Overview Map

Here an overview map of the planned journey, due to limitations of layers in Google maps, divided in a Northern ...



... a Western ... :




...  a Shikoku ...:




... and a Kyushu part:




This is only an overview, the streets are not accurately plotted, but just what Google sensei did choose. More detailed plotted routes are available in the planning notes, linked below and the actual route will be in the summary of the ride.

On the above maps I have added:

• in green major sightseeing spots that I hope to visit
• in yellow places that seem interesting, but I am yet unsure if I will have time to visit
• in pink those places that seem very interesting, but not with a bicycle. At least for me...
• But there is a reason why this blog is called "Japan by bike (train, bus, ship and plane)

If you are interested to see, what of the above plan has been actually carried out, have a look in the  "Rides" section. Or for overview, here the links to the summaries of some regions:

• Part 1 - Hokkaido
• Part 2 - Iwate
• Part 3 - Aomori
• Part 4 - Akita & Yamagata
• Part 5 - Sado island
• Part 6 - Hokuriku and Gifu
• Part 7 - Pacific coast to Ise 
• Part 8 - Lake Biwa, Uji, Nara and Osaka
• Part 9 - Okayama 
• Part 10 - Shimanami Kaido
• Part 11 - Kyushu

Planning notes on each section of the travel can be found in separate blog posts, see links to them below or use the drop down in "Plan". However blog posts to each region, including actual travel can be found through the labels or the drop down in "Rides".

• Hokkaido 北海道
• Tohoku　東北
• Aomori　青森
• Iwate (including a bit of Akita and Fukushima)　岩手、秋田、福島
• Miyagi　宮城
• Yamagata　山形
• Kanto　関東
• Gunma　群馬
• Tochigi 　栃木
• Ibaraki　茨城
• Saitama　埼玉
• Chiba　千葉
• Tokyo　東京
• Kanagawa　神奈川
• Chubu 中部
• Hokuriku 北陸
• Niigata 新潟
• Toyama, Ishikawa & Fukui　富山、石川、福井
• Nagano 長野
• Yamanashi 山梨
• Shizuoka & Aichi 静岡、愛知
• Gifu 岐阜
• Kansai 関西
• Mie 三重
• Kyoto & Nara 京都と奈良 (also see below San'in)
• Osaka 大阪  
• Shiga 滋賀
• Wakayama 和歌山
• Hyogo 兵庫 (see below San'in)
• Chugoku 中国
• Sanyo 山陽
• Okayama 岡山
• Hiroshima　広島
• Yamaguchi　山口
• San'in (also contains parts of Kyoto, Hyogo and Yamaguchi prefecture) 山陰, 京都、兵庫、山口 
• Shimane 島根
• Tottori　鳥取
• Shikoku 四国
• Kagawa 香川
• Tokushima 徳島
• Kochi 高知
• Ehime 愛媛
• Kyushu 九州
• Fukuoka　福岡
• Saga　佐賀
• Nagasaki 長崎
• Oita　大分
• Kumamoto 熊本
• Miyazaki　宮崎
• Kagoshima　鹿児島
• Okinawa 沖縄

How to find a nice route

So far essentially I have been using the following resources to plan my bicycle tours:

1. Find a river in Google maps and check if it seems to have a small road running alongside. 
• Also see this post on cycle roads in Japan, mostly along rivers: Bicycle roads in Japan
2. Surf around the internet and try to find an actual bicycle road, described by someone else already. In many cases this will be again along a river. But there are some others, like Tsukuba Rin Rin Road, the cycle lane heading West from Enoshima or the ones the MLIT published on their web page. 
• Some other examples of finds in the wide wide web:
• http://wanderlust-japan.com/top-10-cycling-roads-japan/
• http://www.cycling-tomorrow.jp/road_course/special_issue/bikeshops_suggest/
• http://tokyo-cycling-association.com/index.html
• https://www.biketoursjapan.com/self-guided-cycle/playground-of-the-gods/
• http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3478.html
• http://visithiroshima.net/things_to_do/sports_and_activities/cycling/
3. Check out the routes in the Jitensha Sanpo (自転車散歩) series of books. You need to be able to read some Japanese, but they have maps, elevation profiles and pictures, so many things are quite self-explanatory. 
4. Well, and since I have my little Garmin, I also just simply check out on Google maps a location that would possibly interest me (and be flat enough for me to handle) and see what Garmin comes up as a route. I haven't yet found a way to let my Garmin know that I prefer the really small streets. So it always goes for the bigger ones, so I then manually drag the route over to smaller ones. Sometimes this however makes that I end up in non asphalted streets, which isn't good either and ofter a reason to change the route along the way. 
5. Or use Komoot for the same purpose. Komoot is definitely coming up with better routes, however it doesn't come for free. (I haven't used komoot at all during my 2 months trip through Japan, as I only discovered it later in the Netherlands and really only started using it in 2019).

Bicycle Roads in Japan

I really only know about Tokyo and surroundings, but at least here, the best places where to find cycling roads are rivers. Rivers in Japan are practically all heavily built up (supposedly with the exception of Shimanto gawa in Shikoku), with dikes and the like, but this also means that there is often a small asphalted road on top of the dike. Which is used by bicycles, pedestrians ..., but not cars and motorcycles.

Around Tokyo at least the following rivers have bicycle lanes. Some of them easier to navigate some of them less so, simply because they have a lot of crossing roads where one needs to get off or wind through bollards every few hundred meters. But still they are nice and quiet roads.

In Tokyo:

• Kanda-gawa (at least from around Waseda University out through Shinjuku and on to Kichijoji). Ending in the nice park in Kichijoji
• Ride to Kichijoji
• From there one can then also continue on the cycle roads described below: Tamagawa Josui canal and Sayama / Tama lake
• Zenpukuji River (this splits off the cycle lane along Kanda-gawa somewhat after Shinjuku and goes nearly parallel to the Kanda-gawa river, through some really nice parks along the river, up to a an other very nice park with a small lake, Zenpukuji park. At some point in between there is no longer a lane along the river, but coming to the final park really repays for it. 
• Meguro-gawa (approx. from Shibuya down to Shinagawa)
• Meguru Gawa
• No gawa (starting on Tamagawa at Futakotamagawa and going up to Kokubunji)
• If you can, stop at the onsen in Chofu, one of the nicest in Tokyo
• Arakawa (very long from approximately Kawagoe in Saitama prefecture down to the sea, a bit boring in Tokyo area, more like a bicycle highway)
• Arakawa cycling road
• Edogawa (also very long and even more to the east than Arakawa cycling road)
• Edogawa cycling road
• Tokyo Rivers

Outside of Tokyo to the West (Kanagawa / Tokyo):

• Tamagawa (quite long from the sea in Kawazaki up to nearly Tachikawa)
• Tamagawa cycling
• Tamagawa cycling road
• Tsurumi river (from somewhere beyond Tsurukawa - just have a look at Google maps, it trails out at some point in the middle of nowhere of Machida - down to the sea in Yokohama. It actually goes right through Shin-Yokohama)
• Sakai river (from about Aihara down to the sea at Enoshima, quite a long ride).
• Sagami river (parallel to the East to Sakai river. It is also okay, but I prefer Sakai river. I think the river is just nicer as it is less built up, and there are also less industrial plants)
• Along the beach from Enoshima in direction Odawara. Actually there is a real cycle lane right on the beach, for maybe about 10 - 15 km. Afterwards on to Odawara there is only the normal street, with quite some traffic. But the part right on the beach, which starts right in Enoshima, is very nice.
• Sakawa river in Odawara, and one can also make a round and come back to Odawara along the Kari river.

Outside of Tokyo to the North (Tokyo):

• Tamagawa Josui canal. This is a canal that runs from Tamagawa - approximately from Tachikawa - to Kichijoiji). Technically speaking there isn't a cycling road, but rather on one side of the canal a very quiet neighbourhood road. While on the other side there is road number 7. It can also be nicely combined with the ride along Kanda-gawa (see above) or the ride out to Sayama / Tama lake (see below). It's also nicely in the shadows of big trees for most of the ride. 
• Kichijoiji Sayama /Tama lake. A long cycling road starting a little bit after Kichijoji, just north of the Edo Tatemono Museum park and running all the way up to Tama and Sayama lake, partially in Saitama. 
• Tamako cycling road
• Check also out this post: Ride to Sayama Lake
• Minami Asa river (from Takao to Hachioji), where one can link on to the Tamagawa route described above

Outside of Tokyo to the East (Ibaraki, Chiba):

• Tone gawa (aparently one could start in Gunma prefecture and ride down to the sea. I think a real cycling road is only from about Sekiyado down to the pacific, but that is still quite a long track)
• Also some rivers flowing into Tone gawa have their own cycling roads, like for example Kinu river, flowing into Tone gawa at Moriya
• Tsukuba rin rin road (actually not along a river but on an out of use rail way track. From Iwase to the Kasumigaura lake. From there one can link up to a cycle road around the lake)
• Tsukuba RinRin road map (日本語)
• Tsukuba RinRin road map (ENG) on page 30
• Around the Kasumigaura Lake (this could also be easily linked with the Tone river
• Around the Kasumigaura Lake (日本語）

These are just a few I know about. But remember, in general a river is a good bet for a cycle road. 

By the way, in case you wondered "gawa" or also "kawa" 川 in Japanese means river.

Night Pedal Cruising - June 2017

Tonight some Night Pedal Cruising in Tokyo with the team: http://nightpedalcruising.com/

Not very long tonight: Aoyama - Tokyo Palace - Tokyo Station - Shibakoen. We were also not as many as in other occasions and no one wanted to go for dinner afterwards, so back home early. At least some time to test more this blog ;-)

And here the video:

Navigation

In  order to use  the Garmin device for navigation, sometimes one needs the coordinates of a place. It is surprisingly difficult to find coordinates Google maps. But doable.

1. Go to Google maps and drop a pin on the place where you want to go.
2. This will show you a lengthy number at the bottom of Google maps.
3. Now surprisingly that number are NOT the coordinates that you need to enter into Garmin.
4. Instead type in those numbers in Google maps for searching the location.
5. Which will then finally give you the actual coordinates of the place in Google maps at the bottom of the screen.
6. Now go to your Garmin in the "Where to?" menu, select "search" and "coordinates", and then enter your coordinates from the above screen in Google maps. Press ok and "ride" and your little Garmin will search for a way how to go to that place.

Not easy and straightforward, but doable. I guess there are other much better ways how to do it out there, but that's what I found. And most importantly, it works!

The plan

Having a plan is always good...

So what's the plan?
Traveling across Japan from North (Hokkaido) to South (Kyushu ? Okinawa ?) on my bicycle. But without any stress. If there is a mountain in the way, to grab it and hop on a train / bus / rental car and get on. If weather gets bad for a considerable number of days, hop on a train / ferry / plane and continue traveling elsewhere in Japan. Japan is long, so there should always be parts where weather is fine. I hope.

• Attitude: just see what happens. No stress. 
• Sport factor: riding a bike is about getting from A to B and to enjoy all the parts in between.
• Bicycle: my beloved Brompton (also my only bicycle).
• Bicycle repair: no idea. If I get stuck, just hope for the next bicycle repairman
• Bicycle Repairman (Monty Python)
• Travel factor: this is about traveling, sightseeing, enjoying the small & big sights of Japan. This is not about achieving distance / elevation / speed on the bike
• Luggage: Trying to keep it minimal. No backpack (hate those), just the Brompton T-bag.
• Accommodation: No camping! Hotel, Minshuku, Airbnb...

Start in September for about 2 - 3 months, the season with the best weather in Japan (per my experience).

Ride to Sayama Lake

Last weekend I went to Sayama Lake, a lake between Tokyo and Saitama prefecture. A wonderful cycling road leads to it, starting not too far from Kichijoji train station.

Night Pedal Cruising - Shrines

First ride of the year, on to the shrines. It was quite cold... but still we enjoyed it a lot, as you can see: Hatsumode ride
Hatsumode 初詣 means the first visit to the shrine in the New Year.

Here the route

A weekend out on Miura peninsula

This weekend I got up early on Saturday morning, folded up my bike and hopped on the train on to Enoshima. Then I set out from Enoshima through Kamakura (paying a visit on the road to Hase dera) and on to Miura peninsula (三浦半島). I stopped for the night close to Kurihama and then set of the next day on the other side of Miura peninsula, through Zushi back to Enoshima. And ended the ride in one of my preferred onsen in Kozashibuya.

Day 1 - Enoshima to Kurihama 江ノ島から久里浜へ

Sunny weather along the Pacific from Enoshima to Kamakura.

The first touristic stop of the day, Hase dera in Kamakura. Already a bit late in the year for perfect red maple leaves, but some were still very scenic.

One of my bicycle books had suggested the old Kamakura road, however that was really more for hiking... or in my case for painstakingly carring the bike through the muddy lane in the woods. I didn't even make a photo of it, so you can check it out here. 

On the top of the hill I was however repaid for my efforts by the visit to this shrine:

Then onwards through Yokosuka out on Miura peninsula.

Day 2 - Kurihama back to Enoshima

I had reserved a business hotel a bit outside of Kurihama, on a hill. Which gave me the opportunity to start Day 2 in descend through this nice valley ...

... down to the Pacific and it's beaches, which at this time of the year were used for drying Daikon

Close to Zushi then this temple with the view over the sea on to the Fuji, which is probably about 60 - 70 km away from there, but still nicely visible. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised looking at the fact that I can even see Fuji on clear days from my office window in downtown Tokyo.

Here the same Fuji from the even farther away office:

From Chichibu down into the Arakawa plain

I came back on Friday evening from the US from a week with meetings and some travel and decided to make the best out of jet lag and get up early. Actually finally not that early, but still early enough to catch a train in the morning out from Ikebukuro to Chichibu. This also cleverly means that I started on the high end of the ride and the entire 2 day ride was essentially downhill. Well, slightly downhill.

Day 1 - Chichibu to Kumagaya 秩父から熊谷へ

From Chichibu I took small roads (and also bigger ones, always down the river towards Kumagaya.

On the weekends also a old steam powered train comes through the valley. I went a few months later again to Chichibu for some hiking (one can make a pilgrimage to 34 kannons) and took the normal train on that line. Not only that Pasmo / Suica wouldn't work, they still had hard paper cards as tickets. Very strange. Specially because at the other end of the line, in Kumagaya also Shinkansen stop. 

I spent the night in Kumagaya, not without visiting the local onsen. Not special, but still nice to have a warm bath after a day riding... and with the jet lag kicking in while soaking. 

Day 2 - Kumagaya to Ageo　熊谷から上尾へ

On day 2 I learned that in Kumagaya there is a famous temple (Menuma Shodenzan), probably neglected by most foreign visitors... but not by me and my bicycle. And I was repaid by very nice and colourful carvings.

And on I went to Gyoda (行田市) where I didn't only find a castle, which I expected, but also a matsuri (event ・祭) that combined Cosplay and Samurais.

At the many food stalls I bought a South American Empanadilla which I ate a little bit later in a park with nearly equally shaped burial mounts.