Are you thinking about joining our annual Journey to the East Cycling Tour through South Korea & Japan? It is always important to check out the reviews from riders who have previous done the tour so here you go…

Registration for the 2027 Journey to the East (Limited Space) & the 2028 Journey to the East is now open.

“A perfect journey to the east: geography-nature-history-culture and last but not least comradeship and a work out.” –  Annegrete Warrer (Denmark)

“The Journey to the East was an eye opener in so many respects. It revealed the beauty of the Korean and Japanese cultures and landscapes previously unknown to me. This was a result of the excellent choice of routes, regular exposure cultrual sites, local food, hotels and informative briefings by the staff. The tour leader and staff were excellent in their support of the riders. They were able to help mold us into a group with a positive identity who enjoyed each others company and cared for one another. This a must for riders who enjoy the challenge of an expedition and revel in discovery of new vistas.”
– Vince Waite (USA)

“Excellent scenery & variety; top notch organization particularly tour logistics; professional staff, especially the tour leader and local support in Japan (shout out to Kazu).” – Peter Donkers (Canada)

“It’s a great way to see Japan and exercise at the same time. This also means that you can try all of the different cuisines on offer as you burn up the calories riding. I loved the camaraderie between the riders and the support crew. We had a wonderful group of caring, fun-loving people who were great to spend time with.” – Andrea Zwerling (Australia)

>>Related Post: Journey to the East Rider Reviews: “Everything I Hoped For And More!”

“A beautiful experience.” – Gary Matey (USA)

“Loved the tour. What’s better than riding a hard day and then getting into an onsen to relax your muscles, followed by a fabulous meal. Mix that with a no drama, great group of people and an excellent cohesive staff and you get an amazing tour. Very different than the camping tours I have done before and no less amazing.” – Peggy Schrieber (USA)

“Totally up to my high expectations! Thanks to all those who were involved in making it happen ☀️.” – Sylvie Vachon (Canada)

“Great trip – a wonderful introduction to different cultures and countries. A fascinating “thin cut” through varied landscapes and places. Polite courteous and helpful people – even when/if we didn’t understand each other. Well led and supported – leaving us to enjoy the day at the variety of speeds chosen.” – Grant Duncan (UK)

“Despite all great information leading into tour I still commenced with much trepidation, unsure whether I would or could undertake the daily riding. Fantastic! my legs did come to the party (at my pace)!! Bonus too was enjoying culture, food and the riding and socializing other riders.” -Giselle Whish (Australia)

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Arjuna Boucher-Pertuisot was the Content Creator on the 2026 Journey to the East Cycling Tour.

After thousands of kilometres, countless bowls of rice, endless vending machines, ferry crossings, mountain climbs, quiet roads, busy cities, and more than a few well-earned onsen, the Journey to the East has officially reached its final destination: Sapporo, Japan.

What began in the energetic streets of Seoul became much more than a cycling tour. It became a moving community between riders, staff, bikes, duffel bags, snack stops, laundry missions, early mornings, tired legs, and unforgettable views. For Sheila Morehouse, the tour was a chance to discover two countries at the perfect speed. “The Tour d’Afrique helped me confirm that biking is the perfect speed and manner in which to explore a country. Japan and Korea were complete unknowns to me, so this seemed like a great opportunity to learn a lot in a really granular way.” For Vince Waite, the journey was also about challenging expectations. “I came here to challenge myself with another expedition tour, and to challenge my stereotypes of Japan.” And for many riders, that is exactly what the tour became: a chance to move through South Korea and Japan slowly enough to notice the details: one climb, one meal, one ferry, one convenience store stop, and one unexpected conversation at a time.

The Challenge of the Road

The Journey to the East was beautiful, but it was not always gentle. There were long riding days, steep climbs, changing weather, city transfers, ferries, and the daily challenge of waking up and doing it all again. Riders had to adapt constantly.. to new roads, new countries, new food, new routines, and sometimes to legs that were clearly asking for a rest day. But this is also what makes the wins feel even bigger. For Giselle, each day came with its own uncertainty, but also its own reward. “Every day I thought I was not sure I would be able to ride every day, let alone complete the hills. Most proud to finish and think of the ‘mountains’ as only hills.”

Vince also found himself changing through the climbs. “Steep ascents previously created anxiety for me, and I came to look forward to them.” That is the magic of a long tour. A climb becomes a hill. A hard day becomes a story. A fear becomes something you know how to ride through. For Sheila, the challenge was not only physical. It was also about letting go a little. “I’m proud of overcoming some of my Point A to B tendency, choosing love over EFI, and getting up the climbs.” Some riders were chasing every kilometre. Some were chasing the experience. Most were trying to find their own balance between the two.

The Moments Along the Way

There were plenty of big highlights: arriving in Busan, seeing Mount Fuji on a clear day, cycling through the Japanese countryside, reaching Hokkaido, and finishing near Lake Shikotsu before rolling into Sapporo. But the small moments may be the ones people remember most. A perfect lunch stop. A quiet road through rice fields. A surprise view after a climb. A convenience store snack that saved the energy. A shared table at dinner. A joke that somehow lasted for weeks. A rider overcoming a challenge they were not sure they could complete.

When asked about her favourite moments, Sheila did not choose just one. “Every downhill was an amazing multi-sensory experience. Every single little kid I played with, every single onsen — for better or worse — and being able to ride with Vince this time around were all favourite moments.” For Vince, one of the best parts of the tour was also one of the simplest. “My favourite moment was riding with Sheila and matching our very different styles of riding so that we could stay together.” And Giselle found her favourite memories in the shared rhythm of the group. “Riding with our ‘tribe’ through the many gorgeous winding paths, with canopy over the road, lakes, mountains, and gorges.” In the end, a tour like this is not remembered as one single highlight. It is remembered as hundreds of little moments that slowly become something much bigger.

Two Countries, Many Surprises

South Korea and Japan offered two very different but equally memorable chapters. In Korea, riders found smooth bike paths, riverside riding, busy cities, and a cycling culture that made moving through the country feel easy and exciting. Vince remembered Korea for “the amazing bike paths”, while Giselle was struck by how polite, respectful, and shared the country felt.

Japan brought a new rhythm. The tour moved through islands, mountains, forests, fishing towns, rice fields, temples, shrines, hot spring towns, and some truly impressive hotel dinners. One day might include a tough climb in cold weather, and the next might end with riders walking around in the traditional clothing yukata, before a multi-course meal. For Vince, experiencing Japan completely changed the way he viewed the country. “Japan has literally broken all my stereotypes. I have found it to be a loving, kind place of magnificent beauty.”

A Tour Built by People

Of course, no tour like this happens by accident. Behind every riding day was a team of staff working early mornings, late evenings, and all the hours in between. Bags had to be moved. Routes had to be pre-checked. Lunch had to be made. Hotels had to be ready. Riders needed answers, support, encouragement, and sometimes just a calm voice saying, ‘Yes, you’re going the right way.’ The staff were at all time the invisible engine behind the journey, but the riders brought the magic.

Some brought humour, others their wisdom. Some brought unstoppable climbing legs, others contributed with their excellent snack strategies. And many brought stories from past tours. Together, they created the spirit of the trip. As Sheila put it, one of the things she will miss the most is: “Our cool, quirky group — riders and staff — overeating to try every new food and drink, and the freedom to just ride and explore.” Giselle echoed the same feeling: “I’ll miss the camaraderie and freedom that comes with every day riding.” That freedom was everywhere on Journey to the East. It was in the open roads, the daily discoveries, and the rare simplicity of having one main job each day: ride your bike and see what happens.

What We Take With Us

At the end of a journey like this, it is easy to talk about the goals achieved: distances we passed, destinations that were reached, and elevation that was climbed. Those numbers matter, but they do not tell the full story. The real story is in the people. It is in the rider who overcame more than they ever thought they would. The friendships built over shared ups and downs. The jokes that only makes sense to the people who lived them. The comfort of miso soup, ramen, onsen’s, and, as Giselle reminded us, automatic toilets.

The Journey to the East was not just about crossing South Korea and Japan by bike. It was about discovering what happens when a group of people commits to moving forward together, one stage at a time. From Seoul to Sapporo, it was one incredible ride.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Arjuna Boucher-Pertuisot is the Content Creator on the 2026 Journey to the East Cycling Tour.

A riding day in Japan has its own rhythm, and by now the Journey to the East crew knows it well.

Most mornings begin around 7:45 with bag loading first, then breakfast, then the slow migration toward the bikes. Bottles are filled, GPS devices are checked, snacks disappear into jersey pockets, and riders gather outside the hotel in various states of readiness. Some are alert. Some are still negotiating with their coffee. Someone is usually looking for a missing glove, charger, sunglasses or snack that was definitely “right here a second ago.” And if history is any guide, there is a fair chance someone will leave with a hotel key still in a jersey pocket, leaving Kazu, our local support legend, to arrange its return.

Then, somehow, everyone rolls out.

That is one of the funny things about a TDA tour. No matter how scattered the morning feels, the group eventually finds the road.

In Japan, the first kilometres often arrive gently. A few turns out of town and the noise fades. The route slips between rice fields, follows rivers, climbs into forested hills, or passes through small villages where everything looks tidy enough to make you feel underdressed on a bicycle.

Shrines and temples appear without warning. Sometimes they are tucked under trees. Sometimes they sit beside the road so quietly that you almost ride past them before realizing what you have just seen. Japan rewards riders who pay attention, but it also rewards riders who stop often, take pictures, and pretend the photo break had nothing to do with needing a breather.

Some days, the mountains arrive early. The climbs in Japan are not always long, but they can be sharp enough to end a conversation mid-sentence. The group stretches out quickly. Some riders settle into a steady rhythm. Some stand on the pedals. Some stop to admire the view. Some stop to admire the view several times. At the top, the heavy breathing becomes laughter. Someone says, “That wasn’t so bad,” usually after saying the opposite for the last thirty minutes.

Then comes the descent, and suddenly everyone remembers why they like cycling. Japan can be hard on the legs, but it is generous with the rewards.

It is also very good at snacks. A 7-Eleven. A Lawson. A FamilyMart. A vending machine beside a quiet country road. These stops have become part of the day’s culture. For cyclists, Japanese convenience stores are less ‘quick stop’ and more ‘mini expedition.’ Cold green tea, iced coffee, onigiri, steamed buns, sandwiches, pastries, sports drinks, jelly packets, salty snacks, sweet snacks, mystery snacks, and drinks with labels that make you take a leap of faith. Everyone develops a strategy. Some riders stay loyal to one chain. Others test everything. One person swears by onigiri. Another becomes emotionally attached to canned coffee. Someone else walks out with a snack they cannot identify but is willing to defend.

Lunch is the official reset point of the day. TDA staff set up somewhere along the route, and riders arrive in small groups. Shoes come off. Bottles are refilled. Plates are built. The morning gets replayed in fragments: the climb, the quiet road, the temple, the tunnel, the convenience store discovery, and the rider who somehow always leaves late but still arrives early.

After lunch, the day has a different personality. The legs are warmer, sometimes heavier, and the hotel starts to feel like a real destination rather than an abstract promise. Some afternoons keep us deep in the countryside, surrounded by rivers, hills and small villages. Others begin to hint at what is coming: wider roads, larger train stations, more traffic, more buildings.

That contrast has been one of the most memorable parts of Japan.

For days, the group can feel wrapped in calm: mountain roads, forested valleys, temples, hot baths, quiet dinners. Then, almost suddenly, Japan begins to change. The roads widen, the train stations grow, the traffic thickens, and the countryside starts handing the day over to the city.

For both Kyoto and Tokyo, the final arrival came by bus transfer rather than riding all the way into the centre. It was a practical decision — safer, smoother, and probably much better for everyone’s blood pressure. After days of quiet roads, narrow tunnels and mountain villages, sitting in transit while the city built itself around us felt like a strange kind of re-entry.

Kyoto felt layered and graceful even from the approach. Tokyo was another beast entirely: trains, towers, lights, crowds, speed, scale. The same country that gave us silent mountain roads also gives us one of the largest urban worlds on earth.

And between those two worlds, there was Mount Fuji. Fuji does not always show up when you want it to. Clouds can hide it completely. Weather can erase it. So when the sky opened and we saw it completely clear, it felt like the rare celebrity sighting of the section. Riders stopped. Cameras came out. Conversations paused. No one needed to say much. Fuji did the talking.

The riding gives Japan its structure, but the evenings have been their own adventure too. In many hotels, the day ends with a routine that feels very far from sweaty cycling clothes: shoes off, yukata on, and everyone slowly transforming from tired riders into slightly confused but very comfortable hotel guests. The yukata has become part of the daily theatre. After a big ride, there is something funny and perfect about seeing the same people who were grinding up climbs a few hours earlier now shuffling through the hallway in matching robes and slippers, trying to remember which side folds over which.

Then comes dinner.

Some nights, it feels less like a meal and more like a ceremony. Dish after dish arrives at the table: fish, soups, rice, vegetables, pickles, small plates, local specialties, things we recognize, and things we politely study before eating. The presentation is careful, the service is calm, and the table slowly fills until riders are eating like Japanese kings and queens.

Of course, honesty belongs in the story too. After enough mornings of fish, rice, pickles and soup, more than a few riders have admitted they would happily welcome a simple continental breakfast. Toast. Eggs. Fruit. Coffee. Nothing complicated. Just breakfast that does not require interpretation before a big climb.

Thankfully, Japan also gives us the onsen. At the end of a long riding day, the onsen may be the closest thing to a group miracle. Park the bike. Lock it. Find the room. Wash the cycling kit. Rinse off the road. Put on the yukata. Then follow the signs to the baths and step into hot water until the day starts to loosen its grip.

After big climbs, warm roads and hours in the saddle, the onsen changes everything. It turns fatigue into quiet. It makes the hard parts feel less dramatic. It gives riders a few minutes where there is nothing to fix, nowhere to go, and no kilometres left to count.

By evening, the familiar TDA routine returns. Rider meeting. Dinner. Route notes for tomorrow. Devices charging beside the bed. Cycling kit laid out. Snacks moved into jersey pockets. Bags packed as much as possible before sleep. Then lights out, often earlier than anyone would admit back home.

A day cycling in Japan is not built from one big moment. It is made from dozens of small ones: the morning bag shuffle, a climb through trees, a shrine beside the road, convenience store confusion, lunch in the shade, Mount Fuji appearing through clear sky, a yukata after the ride, a multi-course dinner, an onsen after a hard day, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing we get to do it all again tomorrow.

The kilometres matter. The climbs matter too. But what stays with us is the rhythm: ride, eat, climb, snack, soak, sleep, repeat.

And somehow, in Japan, that simple routine feels like a pretty good way to see a country.

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While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Arjuna Boucher-Pertuisot is the Content Creator on the 2026 Journey to the East Cycling Tour.

South Korea was never going to be just a warm-up for Japan.

For many riders on Journey to the East, the Korean section began with curiosity and a few assumptions: Seoul, skyscrapers, skincare, K-pop, perhaps some excellent food. What followed between Seoul and Busan was more layered than that. Over several days, the group rode through riverside parks, quiet farming valleys, mountain passes, coastal towns and city corridors where bicycles seemed to have been considered from the very beginning.

The first surprise was the cycling itself.

Leaving Seoul, the route quickly found the Han River and settled into a rhythm that would define much of the Korean section: smooth bike paths, clear markings, bridges built with cyclists in mind, and regular access to toilets, cafés, convenience stores and rest areas. This was not cycling squeezed into the margins of a road system. It often felt like its own system entirely.

Annegrete, who has ridden many long-distance tours around the world, put it simply, “The cycling infrastructure is in a class of its own.”

That became one of the recurring conversations at lunch stops and dinner tables. Riders noticed how the paths moved through the country without feeling separate from it. One moment the group was rolling beside apartment towers and city parks; a little later the same path would open onto rice paddies, rivers, low mountains and small towns. Even near major urban areas, the bike routes often kept a sense of calm.

South Korea also carried its history close to the road. Along the Han River, riders passed concrete military structures facing north, quiet reminders that the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. In other places, monuments and historical markers appeared beside otherwise peaceful landscapes. It gave the ride an unusual contrast: a country that can feel highly modern and organized, while still living beside unresolved history.

Then came the climbs.

The route south was not only river paths and smooth pavement. Around Suanbo, Andong and the inland mountain sections, the group began to work harder. Some climbs arrived early in the day. Others came after riders had already settled into the idea that the route might be gentle. The historic Mungyeongsaejae pass offered one of those moments where the ride became more than a transfer between towns. It was a reminder that this peninsula has always been crossed by people moving between regions, capitals, markets and homes.

Not everyone climbed at the same speed. Not everyone rode every kilometre. That is part of the nature of a TDA tour. One rider summed it up well after a tough day toward Busan, “Everyone does this at their own speed and comfort level. Nobody is keeping score.”

That attitude shaped the Korean section. Some riders chased the climbs. Some stopped often for photos. Some took time to notice trees, temples, graves, bus stops, cats, snacks, or the small details that are easy to miss when the group is moving quickly.

Food became another way into the country.

Korean dining can feel generous before you even know what you have ordered. Tables fill with small dishes: kimchi, pickled vegetables, soups, rice, sauces, greens, seafood, noodles, grilled meat. There were Korean barbecue nights, with marbled beef cooked at the centre of the table. There was pheasant in Suanbo, served in more ways than most riders had ever imagined. In Andong, some riders found their way to jjimdak, the braised chicken dish the city is known for.

Breakfast also became part of the experience. Rice, broth, vegetables, seaweed, pickled radish, fish cake and gimbap-style spreads appeared in the morning, sometimes long before Western appetites had fully adjusted. For some riders, it was a welcome change. For others, it took a few days of negotiation with the stomach.

Then the route turned toward the coast and arrived in Yeongdeok, where the crab theme announced itself before dinner did. Crab signs, crab sculptures and crab-shaped details began appearing around town. By the time the group reached the harbour, there was no doubt about the local specialty.

Dinner that night became one of the memorable meals of the section: a long seafood spread with crab at the centre, joined by sashimi, shrimp and other dishes that kept arriving until the table ran out of space. It was the kind of meal that makes people linger longer than planned.

As Britton wrote after that evening, “This is one of the reasons we travel, to eat what this place actually eats, to sit at a table and be surprised by what arrives.”

Those surprises were not only on the plate.

Korea kept offering small, specific details: apple-shaped bus stops in apple country, crab-themed bus stops near the coast, outdoor exercise stations filled with older residents, men gathered over board games beside the river, spotless public toilets in unlikely places, and convenience stores stocked with enough drinks and snacks to rescue almost any tired cyclist.

One rider described the Korean bike trails as being “woven into the cities,” paths that could feel like nature even when urban life was nearby. That may be one of the best descriptions of the section. Korea rarely made riders choose between city and landscape. The two kept appearing together.

The final approach into Busan brought the section to a fitting close. After the last hills, the route dropped toward sea level and followed the river into the city. The path lifted at times above the water, with fishermen below and thickening trees around the edges. Then the scale changed. Bridges, port cranes, container ships, glass towers and traffic all appeared, and the group entered one of Asia’s great harbour cities.

It was a big ending, but not a loud one. The bikes were loaded, riders folded into vehicles, and the Korean section suddenly became something behind us rather than ahead.

The next chapter would be Japan. But South Korea left its own clear mark: in the river paths, the climbs, the shared meals, the crab shells, the barbecue smoke, the quiet memorials, and the feeling that this country had given the group much more than a passage from Seoul to Busan.

For riders, the question now is not only what Japan will bring.

It is also what parts of Korea will stay with them once the wheels start turning again.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

The Journey to the East Cycling Tour is fast becoming one of our most popular adventures and the riders who cycled Korea and Japan earlier this year are eager to share the reasons why this route is so desirable.

The 2026 ride is currently sold out but we are accepting names for a waitlist. We have recently added a 2027 Journey to the East to our calendar as well as the previously scheduled 2028 departure.

“TDA’s Journey to the East was everything I hoped for and more. There were so many unexpected pleasures like the world class bike paths, hilltop apple shop and stunningly gorgeous Ice Canyon descent in South Korea, and the joy of exploring random roadside shrines, discovering the 88 Temple Pilgrimage on Shikoku, and cold plunging in the Sea of Japan in northern Japan. Best of all were the spicy rides and great group of fellow riders.” – Karen t’Kint de Roodenbeke (USA)

“For me, the tour struck the perfect balance—riding at my own pace without the pressure of finishing each day’s route by a set time. It gave me the freedom to enjoy the ride in my own headspace, knowing there was support if needed and then relax with the other riders over local cuisine at the end of each day.” – John Florin (Australia)

“The JTTE tour was a great way to experience South Korea and Japan: the culture, food, cities, people and physical environments. Our tour leader was exceptional, and the staff of 6 support people were wonderful.” – Stephen Growdon (USA)

“I really enjoyed the scenery and getting into the Korean and Japanese countryside. I loved the food. Thought the group meals were always served exceedingly fast and were often really nice too. Some of the Japanese meals were works of art.” – Patrick Wenning (USA)

“The tour was a wonderful way to experience the landscape, culture and people of South Korea and Japan. Travelling by bike you travel at your own pace, see, smell and hear things that you would not experience when cocooned in a motor vehicle. The meals were wonderful and gave an insight into both cultures. Hotels were conveniently located near sights and public transport. Fellow riders were a diverse group of interesting, inquisitive and friendly travellers. Staff were warm, welcoming, committed, approachable and professional.” – Richard Hughes (Australia)

“I thought our Nagasaki to Tokyo trip was epic and we just did one of three sections. The routes were spectacular; hard but beautiful. Even with participating in 18 of the 44 days of the full tour, I felt like I got a strong sense of Japanese geography, people and culture. All wonderful.” – Carolyn Harper (USA)

“A fantastic, but challenging, journey through fascinating lands and cultures! A window into a Korea and Japan that one cannot get to see on an ordinary tour, yet with enough time to visit all the top tourist destinations.” – Judith Gold (Canada)

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Camille Remi Kirby was the Content Creator on the 2025 Journey to the East Cycling Adventure.

It’s not until the very last day, right when you cross that finish line, when you’re about to box your bike back up to make the journey home, this thing that has become a part of your day to day existence – that’s when you realize you’ve been following a well paved, smooth ride of a daily routine. One that will cease to exist as you board a flight home, one that seemed so menial but is what got you through days of cycling in a foreign country. That’s what they don’t tell you — that a TDA tour is a lifestyle, one that only exists for a fleeting moment.

This year’s group of Journey to the East riders was made up of an equal mix of TDA alumni and TDA newbies, who have embraced that routine as if they’d been doing it for years. Choosing a cycling tour is one thing, but choosing a tour that spans two countries with notoriously challenging climbs with a group of international strangers is a whole other entity. Many of the new riders came expecting one thing, but left with completely new understandings of this type of cycling.

Jenny stops to check in with the float van on stage 27

Wes Rother, from outside of Vancouver, Canada, came into the trip feeling nervous, not only about shipping a bike halfway across the world but also about how one finds consistency in a trip where you’re constantly on the move. To his surprise, he found relief in the “camaraderie around the tour leader and the whiteboards.” He hadn’t expected to find solace in classroom-style whiteboards that are the holy grail of a TDA trip, and yet he did. (These whiteboards provide all the information for the day’s ride at the daily rider’s meeting as well as any information at the destination hotel at the end of the stage.) “At the end of the day, you need to know you’ll have bike brain and the whiteboards make sure you don’t miss a thing.”

“If you’re not in a routine, it’s going to bite you badly. You’re not going to be prepared for what are challenging days. After two to three weeks of cycling, your body starts to get into shape but you still need that routine to get your mind in shape,” says Wes. Orange flagging tape and those whiteboards became integral to ensuring that body and mind connection; they’re just what you need to see after a long day’s ride. The main thing Wes found unexpectedly?

American riders Karen d’Kint de Roodenbeke and Jenny Walker had both previously only done cycling trips within the USA, this being their first journey cycling in a foreign country. Jenny wished she had known how much the food would impact her day to day. “At no fault but my own lack of global knowledge.” For good and bad, many riders struggled with the Korean and Japanese breakfasts. “Fish for breakfast, fish for dinner. For some reason I didn’t expect such an intense cultural immersion.” As the weeks went on, supplementary breakfasts became the norm; fruit, yogurt and granola started becoming readily available as raw fish breakfasts were not working for a hundred kilometre days.

For Karen, it took her time to figure out how to not ride solo. “I still haven’t figured out how to ride with a group – that’s been a process I’m still working through.” She felt like “navigating the social game” of the trip was something she hadn’t been expecting to be a challenge, or at least a thing to navigate.

Karen d’Kint de Roodenbeke rides through rice paddies on stage 21

Another unexpected aspect of the trip for her, which was shared by many other riders, was that the highlights of the tour were actually not the ‘highlights’ such as Kyoto or Tokyo. Instead their greatest interaction with Japan happened everywhere in between; in the tiny towns, the shrines, the roadside coffee shop run by a single older woman. “That’s what the tour became about,” says Karen. There was a visible sigh of relief every time we rode out of a large city and back into the countryside, which is something not many of us had anticipated.

Many first-time TDA riders also found the notion of ‘independent travellers riding together’ to be unexpected, but refreshing. John Florin, from Australia, and Jenny both remarked that they hadn’t expected to feel the freedom to set a pace for themselves and not be pushed into a mandatory ride in the van or made to feel like they were lagging. Jenny enjoyed setting a goal for herself everyday. “I’m just going to go as far as I can go,” something that she hadn’t expected would be a perfectly acceptable way to journey with a group.

As the Journey to the East closes its doors on 2025, this group of TDA newbies can be proud of the fact that they’ve completed a journey not many can say they have taken, and they did so by embracing the unknown, jumping into a group of strangers they now call friends and pushing themselves into a whole new lifestyle and routine; one that they’ve made their own as they officially join the TDA global community.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Camille Remi Kirby is the Content Creator on the 2025 Journey to the East Cycling Adventure.

Upon posing the question of “what is your perfect day on a bike?” to 2025 Journey to the East rider Richard Hughes, from Australia, he simply replied “Well, yesterday would be a good contender.”

This “yesterday” he speaks of was our journey from Matsuyama to Kochi, two smaller cities connected by beautiful rolling green hills and river valleys. After days of rain and a canceled ride day due to a mini typhoon system, it was a glorious time to get back on the bike. As the riders navigated narrow roads covered with foliage, pristine water splashed down below from a rumbling river after days of rain. Each corner called for a sweeping new view of the river down below and a new puff of mist spreading over the hills. Yet still cold and rainy, those stop-for-a-picture lookouts seemed to keep the riders thrilled.

This question of one’s perfect day on a bike has become a hot topic on a tour that is plagued by rain and clouds. The term “perfect” had to be stripped away and reconsidered; every day we’ve had to embrace the elements that make cycling classically miserable. But it seems like TDA riders are cut of the same stone, at least on this specific trip and year. Every one can find something that made their ride day perfect, and not a single day has been deemed “not a great ride day.” Sure, it’s raining cold droplets, but herons have been flapping their wings beside me every kilometer or so – something like that makes up for the uncomfortableness.

The same goes for our climbing, which is steep and long. Going up means the better the view, so the theory stands that a good view point can make up for challenging riding. Richard says that sometimes it’s “just about the views.” Maybe these gorgeous outlooks possess a hidden sort of magic, as it’s hard to find a rider not smiling during a steep climb or in the pouring rain.

On a ride from Iya Valley in the mountains to Kotohira on the coast, we came across the Unpen-ji Temple, number 66 on the 88-temple Shikoku Pilgrimage, a trip that takes Buddhists by foot to visit these temples dispersed across Shikoku island. To visit the temple, riders had to climb an additional 800 meters off track, in the cold and the heavy fog. Despite the conditions, almost every rider did the extra climb. They walked the ground of the temple hidden away in dense foggy forest, getting soaked but enjoying it. Stops like these energize the riders, feeding off of the magic of Buddhist temples and spiritual sites. Catherine Hodges, from New Zealand, put it this way: “You end the ride with more energy than you started with.”

Another Journey to the East rider from the U.S., Brian Rodgers, looks for a narrow track with no false summits as his perfect day of riding. A mix of shade and sun will do it for him.

Jenny Walker, from the U.S. too, is here to see Japan but not necessarily determined to ride every kilometer of it. Her perfect day is one that pushes her out of her comfort zone, pushes her one more kilometer then she’s used too. If she can get half way up the main ascent, that’s a win. She is simply enjoying her time in this miraculous, gorgeous hilly country. She wanted to see Japan and knew traveling via bike would be the best way, so for her every day she’s riding is the perfect day.

Sure, every day isn’t perfect. Flat tires have been had, chains have fallen off, we’ve had a couple of falls, and the rain just keeps chasing us, but no one seems to mind over here on the Journey to the East. What matters to our riders is that they’re seeing Japan in the best way possible – via bike. They’re embracing uncomfortable riding in one of the most gorgeous landscapes in the world. How could you get more perfect than that!

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Camille Remi Kirby is the Content Creator on the 2025 Journey to the East Cycling Adventure. In this report, she looks back at South Korea’s network of bike paths.

The crew sits around a coffee shop in central Seoul, discussing tour preparations and the days to come. We’re going through the route, from Seoul to Busan, discussing the pros and cons of a predominantly bike path tour. To the right of us, an older gentleman decked out in a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts is listening intently, his eyebrows raising every time we mention the bike paths. On the subject of Busan, he can’t help himself anymore – he interjects: he’d just returned from cycling from the exact same path we’re about to embark on.

After many words of wisdom, we parted ways with our new Australian friend, who left us with one last line: “I gotta say, South Korea has got to be the best place in the world.” Thus began the Journey to the East! With confirmation that our riders would be in for a treat, we set off to see these infamous bike paths for ourselves.

Thirty minutes into day one and every rider understood the hype – the bicycle paths of South Korea are unmatched. They allow cyclists to travel to almost every corner of the country, safely and without vehicle interference. You might find a tricky intersection coming in or out of a city, but that pales in comparison to riding through mountain passes and river valleys without seeing a single car. You expect that the city bike path out of Seoul will abruptly stop as soon as the city does, but miraculously it just keeps going. And going, as you’re ushered into a new bicycle highway system running past cabbage farms and riverbeds. As you follow the red lines with white cyclists painted every few kilometres or so, the paths beckon to take you anywhere you’re willing to go.

And the respect for long distance cyclists doesn’t end there. Parks along the paths are designed for riders to take breaks, with photo spots, cafes and toilets galore. Each bathroom is designed in the shape of whatever the speciality of that town is: we’ve seen bicycle shaped toilets, apple shaped ones and even ones that mimic crabs with pinchers coming out their sides.

Cafés, by nature, are almost cyclist-only. Our riders would stop and mingle, every barista and Korean cyclist asking where they’re from and where they’re going. Evenings are spent discussing which cafe you stopped on that day and all the quirks  – “The shop looked closed but then a lady appeared and offered me a free piece of cake so I ordered a coffee” – and how good its coffee was. The Korean riders found at these cafes and along these routes are nonchalant about the rides they’re taking and how far they’re going. They don’t even seem to be too impressed with our journey from Seoul to Busan. Here, cross country cycling is a common pastime, especially for the older generations. Want to go on a week-long cycle to visit your family in the South? No big deal!

The paths do come with a bit of trickery, given that they’re so vast and numerous. On day five of our ride, coming into the ancient city of Gyeongju, a new bike path seemed to spring out of nowhere, causing our riders to take all sorts of routes into the city. The original route went around the river and into the town, but all of a sudden a new path had been built to follow the river itself. Is it possible for a country to keep outdoing itself? Apparently so.

For our cyclists this journey through South Korea will go down as the most stress-free, straight forward point to point ride they’ve ever taken. After riding in the country for two weeks, you can get a bit jaded about the comfort of seamless and stress-free bike paths. You can find those tiny things to complain about or get too comfortable with the ease of traffic-less cycling and secluded routes. But our riders are starting to get ready for a big change brewing. Changes to their bikes are being made, new gear being purchased, GPS set ups being simplified. Because so long Korean bike paths and, hello, hilly Japanese mountain passes. Thank you South Korea for showing us the good life – we’re going to miss you as we head out into the wild.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

The 2024 Journey to the East Cycling Tour rolled into Sapporo in June after cycling almost 3,000 km through Korea and Japan. We asked the riders to tell us what they thought about their adventure. Here’s what they said.

The 2025 Journey to the East is currently has a number of very limited spaces available. Registration for the 2026 Journey to the East is open but spaces are filling up quickly.

“Here’s something you have to know: Every single member of the staff was a gem. And the wild scenic beauty of the two countries was incredible. And the group was a great group. So wow. A home run.” – Neil Slotnick (USA)

“It was a unique cultural experience.” – Jeanine Hartnett (USA)

“Amazing to see two unique countries at such an intimate level.” – Kristen Mueller (USA)

“Very scenic and with new cultural experiences. Hard climbing. Hills are steeper than in Scandinavia. Would I do it again. Yes. Unforgettable.” – Bo Fagergren (Sweden)

“It was a wonderful tour with a great staff and a great group of riders. Truly enjoyed the experience.” – Mitch Long (USA)

“TDA never disappoints. My first hotel only tour and felt very spoiled. Wild Japan offered many rewarding challenges. Safety was always top of mind as well. Who knew there was so much nature in.Japan. Routes were well thought out and advanced reconnaissance ensured we had the latest updates on any challenges. Lunches were the best. The group size was manageable. Definitely worth it.” – Murray Beare (Canada)

“The level of support on this tour was very high. I thought all the crew were wonderful. They were always encouraging and helpful and great fun. Everything was well organized. My fellow cyclists were great.” – Jane Bloodworth (Australia)

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

‘Hallyu, a.k.a., the Korean Wave, has put South Korea on the culture map in recent years – think K-Pop superstars BTS, big and small screen hits like Parasite and Squid Game, and the K-Beauty craze – but the country is still off many travellers’ radar. That’s changing, and for good reason. Especially if you like to travel on two wheels.”
– Christina Palassio, Globe & Mail, July 17, 2024

The lucky cyclists on the 2024 edition of the Journey to the East Cycling Tour included a Canadian journalist, Christina Palassio, for the Land of the Morning Calm section in Korea from Seoul to Busan. Christina was there to write about the experience of cycling through the country and report on her adventure for the Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe & Mail.

Christina on the road in Korea

She was surprised to find that, “Chatting with my fellow riders on the tour…I learned that most had joined the trip for the Japan section” but “by the time we neared the finish line, after some tough climbs in the Busan Alps, we all agreed that we’d discovered something unexpected and special.”

Christina wrote, “The great thing about bike travel is that you can see the major sights, and you can see the small and quirky everyday stuff, too: seniors exercising at calisthenics machines, traditional hanok houses with their tiled roofs made from burned soil, and their rows of onggi, the pots used to ferment kimchi, and the many cute cafés that popped up seemingly out of nowhere” and concluded that “Forget music, movies and makeup – the next Korean Wave phase should be K-biking.”

You can read her full article here.

Come to Korea and Bike the Journey to the East Cycling Tour!

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

I was very fortunate to join the 2024 Journey to the East during their time in South Korea. Here’s what I discovered…

The Land of Endless Bridges might be more appropriate. I’ve never seen so many bridges: big and small, colourful and drab, long and short, ugly and beautiful. Korea’s endless combination of rivers and mountains dictates the vast number of these structures.

Truth be told, South Korea, the Land of the Morning Calm, isn’t going to knock your socks off with its touristic highlights. There are no Great Pyramids or Eiffel Tower or Angkor Wat. Its attraction is much more subtle and as such, to me, can be much more rewarding. The Koreans do live up to the ‘calm’ in the tour section name. They aren’t looking to impress you, to insist on your attention, to point out how wonderful their country is (sound like anyone you know?). They just get on with their lives and the result is, frankly, amazing. Our mechanic, Jordy from Scotland, on his first trip overseas was overwhelmed. He wondered if, perhaps, the Koreans could come to his country to show them how to go about building a wonderful nation.

Sand scupltures (L), Haeridangil (R)

For example, the end of this section of the Journey to the East Cycling Tour is in the port city of Busan, the country’s second largest metropolis. We stayed in the Haeundae beach area and I wandered along the beach, which was in the midst of a sandcastle building competition, before zigzagging inland. I happened upon an area called Haeridangil where some older buildings had been remodelled as tiny cafes, gift shops, restaurants and galleries. This wasn’t mentioned in the guidebooks but it was just another example of the locals creating something special…and keeping it to themselves.

You will also notice the presence of magpies, the unofficial National Bird – called “gachi” in Korean. It is a symbol of good luck and of good news. In Gyeongju, a wonderful town full of history, they were the only ones allowed on the ancient burial tombs. The rest of us faced 2 years in jail!

Korea is an aging country. In fact, it has one of the lowest, if not the lowest birth rate in the world. Outside of Busan and Seoul, you rarely saw any young people. The older adults are very active however, something the government strongly encourages. Almost every small town we cycled through had a busy Gate Ball Course. Essentially, golf for Korean seniors featuring large plastic golf balls. And it is free! In the countryside it is not uncommon to see older farmers using mobility devices to get out to the fields – hoes/shovels attached!

All hotel rooms have doorbells. No loud barbaric knocking here! And the toilets. And let me tell you about the toilets! I’ll admit, I was scared to try the ‘Enema’ button! It took me a while to notice but there are no 4th floor in hotels. After a little investigation I discovered it was because the character for 4 also translates to death.

Bus stop in the apple orchard region

Apples. I had absolutely no idea apples were a thing in this country. The Korean word for apple is 사과 sagwa which also happens to be the word for ‘apology’. Offered to those you have offended. If they take a bite, your apology is accepted. Our young driver was listening to this explanation grinned and said, “I’ve never offered anyone an apple.”

In Seoul, while visiting the stunning Gyeongbokgung Palace, we were introduced to the concept of ‘hanbok’. It refers to the traditional dress of the Korean people and at most historical sites, there are shops where visitors can rent outfits which they then wear while strolling through the grounds. It made our visit that much more realistic and for the locals, they benefited from free admission if they were dressed up.

The country’s capital has a surprising amount of green space. To me, the most impressive was the Cheonggyecheon. Once a polluted stream paved over for an elevated expressway, it has been beautifully rehabilitated into an 11 km long riverside park through the centre of the city complete with wildlife, public art (including a incredible 190 m long 5000 tile documentary painting that recreates a royal procession) and meditation spaces.

In fact, public art is everywhere. Even in the smaller towns along the route, you would find unexpected streets of murals or striking, and amusing, sculptures, reflecting the people’s rather whimsical sense of humour. Public pride is also illustrated by how clean Korea is. In Seoul, one of the biggest problems was trying to find a garbage can to dispose of any litter but despite their absence you could literally eat off the floor of the subway cars!

Abandoned bunkers (L), Korean War Memorial (R)

Of course, it is important to keep in mind that this beautiful, peaceful country remains in a official state of war with its recalcitrant neighbour to the north. A reminder of the amount of immense effort and sacrifice South Korea has put into building its remarkable society.

No visit to Korea is complete with eating at a traditional BBQ restaurant (한식집[hansikjib]). The hot coals area prepared by hand outside and then delivered to your communal table, along with a ridiculous amount of meat and an endless stream of side dishes. Add in a cold beer or a carafe of the local liquor, soju, and you have perfection!

Nirvana

I’ll add one more personal highlight that I think best illustrates the quirky nature of this fascinating country. On one riding day, we were cycling along happily when out of the corner of our eyes we saw something weird so, of course, we have to stop to explore. In the middle of nowhere, there was a pool of water surrounded by, yes, old car seats in which sat a number of men casting their lines into the water. We sat down in a couple of vacant seats (I think mine was from a Chevy minivan and it still even reclined) and simply watched. Some fishermen were snoozing but every now and then one line would go tight, a fish would be reeled in, and then released back into the water. So peaceful. So strange. So Korea.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Mats Fredrix is the Content Creator on the 2024 Journey to the East Cycling Tour. He takes a quirky look at the toilets of Tokyo.

With 37 million inhabitants, Tokyo is the most populous city in the world. It’s also the world’s undisputed  culinary capital with 194 Michelin starred establishments. Adding up the two of those and Tokyo turns into the world’s capital of… toilets. Yes, that’s right, and Tokyo toilets might just exactly be the right, though slightly unusual, angle you’re looking for to get a grasp of this never ending city when you have just a day or two like we do on the Journey to the East Cycling Tour.

Of the endless variety of tours you can partake in or undertake on your own, thanks to the city’s insatiable need to go next-level, the ‘Tokyo Toilets Tour’ is one that is really making headlines of late.

Toilets in Japan are a thing. Not only are they present in abundance, a not unimportant fact for anyone on a long distance bike tour, sitting on a Japanese toilet is often mentioned as one of the most memorable experiences to have in this country. Toilet seats are pre-heated, there’s an automatic bidet and air drying function, and even soundscapes to help you relax during your time of need. I personally experienced one that played the Studio Ghibli score of My Neighbour Totoro, ‘The Path of the Wind’. These are, of course, private toilets. Public toilets are a different story, also in Japan.

At least, that was until ‘The Tokyo Toilet Project’ was launched in 2020, and the 2023 Oscar-nominated drama ‘Perfect Days’ by German minimalist filmmaker Wim Wenders starring Kōji Yakusho, stole many hearts across the globe. Located in the popular Shibuya district, the project’s intention was to counter stereotypes that public toilets are dark, dirty, smelly, and scary. Now completed, there are 17 toilets that symbolize Japan’s world-renowned hospitality culture, as well as protest social issues.

Designed by renowned designers and architects, they are as diverse as Tokyo’s different trendsetting cultures themselves. Inspired by nature, or history or the LGBTQ+ community, they are all uniquely different. It’s like the most important message in the brief was: as long as it doesn’t resemble a traditional public toilet.

There’s one that’s completely see-through, until you turn the lock, another is entirely controlled by your voice, although this function seemed to be non-operational during my visit (I guess not even Japan is perfect all the time, right?). The toilets aren’t only high-tech and architecturally impressive in their diversity, they are incredibly well maintained and cleaned three times a day, as expertly depicted in Wenders’s ‘Perfect Days’.

The film’s main character, Hirayama, shaves in the morning, cleans toilets, eats, sleeps and takes a few pictures of the same tree at his usual lunch spot every day. But he does so much more than that. In his silent ways and with all his attention to detail and routines, he seemingly strikes a chord of something you can only describe as ‘quintessentially Japanese’ (or quintessentially human?). In Hirayama, Wenders offers a unique insight into the sprawling mystery that is Tokyo. Facing these quirky, colourful gems into which Hirayama pours his entire soul with your own eyes, is an experience on par with Potterheads visiting King’s Cross.

Not only that, visiting these modern shrines on foot quickly turns into a real little pilgrimage of its own, reminiscent of the pilgrims hitting all 88 temples on the Shikoku Pilgrimage route. Very remotely reminiscent, of course. Scattered all over the wider Shibuya district, one of the most frequented areas in all of Tokyo, the route between the different toilets takes you through back alleys, residential areas, tiny shrines and cemeteries as well as hitting big tourist hotspots such as Harajuku and Yoyogi park.

With 30,000 steps still reverberating in my shins, and having covered only 11 of the 17 temples of relief, a thunderstorm announced its imminent arrival, and I was forced to call it a day. I returned to the hotel, satisfied, but mostly relieved with the emptiest bladder I’ve had in years.

Find out more about the Tokyo toilets project.

Interested in ‘Perfect Days’? Here’s the trailer.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Mats Fredrix is the Content Creator on the 2024 Journey to the East Cycling Tour. He sends this report from the Japanese island of Kyushu.

Kyushu, the southernmost of the country’s major islands, is the first Japanese soil our riders feel under their feet on the TDA Journey to the East tour. The island is one of the lesser known tourist destinations in Japan, although ‘lesser known’ is certainly relative when it comes to tourism in Japan. Yet it’s one of those places that immediately makes an impact. Basking in sunshine, palm trees here and there, lush greenery and blue waters, its landscape reminds one of our Hawaiian riders of home. It’s also a place where you can spend the morning in an Edo period castle, the afternoon climbing into the mouth of an active volcano and the evening overlooking the stars in a rooftop onsen. And that’s exactly what we did. This blog explores how TDA’s Journey to the East finds that, oh so elusive sweet spot, between cycling, nature, scenery and culture in just a single day.

Life on a TDA tour is simple. We cycle, we eat, we sleep. And all through this cycle we do our best to immerse ourselves, plodding through places at what we hope is exactly the right speed to experience our surroundings, while still moving quickly enough to be teased by something fresh and different every day. The balance struck between riding time and time to rest and explore, varies from tour to tour. There are expedition, adventure, touring and hotel-to-hotel tours. That sweet spot will be just a bit different on the spectrum for every tour. Some regions naturally lend themselves to exploring from the bike saddle, while others require a bit more off-the-bike time for culture to seep in.

TDA’s Journey to the East tour, when it finally made its debut on the TDA calendar last year, did so with a bang. The TDA community flocked en masse to this new and exciting route. As a Touring and hotel-to-hotel tour, it’s a bit different than some of the other TDA tours. This tour puts riders’ comfort first. Its setup and way of working is therefore also a bit different from TDA’s Expedition or Adventure tours.

Don’t be fooled by the words ‘riding comfort’, though. When we talk about ‘riding comfort’, we’re talking about putting riding quality and resting quality all the way up there. You will also transfer a bit more to avoid busy or less interesting roads or to reach a busy city. You will have a roof over your head every night, a hot shower, etc.

It, however, does not mean the riding is not challenging. If you join the Journey to the East tour thinking the cycling will be a breeze every day, you’ll quickly learn the truth the hard way. There will be days you will cycle almost 140 km, or when you will climb more than 2000 m. The Korean and Japanese climbs are some of the most breathtaking of all of our tours, but they are no joke. If you’re a more experienced bike rider you’ll know very well that breathtaking views come at a cost. Of course, with TDA you choose what your riding day looks like. Are you just not feeling a climb on a certain day, our crew will be happy to drop you off at that viewpoint on the top. It has to be said though, no descent will ever taste as sweet as it does after a long, tough and sweaty climb.

Riding through South Korea and Japan is a very different experience from riding, say through Botswana or Turkey. The amount of cultural highlights we pass most days is extraordinary. And in this part of the world the pace of our bikes and staying only one night in most places, is just a bit too fast. To cover for that, this tour has more rest days, strategically placed in cultural hotspots, to provide every opportunity to riders to explore the vast expanse of Japanese and Korean culture. On this tour, and on some of our other tours, there are a few days where we take the blending of cycling and culture a step further.

Stage 8 of the Journey to the East was a day like that. Just our second ride in Japan, we woke up in Kumamoto, a big city with considerable cultural lure. But as the rest day was still a few days ahead, the Kumamoto Castle, a famous hilltop fortress from the Edo period, would in normal circumstances have to remain unexplored. During the planning and scouting of the tour, TDA however found a way for riders to still hit this sight without planning for a full rest day. A shorter riding day was the perfect solution to give the Japanese Edo period fanatics among our riders ample time to explore this hilltop gem. And a bit of a later start than usual to coincide with the castle’s opening hours was a most welcome bonus for many.

After an hour or two at the castle, at around 10.30 am all riders had set off with only 50km separating them from their next inn for the night, a traditional Onsen and Ryokan hotel in Aso. But there’s a catch: Aso lies in the mouth of a volcano. Well, kinda. Aso is a very unique place in the world because it is one of the few built up places inside an ancient caldera, the Aso Caldera. A caldera is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption.

To get to the hotel, riders had to actually climb over the rim to then descend down into the cauldron of this ancient volcano. You’ve guessed it, that means some spicy climbing. And although the spicy taste is mainly a thing in South Korea and less so in Japan, spicy climbs are a theme for almost the entire Journey to the East tour.

But it’s worth it. The volcanic activity has made Aso and the Aso-Kuju National Park into a true marvel of nature. Green grasslands, dense forests and an impressive mountain range around Japan’s largest active volcano, Mount Aso, from which smoke is visible in the distance from our hotel. “Nothing to worry about, just water that seeps deeper into the ground and evaporates,” Kazu our Japanese local support assures me, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

Another side effect of the volcanic activity are the hot springs, the onsens for which the whole of Japan is so famous. Yet Aso onsens have a special stature even for to the Japanese. After a traditional Japanese feast on tatami mats, our riders finished off their jam-packed day in the rooftop onsen overlooking the Aso mountains and the starry night, tired but eager to do it all again tomorrow.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

“The times, they are a-changing…” – Bob Dylan

I first visited Seoul, South Korea’s capital, 41 years ago. It was an unplanned stop-over. At the time I had no specific desire to visit Korea  but I had purchased the cheapest multi-stop ticket (remember those) to Australia that I could find and that turned out to be with Korean Airlines. One condition was that it required you to stay over in Seoul for 3 nights, although the airline would also cover the 3 nights in a hotel. I arrived just after the Soviet Union had shot down KAL007 so my plane was pretty empty as we were following the same flight path.

I don’t have any real recollection of my time here. The airline assigned a ‘guide’ to show me the sights but nothing stands out in my memories. The country was in turmoil, run by Army General/Dictator, Chun Doo-Hwan, the North Koreans were assassinating Korean politicians and kidnapping citizens, the population, led by students were agitating for democracy and the country’s economy was still struggling.

Fast forward to the present. My airline ticket certainly did not allow multiple stops (although Air Canada kindly added an unexpected night imprisoned in a Narita Airport hotel) and was not inexpensive. As we flew over the city in preparation for landing, I was struck by the incredible number of golf courses that dotted the landscape. I was met at the airport by my taxi driver who had brightly dyed orange hair and perfectly shaped eyebrows. He proceeded to drive me into Seoul in a pimped out taxi with a red leather ceiling and window trim, blue disco lights and Michael Bublé on in the background at about 150 km/hr. Things. I thought, have certainly changed.

Although it may not seem like it, our Journey to the East cycling tour, which begins in Seoul, is the only tour we run that takes place in a country still officially in a state of war. There is no peace treaty, only an ongoing ceasefire. The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ ) between North and South Korea is less than 60 km from Seoul and is the most heavily armed border on earth. You would never guess that from walking the vibrant, friendly, safe streets of this city. The only hint is that Google & Apple Maps refuse to provide directions between locations. Guess the North’s ‘Supreme Leader’, Kim Jong Un might use them to plan future invasion. For myself, it only reminded me just how dependent on technology I have become…

When I found out I would be coming to Korea, I immediately started researching interesting things (granted, not everyone will agree with my definition of interesting) to check out but quickly discovered that the pandemic affected South Korea dramatically and that many quirky sights and activities are no longer available. These include:

• The brightly coloured ‘Peace train’ to the DMZ, which was eventually supposed to continue into North Korea.
• PooPoo Land, a museum dedicated to human excrement, flatulence, and so much more.
• Joint Security area which closed after U.S. Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King ran across the inter-Korean border at the JSA into North Korea in mid-July 2023 during a group tour (WTF – people defect to North Korea!?).

It turned out that my initial disappointment was brief. Seoul, it turned out was fantastic. I was only in the city for a couple of days but I would be happy to return any time. Why?

It is clean. Unbelievably so. I swear you could have eaten off the floor of the subway cars. Not one tiny piece of litter anywhere. No graffiti. No rotting food. No mystery stains. Despite the fact, that there appear to be, literally, no garbage or recycling bins in Seoul. Magically, there is also no litter. Quite the trick!

It is kind. One rider was walking in the rain on the streets of Seoul with his rain jacket on. Two women were walking in the opposite direction, each with an umbrella . One woman stopped, walked across the street and handed the rider her umbrella. He tried to return it to her but she simply returned to her friend and they continued walking together, now sharing an umbrella. I was on a crowded subway and at one stop a seat opened up and although there were many other riders standing, they all indicated I should take the seat (FYI – I’m old, but not that old).

It is cool. On the night of my arrival, I walked down to the riverside. It was a beautiful warm evening and hundreds, maybe thousands, of locals were hanging out on the shores of the river. They all had mats and tiny plastic furniture and were sitting chatting and eating, and listening to a variety of musicians. Regarding the eating, most of the food came from a 7-11 situated on a barge in the river. You line up, get your noodles in a bowl, return to your friends and family and then enjoy. I told you it was cool!

It is historic. Gyeongbokgung Palace is a must. The grounds are amazing but it is the people that make it remarkable. If you dress up in period costume, your entry fee is waived. There were so many Koreans there, clothed in outfits from the past, it was hard to believe. And it worked. They fit in with their surroundings, becoming part of the historic panorama. Speaking of history, the displays at the various buildings took pains to remind everyone of past Japanese misdeeds inflicted on Korea – fires, assassinations, invasions, looting, you name it!

It is green. There are many parks and re-imagined abandoned railway lines like the Gyeongui Line Forest Park but the crown jewel is the Cheong-Gye-Cheon. This paved over stream was uncovered and a wondrous 6 km natural space was created in the heart of Seoul. It features trees, wildlife, water features and art, including a stunning 192 m mural of  a Korean royal parade.

It is delicious. Authentic. Korean. BBQ.

Public art outside the Royal Palace

Despite my concerns, it is also quirky.

Canada, my home, was essentially created by railroads. Yet for over 40 years , governments have been talking about a high speed rail link between the county’s 2 largest cities – Montreal and Toronto. That is about the same distance as between Busan and Seoul. Upon my second return to Seoul, I will be taking a bullet train that will cover the distance in just over 2 hours…as opposed to the almost 6 hours it would take in Canada.

Changing times, indeed.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Our two inaugural Journey to the East cycling tours arrived at the finish line in Sapporo, Japan just over 2 months ago and it would appear that the riders had a wonderful experience.

The 2024 Journey to the East is sold out but we are accepting names for a waitlist. The 2025 Journey to the East and 2026 Journey to the East tours still have some spaces available at this time.

Traditional drumming performancs at the Nikko Shrine in Honshu

“Great cycling, mostly on wonderful remote routes in the countryside of the two countries with a fascinating culture and beautiful landscapes. Inspiring rest days in interesting cities like Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Busan, Hakkodate, etc. Good hotels, often with a very relaxing onsen, wonderful meals (breakfast and dinner!).” – Walter Ott (Switzerland)

Onsen, a natural hot spring bath

“It is very exhilarating to hope on a bike and experience a new country. The incredible bike route infrastructures were an absolute delight to pedal along. The routes through Japans hills as challenging as they were did not disappoint in providing beautiful views. The many historical sights, the experience sleeping in Ryokan, soaking a weary body in Onsens and the food were all delightful.” – Ursula Simpson (Canada)

“I love cycling, I love Japan, so this was a wonderful opportunity to blend the two loves. Everything about this tour was exceptional. I took 5 weeks out of my really busy life to take a boot-camp within the sensory overload of beautiful Japan. It was entering the natural beauty of Japan unseen, a wild Japan of forests, mountains, glacial lakes, volcanoes, villages and rice paddies.” – Heather Sia (Australia)

Photo: Rae Simpson

“Korea was a surprise. The biking infrastructure was superb, the food excellent, the scenery wonderful. I loved it. Where else do you find tunnels for cyclists only, road crews cutting grass with two individuals holding a protective screen, so the detritus doesn’t hit the riders and end up on the cycling path. I would go again in a minute.” – TDA Founder Henry Gold (Canada)

“Spending 4 weeks in Japan – much of it in rural areas that are seldom visited by tourists gives you a genuine experience of the culture and insights into Japanese life. The staff team were tremendous – helpful, engaging and highly professional and the group of riders were super friendly and made the trip so enjoyable.” – Paul Holbrook (United Kingdom)

Streets of Kyoto

“An incredible experience that has changed the way I perceive other cultures and the way of living of people in other countries. Beautiful landscapes, fantastic food, some challenging climbing up the volcanos. Highly recommended!” – Joanna Jaworska (Poland)

Mt Fuji

“This was another great tour. The route took us through so many scenic areas, with great variety of terrain. Everything from dedicated bike paths to flat straights to twisty up, down and around mountains. From dense damp magical forests to open rice paddies and agricultural fields. From remote countryside to dense urban areas. And who will ever forget cycling towards the iconic Mt Fuji?” – Maggie Williamson (Canada)

A traditional Ryokan room

“This tour has it all- Incredible scenery, challenging climbs, ancient history, fantastic accommodations, unique cuisine. Sign up today- you can’t go wrong!” – Chris Wille (Canada)

“This was a fantastic tour in 2 very interesting and different countries. Beautiful scenery, some challenging riding, some very special hotels, and the best staff ever!” – Eve Holland (USA)

“Absolutely fabulous, all my expectations were more than met. The routes, the staff, the hotels, the food, all in all, a fantastic combination.” – Lykke Thingmann Stead (Denmark)

“Travelling by bike through South Korea and Japan is a study in contrasts: rural/urban, cultivated/wild, traditional/contemporary, spiritual/secular.” – Andrew Freeman (USA)

“Kudos to TdA Global Cycling for making the Journey to the East one of the best cycling experiences of my life.” – Bob Peltzer (Canada)

Coke stop – Japanese style

“A wonderful mix of great nature and gigantic cities, Far Eastern culture and Western comfort.” – Freider Wolfart (Switzerland)

Group dinner

“Amazing tour in completely different countries and cultures. Incredible sceneries and cultural experiences. Excellent riding group with everybody getting along. Great staff, hotels, and riding stages.” – Michel Bee (USA)

“Japan was a fantastic destination, especially from the saddle of a bicycle. Every day brought new surprises, weather the scenery (Ahh! Mount Fuji is OUT), casual interactions with the people (Try a train at rush hour. What a rush!), the 27 course dinners (No forks!), or just the smell of flowers along the quiet roads. I’d advise anyone with even a tiny bit of adventurous spirit to experience Japan, and experience the it at the casual pace only possible with a bike so they don’t miss anything.” – Dan Kirby (USA)

“I have always been fascinated by Japan, and I love riding in the mountains and the tour offered me the opportunity to explore this beautiful country, ride it’s mountains, see its people, eat its yummy food and do that with a group of amazing people, and very lovely staff! All together a wonderful experience, exceeding my expectations.” – Mimi Jones (South Africa)

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“Just possibly, Ikigai makes a Peter Pan of all of us. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. Let us all be twelve years old! Youthfulness of mind is important in Ikigai, but so is commitment and passion, however seemingly insignificant your goal.” – Ken Mogi

“Ikigai is the action we take in pursuit of happiness.” – Yukari Mitsuhashi

This morning, as with many mornings during the last month, while sipping my morning coffee I had an Ikigai moment – ‘something that brings pleasure or fulfilment’. Over a month has passed since our company’s inaugural cycling tour through Japan, the Journey to the East, ended in Sapporo. Every time I think of my time on the tour, I have a big smile plastered on my face.

Anyone who follows my blogs or has spoken to any of the participants will already know that cycling in Japan was not only a joy but also gratifying in so many ways. For myself, learning firsthand what makes Japan unique was one of the best rewards. And one of the things I learned is the concept of Ikigai. According to Wikipedia, “The Oxford Dictionary defines Ikigai as ‘a motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason for living”. More generally it may refer to something that brings pleasure or fulfilment.'”

All smiles

Our Content Creator on the tour, Coby, recently sent a reminder to all participants to download the pictures they liked from his extensive files. Looking at these pictures I couldn’t help noting how everyone seems to have been smiling all the time. There was no doubt in my mind that they were experiencing the same type of Ikigai that I was.

Ikigai seems to have other meanings. Many active people are familiar with the concept of ‘flow’ that Hungarian–American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi developed. Wikipedia explains that, “Colloquially a flow state is being in the zone. It is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time.” In my blog, Sayonora From The Journey to The East, I wrote, “Persistence, as often in life, eventually paid off. It was a tour that will stick in our minds for the rest of our lives. After the delays, it finally seemed as if everything was working in our favour.” In short we were in Flow/Ikigai.

Local Japanese man painting along the Oirase Gorge

There apparently is a Japanese proverb that says, “Only being active will make you want to live a hundred years.” One of the most fascinating things we saw as we cycled across Japan, was a country whose citizens have the world’s longest lifespans. Everywhere we cycled we encountered people well past retirement age working the fields, directing traffic and generally keeping busy. Apparently, Ikigai also means ‘the happiness of always being busy’. You could certainly say that cycling in Japan kept us busy all right.

Dinning in Aso, Japan

There were climbs to conquer, volcanos to observe, not to mention all the temples and shrines to visit. After a satisfying daily ride, came scrubbing in the ‘onsens’ followed by rehydration therapy in a form of a beer or two. To end the day, it was time for a long elaborate, exquisite Japanese dinner. It is no wonder then that when looking at the pictures from the tour everyone is always smiling. The Oxford Dictionary explains that Ikigai combines two Japanese words, “to arrive at ‘a reason for living; a meaning for/to life; what/something that makes life worth living; a ‘raison d’être’.“

That Ikigai feeling!

All this musing makes me think of a quote from the American philosopher, poet and abolitionist Ralf Waldo Emerson who wrote, “The purpose of life is not being happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, compassionate, to have to make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” I would venture to suggest that all the Journey to the East participants would heartily agree that their time spent on the tour was a time of living well.

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“Whisper Sayonara
smiling don’t you cry
no more we…
stop to see.”

Sayonara – the movie

It’s done. After years of planning and delays, we began to think it was never meant to be. Three years ago, when the WHO announced the COVID pandemic many of us were already packing our bags in preparation what was to be the inaugural Journey to the East cycling tour of South Korea and Japan. When we first announced our plans for this tour in November of 2017, so many people were interested in the tour that we eventually had two fully booked groups for the 2020 launch. It was not meant to be. With the WHO announcement and countries closing borders one by one, we decided to delay the tours by a year…and then another and another…

We persisted and put it up on the 2023 calendar. Most of the original ‘signees’ persisted as well and finally two groups, one following the other three days later, started in Seoul, Korea almost two months ago. I had the opportunity to start with the first group and then wait three days in Tokyo to join the second one.

The gang enjoying a traditional Korean style dinner in Gyeong-Ju, Korea

Persistence, as often in life, eventually paid off. It was a tour that will stick in our minds for the rest of our lives. After the delays, it finally seemed as if everything was working in our favour. We managed to put together two experienced crews to run the tours, the chosen routes, already well scouted, were updated and improved as we went along. The food was exceptional and the lodging, particularly the traditional inns, were well chosen and very enjoyable. The weather cooperated and, except for a couple of rainy days, it was a joy to be on a bicycle each and every day. The scenery ranged from great to fabulous, the traffic on most roads was sparse and often almost non-existent. The riding was hard and challenging but we just put the ‘pedal to the metal’ and kept climbing, knowing well that, ‘what goes up must come down’. And when it did – oh how sweet it was.

Riding towards Mt Fuji

We learned a few words in Korean and Japanese, we tried many new foods, some challenging our palates and perhaps even forcing us to question our old eating habits. We made new friends and, in some cases, made plans for future tours and adventures. We celebrated birthdays, visited magnificent temples, shrines and museums, learned about volcanoes, discussed earthquakes and many other ideas close to our hearts. But mainly we really, really enjoyed ourselves. Just ask any of the participants on either of the tours.

A toast at the Sapporo Clock Tower

And now we are saying Sayonara to Japan (and Korea) – meaning farewell, adieu, goodbye. We will miss your dedicated bike paths and routes, the politeness and cleanliness all around, the vistas and the small plots of rice and orchards, the endless forest and hills, the lakes, the seas and the rivers. We will miss the yukata (the lighter version of kimono) awaiting us in our rooms as we undressed from our bike shorts and walked into the ‘Onsen’ for a traditional Japanese scrubbing, followed by a relaxing sojourn in natural hot spring pools – followed naturally by a beer.

Group lunch at the top of the 17km climb out of Tsumago-juku

We will miss the variety and the unique preparation of your sea food. We will miss the tiny corner Izakayas – essentially small pubs specializing in some dishes to be prepared just for you. We will miss all of that and much, much more. But most of all we will miss the camaraderie that comes from sharing and spending time with a group of like-minded individuals from around the world. Sayonara to all of you, the participants and the staff. It has been a real pleasure to share this time with you.

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“Life is to encounter, achieve enlightenment and end peacefully.” – Kamel Katsuichiro

On June 14, 1864 a young Japanese man in thirst of knowledge, particularly about foreign lands, got himself a little boat and secretly sailed to sea. This was against the law of the land, which prohibited foreigners from coming to Japan and for Japanese to leave the country. His name was Joseph Hardy Neesima and he sailed from Hakodate. This port on the south side of Hokkaido Island is where we arrived yesterday after several days of wonderful cycling through the wilds of Japan.

Joseph Hardy Neesima, Hakodate

It is also the location of the final rest day for the 2nd group of riders on the 2023 Journey to the East (The first group, being three days ahead, is closing in on the finish in Sapporo). Nowadays there is a monument to Niijima Jo, as Joseph is known in Japan, who eventually made it to the United States where he studied for ten years. During that period, things in Japan changed and Jo was allowed to return to Japan where he founded Doshisha University. Before that he wrote a poem in Hong Kong which is inscribed on the monument – “Man should run across thousands of miles with one’s resolution. I cannot yearn for the sight of my home without suffering from what I had done after the spring wind blowing or during the windy and rainy night. I still dream a dream of flowers in my hometown.”

I absorbed all of this and more on my rest day ‘walkabout’ in Hakodate, one of three Japanese ports that opened to trade after the US – Japan Amity treaty of 1854. That agreement brought prosperity to the small city but prosperity doesn’t come without some external help. I learned this when I visited a shrine which was originally built between 1861 and 1864 by townspeople – to worship the god of prosperity. My meandering among old brick warehouses that are now chic boutiques, former embassies, churches and government buildings brought me to the back side of a very large temple where I came upon the Kamel Katsuichiro aphorism quoted at the beginning of this blog. That made me think of the former government building which is now the Hakodate Museum of Northern Peoples.

Ainu artifacts

I learned about the indigenous people of the area, the Ainu, many of whom still live on Hokkaido and the surrounding islands. By the way, Kai in the name Hokkaido means ‘a person born in this country’. The exhibits which looked awfully familiar, no wonder considering it was less than a year ago that I had cycled in the Yukon on the 2022 North American Epic where I had my own encounters with the indigenous northern people of Canada.

Going back to Katsuichiro’s aphorism, while I have had plenty of encounters, achieving enlightenment is another thing completely, though God knows I have tried – even in places such as Madagascar and Nepal. Of course, there is always hope that one day, some place, somehow, it will come to me. In the meantime, there are still five days of cycling in Hokkaido before we reach the end of the tour in Sapporo, the site of the 1972 Winter Olympics and famous, among other things, for its Sapporo beer. If you haven’t tried it yet, do so. It may even enlighten your taste buds!

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“The spacious sky
spans serene and clear
so blue above
Oh, that our soul could grow
and become so open“

– Waka by Emperor Meiji

For five days in a row now, I have been roaming the streets of Tokyo. I have walked so much that, at one point, I even thought that the Guinness World Book of Records should have a category for walking the streets and alleys of this, the largest metropolis in the world. After all, the Tokyo metropolitan area covers ‘only’ 13,500 square kilometres. On one of my strolls, I went to an observatory in one of the tallest buildings in the city. From there, as far as I could see in every direction, were buildings of different sizes and shapes, interrupted here and there by large areas of parks, gardens, shrines and temples.

I first became conscious of a place called Tokyo when I was 12 years old. I was obsessed with everything to do with sports and the 1964 Olympics were to take place in that city. In particular, I was awaiting the outcome of the marathon, as I had previously met an Ethiopian runner, Abebe Bikila, who was then the most famous marathoner in the world.  In the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Bikila had shocked the world when he won the first ever Olympic gold medal for an African country.

To top it all off, he ran barefoot and, in the process, established an Olympic record. My face-to-face encounter with Bikila, occurred in Kosice, Slovakia where he had come to run in the oldest marathon in Europe. I was loitering at the back of the hotel, hoping that he would actually use the back exit, which, incredibly, he did. To my astonishment, decades later, telling this story in Ethiopia opened doors to ministerial meetings during the 1984 Ethiopian famine and help me get difficult to obtain permits, but that is another story. By that time, Bikila who died tragically after being paralyzed in a car accident, was a national hero.

In Tokyo Abebe Bikila, running four weeks after undergoing an appendicitis operation, shocked the world again and, for the first time in Olympic history, won a second consecutive Olympic marathon. This time he used running shoes. Ever since, I have wanted to come to Tokyo. It took only 59 years! I am finally here and am spending an extra three days in the city as I am joining our second Journey to the East cycling group which just arrived a couple of days ago.

Walking those many miles, I also thought of Anthony Bourdain and his love of Japan, in particular Tokyo. He had stated that,“If I had to agree to live in one country, or even one city, for the rest of my life, never leaving it, I’d pick Tokyo in a second.” Later in life, he added, “I love Tokyo. If I had to eat only in one city for the rest of my life, Tokyo would be it.” It doesn’t take much effort to see why Bourdain loved Tokyo. In another quote he continued, “It’s that densely packed, impenetrable layer cake of the strange, wonderful and awful that thrills. It’s mesmerizing. Intimidating. Disorienting. Upsetting. Poignant. And yes, beautiful.”

Personally, not being a chef, I wouldn’t call Tokyo a layer cake, but it sure is a phenomenal place that one can’t help but admire. A city whose population is the size of the entire country of Canada. In five days of walking and encountering thousands and thousands of people, I saw, all together, two homeless people under one of the city’s many bridges, I saw patient drivers always giving pedestrians and cyclists the right of way, I saw no speeding cars and, in fact, I didn’t see one traffic jam on any of the streets I was on. The public transport system which moves 14 million people on a working day, showed a late departure for a train I was on – a delay of one minute!

The streets are spotless, public lavatories are always there when you need them. Restaurants by the thousands, entertainment galore, coffee shops everywhere. Leaving the main streets one finds quiet neighbourhoods, complete with wonderful small green spaces and children’s playgrounds. Museums are cheap and parking expensive. In other words, this is a city that works for its large population and the thousands of visitors. The infrastructure to support all of this is enormous and well maintained.

Having had the good luck of seeing a large chunk of the world and its many cities, I ask myself how one can explain this? What makes this place tick? Is it the Shinto-Buddhist approach to life? Is it the traditional Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi, defined by Wikipedia, “as a world view acceptance on transience and imperfections“? Frankly, I have no idea, but I sure wish that many people could see this and understand what is possible. I sure am happy that finally, I did.

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It was only six months ago that I wrote a blog – Florence – “I won’t have time, I won’t have time”. The quote is from a song by Michel Fugain and it dealt with how one can spend a very long time in Florence and still have more things to see. I am now writing from Kyoto and after having walked many miles yesterday and today trying to catch the ‘essence’ of this city, I can only think of Fugain’s, “even in a hundred years, I will not have the time to do it all.”

My Rough Guide to Japan has this to say about Kyoto – “The capital of Japan for more than thousand years, the city is endowed with an almost overwhelming legacy of ancient Buddhist temples, majestic palaces and gardens of every size and description, not to mention some of the country’s most important works of art, its richest culture and most refined cuisine.”

A few decades ago, I attended a retreat given by an exiled Buddhist Vietnamese monk and Zen master, Thich Naht Hanh, who at that time was teaching walking meditations, mindfulness and compassion. Today, as I walked and visited some wonderful quiet temples with exquisite Zen gardens, I could sit silently, enjoy the surroundings and meditate – breathe in, breathe out. It felt really good. I was exalted.

At other points when I happened to come across masses of people taking selfies at renown temples like Golden Pavilion Kinkakuji, the Kiyomizu-dera, or the photogenic Fushimi – Inari Taisha, I had to practice mindfulness to focus on what I wanted to see which, considering where I was, shouldn’t have been a problem. But as I much as I tried being mindful, I also had to practice compassion for all of those people who just needed another angle of being photographed in front, behind or to the side of the temple and to get just the right pose. After all, they too needed to validate why they were here.

To be frank I wasn’t the best of Thich Naht Hanh’s students, as much as I tried, which wasn’t very hard. We, TDA riders, are a spoiled bunch. We mostly cycle and visit places where there are no tourists, so when we arrive in a city like Kyoto, it overwhelms us. We are simply not used to crowds and having to compete with others for the best view.

When my view was blocked, I thought of the celebrated Haiku master, Bashu, who left Kyoto to wonder around and wrote, “In Kyoto, hearing the cuckoo, I long for Kyoto.” In case you are wondering what Haiku is, I found a website which gave a definition which I like – “Haiku is a form of poetry that celebrates the small lifeforms that fill nature, such as flowers, birds, and insects. With cherry blossoms in spring, fresh green leaves in summer, bright foliage in autumn, and light rains in winter, seasonal natural beauty and traditional events in Kyoto have always attracted many composers of haiku.”

And it was the small things that gave me the most pleasure in Kyoto. It was seeing seven or eight year old kids going home from school without any adult supervision. In Toronto, where I live, the parents allowing their children to walk home on their own would be at risk of having their children taken away for irresponsible parenting. It was watching a mother picking up two children from kindergarten behind one of the quiet temples I visited, putting the smaller on the front seat of her bike and the older on the back seat behind her and then pedalling off. In Toronto, where car culture rules, this would be considered foolish behaviour at the best of times.

It was catching sight of the flowers and carefully manicured trees and bushes in front and behind people’s houses as I wandered the narrow streets, where even a small Japanese car would have a hard time getting through. It was watching an old man moving tiny little pebbles or simply cleaning them away from in front of his house that made me smile. It is with these images that I will remember this magical city of temples, shrines, Zen gardens, little shops and wonderful people.

Now, if only I could write a Haiku about it.

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“The horror, the horror,” whispers Joseph Conrad’s protagonist Kurtz, reflecting on his life, his actions and on humankind in general towards the end of his novella – The Heart of Darkness. These words came to mind as I walked numbly through the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum the day before the start of the second section of the 2023 Journey to the East.

Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki

Whenever something gets me down, I have two ways that help me to get through the pain and sadness. One is physical activity, a subject I covered in a blog ten years ago, Seek Discomfort.  The other is spending time in nature. I had plenty of opportunities for both during the 4 days of cycling from Nagasaki to Matsuyama.

The physical activity was cycling up and down the less populated mountainous sections of Kyushu, the third largest island of Japan. In fact, our local support staffer, Kazu, informed us that 70% of Japan is mountains and forests. The leftover 30 % is not much space for the 125 million Japanese citizens! As a result, the flat areas are very busy and crowded, with a lot of traffic. Which brings me back to spending time in nature and healing.

The Japanese even have a term for it – shinrin-yoku. Forest bathing, or rather taking in the forest with all of one’s senses. According to the website One Science, the Japanese government realized how beneficial it was to spend time in nature, so it created 62 forest bathing clinics throughout the country. I can’t say that I saw any of these clinics while cycling the last four days but what I can say is that there were parts of the route where I felt like I was in a magical forest and, subsequently, forgot all about the ‘horror’.

The fact is, I love trees. One of my earliest childhood memories is climbing a tree and pretending I was a cosmonaut flying a rocket into space. I was a child of five when the first satellite Sputnik flew into orbit and shook the world. In the back of our home in Slovakia we had a fruit orchard and I spent most of my time in the trees eating apples, pears, plums, cherries and apricots. During my tenure as the Executive Director of CPAR, the charity I helped to establish, we planted over 65 million of trees in Africa. So, you could say I have a predilection for trees.

It is no wonder that my favourite part of the rest day in Matsuyama was was walking through the forest on the way up to the city’s  famous Matsuyama-jo castle, built in the early 17th century. Right at the beginning of the path was the inscription, “When Kato Yoshiaki began building the castle in 1602 the hill was treeless but after red pine was planted, it became a pine covered hill. At present the pine trees are few in number having been surpassed by Japanese chinquapin, camphor, blue Japanese oak, Chinese Cork oak, Japanese Laurel, Japanese cinnamon, ferns, etc.” Nature at its very best.

It is not just the forests that catch my attention. In Japan, gardens and nature play an important role in the culture and one can enjoy and soak it all in just about anywhere one goes. I would venture to guess that it is this penchant for nature, the forest bathing and the actual hot spring soaking, of which we have had the pleasure of partaking several times already, is what helped the Japanese to recover from ‘the horror’ and to build a vibrant, modern society.

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If you decide to join a TDA tour, you are bound to be surprised. Even I, who have been on many of our adventures, discover things on each new tour that surprise me. Perhaps that shouldn’t be the case but there are inevitably revelations, mainly due to my ignorance. Take, for instance, our final stop in Korea, the city of Busan. Before I arrived here, all I knew was that this was the 2nd largest city in South Korea.

Twenty four hours after pulling in, I can tell you that this is a phenomenal city of over three million people and there are probably about the same number of containers being loaded and unloaded at its vast port. And if that doesn’t impress you, then take a walk to the fish market. Like me you will come across sea creatures you have never seen before in your life. If you happen to be hungry, you can walk into one of the myriad little stalls and have anything you have seen at the market prepared for you right in front of your eyes.

After checking out the market I decided to take a walk uphill. Oh, I forgot to mention, the whole city is surrounded by a range of hills or rather mountains, so if you want to see the scope of this large metropolis and the incredible number of high-rises you can just head up and a panorama in all directions will open in front of you.

Gamcheon Culture Village

The truth is I didn’t go there for the views. I wanted to see an area, Gamcheon Culture Village,  that used to be a slum not long ago and is now a tourist attraction. How did this happen? Lonely Planet notes that, “This historically rich, mountainside slum became a tourist destination after an arty makeover in 2009, when students decided to brighten up the neighbourhood with clever touches up the stairs, down the lanes and around the corners. Today it’s a colourful, quirky community of Lego-shaped homes, cafes and galleries.”

Bike path

I can tell you, that I have seen many other slums around the world that could use, not only an arty makeover by students, but also some investments in public space like those the South Korean government seems to making all around the country. This is very visible when you cycle across Korea as we have done – beautiful well-kept parks, exercise equipment, cycling and walking paths, outdoor art, flowers – all of it clean and tidy. One can only admire the results.

Our hotel happens to be three minutes from Busan’s famous Haeundae Beach. Next week the city hosts the 2023 Sand Festival here and the artists were already at work. In fact, we were lucky enough to glimpse some masterpieces a couple of days ago as we cycled by on the way into Busan. I also learned that the city hosts one of the biggest film festivals in Asia. In fact, the fish market, Haeundae Beach and various other locations have been used in such famous films as the Black Panther and the Zombie apocalypse thriller, Train to Busan.

So, if you are like me and have not heard much about Busan, I can now assure you that in the future you will hear much more, for one simple reason. Busan will be holding the 2030 Expo and the city is already proudly posting the announcement that it is ready – already!

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“Hamechaye,” said my mother as she dipped her head in some hot springs on one of my many trips with her. She was a great traveller who actually scouted China with me for the inaugural Silk Route Cycling Expedition. She was always eager to see and experience something new, even in that late stage of her life.

‘Hamechaye’ – meaning pleasure, enjoyment and real joy – popped into my mind as I was dipping my body into the hot springs here in Korea. It was the second day of our Journey to the East Cycling Tour and we were in a town called Suanbo, which apparently means, ‘Fort Where the Water is Peaceful’. The pleasure and enjoyment were not only from the wonderful hot water enveloping my body. It was the whole experience of cycling in Korea. In all my travels around the world, I have yet to experience three days of riding with such excellent cycling infrastructure and impeccably smooth and clean surfaces.

Bike tunnel

Ninety percent of our journey so far has been on dedicated bike paths and though we had two rainy days, the wonderful joy of cycling this country, known as the ‘Land of the Morning Calm,’ have been, ‘hamechaye’. On the first day cycling out of Seoul along the Han River, there was a work crew cutting the grass near the cycling path. One person was cutting, another was holding a barrier to make sure that none of the dust and cuttings would bother the cyclists. Further down the route, we came across a tunnel for cyclists only. This was one of several we biked through on our first day. No need for red flashing lights, warning of coming vehicular traffic. To continue with my cycling culture shock, every few kilometres, we would come across clean, modern toilets where you can happily go in and reapply your butt cream. Not to mention coffee shops, which seem to be everywhere one turns in Korea.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park

Cycling infrastructure is not the only thing I am impressed with. While in Seoul I decided to check out one of famed architect Zaha Hadid works, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park. I spent a couple of hours walking around, admiring her work. It is definitely worth seeing, even if one is not an architecture buff. From there, I wandered just a few blocks north and found another striking example of public works, undertaken, I assume, by the local government.

Years ago there was a stream running through the city from west to east, providing water for people living on its shores. As Seoul grew, the stream become a dumping ground. In fact, during the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, it was nicknamed the ‘city’s cancer’. In 1958, the authorities decided to cover the polluted stream and built an elevated motorway over it. The project was finished in 1976 and pictures show a highway jam packed with traffic. Alongside it were factories and markets including, in 1970, Seoul’s first 31 story office building. The highway became a symbol of the country’s  industrialization and fifty years later Seoul has hundreds of buildings taller than the original.

Seoul’s Famous Cheonggyecheon Stream

The stream was concealed for 25 years. Then in 2003 the mayor of Seoul realized that building that highway was the wrong thing to do and work began to remove it and rehabilitate the stream. It was along that rehabilitated stream that I took a long walk, enjoying the calm amidst all the bustle of modern Seoul. The before and after pictures show what really can be done all over the world, if only the will was there.

Singin’ in the rain!

And it is with the idea of ‘will’ that I want to finish this blog. What makes TDA tours special? Yesterday, our third day on the tour, was a long one with close to 1500 metres of climbing. What made the day particularly difficult was the head wind and the continuous rain. It was just for such occasions that we have support vehicles so that any of the riders who decide that they have had enough can get a ride to the finish. Yet one rider after another declined and declined, finally arriving at the hotel tired and soaked but smiling nevertheless . What a bunch! What will power!

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

Scouting our upcoming tour in Korea and Japan, The Journey to the East, took place earlier this year. It was a real eye-opener to the amazing scenery and diversity of people and places along the route. The contrast between urban and rural is probably one of the most striking experiences from our scout and for the upcoming tour. That in such populated countries, with mega cities, there exists as well so much forest and quietude was a wonderful discovery for us.

Below are a few photos from along the route during our scouting experience. We are sure for those participating on the tour you will end up with hundreds of your own photos, as you cycle across the Far East.

Looking out towards downtown Seoul along the city bike path, which is closer to a bike highway. We’ll be riding along the path for a few days to start our trip!

Monastery by Yeoju on our first night of the tour.

A roadside wonder in southern interior of Korea.

One of the tombs of the ancient capital of Gyeong-ju in Korea. This “living” museum provides a look back in time to the Korean past.

Not a bad spot for a rest day. One of the beaches in Busan.

The fish market of Busan. Be sure to spend some time exploring there, and eating there of course. It’s the largest fish market in Korea, and you are certain to discover some species you never knew existed.

Parking Towers of Korea!

Arrival to Japan! The streets of Nagasaki.

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One of the roads departing Nagasaki. A slightly flatter section of a very steep climb☺!

Our Scout team taking one of the inter-island ferries of Japan.

Japan has no shortage of roads like these☺!

Get ready for a selfie with the famous “peeing boy” in the Iya Valley.

When you need road side assistance in Japan, you may find your tow truck driver has brought some friends along for the ride.

One of the incredible lakes of the Aomori region.

It really is the “Wild Japan” section!

The water lilies of Fukushima District.

Welcome to Hokkaido!

The End!:)

It all started in January 2003 with the Tour d’Afrique. Truth be told, I was not an avid cyclist. When I was a boy in rural Slovakia I had a bike and used it all the time. Later on, when I lived in Banff, Alberta for a year, I used my bike on day trips into the National Park. When I brought the bike back to Montreal, it was not long before it was stolen. After that, my use of a bike was sporadic, at best.

For me to attempt to cycle from the top to the bottom of Africa was, to say the least, one hell of a stretch and really, a crazy idea. Yet, here we are 15 years later, announcing another wonderful cycling tour in a wonderful part of the world. The tour is called – what else? – Journey to the East – as we in the office not only love to cycle but also love to read good books.

As with all of our tours, the route is an original approach, joining two very interesting modern countries – Korea and Japan. They have a long and distinct histories but also many similarities. This trip will give participants a unique perspective – to see, experience and enjoy the two cultures. The trip will begin in Seoul, South Korea – well known for many things but also for hosting the 1988 Summer Olympics and end in Sapporo on the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the location of the 1972 Winter Olympics. While on the subject of the Olympics, this tour will also take us to Tokyo the site of the 1964 summer Olympics and the future host of the 2020 summer Olympics.

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Journey to the East

While South Korea and Japan are close neighbors, their lands and cultures are completely unique. Cycling across these countries, one after the other...

In between these Olympic cities, the tour will visit many other well known places, such as Busan, the second largest city in Korea, Nagasaki, famous for one of the most tragic events in human history, and Kyoto, the former capital of Japan. There will be plenty of time to visit several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, to meditate on the current state of affairs in the seemingly endless number of temples and many opportunities to enjoy the famed Japanese baths.

I, for one, am particularly looking forward to practicing a bit of ‘Shinrin-yoku‘. You may ask, what esoteric thing is Henry into now? Well, I started this blog writing about being a boy in Eastern Slovakia and one of the benefits of living in rural Slovakia was, and still is, some amazing and wonderful forests. I and my friends spent endless hours amongst the trees, playing at being the famous Slovak highwayman, Jánošík and his band, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, finding empty bullet shells used by the partisans (including my uncle) in WII and picking mushroom for my mom to cook. Shirin- yoku or ‘forest bathing’ is the art and science of how trees can promote health and happiness. So, while I did not know it when I was a child, I was practicing a version of Shirin – yoku and I certainly plan to do much more of it on the Journey to the East.

I hope that you will join me on another wonderful cycling adventure from TDA Global Cycling.