Reflections after 1000km

I am currently eating popcorn and drinking what we’ve come to call “frog beer,” one of my favorite beers we’ve found in the local konbinis. It tastes like an IPA but is a little lighter than your standard West Coast IPA. It’s been a long rest day, and though I spent more than six hours working on my bike, we still found time to eat three incredibly tasty meals and make some new friends. It’s now 11:08 PM, and we’ll be setting off on our final week of biking tomorrow at 5:00 AM.

We had the pleasure of staying at a beautiful guesthouse in Akita for our rest day, and it was everything we had hoped for. We arrived yesterday just before sunset and were kindly welcomed with green tea and cookies in a warm home surrounded by gardens, farms, and hills covered in fall colours. Our room has tatami mats on the floors, and we have a balcony overlooking the gardens. We’d talked about staying in a ryokan-style place for the entire trip, and this guesthouse checks quite a few of the boxes, with a home focused on tranquility, hospitality, and community.

It was exactly what we were looking for. It was our first rest day without getting on the bikes, a nice change of pace from our usual forward motion. Although we’ve had other rest days, we always seem to hop on our bikes to do laundry, grab groceries, visit a bike shop, or check out local sights. But today we stayed put and soaked in the sun. Unfortunately, my bike had a few more issues than expected while changing the shifting cables and housing, but I managed to sort most of it out. We’ve had our fair share of fixes over the past week, including flat tires, a broken rack, and now a jammed barrel adjuster. With a bit of creativity and ingenuity, we’ve figured them all out for now and will be rolling forward tomorrow.

While at the guesthouse in Akita, we met some great people. We’re currently enjoying beers and popcorn with You Xuan (or Yoshi), who is traveling through Japan for two weeks from Singapore. He’s been to Japan a few times and has been great company tonight while chatting about past travels, countries around the world, and life in Singapore.

It’s been such a pleasure to share meals with others as we travel north to Hokkaido, and each person has brought their own story to the table. We shared lunch with Ryota, a scientist studying different varieties of strawberries in a greenhouse on the guesthouse property. We invited him to dinner last night, and I cheffed up some tasty burritos with fresh guacamole, a meal made complete with a can of beans we were given by a Couchsurfing host in Tsuruoka. He kindly offered a Takoyaki party for lunch today in exchange, one of my favorite Japanese foods. It was so fun to learn how to make Takoyaki (tako means octopus and yaki means grilled) while learning more about the region we’ve been traveling through.

Each prefecture has shown its own unique beauty. Nagano was mountains. Niigata was coastline and farmland. Yamagata was brief, but we passed by the incredible Mt. Chokai. Now we’re in Akita, a mix of mountains, coastline, and bears. I had a brief but rather alarming encounter with a mother bear and two cubs alongside the road. I only caught a glimpse of the cubs, but the growl was without a doubt from the mother protecting her family. We promptly bought bear bells and attached them to our pedals afterward, figuring they’d make the most noise while we rode. Since then, we’ve been extremely bear-aware and doing everything we can to cycle safely.

With so many adventures in the last week, I thought I’d bullet-point a few that came to mind as Jared and I reflected:

• First 100 km day, ending with an incredible onsen.

• The Teradomari Fish Market, where I ate an entire fish on a stick.

• 88 km day after only 3 hours of sleep, following our Halloween outing.

• First Couchsurfing experience, one of Jared’s goals from the start, where our host Limary and her friend Tintin treated us to homemade okonomiyaki.

• Lots of bike maintenance, including three flat tires on Jared’s bike and a broken rack mount. Thankfully, we repaired it with parts from a hōmusentā (home center) and got back on the road.

• An incredible waterfall just off the coast. Unfortunately, it was followed by a road-closed sign that forced a detour, which turned into a magical jungle ride that left us in awe

• Bear encounter, hopefully the only one.

• Crushing it along the coast. We had mostly tailwind for five days, which helped us stay on schedule for our final destination.

• Jumping in the ocean, one of my goals from the start.

• Spicy chili on the beach with a random camper who shared his chips and beers.

• Three hamburgers each, with a pound of fries. Enough said…

• Spring rolls at the visitor center and camping in the rain.

• Lots of wet days. Thankfully, our last few were sunny, but we’ve definitely done our time riding in the rain.

• Beautiful fall colours. We dove into the season headfirst and have been watching the leaves change every day.

• Living it up, from onsens with sunset views to delicious meals and tailwind gusts shooting us through tunnels as if we were launched from a cannon; we’ve been doing well.

We’re now off for the final quarter of our trip and are thrilled to be approaching our last prefectures, Aomori and Hokkaido. We plan to roll into Sapporo after about 1,700 km and 30 days of traveling on November 14, 2025. Between here and there, we’ve got three biking days to Aomori, a ferry to Hakodate in Hokkaido, and four days north to Sapporo, likely passing by the ski resort where I’ll be working in Niseko (weather permitting). I’m stoked to complete our journey and start the next chapter in Japan, working in Niseko, but it’s a bittersweet feeling knowing this incredible bike trip with Jared is nearing its end. Wish us luck on our final week!