Cycling
My Japan Route
日本でルート
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On using other peoples routes:
Since I started posting online about my bike travels, there have been many times that I’ve been asked to share my cycling routes, either for Europe and Japan. I’m always happy to give the information I can, but I think an important note when it come to following other peoples route, especially is they came up with them themselves, is that there are lots of times I chose wrong. Hopefully in this breakdown of my route I can highlight sections that it’s worth the trip for, and maybe save someone the effort of cycling a road that wasn’t worth it.
Narita to Sendai
Narita -> Nikko -> Aizuwakamatsu -> Mount Bandai -> Yonezawa -> Yamagata -> Sendai
I landed in Narita near Tokyo in the middle of July 2023, with a loose plan to head north to Hokkaido. Summer was in full force and during the day the sound of cicadas was ceaseless, and made me feel like I was in an anime.
Despite the constant heat I loved all the places I visited on this route. I did a mix of camping, hostels and hotels depending mostly on availability of sites and how long I wanted to stay somewhere. I didn’t have a set schedule I needed to be anywhere by, so by booking day to day I got to spend as long as I wanted in places I enjoyed.
Sendai to Oma
Sendai -> Sanriku Coast -> Morioka -> Nyuto Onsen -> Towadako -> Oma
Out of Sendai I experienced much worse weather as the typhoon season kicked off, as well as ongoing mechanical issues. In general though I loved the East Coast of Japan.
Places I’d skip:
Semboku/Nyuto Onsen – The road up here was steep and hard, the campsite was terrible and the Onsen was underwhelming. This was also one of the most remote places I visited, and it was multiple hours between convenience stores.
Matsushima – Popular tourist spot that I found overly touristy and expensive.
Hokkaido
Hakodate -> Yakumo ->Kyugoku -> Yoichi -> Otaru -> Wakkanai -> Rishiri Island -> Abashiri -> Shiretoko -> Nemuro -> Kushiro -> Furano -> Tomakomai
I reached Hokkaido towards the end of Summer as the heat broke and found myself needing to get better sleeping equipment to get through the nights. The history and lanscape of Hokkaido was completely different to the mainland, and I loved getting to further my understanding of the island.
Places I’d skip:
Route 5 – I took Route 5 between Hakodate and Yakumo and wish I’d taken any other road. By far the most bottles of pee and large trucks I dealt with in Japan, paired with poor road conditions. I took the Route 228 and visited Esashi later on and the free campsite there was one of my favourites.
Nemuro – If your goal is to reach the Easternmost point of Japan you have to go through here, but if you’re pressed for time I think heading through the Akan National Park after Shiretoko would be much more rewarding.
Kushiro – I don’t have much to say about this city except I didn’t really like the feel of it. I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to visit it.
Chitose to Tomakomai – If you don’t need to cycle here, don’t. It was nothing but industrial, busy roads.
Places I loved:
Mount Yotei – If you like painful hikes this one was the hardest one I’ve done in Japan so far. It took me the whole day and I came back covered in mud, but I felt pretty accomplished. I had to stay an extra day at my campsite in Kyogoku because I couldn’t walk the next day.
Otaru – I stayed here for 10 days as I waiting for my new camping gear to come in and fell in love with this small city. While there are some touristy parts, I found the food and small museums easy to pass the time with.
Wakkanai/Cape Soya – There’s definitely something special about taking the white shell road to the Northernmost Point of Japan and finally seeing the monument. It’s pretty easy to see all of Wakkanai in a day, but I still found it worth the visit.
Rishiri Island – The island has a 60km bike route, with a good portion of it being dedicated bike path. The hike of the mountain takes around a day and was completely worth it on a clear day, with views of Rebun Island and Russia.
Abashiri – If you want to see some history it’s worth visiting Abashiri Jail.
Shiretoko National Park – A highlight of my trip despite rolling my ankle hiking Mount Rausu. As I went in Autumn I had the opportunity to see a lot of bears, though that also meant not all the walks nearby were open. There’s not much here besides nature, and lots of bears.
Furano – I loved it so much here I decided to come back and live here over the winter. Although it’s a bit hard to get to, the way you can see the mountains anywhere in town is always a little fantastical to me.
Kyushu
Kitakyushu -> Fukuoka -> Hirado-> Sasebo -> Nagasaki -> Goto Island -> Unzen -> Kagoshima -> Aso -> The Kuju Mountains -> Beppu -> Kitakyushu
Kyushu was my last tour of 2023, and by mid-December I knew it was time to give up camping for the season when I woke up to a frozen tent that I had to crack myself out of. While the decreasing daylight was challenging, I grew a love for the Autumn colours.
In general the roads were consistent as most of Kyushu is similarly populated. It was much busier and hillier than the north, and I had to think of ferries timings occasionally as some sections were only easily accessible by boat.
Places I’d skip:
Fukuoka – I don’t want to pretend this is a popular opinion. I mainly chose to skip it as I visited it years ago and don’t much enjoy cycling through large cities, or spending much time in them.
Places I wish I’d had more time for:
Sasebo – this city wasn’t even on my radar when I was cycling by to Nagasaki, but enough people mentioned it that I wish I had.
The Goto Islands – I actually spent almost a week on one of the islands, but I was so sick I only managed to get out and about once before I had to move on.
Yakushima – Visiting this island is probably the top on my list of places I’d like to see in Japan, a subtropical island people predominantly visit to hike.
Places I loved:
Kokura – I’ve yet to meet anyone else who loved this city like I did. I found it wasn’t a big tourist location, and spent a lot of time walking around Kokura Castle, especially as the winter illumination kicked off. Here I also found the Toto Toilet Museum, which is probably still my favourite museum of all time, and free to visit.
Hirado/Kawachi Pass – I visited both of these in one day. Hirado has a Dutch Trading Post and in interesting castle worth a visit. I camped for a night at the day campsite on Kawachi Pass and it was insanely beautiful looking over the horizon as the sun set on the sea. Words can’t do it justice.
Nagasaki – My time here was so lively, it was so easy to just immerse yourself in the food, museums and random people to be met. Besides getting sick off of other travellers, I was so happy to be there.
Goto – A bit of a wonder as a group of beachy islands that holds the largest Christian population in Japan. Despite being same in name, due to the history of how the religion came to be in Japan many practices and ideals are quite different from what we imagine in western countries.
Unzen – A fascinating and remote area in the mountains that really captured me. I spent the time there hiking and wandering around the steamy ruins of hotel that is now busy with tourists.
Kagoshima – I think I mainly loved this place due to it’s amazing view of Sakurajima, a volcano just over a body of water from the city.
Aso-Kuju National Park – I cycled the volcano and spent a good part of the day hiking around it, followed by a hike of the peaks of the Kuju Mountains a couple days later. Time consuming but so worth it to get to as many of the peaks as you can.
Beppu – A busy tourist town full of onsens, some for bathing in and some for viewing.
Shikoku
Tokushima -> Miyoshi -> Kochi -> Matsuyama -> Shimanami Kaido
The beginning of my Sakura Hunt 2024, though I was still probably a bit early for a lot of it while I was on Shikoku.
Places I wish I’d had more time for:
Mount Tsurugi/Nagoro Scarecrow Village – The day before I set out to cycle up this mountain we had a surprise March blizzard that led me to change my route.
Places I enjoyed:
Tokushima – A small port city with heaps of culture, and lots of foreigners who are on the henro.
Kochi – I only stayed for a night so I could visit NIshigawa Flower Park and the botanical gardens, but could’ve used more time.
Niyodo River – I cycled through here and was blown away with how beautiful it was, even on a rainy, foggy day.
Shimanami Kaido – Probably the most famous cycling route in Japan currently, a series of bridges spanning from Shikoku to Honshu stopping on small islands in between.