People On The Road Vol.2 with Satomi Yamada

Photo by Sorachi Sakai (@s_r_c.715)

Somewhere between Tokyo and the horizon, Satomi is always moving. By day, she edits magazines and writes stories. By the rest of the year, she’s on a bike—riding through mountains, alleys, and empty roads, scribbling her experiences along the way.

Ask her why she rides, and she’ll shrug. “I don’t know. It just feels good.”

But cycling is more than feeling good—it’s a lens for the world, a way of noticing what slips by, a way of being fully alive. For this edition of People on the Road, Satomi reflects on her journey—from getting started to discovering how cycling has shaped the way she sees the world.

How did you start with your bike?  

It all started from a really unexpected trigger.

The bicycle I had for getting around town had become rusty and worn out after about ten years, so I decided to replace it. When I got a slightly better bike and tried riding it, I was instantly captivated by the feeling of gliding effortlessly with each pedal stroke.

Since then, I’ve used my bicycle for all my travel around Tokyo. While train rides had always felt like moving from point to point, riding a bicycle gave me the freedom to choose any route I wanted, turning everyday life itself into a journey. 

I’ve always loved traveling and had backpacked around the world since my student days, but through cycling, I realised I could experience that same sense of adventure even in my daily life.

Then one day, I thought, “How far could I go if I traveled the world by bicycle?” Driven by that curiosity, I decided to set out on a journey to cycle around the world.

Where do you ride the most?  

So far, I’ve travelled by bicycle to places such as Hokkaido, New Zealand, Alaska, Scotland, and Kyrgyzstan.

I ride wherever I can, continuing to explore parts of the world I haven’t yet seen by bike. And through those journeys, I hope to discover stories that only I can arrive at.

Why do you ride?

I didn’t know the remote mountains of Alaska or the roads of the Silk Road until I rode there. Even in my own neighborhood, there are still alleys I’ve never explored, full of unknown places.

Bicycling teaches me so many things I didn’t know and even familiar places reveal new faces..

And the more I learn, the more I realise just how much there is in the world that I still don’t know.  That’s why I keep riding, every single day.

Tell us about one memorable moment from your cycling journey:

One of the most memorable moments came when I rode for days deep in the mountains of Alaska, without meeting a single person and far beyond any cell signal. I felt true solitude. For a moment, it seemed as if I were the only person left in the world.

But I quickly realised that wasn’t true. Even in a place completely cut off from society, the world keeps turning, exactly as it always has. What I was experiencing was simply a state in which no one was aware that I existed. It felt the same as being dead — not in a dark way, but in a strangely clear one.

In that space, every decision I made came straight from my innermost self, free from anyone else’s eyes. And in that moment, for the first time in my life, I felt truly free.

Photo by Sorachi Sakai (@s_r_c.715)

And lastly, how cycling shapes the way you see the world?

Riding a bicycle has only strengthened my desire to explore the world, reshaping both my work and my everyday life. I set out to ride across the globe, and in order to share those experiences in words, I reshaped my entire way of living.

Bicycling doesn’t just reveal unknown worlds—it teaches me how to live fully, on my own terms. And along the way, it brings countless new encounters, each one opening another door to the world.