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I Walked 20,000+ Steps a Day In Europe in These Immediately Comfortable Adidas Sneakers—Snag Them on Sale
I knew I would need a pair that bridged the gap between comfort and style on a recent 10-day trip to France and England. When I was lucky enough to sample a pair of Adidas Taekwondo Lace shoes, I knew this was the ideal opportunity to put them to the test. I wore the sleek sneakers nonstop throughout my vacation, and they were comfortable from the first wear. Right now, you can snag them on sale for 30 percent off during Adidas' Back to School Sale, which runs through August 7.
I own multiple pairs of Adidas sneakers, but the Taekwondo Lace shoes have quickly become my most-worn style. The narrow design hugs my feet and fits better than any other pair I've tried, and the rubber outsole offers just enough support for long days filled with sightseeing.
I typically like to test shoes out in intervals in the event they require a break-in period, but this trip required wearing them for an 11-hour travel day right out of the box. Not only were they comfortable from day one, but I proceeded to walk an average of 20,000 steps a day for a week without any discomfort or blisters.
The leather exterior proved to be super durable, and the shoes still look like new even after my trip. I unintentionally had to run more than a mile in these sneakers to catch a train, and I was surprised that my feet never hurt, and the leather wasn't scratched or scuffed after.
The design features Adidas' classic three-striped pattern on the side, which comes in eight colors, including black, white, silver, red, pink, blue, and my personal favorite, green. The slight pop of color made these a fun addition to a variety of outfits, including dresses, skirts, shorts, and jeans. They were endlessly versatile, and I wore them while touring museums during the day and to dinner at night. I even reached for them on the seventh day of the trip when attending The Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament because they were still in such great shape.
Adidas' sale ends tomorrow, August 7, so be sure to snag my go-to sneakers while they're $63. Keep scrolling to shop more on sale styles below.
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Forbes
31 minutes ago
- Forbes
Traveling To Japan? This Is One Of The Best Food And Culture Experiences
Japan has been one of the hottest travel destinations on earth for the past few years, breaking record after record, and more importantly, it shows no signs of the slowdowns that are affecting travel in many other marquee destinations amidst economic uncertainty, lower consumer confidence, a declining dollar, on and off tariff posturing, and political animosity toward Americans. It remains a place well worth considering for your next vacation, and walking is one of the best ways to experience the country if you are traveling to Japan. Why Japan Is A Hot Travel Destination According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), in April 2025, the last full month with available data, more than 3.9 million foreign visitors arrived in Japan, a new all-time high for any single month. This was a massive one year 28.5% increase from April 2024—which had already seen large gains from previous years. But visits from the U.S. increased even more dramatically, by a whopping 43%. The total number of visitors from the U.S. to Japan this year, just through the first four months, has already surpassed one million. While the dollar is not as strong as American travelers have had the luxury of enjoying around most of the world in in much of the recent past, it has continued to perform well in Japan and as of this week (around 149 yen to the dollar) it was still much closer to 5-year highs (160) than lows (103) and is near its pre-2024 highs. Before that, you'd have to travel back in time more than a third of a century, to 1990, to enjoy a better rate. The appeals of Japan are many: it has an incredibly rich culture full of well-preserved traditions, it is one of the very best (arguably the best) culinary destinations on earth, simply a must for foodies, and from crime rate to medical infrastructure to public transport to cleanliness, it is one of the safest place you can go. But what many people who have not visited do not realize, especially after seeing pictures of bustling, crowded Tokyo, is that Japan is extremely rural and undeveloped, with more than two-thirds of its land mass still forested, and much of that mountainous. As a country of islands, it also has an extremely high amount of coastline, ringed with sleepy fishing villages, and in general is a place of often overlooked natural beauty and outdoor wonders. Japan has long had a declining population, and that is increasingly urbanized in a handful of dense metro areas. So even as jam-packed Kyoto has joined spots like Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam on all the top lists of over-touristed destination, most of Japan is uncrowded, even empty, despite the record crowds. This leaves much of the nation as a glorious place to enjoy nature. Strolling through bamboo forests, towering cypress groves, and past ancient temples, shrines and Zen gardens is not something you can do in many places. I've ben to Japan many times, love Tokyo, and have been to Kyoto, Sapporo and Osaka, and all have their charms, but I have also been skiing and cycling and hiking and enjoying the many hot springs outside the cities, and that is just a wonderful way to explore the country. But on a recent guided trip with an aptly named company called Walk Japan, I learned more about the nation's unique food and culture than I did on the last half dozen visits combined. If you want to really experience Japan, it's hard to imagine a better way. Walk Japan was launched way back in 1992 by two academics at the University of Hong Kong as a way to immerse English speaking high school students in Japanese culture. It was such a hit that it was expanded to adults, and while they still do school programs, it has grown into a full-service active travel tour operator, but one that specializes just in this one country and does it in a more intimate fashion with a deeper dive into food, culture and history. I say intimate because their group size is capped much lower than most active travel tour operators. The majority of Walk Japan trips have a max group size of 12, while for walking trips top tier luxury global operators such as Backroads and Butterfield & Robinson usually take up to 20 and 16 guests respectively. More moderately priced well-established companies like Country Walkers go up to 18. The smaller size makes it easier to enjoy immersive and educational dining experiences. All tours are in English, and they draw predominantly from the U.S., Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Like most top active travel specialists, Walk Japan offers both scheduled guided group trips that parties as small as one can join (20% of their guests are solo travelers), the option of putting together your own private group, or doing a self-guided itinerary with support such as luggage transfers. Self-guided is one of the fastest growing categories in active travel because you can go when you want, with whoever you want and it is much less expensive. I recently wrote about the dramatic rise of popularity in self-guided active travel here at Forbes, and while I am generally an advocate, it would not be my top recommendation for this trip. Walk Japan is so strong in its excellent guides and education that it would be a shame to forego to the expert companionship, and in addition, outside of the big cities language is a huge barrier for foreign visitors, with few people speaking English, and everything from menus to signage to directions a tough interpretation. The company mainly does walking (lower key) and hiking (higher output) trips, but also has a couple of interesting niche categories, such as a collection food-focused 'onsen gastronomy' trips (onsens are Japanese hot springs, which typically feature traditional inns, or ryokans, with hot springs bathing and a heavy culinary emphasis), which still involve waking but are less strenuous. They also offer several winter snowshoeing trips. This is a different spin on walking that no other active tour operator I know of offers (some have it as a small part of a multi-sport winter trip). Having done a lot of snowshoeing, I can say it would be a really cool twist on the active travel vacation, especially since Japan is arguably the world's best ski destination and parts of the country get more snow than anywhere else you can go). But the basic lineup is guided tours of 5-11 days across a wide range of physical efforts. A couple of the multi-day trips drop down as low as Level 2, 'Participants must be in good health and able to handle their own luggage, climb stairs and walk approximately 10km (6.2 miles) each day. Walks last between two to four hours at a 1.5kph to 2.5kph (1mph to 1.6mph) pace, and include some short ascents and descents,' while a 10-day hike in the mountains of Hokkaido, home to Japan's most famous ski resorts, hits their top tier of Level 6: 'Participants must be in good health and used to an active lifestyle. They must be able to handle their own luggage, climb stairs and walk between 15km to 25km (9.3 miles to 15.5 miles) each day. Walks last up to eight hours at a 1.5kph to 5kph (1mph to 3mph) pace and include long and steep ascents and descents.' I have done a lot of active travel trips with a lot of different highly-regarded tour operators over the years, including three different luxury operators that have at various time been ranked as the World's Best. These kinds of trips are a subject I am highly specialized in, and with that base of knowledge and experience I was very pleasantly surprised by how good Walk Japan was and can highly recommend them, with several different things that stood out and set them apart. For starters, our guide was phenomenal, not good or very good. A native speaker of both English and Japanese, there was no misunderstanding, confusion or clarification needed, and the effort he went through to share his deep knowledge of Japanese culture, traditions, customs, history and cuisine greatly enhanced our trip. If there was a question he could not answer, he did the research and came back with it later, and if someone on the trip needed extra-curricular assistance, from post-trip transportation to shopping advice, he went above and beyond the call of duty. This all fits with the company's ethos, which is to visit less-visited spots, enhance the local economy through tourism, participate in community-based projects and volunteerism and educate clients. As I said above, I was shocked that I learned more in this one trip than in decades of previous visits, several of which involved guides, experts and tours. As part of this local immersive style, each trip includes some extra participatory experience. On our trip we visited a museum of traditional paper making and made our own hand pressed Japanese stationery, which we took home as a souvenir. Other trips include flower arranging, cooking classes, yoga and meditation and many other activities. Both the value proposition and culinary inclusions were off the charts. I link these together because for the price you would never expect the food to be so amazing. The base fee for tours typically includes dinner almost every night, every breakfast and some lunches, with a few meals on your own. That is pretty common in active travel. What is not common was that just about every included dinner, night after night, was a blowout multi-course meal. I discussed this with a fellow foodie traveler and we agreed that if after the trip we went to any Michlein-starred restaurant in Tokyo and spent $200 a person we wouldn't expect any better. Many of these were in ryokans where the Walk Japan staff meets in advance with chefs to plan and curate meals to avoid repetition and showcase diversity and regional specialties. Just about every dinner included sashimi, meat—including several meals with wagyu beef—noodles, rice, cooked seafood and vegetables and often several types of each of these, all beautifully presented, plated and delicious. Not every great active travel trip is perfect for serious foodies, but these certainly are, and mine was a 'normal' trip, not the gastronomy focused ones. 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The company has an ethic of trying to showcase history and culture while staying off the beaten path, so many of its tours are in places Americans are unfamiliar with, and many retrace historical footpaths or religious pilgrimage trails. Last year I did a hike on Spain's Camino de Santiago, probably the world's most famous pilgrimage trail. But how many people know that the only other UNESCO World Heritage designated pilgrimage hike on earth is the Kumano Kodo, a journey through a millennia of Buddhist history linking three famous temples outside Osaka? While Walk Japan does offer 1-2-day 'sampler' excursions in Tokyo and Kyoto, and one trip, the Tokaido trail, links these two most-visited cities, the vast majority of its trips are on less visited, further flung islands and places few tourists would otherwise visit. However, Japan's amazing rail and domestic aviation network still makes it easy to combine these with visits to the major cities and other attractions. The trip I did was on Shikoku, the smallest and least populated of Japan's major islands. I flew into Kochi City and out of Matsuyama, two airport many tourists will never otherwise set foot in. But each was just a short hop from Tokyo, and the payoff was a deep dive into the many famous temples, shrines and amazing gastronomy of the area. Kochi City has a huge car-free pedestrianized downtown chock full of amazing restaurants, is home to a fabulously famous food market with a huge array of dining options, and has a rich tradition of seafood, especially its signature grill bonito, which we could not stop eating. It also has one of Japan's best-preserved castles. Not surprisingly, there were guests on our trip who were repeat customers and chose this trip specifically because of their great experience with Walk Japan elsewhere in the country. While I came and went just for the walk, every other traveler in my small group tour was extending before or after the trip, or both, especially those you who had never been traveling to Japan before. My takeaway is that one of the Walk Japan trips would be the best thing you could do upon arrival, before visiting Tokyo, Kyoto or the other touristic places. Why? Because by the time you get to these fabulous but often overwhelming cities, you will have such a great grasp on the food, customs and culture that you will be able to enjoy them much better and do it with less stress. If the overall timeframe is too long for you to do this, consider doing their 1-2-day Tokyo and/or Kyoto city walks at the front end of your visit to these metropolises. As I said, I've been to Japan many times, in many different ways, and I love it, but I wish one of these walks had been my very first experience. I cannot go back and change that, but I can make up for lost time, and I would absolutely travel with Walk Japan again.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
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Train line blocked after crash at level crossing
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