Peter, Mike and Jan's bicycle tour in Japan

introduction

Mike Blackwell and Peter Richards from the USA have been cycling buddies since 1994 and toured in many countries together. See the account of their Korea tour of 1998. Jan Boonstra, from The Netherlands with the age of 51 the youngest of the trio, is a new friend they met on the internet. Mike and Peter had developed a touring style of riding 'seperately together' They seldomly really bike together on the road but meet again on agreed places and times. Mostly on the same day, but there's no rule. In this way, each of them can ride in accordance with his own capabilities and preferences.

Being both retired scientists, Mike and Peter can dedicate a lot of their time to bicycle touring and that is what they do. You name an exotic or hardly known country and they biked it. Jan has a bicycle touring experience since 1963. Many of his tours can be read and seen in travelogues on his extensive bicycle touring website. Jan, who lives in South korea, helped Mike with preparations for Mike and Peter's Korea tour. He did not participate, though. They drew up a webpage of this tour together, from Mike's diary and photographs, hosted and composed by Jan. This was the basis for more intensified contacts. Opportunities were investigated that Jan could join Mike and Peter once on one of their tours, since their touring style appealed a lot to Jan.

That opportunity came in March 2000. They planned a tour in Southwest Japan, starting in Fukuoka, only a night's ferry away from Jan's home city Busan. The tour lasted 4 weeks, of which Jan participated for only 10 days, due to limited available time. Jan's complete diary, in Dutch, is also available as well as an account of Jan's bicycle tour in 1993 in the same region. Click, read and see how this went on!

go to Jan Boonstra's bicycle touring pages