I had the incredibly good fortune of joining Tetsuya Yamamoto and his team at ‘Ride Experience’ on the Trans-Tohouku bike tour of Japan, a 900km ride from Tokyo up to Aomori, the northern tip of the Honshu Island of Japan.
The route included the most amazing mountain climbs, descents through bear-tracked forests, rides along farm tracks criss-crossing rice field valleys and endless, glorious, switch-backs. We rode past historic shrines, through ancient woods, visited famous shrines, ate in gourmet restaurants, bathed in natural hot springs and experienced the cultural heritage of Japan that no ordinary traveller would.
Even as an experienced rider who’d lived in Japan for 5 years, it was, without exaggeration, a truly epic experience.
It was a sole-discovering, life-changing journey on two wheels.
I’d arrived back in Tokyo feeling alive and healthier than ever.
