Trip Report: I cycled over 2000km across Japan (Sapporo to Fukuoka – April/May 2023)

Hello everyone!

I just finished a solo cycle trip across Japan; travelling from Sapporo to Fukuoka which required just over 2000km of riding.

I started on the 5th April and finished on the 22nd May (with various rest days and just over a week off for Golden Week).

Here is the route I took with a short summary of what it was like:

1. Sapporo → Kojohama: Quite a long route with a steady incline towards Chitose. I didn’t realise that Noboribetsu was a bit further but since it was my first day cycling, missed out this time as I went straight to the hotel to rest.
2. Kojohama → Toyako: Pretty hilly ride with the last part heading into Lake Toya being the hardest part (especially if you’ve been cycling all day).
3. Toyako → Yakumo: Probably the most mountainous route of the trip with series of tunnels and windy roads. Not much to do in Yakumo besides some bars and snack bars.
4. Yakumo → Hakodate: Straight forward but mainly along the highway. If you choose to take the bullet train to Aomori, you don’t need to go into Hakodate city. But if you proceed to the port, make sure to carb-load on Lucky Pierrot once you’re in the city!
5. Aomori → Odate: I went via Hirosaki to check out the cherry blossoms near the castle. It was relatively flat until the last mountain into Odate. Look out for cute Akita dogs at the Akita Dog Museum.
6. Odate → Noshiro: Nothing but a highway and an uninteresting route.
7. Noshiro → Akita: Nanohana Road is really nice to check out if you’re there during the cherry blossom season. I also went via Oga to look at the giant statues.
8. Akita → Yurihonjo: A nice coastal route. Unfortunately I couldn’t find much to do in Yurihonjo.
9. Yurihonjo → Sakata: Pretty chill ride. The TDK Museum is worth checking out if you don’t mind a slight detour.
10. Sakata → Murakami: Another coastal route. The Kamo Aquarium with a large collection of jellyfish was worth checking out.
11. Murakami → Niigata: A really nice coastal route again. Was looking forward to CoCo Ichibanya Curry (couldn’t find it since Sapporo).
12. Niigata → Kashiwazaki: A coastal route but once arriving in Kashiwazaki, I couldn’t find much to do.
13. Kashiwazaki → Joetsu: A coastal route where you’ll see some power plants along the way.
14. Joetsu → Itoigawa: The Kubiki Cycling route is really nice. You’ll need to catch a train at the end (see below).
15. Asahi → Toyama: The Toyama Bay Cycling course is really nice. You’ll pretty much stick to this until you get to Toyama City (you’ll need to divert off the course to head into town).
16. Toyama → Kanazawa: Takaoka Buddha is worth checking out if you don’t mind a slight detour.
17. Kanazawa → Fukui: I headed straight towards there. However, this had a really narrow and long tunnel I had to cycle through. I wasn’t mentally prepared but got through it but left me quite scared of tunnels.
18. Fukui → Tsuruga: I headed west to the coast via Echizen as heading directly south would be a mountainous and more risky route. Though once you’re about to hit Tsuruga, you’ll need to go on the highway.
19. Tsuruga → Takashima: Just one big mountain. I had to push my bike up a fair bit unfortunately.
20. Takashima → Kyoto: The Lake Biwa course is really nice but you’ll not be besides the lake the entire time and the route is also part of the highway. Once you get to Otsu, it’s pretty hilly towards Kyoto. I actually got lost behind Kiyomizu-dera (Google Maps had no idea where it was lol) and had to go around but eventually got to where I needed to go.
21. Kyoto → Kobe: Via Osaka Castle. The route from Kyoto to Osaka is pretty straight forward with a bike path most of the way. However, there are many annoying barriers you’ll need to get past. You’ll need to get off your bike and walk through them. However since I had big bags, I had to lift them over (which was really hard). Once you get to Osaka, cycling to Kobe is pretty straight forward as well and you’ll be in the city the whole time.
22. Kobe → Himeji: Akashi Bridge is really nice. Otherwise, a nice coastal route.
23. Himeji → Kurashiki: A pretty long one but straight forward as well. You can go via Okayama and check out the castle.
24. Kurashiki → Onomichi: Took it easy before Shimanami Kaido as there wasn’t much to see besides some ports.
25. Onomichi → Omishima (Shimanami Kaido): One of my favourite cycling routes. Took some of the Island Explorer courses. Stopped at the Cyclist Sanctuary to take lots of photos and stayed there for the night.
26. Omishima → Imabari (Shimanami Kaido): Unfortunately it was raining so headed straight to Imabari.
27. Imabari → Matsuyama: Pretty chill route with lots of people cycling when I was there. Nice pit stops along the way.
28. Hiroshima → Iwakuni: Stopped by Miyajima along the way. Otherwise, pretty straight forward ride. Kintai Bridge was worth checking out as well.
29. Iwakuni → Hikari: Follow the coast towards Hikari. You can go straight for a shorter route but the coast is much nicer.
30. Hikari → Hofu: Stick along the coast. It gets hilly around Heta. Hofu Tenmangu was a nice place to check out.
31. Hofu → Ube: There really wasn’t much in Ube. A bit of air pollution to be honest.
32. Ube → Kitakyushu: Stop by Shimonoseki along the way. Karato Market is really nice with lots of fresh sushi and seafood. To get across to Kyushu, you’ll need to pay a 20¥ toll fee which you put into a box. Take the lift down to the Kanmon Tunnel and you’ll need to walk your bike across. Once you’re on the other side, take the lift up and ride towards Kokura which was a bit hilly.
33. Kitakyushu → Fukuoka: Pretty hilly towards Fukuoka. But at this point, I just rode straight into the city, found my hotel and went to bed.

Along the route, there were some parts where I could not ride my bike. Here is the list of options I took:

* **Hakodate → Aomori:** I took the ferry at Hakodate Port to Aomori Port. I arrived at the port and went to the ticket office to reserve my spot and my bike.
* **Itoigawa → Asahi:** From Itoigawa to Asahi (which is near the border between Niigata and Toyama prefecture), the road is narrow and windy with lots of tunnels and traffic. However, there is the option to take the Cycle Train where you can bring your bike on the train without having to pack it up. It is around 300¥ for the bike plus the cost of the ticket.
* **Onomichi → Mukashima:** To start the Shimanami Kaido, you will need to take a boat to the first island of Mukaishima. It will cost around 100¥. There are three points you can take it from in Onomichi.
* **Matsuyama → Hiroshima:** I took the ferry to Hiroshima as that was the route I wanted to take. You will need to take the standard ferry option as the speed boat option will not allow you to bring on the bike (unless you have a foldable bike).
* **Miyajima:** I decided to check out Miyajima along the way from Hiroshima to Iwakuni by cycling to Miyajimaguchi Station and taking the boat to the island. You will need to pay an extra 100¥ or so to bring the bike on the boat.

# Preparations

* I am in my mid-30s and work in an IT office job and I don’t really cycle often back home besides commuting from A to B. I didn’t really train or prepare for this cycle either (due to time constraints of work) though I would say I have an average level of fitness. In hindsight, I should have done some practice to ensure I was prepared physically for long-endurance rides.
* I bought my own road bike from Australia. I flew with Japan Airlines (from Melbourne to Narita) which allow 2x 23kg checked in luggage. I called them to tell them I would bring the bike and they were able to confirm a spot for the bike (as oversized luggage). As the total dimensions was under 240cm allowed for oversized luggage and under the weight limit, they didn’t charge me extra.
* For the cycle, I had two pannier bags, a duffel bag, a backpack and a bumbag. I bought a pannier rack of Amazon which I could clamp onto my road bike (as it couldn’t attach the ones you normally buy from bike stores). In total, I was carrying around 25kgs of luggage on my bike.
* Once I arrived in Japan, I didn’t want to carry my bike around Tokyo for a few days (wanted to hang around Tokyo to see friends and I was also flying out of Haneda) so I sent it via courier with JAL ABC Post (just outside the terminal). Note the other delivery services (e.g. Yamato, etc) won’t deliver your luggage if it is over a certain size. It is also quite expensive to do so though so if you plan ahead, you can check it in as oversized luggage with domestic airlines. It is a first-come-first-serve kind of thing so you will need to go to the airport ahead of time and check it in otherwise, they will ask you to find an alternative option.

# Learnings

I thought I would share some learnings (some of them are very obvious but I hope you will find them useful)

* Japan is (unsurprisingly) very hilly. I’m from Australia where it is generally flat most parts. However, riding across Japan you will face many sudden inclines and hills.
* If you’re travelling in smaller towns and the countryside, a lot of people do not speak English. Be prepared to use Google Lens or speak Japanese.
* Along the route, there are many picturesque places to see along the coast, fields, mountains, etc. However most of the time, you will be riding through cities, towns, highways, etc.
* Be prepared for unpleasant smells (e.g. manure in the fields, farmers burning crops, car/truck fumes in tunnels, etc).
* The roads in the countryside are not well maintained with many cracks and pot holes on the roads and footpaths. You will need to be vigilant on the road to avoid any punctures.
* In the countryside, there are convenient stores but not as many as you would find in urban areas. Plan your route ahead and make sure you’re well supplied.
* Note that if you’re in the middle of nowhere (i.e. in between towns, cities), you’re really on your own. So it would help to know first-aid and how to fix a puncture.
* Getting my bike serviced, cleaned, tuned, etc once I was in a town or city was pretty easy. I simply put 自転車修理 into Google Maps and would find the closest one.

# Accommodation

* I booked mainly cheap business hotels and hostels/guesthouses every night. I booked ahead of time based on the itinerary above. As it was a solo trip, I didn’t want to camp alone nor deal with the hassle of reserving campsites ahead of time.
* All the accommodations were able to safely store and secure my bike. I would send them a message in Japanese notifying them I would be bringing a bike and they were really helpful. They would either allow me to store it in their staff/guest parking area, somewhere near the front desk where I would lock it or even bring it into my room (though it would be cramp but it allowed me to prepare for the next day easily).

# Navigation

* I mainly used Google Maps to help me along the route. Most of the time, I would use the “Walking” route and follow along the line. However, I use it as a guide rather than following it directly as at some points, it will make you go down people’s private properties, dirt roads, etc. Use your instincts and look around or ahead on Google Maps to see if there are options to progress forward.
* If you want to know if a route will be hilly, set the starting point to somewhere ahead of where you are located and the destination where you will be heading. There should be a “Preview” button which will show the elevation of the route.
* The “Cycle” option on Google Maps only works in some prefectures. I only saw it work in Osaka and Fukuoka.
* I tried various cycling map apps (even tried the premium version of some that offered free trials) but found them not to be useful.

# Safety

* Most of the time, I did not feel like I was in any danger. Though I have had experience riding next to cars and trucks so if you haven’t done it before, it would be worth getting use to it.
* Most of the times, vehicles will proactively avoid you on the road if you’re riding in the far left of the lane.
* Avoid riding at night in the countryside as the roads are poorly lit (some cases, none at all). If you must, make sure you are visible and have a sufficient light source while riding.
* If there is a narrow road, vehicles will slow down behind you and overtake in the oncoming lane if it is safe to do so. However if I notice there is a lot of oncoming traffic, I would pull over and hug the left of the road to allow them to pass to not hold anyone up.
* The most dangerous situation I was in was riding in extremely long and narrow tunnels as the vehicles will come extremely close to you while they are overtaking. Most of the time, there will be a footpath for pedestrians which may be on either side of the road. I would back-track and cross to the footpath in this scenarios is necessary. If this is not the case, make sure you are visible (lights, high-vis gear, etc) while in the tunnel and always ride with the traffic.
* Throughout the entire trip, I would leave my bike and all my bags that were strapped to the bike outside of convenient stores and restaurants (in the parking area if available); ensuring not to block any entrances, people, vehicles, etc. I had a U-lock which I would use to lock the back-tire with the frame. Nothing was ever stolen and I had no issues.
* Be wary of the elderly (pedestrians and drivers). I always slow down when I approach an elderly walking on the footpath as they made suddenly stop or move into the middle of the path. With drivers, always make eye-contact if you’re approaching an intersection or crossing. Even if you have the right of way, sometimes drivers will just drive through.

I hope this report will help others who are looking to cycle across Japan in the future. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them in the comments.

If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading my post. 🙂