Sauber launched Raid in 2018. He’d just introduced his new Japan trips when the pandemic struck, forcing a three-year suspension. I join the second outing after the country’s reopening, along with 16 other cyclists, Raid’s four-person Japanese crew, and Sauber himself.
After a night in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighbourhood, we take a train to Sumiecho, a suburban area within Tokyo where, in one of the country’s pristine public restrooms – and before its bemused attendant – we change into our cycling kits. From there, we head into the lush mountains of Higashi-Ome.
A few things immediately become apparent. First, Japanese roads are top-notch. Cyclists typically make hand gestures to warn those behind them of potholes or random debris; our group had little to do. The one piece of rubbish I saw in the road stood out for its shocking indelicacy. Second, Japanese drivers are polite. Not as polite as Japanese shopkeepers, but generally solicitous of cyclists. Third, on 30-degree-plus days, Japanese vending machines – which one can find in the most unexpected places – are your friend.
Days are a flurry of impressions gleaned over the handlebars. I delight in the babble of snow monkeys in the trees near Kofu (the city that grows those beautiful, extravagantly expensive fruits that end up in gift baskets around the world). We pass elegantly spired, tightly packed Buddhist cemeteries in the midst of almost iridescent green rice paddies, and ride over mountain peaks, densely packed with cypress, that are absolutely silent save for the piercing cries of Japanese golden eagles. We stop for restorative bowls of soba noodles at family-run roadside restaurants, elaborate kaiseki meals eaten while wearing summer yukata robes, and Japanese snacks at the Raid rest stops. We take evocative “shortcuts” down eerily abandoned country roads. We stay the night in memorable, new-to-me cities like Takayama (which feels like a miniature Kyoto without the crowds). Often we cap the evening with a deep, bone-soothing soak in the hotel’s onsen – the same group we’d been all day, only naked.
snow monkey in the wildd3_plus D.Naruse @ Japan
But there is little room for embarrassment on this trip. On another night, in the town of Kaga, we find ourselves in a small karaoke bar called Swing Club, full-throatedly singing Bon Jovi. Sauber discovered the place years ago and has been returning ever since. As we walk in, the septuagenarian proprietress – a former classical dancer wearing a leopard-print blouse – beams at him warmly.
I am no novice cyclist, nor a novice to Japan, but I am a novice to cycling in Japan, and the experience reveals much to me about the country (and myself) that I might have missed via the blurred window of a high-speed bullet train.
Raid Cycling leads trips in countries across the globe. Rates for the eight-day Tokyo-to-Kyoto trip start at $6,800, which includes lodging, transportation and support during the trip, and all meals.
AloJapan.com