We arrived in Oregon on November 1st and made it back to our home sweet Van! Thank you to Roxana and family for looking after our precious van. We were grateful that it was one thing we didn't need to worry about. We stayed one night at Fernando's house, and immediately had nachos and beer! That is one thing Korea and Japan are lacking - really yummy BEER!

Overall we cycled 1,851km, and visited everywhere we wanted to. We climbed both Mt. Fuji, tallest in Japan, and Mt. Hallasan, tallest in Korea. Both of our bodies survived 6 weeks of cycling, sometimes over 100km, and boy did we eat a lot! We only broke: 6 spokes, 1 brake cable, 3 or 4 flat tires and 1 broken pannier. I had to leave my bike seat in Korea, it was totally eaten up by this trip.

A few thoughts about cycling in Korea - I wouldn't recommend it. We read other blogs of others cycling in Korea and dealing with the traffic and the buses and the roads. Korean roads are fine if it weren't for the cars. Some highways had medians, but there were these annoying little reflectors that stuck out from the road, which was dangerous to hit. The highways weren't the issue, it was the cities. Once we got into a city, chaos broke - weaving in and out of cars, dodging buses, that I swear were aiming for us, and avoiding taxi's who just weren't looking. Some cities did have bike lanes, I'll give them credit, but usually there were cars or trucks parked on them, people walking on them, street venders selling fruit, or motorcycles/scooters zooming on the sidewalks. Yes, and they looked at us like we were in the wrong! Everyday we cycled in Korea I wonderded if we'd be hit. By the end of the trip I followed some advice I read on a blog - take charge, and cut in front of the buses, and we survived.

One great thing about Korea is the fact that we never had to worry about where to sleep - just go to a bus station or train stations, where there would be motels everywhere. And the motels were cheap, and for a good reason, they were called "Love Motels" for a reason. They were 30,000 W for one night, and they had cable tv(English CNN!), nice rooms, and some of them were actually really fancy!

A few thoughts about cycling in Japan - I recommend it! Japan is very cycle friendly. We found out the second day, however, to pay attention to the "No Bicycles" sign, we were pulled over by the police on a freeway - they were very kind! Any place that has a No Bicycle Sign always has a route that bikes can take with signs pointing you in the right direction. Japan is clean, very clean, even the big cities. Japan is orderly, Japan vehicles are quiet, even the large trucks. Take note that when biking, the all vehicles are very quiet, so sometimes you can't hear them coming up on you. And Japan is expensive. The food is expensive, the hostels are expensive, everything.

We enjoyed cycling through Japan. We did have problems finding places to sleep, which is why we brought our tent. Guerilla camping is well known in the cycle touring community, and we were glad we did it. No one bothered us and it was free! A few times it felt like we were homeless, but I got over it quickly, as we needed to sleep somewhere and a lot of these little towns didn't have motels like in Korea.

Overall, a great trip, and what a learning experience! A trip I will forever remember for the good, bad and ugly!