A 34-year-old Saudi national cycled from the northern tip of the mainland of Hokkaido in Japan to the southern tip of Kyushu island in a journey that lasted 39 days.

Omar Al-Omair began his 3,152-km trek from Cape Soya on Oct. 16 arriving at Cape Sata, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Nov. 23.

In an interview with Japan Times, Al-Omair said, “I love cycling and I love Japan.” He said that he had visited Japan twice before but this time he wanted to bike through “to see what I had missed.”

Al-Omair spent 32 nights in a tent which he had carried with him, to rest from the arduous journey in the cold mountainous regions of Japan. For the remaining nights, he put up at a hotel or a mosque.

During his time in Japan, he ate only fish and vegetables thus making sure he had only halal food, he said.

In his limited Japanese, Al-Omair was able to go to a restaurant and say, “Hara hetta” (I am hungry) and “Watashi buta dame” (I can’t eat pork).

He said that he met many kind people along the way. On a rainy day in Akita Prefecture, he asked the owner of a shop if he could put up his tent under the eave to shelter from the rain. Not only did the family let him use the space but they also gave him dinner and in the morning offered him hot water to wash with. They also asked him if he would like some breakfast. When he refused the lady of the house presented him with an envelope containing a 1,000 yen note in it.

Quoting another example of Japanese hospitality, Al-Omair said that in Shizuoka Prefecture he met a family whose mother gave him 3,000 yen.

However, while the warmth and generosity of the Japanese was overwhelming, the weather was freezing cold. In Hokkaido, with nightly temperatures falling to sub-zero it was difficult to sleep in the tent. Al-Omair said that he wore three layers of pants, four layers of shirts and three layers of socks to keep warm.

This was the first time he had cycled such a long distance outside Saudi Arabia but Al-Omair is ready to do it again; this time in another country.

“Yeah, it’s the first time I have done something like this. But it won’t be the last,” he said.