Grown up in a village and never having lived in a place with more than 50000 residents, I really enjoy being one of the 30 Mio inhabitants of the Tokyo Greater Area.
Despite this sometimes I feel the need to get out of the crowds, the traffic, the concrete - you get the idea.
For the "small hunger" one can go to one of Tokyo's many green spots, especially along the rivers. But even better, it takes only 90 minutes by train to get into Japan's scarcly populated mountains with it's abundance of nature.

Subsequently hiking and bicyling have become my number one hobbies.
Especially since I got myself in August 2002 a racing bicyle, bicylce riding has clearly taken the lead. For around one year day tours on the weekend have been enough to still my thirst. By then I actually knew the major bicycle lanes and mountain roads around Tokyo. I wanted more...
The answer: Longer tours to more distant destinations. Thus multi day tours.
The thing is, on vacation I don't like planning in advance, which while travelling on the bicycle is anyway way too risky. One never knows where on will be at the end of the day, thus staying in hotels is not an option.
So camping. But stop, I also have two left hands with ten thumbs, don't like heavy baggage and hate freezing.
This is where the special nature of Japan comes to the rescue. In summer the days are normally near 30 degrees centigrade and even the nights don't fall below 20 degrees. Food can be bought everywhere in the ubiquitous convenience stores. Accordingly I don't need to carry a tent around. Dropping myself to the ground besides the street wherever the sun sets on me is fully sufficient. I actually do my "camping" without having so much as a pocket knife with me.

By now I have come quite around in Japan. Recently I decided to publish a log of my tours right here in the internet.
If you are a fellow bicycle rider (or are just plain interested) have a look and in case of questions or comments, drop me an email or leave a note on my messageboard.

Page last modified: 2004-09-02