part of Japan and just rock up and and rent a super nice bike for very little.

SPEAKER_08 58:41

Um, I've never never rented a bike. Uh living here, I just hasn't been a thing I've had to do. I get asked about it a lot on the channel um about renting a bike. And honestly, I've just never really looked into it too much. I know there's a few big sort of chain rentals, and I know the biggest problem people will do face is a lot of them, from what I can see, won't allow you to like ride from Tokyo and drop it off in Kyoto. Um, there's a lot of it, like you have to return it back to the place where you got it from. It seems to be the biggest issue I can see that I get I get asked about that a lot.

SPEAKER_07 59:15

I suppose Westerners just aren't used to being able to hop on a Shinkansen train and be on the other side of the country in uh a very short period of time. So there's nothing wrong with flying into one center like Tokyo, um, hopping on a local train, picking up a rental bike, doing your thing for a few days, and then hopping on a Shinkansen and going to the polar opposite side of the country. It's really not a big deal at all. Oh, yeah. Uh speaking of traveling and riding in Japan, I would say when I travel, my number one concern is bike theft. Yeah. And we often call Japan a high trust society. Yeah. Would you say that's accurate when people are traveling by motorcycle? 100%.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:01

Um I I do I have heard a lot more stories recently of uh particularly like helmets being stolen, uh, which you know should be a capital punishment for that. Um, but yeah, like um I've yeah, especially in the cities, you know, maybe in Tokyo or Osaka, kind of in in the wrong sort of parts of town. But in general, I mean, yeah, Japan is so friendly and so user-friendly. Um, yeah, I park my bike constantly with just my bags on the back, and none of them have locks because they're just adventure bags, right? So I've never had anything stolen, I've never had the bike damaged or anything. Um, I don't spend a lot of time in the cities. Um, it's nothing, it just doesn't interest me. I think, yeah, it might be a little bit more in my mind if I was like in downtown Osaka or something and I had to leave the bike for a few hours. For the most part, compared to like Australia or a lot of the Western countries, I would never even consider. I mean, the amount of times I've left my keys in the bike, just forgotten because I've jumped off and seen something cool and taken off for an hour to go check it out. I come back and I'm like, where are my keys? Oh, they're in the ignition. You know, just sitting there with all my gear on it. So, Japan, yeah, it's it's incredibly friendly, it's incredibly safe, but you know, it isn't the paradise that it is portrayed to be. There is crime here, it does happen. I've had my car broken into before. Um, it's just, you know, in pockets. If someone got their bike stolen in the countryside of Japan, that would be like, no way. I can't believe that ever happened, rather than the norm.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:38

Obviously, just uh exercise some common sense. It's like if you're riding through America, don't leave your bike downtown Detroit while you go into the dive bar. Like, let's let's be reasonable here, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:49

Yeah, yeah. But um, but yeah, for the most part, people are pretty awesome here.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:53

And you know, this I have to go back to the story that Harley Davidson just lent you this motorcycle and started off with your wife buying you your first motorcycle. You know, we haven't, as married guys, we haven't talked about the obvious, which is you know, you're about to embark on this massive journey uh and you're gonna spend a lot of money and you're gonna be gone for quite a while. You know, maybe you can talk about your wife and how she's encouraging you to uh to undertake this massive journey.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:18

Oh man, I I struck the lottery with this with with my wife. I mean, she's she's such a legend. When my wife was younger, she basically rode all around Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia. This is back in the 90s, just by herself, um, sleeping on the side of the road, kind of thing. So she she knows what it is to be on a long motorcycle trip. While she has absolutely no interest in doing it again, uh, she's super stoked that I found it. She likes that I found it. She's been nothing but supportive. Um, I mean, so many times I've questioned whether I was doing the right thing because you know, this is this entire series I've doing is is running at a loss, you know. Like that kind of weighs heavy on you as you're getting older too. Not working as much since COVID. I tell her, I'm like, you know, hey, am I maybe is this being selfish? And she's like, hell no, get out there and do it. She's like 100% behind it. She loves the videos, she loves what I'm doing. She's just a hundred percent supportive, and I couldn't have done it without her. Being away for six months now, that's gonna be a bit of a test because she's like my best friend, right? So it's gonna be hard. Plus, my dogs, you know, I miss my dogs. So um, what kind of dogs do you have? I have uh a couple of Labradors. Uh, I got a really, really old dog who's got dementia at the moment, and a younger dog, right? It's just full of energy. So um, yeah, so it's a little bit of a difficult thing. I don't expect my old dog will still be there when I get back. She's she's at that stage. So but yeah, my my pup, uh, she's I mean, I we spend every day just hanging out and doing stuff, so that's gonna be a real real trick, not waking up and seeing that face, you know, get up, get up, let's go.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:59

There's definitely sacrifice behind, you know, essentially what is art. And uh, we all benefit. When you do these last prefectures, has your mission kind of changed? Are you looking to tell the viewer something different now that you've kind of taken a break and you've done all the editing? Do you have a different focus for this last uh part of the series?

SPEAKER_08 1:04:18

Japan had become really normal to me. Um, like if I was I'd lost the wow factor, and I started questioning why am I living here? You know, like because there are a lot of challenges to live in here. But once I started traveling and doing the series and letting it just flow out organically, I started like re-falling in love with the country and getting excited about it. The series is gonna be shifting more towards that organic flow of just like seeing what the road gives me rather than chasing down, hey, here's the best part, you know. Um, especially as I start coming towards places like Kyoto and Tokyo, um, because it's a horrible, horrible experience for me just to be in a sea of people at a shrine, right? So um, so I've gotta I've gotta have a think about how I'm gonna approach those areas because yeah, I can go and show people, hey, this is Kyoto and make a really cool video that maybe gets a lot of views on YouTube, but I'm not gonna enjoy it. So I'm there's a big part of me is thinking about just going and showing you the real cool stuff outside of Kyoto that most people miss. And that's the stuff I want to see. So it's gonna be a lot more focused on that.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:30

Yeah, that's awesome. Listen, we're we're excited to see to see what you film, what you come out with. I think you're quite the advocate for riding in Japan. And I know uh I know it's on my list to go back and actually bring my driver's permit this time and not uh and not screw that up because it's very hard to get one. It's actually impossible to get one as a foreigner. So that's uh that's a whole nother story. But yeah, thanks so much for sharing your story. Hopefully you can come back after you've finished this journey, yeah, and maybe tell us. Uh tell us what you've you've uncovered in your uh in your new home country.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:04

Yeah, I'd look forward to it. That'd be awesome. Yeah, it's uh Yeah, we'll see if we see how I make it. See if I do come back. You're gonna make it.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:12

Yeah, it's gonna be it's not an easy road, no, but uh, but you're gonna make it. That's for sure. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:18

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Hey cannonballers, thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buymeacoffee.com. Or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA. We'll list it on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes. Now, back to the riveting podcast in progress.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

And we are back. Nice one. That was a really good interview. I think that you um just uh a comment on your interview style is that it doesn't seem like interviews, it seems like you're just having a conversation, even though I know because of the communications that we've had about the setup when we want to actually get through and understand a common theme and try to get information that has a a shared thread throughout question session, if you will. But it really sounds natural and um it is, it's just conversational and you're really you make it seem really easy now. And I it's not easy just for those listeners out there. It's like, uh, hang up and have it hang out and have a chat. But there's a lot of work and resource that goes into it to actually make it sound like that way. So good job.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:45

Yeah, and I actually won't talk to people unless we're prepared. Like I won't waste people's time. I think it's I think it's offensive when you hear people on other podcasts like rolling cold, they've done no background. I just think it's offensive, right? Like these people are artists, they're creators, they're yeah, important people in our community or in whatever community they're in. We have to respect that. And, you know, they come in, they're coming on the podcast and giving up their time. You think about how little time people have. I can't even get someone to spend 99 cents on an ebook and it takes six seconds. And these people are taking an hour out of their day plus a setup to talk to us. I won't waste their time, is what I'm trying to say.

Taylor's Interview Follow Up

SPEAKER_02 1:08:27

And we don't. So that's one of the things that we um we do pride ourselves on. So some some of my takeaways that I thought were interesting. One of them is uh is that let me uh I'll get to what I the the big point I'm gonna save until the end that I thought was great. But one of the similarities that really stuck out for me is he said he'll rock up to a campsite. First of all, he's so nice, right? He's super approachable in any language, right? Japanese or or English, whether you speak with a Tennessee accent or an Australian accent, um, super nice. And he said he'll he'll he'll turn up at a campsite or turn up anywhere, and people come up and start talking to him before he's taking his helmet off and they're speaking Japanese to him. And he starts responding in Japanese, and then he gets his helmet off, and they're like, they're like shocked, like, well, how is it they're speaking Japanese to me? You're not Japanese. Um, so the language is quite cool. It reminded me when Elspeth, we talked to Elspeth Beard, and she talked about her travels, and she said, and it was also in her book, she talked about she would go, and then people she cut her, she cut her hair short, and people didn't know that it was uh who they were talking to. They didn't know that it was a woman until she actually took her helmet off, which is a similar thing. I was like, oh, that sounds familiar, but um, it's also Queen Latifa. Queen Latifa loves to ride her Hayabusa and she rips through the city and she wears like a cat suit and she's like, nobody knows it's me. And it's all this anonymity that hides behind the helmet, which is kind of a underlying theme here. I thought was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:52

That's awesome. I didn't know that about Elspeth. She actually just sent me a selfie and she's she's holding my book. So I was like, that's really cool. Yeah, I was a little starstruck that she uh sent me a selfie with you know, with my stupid book holding it up was awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

Your book is quite cool, so give yourself some credit here. Um one of the things I thought was neat, um, that was neat is that is in his story, he first of all, his wife bought him a CB350R, or he bought him a little a little Honda, right? And and um I thought that was cool that she was really a promoter of like, let's go do this. And I think one of the things that came from that is she spent a lot of her life riding motorcycles around when she was young. She spent a lot of time all around in Asia. So she was very uh very pro two-wheel adventure. And uh she got cancer. And then what he didn't really come forward with that he came uh that that showed up in his in his videos, he's like, and within no time, she made cancer her bitch. Uh and then so she beat it, and then she said to him, You too, you should go out and and and do this adventure and go take this and go. So he first he wrote lobster claw and truce around uh in his area on uh on south southern uh Japan. And then uh he came to this idea that I'd like to see more of this. And he came back and she was like, Life is now, go do it. And she was absolutely 100% behind him and supporting him to go do it. And that's fantastic. Like, life is now, go have it, go do it, get it.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:22

Another important point that she said was why are we saving all this money for later? She's like, I literally almost died. The same thing can happen to you, let's stop saving this money for tomorrow when it is today. Not to be fully irresponsible, but you know, this guy's doing it on the cheap, right? Like he's camping and buying a can of beer, so let's not turn it into this. He's not staying at the four seasons each night, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

Yeah, it's not pulling Aaron.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:53

No, and uh yeah, used to be anyways. Yeah. I wish I could stay at the four. I haven't been in this four seasons in years. I miss that place.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:02

Wait, let's go back to Adam. Come on, back to Adam.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:04

Yeah, so yeah, more about less about me, more about Adam. Yeah. So he's doing it on on a reasonable frugal budget, but he's doing it, and I'm so envious of that uh relationship and mindset. And some of us should should maybe uh learn that lesson. Uh, and that's and that's for sure. I realize we all have different r responsibilities, but in his particular case, he's chosen that path, and I'm really envious that he's done that.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:31

Yeah, good for him. The other it's interesting. The other day when I was at the uh studio recording the forward for the audiobook, um, so I went in and I had uh I took off my like you know dress clothes for um for work and I put on a cannonball shirt and I went in before I went to the studio and put an in the on the wall there was a picture that someone had uh taped up on a A4R letter, letter-sized piece of paper, and it said, What would you do if you weren't afraid? And I was like, that's a great question. Let that sit there for a minute with you.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:10

No, I refuse.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

Yeah, I know it's terrifying, terrifying. Let me rephrase. What would you do if you weren't terrified? Is that better?

SPEAKER_07 1:13:20

I don't know. I need one more beer and let's talk about it. Fair enough. And just one more thing about Adam. He is setting off to do the last few prefectures. And in the show notes, there is a link if you'd like to support him. So if you can just throw the guy five bucks or five hundred bucks, please click on that link and support him.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:41

Yeah, it's uh so he's he has now he's got six months of riding ahead of him.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:46

Six amazing months of riding ahead of him. I'm so jealous because the season is getting started. Yeah, fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:51

I love that, I love the in the final part of the interview that he talked about. He has um he's he's gonna miss his dogs. He missed his wife, obviously, and he's gonna miss his dogs because he's got one that's a new that's fairly fairly young, and he's got one that's got um dementia, and it made me think about your dog.

Aaron's Ride Outs - The Back of the Dragon

SPEAKER_07 1:14:08

Made you think about me? Your dog, your dog, Taylor. Oh my god, this poor dog. I don't know. Let's just hope he grows up a little bit. But anyways, let's uh let's move to Aaron's rideouts. It's another easy one this week. But if you find yourself on East Coast in uh the Appalachians, make sure you go to the back of the dragon, not the tail of the dragon, but the back of the dragon. And if you go there at the end of the day, uh the back of the dragon is a brewery. Uh they have some food trucks, it is a touchstone in in that area on 16, and you can ride around there for days and days and days. So today's uh ride out is back of the dragon, and there's a link in the show notes. You can click and get a map and comprehensive information to all my ride recommendations.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

Very nice. And uh, and with that, what do you say we uh roll out a little bit of A D V Cannonball News?

SPEAKER_07 1:15:12

Yes, and we're gonna make this a short episode today, so we're gonna rip through this.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Okay, I promise. I'll do my best.

ADV Cannonball Rally News

SPEAKER_07 1:15:19

All right. I'm talking to myself here. Yeah. So the Pacific Coast Highway opened up. We already talked about that. Uh, but parts closed down again, but they've reopened. I'm not sure what's going on. So screw it, we're just going to reroute. Because in the fine tradition of the ADV cannonball rally, if it has been published as a route or a checkpoint, it will forever be a checkpoint. So it's up to you if you want to get them or not.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:47

Just to be clear, when you say you're gonna reroute this, you're meaning you're gonna reroute it through the Pacific Coast Highway through that big sur area.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:55

Absolutely, yeah. Thank you. It's gonna go through Pacific Coast Highway, through the old coast. I've got some amazing, uh difficult paved and unpaved checkpoints. I've got two really awesome paved checkpoints. I'm not gonna spoil them, but they're awesome. Uh they're both extreme, so you don't have to get them. Okay. Anyways, I've rerouted it. If something happens, something happens. But I can't keep changing the route based on closure. So we've just we've just rooted it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:26

What do you say we talk about? Some new signups. And that is your wheelhouse, sir. I will take it from here. Here we are. We gotta talk about two rallies. Gotta title them first so we know we're not getting them confused. Here we go. New signups. 2027 European ADD Cannonball Rally. Travel on Torque from Dortmund, Germany. They're riding two up on a 1250 GSA. Bogerser, 21, from the Principality of Liechtenstein on the 1250 GSA. Now over to the Americas, 2026 Americas, Slowride from Nixon, Missouri on a 1300 GSA. Waitlisted. Luke Chanowski from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on his T7. Joins his teammate Chief JB from Shawnee, Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:23

Yeah, welcome guys. Thanks so much for signing up. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:27

What do we have on the next podcast, Aaron?

SPEAKER_07 1:17:29

So we're gonna talk about riding gear, all the new riding gear you and I bought, and we are gonna have Candyman Cam. He is a YouTuber, and people will know him because he just had an accident. And we're gonna unpack the accident. Why I am shocked by his injuries, and why I am impressed with his honesty. And rather than just talking about riding gear and having opinions about it, we're gonna talk about riding gear and then talk about someone who just went through something. Okay. It may be isolated data, but data nonetheless. We'll get some real world feedback from someone who just went through some traumatic experience.

Music - Devil Rides (Seattle Mix)

SPEAKER_02 1:18:09

Yeah, absolutely. And with that, I believe we should uh roll some Devil Rides music.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:15

Yeah, man. We got Devil Ride is today's song, and it's a great story about this dude in Seattle who shortchanged his drug dealer and he takes off to Las Vegas, and they're gonna have a showdown in Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:31

That sounds good. I look forward to hearing that one. And with that, sir, roll the outro.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:38

Heard a ninja moaning about a quarter past three. Said I heard it moaning about a quarter past three. Something on two wheels coming straight for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:49

All hell the algorithm gods. A special thanks to our Patreon supporters. You're keeping this dig and chip afloat. Thanks for listening to the ABV Cannonball Podcast. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the peg.