Father-Daughter Japan Cycling Adventure

Each summer I try to do a major endurance challenge with my two children. So far we've cycled over 7,000 miles together across Japan, Iceland, Europe and the U.S. This year, my 15-year-old son Sho said he wanted to spend the summer focusing on his soccer skills instead of going on a crazy bike trip with me. Kids eventually grow up and leave you, sigh...

But my 9-year-old daughter Saya is still game! Starting tomorrow she and I will ride connected bikes 700 miles round trip from Tokyo to Kyoto and back. We'll follow the ancient Tokaido route along the coast of eastern Honshu. I expect some seriously hard climbs, beautiful ocean views, and a nonstrop stream of knock knock jokes from Saya. 

We'll post updates and photos here. Should be fun! Here are some photos from our trip so far: 

At JFK Airport ready to go!

On the flight from NYC to Tokyo, Saya practicing her smolder

My loving, generous sister-in-law, Akemi, picked us up at the airport

Coincidence or fate? At Narita Airport, Saya and I bumped into Heather, a friend of mine who is a teacher and was selected to travel to Japan to visit local schools as part of a select group of educators.

I checked our bikes as luggage. Here I am reassembling Saya's trailer cycle, which connects to the back of my bike and looks like this:

This is a photo from the start of a 67-day ride across Japan I did with my son Sho in 2009 when he was 8 years old. I'm having serious flashbacks to that trip right now.

Here's what my bike looked like when I took it out of the box today. It took me a couple hours to put it back together and ensure it's ready to ride.

We're lucky to have such a loving family: Saya and I ate dinner two nights in a row with my brother-in-law Aki, his wife Akemi, and their daughter Arisa. Aki is going to ride with us part of the way on our first day tomorrow.