My uncle and I had a blast on a short tour in Japan and I’d like to give back to the community with a trip report.
* We went for 2.5 weeks starting at the very end of October. We were very lucky with the weather and only had to ride 30 mins in the rain over 10 riding days.
* I brought my trusty Bike Friday New World Tourist folding bike and my uncle brought his Tern folding bike. It was super convenient having folding bikes because hotels in Japan generally will only allow you to bring bikes into the your room or even into the hotel if you put it into a bag. Having a folding bike makes packing it into a bag easier and smaller.
* More importantly, if you plan on using any trains to travel between cities (bikes must completely be covered in a bag), the size of folding bikes makes everything much easier.
* If you plan on taking trains, download the Smart EX app. It was brilliant for booking the Shinkansen trains and making changes or booking seats.
* On the bullet trains, try and book the last row in each car because behind those seats is a larger space to store your bike. The regular luggage areas on the trains will not be large enough to store your bike, even if it is a folding one (unless it’s a Brompton).
* Even with a folding bike, it is PITA bringing a bike through crowded Japanese train stations, streets, and trains. Plus there is the hassle of having to bag it before a train ride and then unpacking it again after. Plus it is not comfortable carrying your bike bag through crowded streets and stations. That weight becomes a total PITA after a few minutes. We were so happy that we brought little foldable hand carts to help with moving our bagged bikes around.
* It was no fun traveling with our bikes but it allowed us to cover more distance and it was a trade off we were willing to make.
* Almost all of the bike tourists we met were on folding bikes for the reasons above and I was jealous of the people who had Bromptons since they folded so much smaller and were easier to move around when folded.
* We started in Tokyo and then took a bullet train to Kyoto and did a short day ride there. Kyoto is more bike friendly than Tokyo but it was rammed with tourists.
* From Kyoto we took ashort bullet train to the northeastern edge of Lake Biwa to ride down the eastern shore and then took the train back to Kyoto from Otsu. Lake Biwa was a great ride. If you have time, stop at Cafe Mizugahama for a bite or coffee and cake – the view from the patio was amazing !
* We then rode to Osaka from Kyoto and just a heads up if you have low hanging panniers – you will be cursing every 15 mins or so. This is because on the river path connecting the two cities, there are these barriers that prevent motorcycles from using the paths. Because of these barriers, we had to get off our bikes and slowly walk through them or worse, we sometimes have to lift our bikes across some of them. It was a bit soul crushing.
* After a couple of fun days in Osaka, we took a train to the quaint little town of Onomichi for the start of the Shimanami Kaido.
* The Shimanami Kaido was amazing. It was a wonderful experience riding through all the small islands across beautiful bridges. There were citrus groves everywhere and we got to see the quiet beauty of rural Japan. It was very peaceful and tranquil. Some highlights were the salted milk ice cream and lemon gelato at Dolce Ice Cream and Kousanju temple on Ickuchi Island.
* Most people complete the Shimanami Kaido over a day by riding through the islands but I would recommend spending a night on one of them. We spent a night on Omishima Island at a converted old farmhouse and it was lovely experience.
* We then made a detour to Matsuyama and in hindsight, we would skip it since both the roads to that city were on super busy roads. We took the mountain road on the way back thinking it would be quieter but I have never been so scared on a bike ! That road was super narrow and winding, with huge trucks passing dangerously close over and over again. Our nerves were totally frayed and then we had to cycle through a 3km long tunnel ! Good thing there was a walkway just wide enough to bike on or we would have had to walk our bikes through it.
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My uncle and I had a blast on a short tour in Japan and I’d like to give back to the community with a trip report.
* We went for 2.5 weeks starting at the very end of October. We were very lucky with the weather and only had to ride 30 mins in the rain over 10 riding days.
* I brought my trusty Bike Friday New World Tourist folding bike and my uncle brought his Tern folding bike. It was super convenient having folding bikes because hotels in Japan generally will only allow you to bring bikes into the your room or even into the hotel if you put it into a bag. Having a folding bike makes packing it into a bag easier and smaller.
* More importantly, if you plan on using any trains to travel between cities (bikes must completely be covered in a bag), the size of folding bikes makes everything much easier.
* If you plan on taking trains, download the Smart EX app. It was brilliant for booking the Shinkansen trains and making changes or booking seats.
* On the bullet trains, try and book the last row in each car because behind those seats is a larger space to store your bike. The regular luggage areas on the trains will not be large enough to store your bike, even if it is a folding one (unless it’s a Brompton).
* Even with a folding bike, it is PITA bringing a bike through crowded Japanese train stations, streets, and trains. Plus there is the hassle of having to bag it before a train ride and then unpacking it again after. Plus it is not comfortable carrying your bike bag through crowded streets and stations. That weight becomes a total PITA after a few minutes. We were so happy that we brought little foldable hand carts to help with moving our bagged bikes around.
* It was no fun traveling with our bikes but it allowed us to cover more distance and it was a trade off we were willing to make.
* Almost all of the bike tourists we met were on folding bikes for the reasons above and I was jealous of the people who had Bromptons since they folded so much smaller and were easier to move around when folded.
* We started in Tokyo and then took a bullet train to Kyoto and did a short day ride there. Kyoto is more bike friendly than Tokyo but it was rammed with tourists.
* From Kyoto we took ashort bullet train to the northeastern edge of Lake Biwa to ride down the eastern shore and then took the train back to Kyoto from Otsu. Lake Biwa was a great ride. If you have time, stop at Cafe Mizugahama for a bite or coffee and cake – the view from the patio was amazing !
* We then rode to Osaka from Kyoto and just a heads up if you have low hanging panniers – you will be cursing every 15 mins or so. This is because on the river path connecting the two cities, there are these barriers that prevent motorcycles from using the paths. Because of these barriers, we had to get off our bikes and slowly walk through them or worse, we sometimes have to lift our bikes across some of them. It was a bit soul crushing.
* After a couple of fun days in Osaka, we took a train to the quaint little town of Onomichi for the start of the Shimanami Kaido.
* The Shimanami Kaido was amazing. It was a wonderful experience riding through all the small islands across beautiful bridges. There were citrus groves everywhere and we got to see the quiet beauty of rural Japan. It was very peaceful and tranquil. Some highlights were the salted milk ice cream and lemon gelato at Dolce Ice Cream and Kousanju temple on Ickuchi Island.
* Most people complete the Shimanami Kaido over a day by riding through the islands but I would recommend spending a night on one of them. We spent a night on Omishima Island at a converted old farmhouse and it was lovely experience.
* We then made a detour to Matsuyama and in hindsight, we would skip it since both the roads to that city were on super busy roads. We took the mountain road on the way back thinking it would be quieter but I have never been so scared on a bike ! That road was super narrow and winding, with huge trucks passing dangerously close over and over again. Our nerves were totally frayed and then we had to cycle through a 3km long tunnel ! Good thing there was a walkway just wide enough to bike on or we would have had to walk our bikes through it.