Hello people!
I’ll arrive in Tokyo on March 01, and after about two weeks of exploring Tokyo and Honshu’s north by train, I’d like to do the route pictured here. After that I am going soth to Shikoku and Kyushu.
Komoot link: https://www.komoot.com/collection/2571739/-japan-nord
Hoping the community can help me with a few questions:
1) Can I expect the roads to be rideable/open in the Alps this time of the year?
2) What temperatures would you expect for day/night? My sleeping setup is only good up until about 5 degrees, after that I would need to stay somewhere, but not sure how frequent hotels are on the way
3) General Japan question: How do you manage lugging around all your panniers if you put your bike in a rinko bag? Is getting a second Rinko just for lugagge ( I have four panniers and a tent) worth it?
Thanks a lot 🙂
by third-acc
6 Comments
I don’t think you’ll be able to do this trip: The Norikura pass that you want to cross only opens [May 15](https://www.okuhida.or.jp/en/archives/1876). March in Japan is still late winter. I mean, just look at [Matsumoto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto,_Nagano#Climate): the daily average for March is 4.6°C; Matsumoto is one of the bigger cities down in the valley – most places will be a lot colder. And thats the just average for the whole day, not the temperature at night: This will be more like the mean daily minimum at -1.0°C.
I did a section of your route last year in early May, coming from Nakatsugawa up through Kiso – Matsumoto – Nagano then moving on towards Niigata.
The days were pretty fine, temperature-wise. T-shirt plus a light windbreaker was more than enough. The occasional (admittedly heavy) rain. At night it gets really cold though. I remember spending one night at a guesthouse near Kiso pretty high up (something like 1400m elevation), and during the descent the next morning my fingers damn near froze off. I would not recommend sleeping in your setup, the temperature drops fast at night in the mountains. I imagine March will be much worse.
Accomodation is a bit pricier and sparser in some areas, but booking.com generally had me covered.
I only needed something to transport panniers with at the end of my journey, but at a Daiso I found a transparent laundry bag (similar to [this?](https://jp.daisonet.com/collections/accessory0102/products/4550480308562)) which was surprisingly sturdy and fit 2 panniers + camping equipment.
Snow time in Japan!
I went below Mount Norikura mid May last year. It was about 0° at night and I was very thankful for the blanket the lady from the campsite gave me one night and for the titanium firebox I brought along. I went over Nomugi pass wich is actually closed until April. I have encountered a a few more roads that were closed seasonally or due to rockfall. At least the seasonal ones seem to get picked up by google maps, so its not a bad idea to run the routes through google once before you go. But there were some unexpected closed roads as well and above and around Norikura there arent a lot of alternatives, that dont require replanning.
The streets were awesome, but the climbs were absolutely brutal and I had to push at everything over 10%.
You can check out some of the roads here: [https://youtu.be/i9HfsGKHgCs?si=OF176n9Re6s9BTsK](https://youtu.be/i9HfsGKHgCs?si=OF176n9Re6s9BTsK)
Uncut footage: [https://youtu.be/tH0GqxO9Yl4?si=fdqwcbG6FvI7QQxD](https://youtu.be/tH0GqxO9Yl4?si=fdqwcbG6FvI7QQxD)
I didnt ride the trains with my bike so I have no info on that. Hope you have a great trip 🙂
I just did a tour in Japan and tried to take that route from Matsumoto to Takayama. It was in Dec 1, the road was closed AND the only other road there was an expressway (which you cannot ride on). I had to turn around (in the snow) and I found a little mountain onsen to stay the night. The next day I had to go south to Kiso then down into Nagoya.
It may be difficult to get through some of the higher passes. But if the road isn’t closed, I found it was actually wonderful to ride.
If your setup is only good to 5 degrees you will have some chilly nights. There were lots of times when the temp would drop to 0, and at even modest elevation sometimes below that. You may want to pay close attention to the weather. Also the coasts tend to be warmer. If the weather and temperature is a big concern, consider riding around Kyushu. It’s warmer and has mountains too, if you so desire.
Hotels are in all the big cities and you can book easily with [Booking.com](https://Booking.com). That’s what I did. Smaller cities you can sometimes find accommodations online, but I had plenty of luck finding small ryokans on google and just going in and asking if they had a room. Google translate will be key here if you don’t know any Japanese. A little japanese can go a long way here.
I never rinko’d my bike. I just rode and took ferries. I didn’t take a single train.
Thanks for messaging, I’m enjoying reliving my ride! Best of luck out there and enjoy!
I’ll be cycling starting from Tokyo in a westerly direction around that same time. Hope to loop back up later in April for a bit of mountainess touring. Thanks for this post; have learned a thing or two.