A mate of mine has just accomplished a superhuman feat that filled me with admiration and maybe more than a little inspiration: a (barely) 10-day bicycle journey from the south of Kyushu to the northernmost part of Honshu as part of an event called the Japanese Odyssey. My mate, who I haven’t named because I haven’t sought permission to write about him and who I think is so humble he usually lets his actions speak for him, went on a trek of about 2,500 kilometers long and some 30,000-odd meters of elevation. And he finished this while only just into…