2015 Japan cycling holiday full GPS track

Japan cycling holiday full GPS track

During November 2015 we cycled through Japan, from Tokyo to Fukuoka; 1.900 km, 17.000 altitude meters; during 23 cycling days, from which 7 nights camping and 16 nights in hotels.

Great things:
*Camp where you want; super save country
*7-Eleven convenience stores everywhere, this will become your new home, and yes, you will be happy with it as well since you can do anything here, including toilets, cappuccino, Wifi and ATM.
*Great nature, colours varied with the season; dotted with hot springs (although you obviously need to plan them within your journey)
*Variety: volcano’s, shogun castles, temples, islands, massive crowded big cities to drive your bike through that overload your senses
*Ferries, great in combination with bikes
*Interesting people, culture and history (counts actually for most places on this earth)
*Great food
*Gentle traffic
*Lots of altitude meters
*With about 5.52 million vending machines selling hot and cold drinks, you will never have to worry about your bottle of water

Less great things:
*Pretty busy roads, especially the first part of the journey, always save though, it’s sometimes hard to find quiet roads, it’s often a parallel road. Another strategy: just accept it, just as Japanese people do. Roads often do have smaller parallel cycling paths, but not in good condition and/or less suitable when you want to speed up a little bit.
*Lots of tunnels, make sure you have very good working light
*Trains reluctant to take cyclists since officially they only allow folded bikes wrapped in plastic. One time we succeeded, a second time we were refused (at the very last moment, while standing in front the open door )
*When you don’t bring a tent, it’s more challenging to tune the route with finding accommodation

No need to say, the above two categories are very personal and depending on many things as your personal background, the spirit of your day, etcetera 

Best period and temperature:

Spring because of the blossoms, or October, November because of the autumn tree colours, especially at higher altitudes.

We travelled in November and visited places as Nagano. Now, Nagano held the Olympic Winter games in 1998….and yes, in November it was actually bloody cold in the mountains . We brought ourselves some pretty warm sleeping bags, and that sure was needed, since we have seen the temperature dropping until 0 ℃ in the night-time. But you know what, it was good fun! So, no worries, just be prepared.

Practically, this means waking up at dawn around 5:30am, cycling with a clear blue and sunny sky, until max 5:30pm when sunset starts, and ready to dive into your tent at 7pm or so. And since you cycle south west, after two weeks, around reaching Mino (see below), when the mountains are behind you, the temperature will rise quickly.

You might find this handy:

You will find out that you cannot buy a pre-paid SIM at stores in Japan unless you are a legal resident or have a local mobile phone. But there is a good alternative, you can order a data-only SIM card before you travel and let it deliver at your first hotel. See: http://service.ocn.ne.jp/mobile/one/visitor/en/

It’s only for 14 days, so you might want to order 2, or buy one additionally in one of the bigger cities (check where to buy them). This is a handy way to book hotels during the day, or to find that camping spot, mentioned on Google Maps and not on your GPS map. Tip: if you travel together, bring an additional smartphone and use it as a hotspot for both of you. Calls can be made through your Skype account, put some money on it beforehand.

More pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/119944846@N08/albums/72157673022523051

The GPS tracks; drop me an email to receive the below individual tracks!:

I can’t give you our exact GPS track over the full length of our journey, since our Garmin device broke down halfway; and with it, the recorded GPS tracks until that moment was lost. But this part of the journey was taken from a Japanese website, that I will refer you to in a second. This info, in combination with our paper-logbook, I have used to reconstruct the first part of the journey.

The second part of the journey we navigated by using our smartphone and app’s as Maps.me to navigate and Wikiloc to record. This worked actually surprisingly fine. And quite nice to have a relatively large screen, especially in Japan where looking ahead was handy to find our way. It’s just the battery….isn’t it…!

This Japanese website provides you with some good information: www.japancycling.org; a website full with information from Japanese cyclists; well done guys! Make sure you print the Japanese writing with the text ‘Hello, I am xxxx, can I camp here? I will clean everything tomorrow morning’. The track ’Length of Japan’, starting from Tokyo, we followed until half way the ‘Shimanami Kaido Bikeway’. From there, we took a different route, which was a bit quieter we thought. For other ideas, you might want to peep at routes offered by a few Dutch cycling tour operators, as www.globalcyclist.nl/ and www.awol.nl. On this Wikiloc page you see our full GPS track; drop me an email if you want to receive the below described individual tracks. The elevation information was lost, but added afterward using Google Earth and www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation.

[01 Airport – Hotel Tokyo]:
Straight from the airport, we started cycling to our hotel in Tokyo; around 80 km and not may altitude meters. Obviously a bit overwhelming, at the same time exiting, riding your bicycle straight into Tokyo, a city with 38,2 million people. Make sure you have the exact waypoint of your hotel in your GPS! Note: this isn’t the real cycling route we took, I just asked BaseCamp to draw me this route. It was a bit searching during these hours, so make sure you have plenty of time to make it (we landed at 8:30 am). If you take a train from the airport, keep your bicycles nicely packed in the box, otherwise you probably will not be allowed to enter the train with it. A plastic cover and removing the wheels wasn’t good enough when we tried to take a train a few weeks later. Maybe the trains from the airport are different, I didn’t check on this.

[02 Tokyo – Bridge]:
This is the GPS track taken from ‘Length of Japan’, with one climb removed (see day 04), and until half way the Shimanami Kaido Bikeway. See the added Excel overview, as a picture, for the individual track distances. The waypoint of the start-stop destinations each day have been added to the .gdb file you can ask me for. A few notes:

*Bring your tent! Japan is a very save country, and you can more or less put your tent where you want. We made a combination of camping and hotels. The first night in Koga was a public park, you will find the waypoint
*Day 03: make sure you reach Nikko a bit early. We had a hard time to find a place to stay in this very touristic place. We ended up camping in someone’s backyard.
*Day 05: Nakanojyo – Nagano 130 km from which 40 km by train, 1412 alt-m. To reach Nagano by the original track would have been too far in one day we thought, so we used a local train traveling us 40 km’s between Naganohara and Tsumagoi. This way we avoided climbing first to Kusatsu as well. From the perspective of the route, this detour would not have made sense anyway, but you might miss something that we are not aware off . Compare our track with the original one. Looking at the map, you can take this train already starting in Nakanojyo I think. But certainly no guarantee they let you enter the train with your bike! You will need quite some plastic (from the railway station) to wrap it around your half-demounted bicycle. Note that is was
*Day 07 to Takayama: now, this is a great day, you will climb Mt. Norikura; the highest pass (2702m) you can cycle in Japan. But make sure the pass is open and take warm clothes! From halfway onwards, the pass is forbidden for cars, so you are surrounded by only a few other cyclists who obviously will look at your full-packed bicycle with deep respect. Enjoy it! Start very, very early to make it to the other side; we started at 5:30. Here some more info: https://ridinground.com/2014/10/31/cycling-the-norikura-skyline-in-japan/
*Day 08: we deviated from the original route by going south straight away, instead of going North again. Note that the first part of the road, I think it’s the 73, was blocked due to landslides. We could cross the landslides by climbing over them, but is was far from ideal and took a long time. As long as you keep following a road that has cars as well, and not ignore barriers with Japanese messages, you should be fine. See the waypoint with our camp spot in Mino (or search with Google Maps), a green area that I think is indeed a camping place in the summer, but closed at that moment. The people present were ok us camping there.
*Day 9: we found a camping ground in Maibara, a bit off route, see waypoint
*Day 10 to Kyoto: just after the large bridge, we went left, following more or less the waterside for a while, and entered into Kyoto through the steep ‘old road’, we found out later. Great view! Try is out!
*Day 12 Amagasaki: this was a bit a complicated day. After leaving Nara, we first followed (by coincidence) some kind of cycling route, different from the track. We ended up with a very steep, winding road, too steep to cycle, up to 25% , in a nice green area. I think it was more like a hiking area. Anyway, after pushing our bikes for quite some time (and actually laughing due to the insane steepness), at the other side the view over Osaka was fantastic. The roads around Osaka are insane with 100.000 cars surrounding you. It doesn’t go fast, so no worries, but don’t expect a beautiful surrounding area for the next two days and just enjoy the insanity of the situation. We stayed at the Tokyo-Inn in Amagasaki, see way point, but it took a long time before we found a vacant room that evening.
*Day 14: we took the ferry at 7:15 to Shodoshima Island, arrived at 9am. Now, to speed up a little, we rounded the island anti-clock wise, instead of clock wise as the original track does. We arrived at 11am at the next ferry, that departed at 11:20; all under control! One later we set wheel on Shikoku island. See the way point of the camp ground we found, closer to the shore as the original route.
*Day 15: today you will reach the famous Shimanami Kaido Bikeway; that everyone wants to cycle. We were able to reach a camping ground, that you can find in Google Maps as ‘Kareiyamatenbo Park Camping Ground’. I think I managed to enter the waypoint retroactivity. For this, you need to leave the bridge. This will be your most fantastic viewpoint of this cycling trip! Don’t forget the sunrise tomorrow morning!

[03 Oshima - Matsuyama retrospectively]:
This track represents day 16,which I have drawn retrospectively back home, using our logbook and map. You will enjoy this day, a few Islands connected together with bridges, and two ferries to take. Not much traffic, small villages, and, according to our guidebook, locals descending from pirates. After you have left that fantastic view point where you have spent the night, you need to take the first ferry at 8:45am. Or wait for the next one at 2:40pm (November 2015). At the end of the day, take the ferry from Kure and get to Matsuyama, back at Shodoshima Island. We have spent the night in hotel fine garden Matsuyama, which is a so called ‘love hotel’ (simply booked through booking.com). You might find several explanations about ‘love hotels’, but do try it! It’s great after a long day cycling; Jacuzzi, massage chair, Karaoke. Don’t use lubricant as massage oil, which I did (it’s hard to read Japanese, alright!?).

[04 Matsuyama - Usuki retrospectively]:
This track represents day 17. Started cycling at 8:30, lots of headwind. Followed largely the coastline. Arrived in Yawatahama at 3pm. You can either take the ferry to Usuki or Beppu. The first one left earlier, so we took that one, which brings you to Isuki in two and a half hours. Ten to fifteen minutes cycling in the dark, and we arrived at hotel New Tamaya, booked during the ferry passage.

[05 Usuki – Volcano Aso]:
This track represents day 18. This Is not the exact route. We tried to do some de-tours in the area, so green and beautiful and so steep and tiring . After this experiment, we went more or less back to the main route, still quite some altitude meters to come! The way up the volcano, there is a youth hostel, and a camping. This track end with the camping.

From this point forward are tracks recorded with the app Wikiloc

[06 Volcano Aso visit smartphone] & [07 Volcano Aso – Kumamoto}
These tracks represent day 19. First the volcano visit, a climb of 9 km’s. The volcano was half accessible, the camping owner told us. You will notice how close you can get by just going there. Then, back to the camping to pick up the luggage, and off we went to Kumamoto (Dai-nu sunrise hotel). The first part was a very busy road (57?), which we left after quite a while. I think you can leave it earlier and follow parallel roads. Check (Google) maps / GPS.

[08 Kamumoto – Unzen]:
Day 20. At 8am cycling, 15 km’s to ferry, arriving at 9am, (high speed) ferry left at 9:30am. Arriving at Unzen at 2pm, camped at a closed camping site. Tip: it’s quite hard to find an onsen (Japanese hot spring) that you can rent for a few hours as a couple. Normally men and women are separated. After searching for a while, we found one that has a few private onsen; Kokuminshukusha Ching Chuang; 0957-73-3273 (see Waypoint)

[09 Unzen - Sasebo]:
Day 21. About 8 km before the hotel, you will find ‘Huis Ten Bosch’, a theme park which recreates the Netherlands by displaying real size copies of old Dutch buildings. Yeeh, fun for us Dutchies….

[11 Fukuoka – Airport]:
Day 23, the last 4 km to the airport……

Have fun!
Jeffrey and Jose, Amsterdam
Jmsipma2@hotmail.com