Our brand story: how we started.
Back to 2018.
My tour guide experience should go back to one day in 2018, when a cycling photo suddenly popped up on my social media timeline. And it came with the words “Guides urgently needed!”
Until I saw that post, I couln’t even imagine that I would take guests on a bike ride and introduce them to Japan. Cycling is just my hobby, and when it comes to guides, they were bus tours or walking tours. I had never thought of combining cycling and guiding, but I thought it sounded like an intriguing combination.
When they were going to hold a trial session of a bike tour, I immediately signed up. Under the cold winter sky, I went to Tokyo and met a tour guide. Until that day, I thought I knew a lot about Tokyo, since I am Japanese and was born in Tokyo.
Rediscoveries.
Yet, the tour was a series of discoveries. I cycled to a quiet park in the vicinity of Tokyo that I had never known. I had more local information I had never heard of. And I rediscovered what I thought I had known enough in Tokyo. Moreover, I realized the drastic changes of the scenery of Tokyo from area to area. Cycling connects these areas as if we sewed them together with a thread. How pleasant it was to learn something new in Tokyo through cycling.
Starting as a guide.
About six months later, I made my debut as a cycling guide. It was a hot summer day, and my guests from the Netherlands looked very tired under the scorching sunshine. We decided to take a coffee break. This kind of flexibility is one of the strengths of cycling tours.
Over coffee, we shared various topics such as politics, economy, religion, education, and daily lives in Japan. Through these conversations, they could learn more about how Japanese people live and think.
It was an unforgettable moment when we shook hands at the end of the tour. I think I was able to convey something that only a bike tour can offer, or more specifically, something that only I can offer. I could feel the satisfaction of my guests from the way they shook my hand.
My Mission.
In a sense, I have to be one of the Japanese representatives. I might be the first Japanese person the tourists meet. They start to know my country through my guide. I want them to learn more about Japan while taking pictures, pedaling, drinking coffee, or eating Japanese sweets together.
There is already a lot of information on the Internet. There are also many fun Youtube videos. However, there are things that people can learn through actual experience on a bike.
Cycling in a city and telling people about Japan are moments of bliss. And isn’t it a thing that is worth to my whole life? After six years as an employed guide, I have made up my mind to start my own business, Tokyo Bike Bliss.