So, here we are, three and half months and not quite 5000 km done from the northern tip of Hokkaido through to Okinawa. 

Thought I would put together a short post with thoughts about bike touring in Japan. As I’m typing this with my thumbs on a phone, this won’t include any deep thoughts about Japan itself — but for sure we will be thinking about Japan and our experience there for many years to come. 

Japan really exceeded our expectations as a bike touring destination. It was absolutely incredible cycling with great infrastructure, and with the downsides and challenges bordering on the trivial or unavoidable.  We were surprised not to see more bike tourists. 

Budget-wise, it was great value. Not super cheap, but not super expensive either if you made an effort to keep costs manageable. We had a decent budget, and other than a couple of lashouts never struggled to come in under budget. I can’t remember anything we felt offered poor value, aside from a couple of private campgrounds in the south.  It was also generally not too difficult to get food and shelter, and the fact that there was negligible risk of theft of bikes and gear made things pretty easy. And everything is clean, well maintained and orderly. We would definitely go back. 

The positives

• Amazing scenery, amazing cycling

Some of the country and scenery we rode through, I couldn’t have imagined how spectacular it would be.  I found myself often exclaiming “beautiful!” Or “wow!” Or “are you kidding!” out loud. Swooping roads through dense forests dotted with shrines, tiny paths across rice paddies glowing in the sun, bamboo groves creating green tunnels, high passes, dramatic mountains, volcanoes, occasional glimpses of old Japan in small villages and towns, pagodas and temples appearing out of nowhere.  Just so beautiful.  Japan is very hilly, but the reward is worth the effort. 

• Great roads

Road infrastructure is for the most part insanely good, and (in the countryside anyway) often completely devoid of traffic. We rode on so many small roads that looked and felt like they were paved yesterday, and often had them to ourselves. And when there was traffic (other than intercity truck drivers, like everywhere, a different breed), it was very respectful and incredibly patient.  Cities were typically more challenging, however, with busier roads and cycling infrastructure that puts cyclists on sidewalks that were often in poor shape.  

• Onsens

Onsens deserve their own bullet, for sure.  Nothing like setting up at a free campground after a long day in the saddle and walking 100 m to the local onsen, where for ¥500 each you get a full long soak in tubs of hot spring water of varying scalding temperatures.  It’s addictive and we will miss them terribly.  

• Lots of camping

There is a lot of camping available in Japan. You could pretty much do an entire tour using organized campsites alone — and we did meet someone that was doing it that way. The campgrounds are invariably clean and well maintained, with clean toilets (often with the full Toto Washlet setup, with heated seat and bidet function), and a sheltered water/washup pavilion.  These were mostly cheap, the municipal ones ranged from free to maybe ¥1500, though further south we paid a lot for some private campgrounds,  (balanced off by de facto free campgrounds in the off season). Hokkaido was the best for this — every small town had municipal camping, often free or maybe ¥500, usually with an onsen nearby, and walkable to town for food.  Bike touring paradise. 

• Conbinis 

Everyone knows about conbinis, and it’s all true.  They are everywhere, they have bathrooms, and garbages, and decent enough food, and outlets outside you can sneak electricity for your devices from. There were times where we’d be hitting them several times a day. Bathroom break and second breakfast in the morning; sandos for lunch with onagiri and chocolate almonds for snack later; beer, cup noodle with chicken for dinner and donuts for dessert if we are camping; yogurt, bananas and raisin bread for breakfast. 

• Hotels are relatively available and decent value

Most towns have business hotels, ranging from C$40-60 on the tired and dumpy end, to C$60-100 on the new and modern end. The latter often come with breakfast buffets, which if you’re a relentlessly calorie starved bike tourist, offers great value. I often ate 50 bucks worth of grilled fish alone lol.  Hotels seemed less available and more expensive further north, in particular in Hokkaido.

• No dogs 

Worth a mention, because it took us a while to realize.  There are no loose or stray or free range dogs. At all. In fact, almost no dogs bigger than Akitas. No barking, no being chased, no coming upon a stray dog and worrying about what it’s thinking. No coming up beside someone’s property and having some massive psychotic pit bull behind a rickety fence lose its mind at you.  It’s worth appreciating.  

• There are toilets everywhere 

Parks, museums, conbinis, almost every public place has a clean toilet.  Except the place you currently are when you really have to go.  

The negatives 

Not much!  

• Tunnels, in particular those with no bikeable shoulder

We approached every single tunnel with dread, and there were many.  Occasionally that dread would be alleviated by seeing a raised path on the side that was bikeable.  Occasionally though we’d have to ride with traffic. Loud, dark, and inherently panic inducing.  These were a real test of nerves. The only thing to think about would be the fact that without the tunnel, we’d be going up and over the geographic feature being tunnelled through.  

• Looong traffic lights make urban areas very slow

The traffic lights, my god, how do the Japanese have the patience?  If you are navigating through a town, expect that 10 km will take you all morning.  

• In urban / suburban areas, there is an expectation cyclists ride on the sidewalk, which is often crap

This was a bit of a mixed bag.  Occasionally major roads would have massively wide and spanking new bike/pedestrian lanes that would be a dream come true.  The side lane though was inconsistent at best. 

More  often though these side lanes really would turn to crap.  Narrow, bumpy and cracked, the entire width taken up by sewer grating and raised bumps for the visually impaired, with each crack having created its own ecosystem and foliage complete with shoulder high grass and shrubbery.  Just a nightmare. Worse, it was impossible to leave once you realized it sucked, and impossible to get on from the road once you realized it was awesome, because other than the initial 3 feet at the intersection, there would be a 4 inch high curb running the length of it, often for hundreds of metres.  For bonus points, the side lane would randomly change from one side of the road to the other, necessitating a skittish cross through traffic. 

All that said, once you’re down into “sometimes bike lanes were too bumpy and I hate traffic lights” you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for negatives.  

In short, awesome place to bike tour.  Hope we go back some day.