Cycling in Japan

Cycling is one of my two favourite pastimes. I have cycled over 6,000km since I came to Japan in 1997. In the last three years, I have done three big bike tours with two of my good cycling buddies, Dave and Chris. In July, 1998, the three of us rode from the Mutsu in Aomori Prefecture down to Ohira Village in Miyagi Prefecture, a journey of around 570km in some of the more mountainous areas of the Tohoku region (northern Japan). We passed through some beautiful areas such as Lake Towada, Mount Hakkoda, Oirase Gorge, Lake Tazawa, Hachimantai and Hanayama Village. The picture on the left was taken in the Mount Hokkoda region. For anyone considering doing a similar tour, may I suggest that you don't take Route 394 out of Shichinohe to Mount Hokkoda. This section has some of the steepest and longest climbs that I have ever done in northern Japan. While struggling up to an elevation of around 800m from sea-level, we could smell the brakes of the cars coming the other way. With around 15-20kgs on our bikes, we went about breaking the all-time record for how slow you can go on a bike. On my cyclometer, it was showing 4.4km / hour while I was inching my way up one particularly steep section. If you are preparing for the Tour de France, it would make a great training ride and an exercise in pain. However, if you want a pleasant ride, Route 102 out of Towada City would be a better and flatter choice.

If you would like to see a couple more pictures of the Tohoku bike tour, click on the picture on the left.

In the summer (winter back home) of 1999, Chris and I went up to Hokkaido and we toured Central and Eastern Hokkaido on our bikes for 11 days, covering over 700km in the process. The scenery of Hokkaido, particularly Eastern Hokkaido reminded me a little of Australia, west of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. There were lots of open fields filled with corn, wheat and sunflowers such as in the picture on the right. This picture was taken on day 4 of the tour, after three days of non-stop rain. The location is somewhere in Central Hokkaido on Route 273, south of Lake Nukabira in Kamishihoro-cho. For anyone thinking of touring Hokkaido on their bike, I would highly recommend the stretch between Sounkyo and Lake Nukabira, taking Route 273 as it winds it way through Daisetsuzan National Park with some beautiful conifer forests and very little traffic. If you are interested in seeing more pictures and some commentary of our Tour de Hokkaido, just click on the picture on the right.

David and I also did a mad-dash ride to Tokyo from Ohira Village (near Sendai City) in November 1998. We took the coastal route, riding mainly on Route 6. We covered the 400km in three days, after doing a massive 180km in the first day, followed by 150km on the second day. The third day was a cake walk, just a mere 70km. For this three-day ride, we packed very light and stayed at a youth hostel and a business hotel on the way. I wouldn't recommend this ride as there wasn't much in the way of scenery and there was a lot of traffic. I guess we did this ride because we wanted to say that we have been to Tokyo on our bikes.

This ride is only for cyclists who are keen on covering the miles and chalking up one for the stats. If you want to see a few pictures of the Tokyo ride, just click on the picture on the left.

Oh yeah, if you are interested in seeing a couple of pictures of me and my mountain bike, just click on the cartoon picture on the right.

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