For anyone who might want to give their own life-changing journey a try...here are some pointers
GEAR: It will all break. The expensive stuff will break. The cheap stuff will break even quicker. The only things that stuck through for me till the end were my cycling shoes, my rain jacket, my tent, and my odometer. Literally everything else either broke, fell apart or got completely destroyed. My poor bike especially. Don't worry about your junk. It's just stuff. The adventure is great because of all the things you see and do...not because you got the greatest gear in the world. Do some research and don't freak out when the crap you spent all your money on gets all beat up. That's what it's there for.
TRAINING: I trained near my house on A1A, the local coastal street. No hills, no mountains whatsoever. I started by doing something like 30km and went one extra major intersection each time until I reached 100km two months later. This was the amount that I shot for once in Japan. This amount is completely arbitrary and up to you. You may do more or may do less. It all depends on your body and what type of adventure you get yourself into.
PLANNING: Do a bit of it. Like a really tiny tiny bit of it. Have a small list of must-see places. My plan was to go south. That's it. Fastest route to Sata, stopping by Tokyo, Fujisan, Kyoto and Osaka. Everything else could be skipped missed or whatever else. The fun of an adventure is that you don't always know what happens next. If you did, it be called a vacation. And an adventure needs a goal. The better the goal the more satisfied you will be at the end.
Here are the top 4 things I learned while in Japan
-Never give up: Go and go and go. Be smart, but never give in. Everything is going to push you down, tear you apart and make you want to turn around and go home crying. Fight like an animal, and then eventually everything will bow down to you and let you pass in respect.
-Immerse yourself into the culture: Don't go to McDonalds every other day. Don't go to the chains. Don't spend your days in cafe's or Starbucks. Go into the mom and pop shops. The izakayas. The random ramen shops. There you will meet Japan, and Japan will love your story, and it will love you too eventually. Then the Shochu will come out...and that's how you lose a lot of sleep getting wasted with the locals =)
-Let go, completely: Just because you get on a bike and decide to ride a long way doesn't mean it will be what you imagined it to be. If you hide from the locals, don't try to speak the language, always get the easiest most traveled route, and always act in your own cultural standards .....you will be alone, you will be bored, you will get tired of your adventure, and eventually you will get to the end and realize it wasn't what you hoped it would be. I let go the first night. I don't believe in gods, but that night I asked a shrine to give me the best adventure of my life and protect me. After that, I always respected the customs of Japan, every single one, to the best of my abilities. I now have more friends in Japan than here in the US or Italy where I am originally from. I can say that I now have one friend in almost every city I passed by. Plus, Japan is a lovely country. You will find few places like it. Take advantage. Be nice and people will be nice back.
-Your plans will change, almost all the time: If you really immerse yourself in the spirit of the adventure, it will carry you so far off course and show you an even better world, the one you would have missed out on if all your plans went smoothly. For example...I got shipped to the wrong city...but then ended up meditating with a homeless buddhist monk in a bus stop. Something that has always been a dream of mine. Then I met him 4 days later by accident again on the road. This is something that will happen over and over to you if you just let go. The adventure will do the rest. Most of the best moments for me were completely off my map and totally unexpected.
Country Profile
Food: ***** Amazing. Better than anything you will ever have back home. Healthy and delicious and esthetically beautiful.
People: ***** You will be left speechless by the amount of kindness and respect you will receive if you act nice. No one ever made me feel threatened.
Culture: ***** Another gorgeous aspect of Japan. Ancient and modern at the same time. It's got it all.
Convenience: ***** There is a convenience store on every other corner and a vending machine even on the most remote country road. You would have to really try to die of starvation in this country.
Landscape: *** So rich in natural beauty. Problem is though that the country is extremely mountainous...so it is definitely a hard course to chose. There are also extreme winds up north and the country undergoes a rainy season each year. Occasional earthquakes not to say a radioactive zone to avoid. Japan is gorgeous...but it is not for the weak. Worth every bruise, joint pain, and broken bone though.
