It's been more than a week since the tour ended. I haven't completely adjusted to being at home. Jetlag persists. The daily routine is starting to feel normal again, but my heart and mind are still on the road. I feel restless.

Perhaps reflecting upon our tour will help bring some closure. For the past four years, we've been fortunate enough to take what I would consider to be "immersive tours" that give us enough time to really explore our destinations. For the time being, I continue to plan them as sprawling challenges that cover a lot of ground, with a rough schedule and a specific goal in mind. In its simplest form, the goal to get from Point A to Point B, or to complete a loop, exclusively by pedal power whenever possible. We don't often succeed, but we always come pretty close. This time we did succeed; in fact, we had to make an excuse to take a train on an off-day just so we could try one out. I'm very proud of our accomplishment.

We did simplify our route in two places. From the comfort of my sofa, I now wish we would have taken on those extra mountain stages just for bragging rights. I also feel like it would have been rewarding to stick to the very first plan, which was to follow the "Length of Japan" route precisely, with its emphasis on the east coast of Tohoku. This is an area that was impacted heavily by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. I don't know that too many people have followed this path, so reporting on it might have been useful to the touring community.

In the end, we did ride 3000km, which is roughly the distance I had originally planned. All those little side trips add up.

We're running a race against time. The more experience we gain, the more I want to push us to explore off the beaten path. At the same time, we no longer have as much enthusiasm for camping, for braving the elements, or for taking risks. There will soon be a tipping point where we abandon the heavy touring paradigm all together in favor of something that makes multimodal transportation easier. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I have a strong desire to do an"epic tour" before I hang up my Surly for good. Whether that's the Transamerica, or something else, remains to be seen.

What were our overall impressions of Japan? First, I would say that the infrastructure isn't as spectacular as some people make it out to be. As in most developed countries, there are specific areas with great bike paths, and a few roads that are so scenic and so low in traffic that they may as well be bike paths. More often, though, one is faced with either urban sprawl or unpredictable road conditions. Japan's economy has been stagnant for decades, which I think contributes to deferral of road maintenance, especially in the countryside. We had to make a couple of detours because an entire road was closed for maintenance. In other countries, they might have staggered the maintenance so that at least one lane would be open at any given time.

Drivers are courteous, except for the few that aren't. I suppose that's just the nature of the beast, although I recall drivers in Spain, the Netherlands, and France as being consistently deferential. I feel like bicycle culture plays into it. In Japan, cycling is primarily an urban pursuit, while in the above-mentioned countries, long-distance riding is also very popular. It's all about what's familiar, isn't it?

I dislike riding on the left. The ubiquity of sidewalks mitigates this issue, because you often can ride on the right if you really want to. In the UK, roundabouts were where I really got into trouble while riding on the left, and luckily there are few in Japan. After this trip, I'm starting to feel more at home with left side riding. Progress!

As in Korea, most domestic bike tourists in Japan are of the fast-and-light variety. Fully-loaded bikes receive very little consideration when it comes to parking or bike path design. Kickstands are standard equipment on city bikes, so one is expected to be able to park anywhere. We were rarely hassled for leaning our bikes against a wall, but we sure were careful in selecting our spots so as not to get in anyone's way.

The scenery in the countryside, the mountains, the islands, and certain parts of the coast, is simply unparalleled. I would advise riders to plan your route around these areas, and the rest will follow. By "the rest", I mean the people, the food, the temples, the shrines, the castles, the cities. You will have plenty of opportunity to experience all these things if you're covering a lot of ground in any direction, although it's more scarce if you stick to the north. The things that one typically associates with Japan lie in the southern third of Honshu. If you try to keep your tour on the flat side, you will be spending most of your time in traffic. It's a tradeoff, but I would say that the charms of the hillier routes always win over the convenience of the flat ones.

We are very grateful to the people we met. The time we spent with them will remain in our thoughts well after all the rest fades. Thank you to Yuta, Stuart, and Beer, for making us feel welcome on our first days in Japan. Thank you to Akina and Takeshi for opening your home to us. Thank you to Tai, Makiko, Tatsuya, and Yuli for a memorable evening of music. Thank you to Miki for lifting our spirits in Semboku. Thank you to Masayo, and to our fellow guests at Guesthouse Mi Casa Su Casa for sharing a couple of rainy evenings with us. Thank you to Michael for hanging out with us on Shodoshima. Thank you to Harper for making us feel less homesick. Thank you to the sassy box lady at Fukuoka Airport! It was a sincere pleasure to meet each and every one of you.

Thank you to the people who struck up conversations with us while on the road. Thank you to the cashiers, restaurant owners, and hotel and campground staff who put up with all of our questions and requests. Thank you to the kind and courteous drivers who shared the roads with us. Thank you to the pedestrians and nimble cyclists who shared the sidewalks with us.

Thank you to Fred and Sue for the ride to the airport. We would have a very difficult time getting anywhere at all without you! Thank you to Homer, Liz, Dave, and Zanna for watching over our place. Thank you to the staff at JRA for the bike box. Thank you to the Andersons for the incredible routing advice and general encouragement.

Thank you to Mei for sharing a week of unforgettable touring together. Also thanks to Songjie and their son for supporting Mei in his quest to ride in Japan again.

Thank you, my dear partner, for your teamwork, for valuing my contributions, for putting up with my faults, for putting a smile on my face when I most need it.

Thank you, dear reader, for accompanying us on this journey, for tolerating my typos and redundancies, for cheering us on when the going got rough, and for motivating me to write even when I didn't feel up to it. We hope to go on another adventure soon, so please feel free to join us next time!