After travelling to Japan to bikepacking around the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, we literally fell in love with the people, food and terrain. The mammoth mountains climbed and moments where our brakes weren’t enough to slow our bikes down on steep descents. Japan was the best place to cycle, get lost, ride through hundreds of cobwebs and get lost in the dark with no signal or idea where the next town was.

Japan is where 6ft8photographer grew its initial legs, it was a magical place to travel with amazing people, amazing roads and epic weather. There is no hiding the fact that we enjoy rain, storms and wind. The more furious is the more awesome and epic. On our 1st trip, we picked off-season to get the true Japanese experience away from tourists and good weather. It rained, and when we say ‘rained’ we mean it rained and rained and rained. There were times when we dried our clothes packed them away and rode our bikes in the minimal kit, freezing but knowing that we had clothes for the next day that were dry, for us these moments where we were drenched of things that didn’t go to plan are for us the definition of adventure.

Our journey took us deep into the Japanese mountains to meet local people who gifted us apples and let us pat their dogs. There was this one lady that was so amazed that we had ridden from Tokyo through the mountains and into her little town. She also warned us that continuing the route we had planned down to Mt Nachi would be too hard for a bicycle. Given she was a local, ie. more knowledgeable, we had a quick check just to make sure it was the elevation that she was referring to and not some crazy dangerous road that we didn’t want to be on. It was the elevation.

Our journey was just beginning and we were thrilled.

In this part of our journey, we cycled through the Wakayama and the Nara regions. These were some very hilly regions on the right the green, blue and yellow markers are all special locations for our next trip. This region is full of the clearest water, the most pristine forests and amazing picturesque roads. My words can only describe part of the amazing visual experience with which Japan portrayed.

(Henry)

Whilst cycling through this region of Japan it was like another world, roads, tunnels and endless mountains surround you making you feel small and insignificant. The surrounding landscapes were so breathtaking and played a role in my photography development its a goal of mine to travel back and photograph and write these stories for you.

Whilst cycling through this region I met a man that spoke great English down the bottom of a long and steep hill, I realised that the road was a dead-end and that I would have to climb all the way back up. He told me to get in the van and he would drive me up halfway. I cannot remember his name, he worked at a ramen shop on Elizabeth Street in Melbourne. He had just taken a Japanese tour group white water rafting and was returning when we crossed paths. I was so grateful.

On my next trip I am going to use video re-counts to tell my stories as they happen so you all can share the joy and excitement I feel when writing this story now. As for this story now you are probably wondering where my next trip with taking me. You see after then my first trip forgetting my map, I knew that this was an opportunity….it took the whole trip to see the value.

If you want to hear more about our previous trip leave a comment.

Until then