2025
Reading time: 15 - 20 minutes
Japan 2025
100,000 km by bicycle and 47 Japanese prefectures
New Year's Day
In Japan, New Year’s Day is born with the sun, in silence. We wait for dawn, welcoming the first light as it rises. It fills the air with dreams yet to unfold, future joys, and quiet rebirths.
We have entered the intimacy of this country. Today, seated beside Tsatsa Tatsuno-san and Baba Kiyoko-san, we share a rare moment in a room where every object carries symbolic meaning. Over sake, we celebrate this bond.
Going with the flow
Our time in Switzerland was filled with emotions, sharing and reconnecting with family and friends.
Fibie and Nayla also climbed their first peak while ski touring.
A brief stopover on the island of Formosa brought us back to our Taiwanese family, where Nayla received her new stainless-steel bicycle from Hsu Chengnon, founder of Rikulau. As she imagines the adventures ahead, it feels as though she has been given wings on two wheels.
Now, we are back in the Land of the Rising Sun. We continue on our way, reconnecting with this living Earth and its pulse.
Initiatives Shaping the Future — Nichinan
Nichinan welcomes us in the heart of sakura season. We wander among the graves of the samurai, guardians of this land of abundance, and practice archery, following in the footsteps of these warriors. At dawn, we step into the beating heart of the fishing villages at the fish market, before returning to the mountain silence where pomelo trees grow.
This region reveals a remarkable blend of culture and biodiversity: forests carpeted with hundreds of moss species, some found nowhere else.
We were invited by Nichinan Satoyama as part of a regional revitalisation project that weaves together ecotourism, soft mobility, and the preservation of local heritage. As consultants, we were given the chance to explore this singular place, its dramatic coastline, living traditions, and extraordinary biodiversity.
And at the heart of it all are the people we met, and the local initiatives quietly shaping the future of Nichinan.
The Mountain Route and a New Beginning for Fibie
Shikoku eased us into the journey, beneath the last sakura petals drifting away on the wind. When we arrived in Tokyo and Chiba, after a few lectures and reunions with our friends Ben and Viera’s family, we felt ready. This time again, the road was leading us into the unknown, toward Tohoku, through the mountains. It is where the land is calling us.
This year opens a new chapter for Fibie. For the first time, she rides every kilometre. Every rise of the road, every steep ascent. The headwinds, every moment of doubt. Each day asks for courage, for full determination.
I saw her excitement, bright and alive.
And I felt her sadness too, as she left behind her Follow Me system, her cocoon. With me, she could rest, read, write, play, and drift through her own stories while still moving forward. She did not need to pedal.
And yet, at every stage, at every challenge, an invisible force carried her, over long distances, up through the climbs, sometimes 82 kilometres, sometimes 1,000 metres of ascent. And she took on every challenge with passion. Wonder takes her where strength alone cannot.
