Jitensha

Book excerpt: Jitensha: Down the Japanese Archipelago on a Bicycle is a travel narrative that recounts the author's 2500-mile zigzag bicycle odyssey from the northernmeost to the southernmost points of the four main islands of the Japanese archipelago. The author departs from Sapporro, capital of Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido in the last week of August. Two months later he stares out to sea from Cape Sata in Kyushu, the southernmost point of Japan proper. This book is about the happenings and human encounters the author experienced while bicycling the roads of Japan. This book is neither a guidebook nor a how-to-bicycle-Japan book. Most definitely it is not a treatise on the culture, customs, geography, history or people of Japan. Pure and simple, it is a very personal account of my bicycle ride down the length of Japan's four main islands. Please accept it as such.