Japan is definitely a country that you should consider for your next bicycle trip or add it on your route around the world. Before we come here, we have heard a lot of positive things about the country and for many, it is included in the Top 10 places to do bicycle travel.

Super safe in every way, it’s a place you’ll be stress free 99% of the time, if something happens to you, you’ll be part of the 1% who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In those 3 months that we traveled here nothing happened to us, even leaving the bicycle unlocked 95% of the time and pedaling on many busy roads.

Its currency is the Yen (¥) being 100JP ¥ equivalent to 0,90USD. With strong economy, Japan is not the most economical country you will travel, the cheapest you will pay for accommodation in a big and touristic city hostel, will be 1,500JP¥ per person, however, we will talk more about the costs in the course of post.

We will try to give you a good perspectives on several aspects about the country, so when you get here you will not feel lost and without direction. And of course, keep in mind that even reading a few blogs before coming here, we learn a lot from day to day.

VISA

We are Brazilians and we needed to get a visa to get in to Japan, for Europeans we have heard that is not needed a visa, but check on your country the Japan Embassy website to see if you will need one.

Different countries different rules. =D

Japan is located in the northern hemisphere and because of this has the seasons of the year defined as follows:
Spring of 21 March – 20 June;
Summer from 21 June to 22 September;
Autumn from 23 September to 21 December;
Winter December 22 – March 20.

The country has 5 main islands, respectively from south to north, Okinawa, Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido. The best season to visit the country is during spring, except for Hokkaido, the northernmost island, which has the best season during the summer when is dry and with mild temperatures. Honshu during the summer we heard about and read in the guides that is very hot, humid and it is the rainy season in the country. The winter in the country can be very hard but if your plan is to enjoy the ski resorts, this is the best time to visit the country.

Japan Meteorological Agency website

Regarding the geographic aspect, you might have already imagined what to expect from Japan, being a volcanic country has a lot of mountains, but along the coast can be very flat with just some undulations, on the other hand, is where usually the urban centers are. With that in mind, it will help you plan your route, if your goal is to learn about the culture, visit tourist and historical cities, you will not need to cross big mountains, but pedaling between the urban centers eventually will become monotonous and tiring. With the exception of temples and historic centers, you will not see anything interesting along the way. Apart from that, you will stop every 100 meters for a traffic light delaying you and making you take the whole day to pedal 50 / 60km.

It is always good to know how to share your time along the country, and from time to time to go to the mountains, because it will be there that you will find the best landscapes and people, it is not very difficult to cross by hospitable people, who are very happy to see foreigners traveling in their region, especially by bicycle.

ROUTE

There are numerous routes to pedal through Japan, which make it difficult to choose where to go. As we wanted to cross the whole country, we decided to use the recommendation of the site Japan Cycling Navigator website,which suggested a more direct route to Hokkaido, totaling just over 4000km. Right away, we knew that it would be difficult for us to pedal the whole country, our pace is slow and we have the average of pedaling 60 / 70km per day and 1000km per month. We value the stops to know the places along the way and we do not have to pedal with pressure, giving flexibility even to avoid possible rains.

Most of the time to get to the same place you will have at least 2 different roads which can be quite relevant in regards to traffic and elevation. There are many roads to everywhere, the only exception it was when we were crossing the Japanese Alps that the roads are limited to the mountain passes.

The maps.me helped us a lot in the planning, but also put us in some troubles, taking us to some unsealed hardcore hiking routes with high gradient making us turn back.

It is also important to be aware of routes that include bridges and tunnels. Most of the times it is not allowed to ride on bridges connecting islands, except for the popular route called “Shimanami Kaido”which includes exclusive tracks for bicycles. Inform yourself in the tourist information center or in the Facebook communities of cycling in Japan. Most of the tunnels are possible to pedal, it was only 2 or 3 that we had to turn back, some of them even have an exclusive path for pedestrians and bicycles.

If you are traveling in the spring, fall or winter try to find out about the local roads as many of them close due to the snow and only open in the summer, we met some cyclists who had problems when they pedaled through the Japanese Alps, it is always good to be aware of these details.

Another important factor, Japan is composed of several islands, depending on your route, or even to take a shortcut, it is possible to take boats or ferry boats to cross from one island to another, many cyclists start pedaling from Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu, heading south and from there take a boat to go to Shikoku, and another one to go to the main island Honshu, but there are numerous small islands in Japan that can be visited by sea, but it will be some extra costs for your budget.

Different from what we have imagined, the roads in Japan was a bit disappointing, especially local and regional ones, many of them go through little maintenance and it is not difficult to have cracks, small holes and most of it do not have a shoulder. On the other hand, it is allowed to pedal on the sidewalks, but it is not the best or the fastest way, although in the intersections always have a ramp, but the curb is a little high because of drainage of rainwater so it always has that impact on the handlebars. Regarding drivers caution and respect, Japan scores 99 of 100. In the 3000+ km we pedal, we do not remember a moment where we were in trouble on the road or big danger. The Japanese in their almost total majority are very respectful to cyclists, including truck drivers, always giving enough space on the overtaking and when it is not possible, they reduce the speed and wait for a safe moment for such.

Japan is also known for its numerous tunnels, so it’s good to always be well visible, with bright clothes, reflective ribbons on the bicycle or panniers and lights! Although scary, it was always safe to pedal on it because of the respect from the drivers to the cyclists. The newer tunnels have good lighting and sometimes space exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists, but the older ones are scary and seem to be falling apart.

Water in Japan is not a problem, we always got tap water and we never had any problems. We never needed to get streams or lake water, but basic sanitation in the country works really well, so we believe it’s safe to drink its water. If you are in the mountains, it’s even safer. Due Japan be very populated you are always close to a little town or city, which means that it is not necessary to carry lots of water, in our case we took 2 liters each for when it was necessary to cook and whenever was necessary we refilled the bottles in the nearest town.

Japan is quite populous so it will be very unlikely to stay days without going through a village, farm or anywhere you can not refill your water bottles.

As we mentioned in the introduction of this post, accommodation in Japan can be very expensive and will get hard on your budget, the cheaper you will pay for accommodation in a big touristic city hostel is 1,500JP¥ per person but outside these areas, will cost 2,500JP¥ on average while still cheap and a find, expect to always pay more than that. Even Airbnb is very expensive in Japan.

On the other hand, if you are willing to camp during your trip, you can reduce a lot your costs on Hostels, Guest Houses and Hotels. Across Japan, there are the famous Roadside Stations, michi no eki (道の駅), with a Tourist Information Center, restrooms and sometimes a small market. In these spaces always have a parking area, which are offered as rest areas for those who are traveling and need a break to hit the road again. The hours of operation are most often from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm so you have to have a lot of sense when camping in these places.

The recommendations of all we met, is to set up camp after Michi no Eki closure and set off camp before the opening. Be as discreet as possible, do not leave trash behind and do not bother so that future travelers can also enjoy those spaces that help a lot on a low budget trip.

There are today 1145 Michi no Ekis all over Japan, access here the website and the Facebook page that offers more information about it, read carefully and there also has a google maps with the coordinates of almost all of them. You can even upload all these infos in the Maps.me offline map application.

Wild camping in Japan is also possible, there are no laws that forbid the practice, however, Japan is super populous and wilderness areas you will only find in the mountains. Only few times we did wild camping during our ride around the country, we do not know for sure why, maybe the convenience, we always plan our stops in michi in ekis, for having toilets, a market and also a friendly space for camping. But if we had searched for places in the bush to camp we would surely have found it. With a little planning to fill the water reserves before setting up camp it is possible to do it.

Warmshowers and Couch Surfing is very hard, although Japan has a considerable number of profiles, it is always difficult to get a reply, but the few times we did it were incredible, so we recommend not to get discouraged and always try to find a host. that was the way we could learn more about culture. Unfortunately for us, we did not speak the language, it was difficult to connect with people, however the ones that stayed there made our trip through Japan unforgettable.

In Japanese culture, it is not common to have visitors at home, even less to host them, that’s why is difficult to find hosts, excluding those who have already traveled overseas and were previously hosted. Even its architecture is planned with this need, most houses have bathrooms in the entrance hall so no one does have to enter the common areas of the house, so it is not usual to be invited by Japanese people to spend the night.

Another useful lodging option in Japan are the called Love Hotel (ラブホテル). Especially in big cities because of the competition they often are cheaper than hostels and hotels, their only setback is the check-in time, usually 6 pm, many rooms can smoke, can’t make a reservation and check out is almost always at noon. When they are registered on Booking.com you will know that it is a Love Hotel because next to the Hotel name in written between parenthesis (adult only).

In Hokkaido, we also have heard about another accommodation option called Ride a House, very economical, generally, 1000JP ¥ per person, the only downside is that does not have a shower because the Japanese normally go to the Sentos or Onsens.

Since we mentioned, the Sentos (銭湯) and Onsens (温泉) are the traditional Japanese Public Baths, very present in the culture it is possible to find them anywhere in the country and is a very interesting alternative after that hard cycling day or when already spent some days without a shower and the need of a shower is higher. The average price is 400JP¥ but the range varies between 300 – 800JP¥. To find it we always used google maps searching with the Japanese characters Sento – 銭湯/ Onsen – 温泉

Internet access in Japan is very easy and apart from the famous fast food chains, all the conveniences stores have free Wi-Fi, with the exception of the local Hokkaido chain called SeicoMart. Some larger supermarkets also have Wi-Fi, just like the Michi at Ekis always have free internet. So it will be very difficult to stay disconnected in Japan, unless you really want to and in the wild campsites.

As we planned to stay for 3 months in the country, we decided to buy the travel sim card. However, it is very expensive and limited compared to Australia. You will also find at the airports, wifi modems to rent during the travel around the country and when you depart you just drop back at any airport, but these seemed much more expensive than buying a sim card which is what we have more property to talk about.

We bought the sim card in the famous store called BIC Camera and the company that offers the service is IIJmio, however, you find in several other stores also the same chip for sale. The plan we were interested in was just data, and the 3-month plan gave us 2GB of data and cost 4000JP ¥ 40USD. It was enough for us to be able to use google maps in case of emergency, to contact the warmshowers and couch surfers we had during the trip. The other things we needed to do on the internet, we would do in the hostels we stayed in or at the convenience stores.

Food in Japan is super expensive, however, if you want to travel around the country with noodles and occasionally dig up for the famous Bentos (traditional Japanese lunch boxes) discount, your budget can be very low. But fruits, vegetables, rice, meat and etc. are very expensive, if you value this type of food, you can prepare your wallet because it will not get cheap.

In Japan, there is no predominant supermarket chain, the most common ones we have seen all over the country are Aeon, Valor, Lamu, Maxvalu and A-Coop. However, there are numerous small markets in every city and it is never a problem to run out of food. Traveling through Japan and not experiencing its gastronomy is a sin and we do not recommend not doing it. Take the opportunity to eat everything on your reach, because of that we made an exclusive post about the food we tasted in the country! Check it out here.

Traveling by bus and train through Japan can be very expensive, so cycling is a much more interesting option and one of several reasons why we chose it. However, sometimes becomes necessary to board on a bus, train or an airplane to travel longer distances. In Japan we ended up having to catch a plane to go to Hokkaido, since we would not be able to pedal all the way. Although is not the easiest, due to all the bureaucracy, at that time it was the most economical.

So here is the first tip, local flights in the country are often more economical than taking a bus or train. The rules for boarding the bike in these other means of transportation are the same as those of airlines, the bicycle must be completely covered, the handlebar removed or aligned to the frame and pedals removed.

In bullet trains, it is impossible to board with bicycles and are the most expensive ones comparing to the regional and slower trains.

If you are planning to arrive in Japan via South Korea or vice versa, the best option is to take the Ferry Boat from Fukuoka (Hakata) to Busan, but stay tuned for details. The company that makes the journey and allows you to take a bicycle is called Camellia Lines, there is another company that does the same route but only allows the transport of a maximum of 20kg, not even if you want to pay more for the luggage you can board in. Our recommendation is to book through someone who is hosting you and preferably speak Japanese or Korean. The site even offers an English page, but it is not 100% translated so it gets tricky for foreigners to book by ourselves. There is a website that makes ferry bookings called Direct Ferries, but DO NOT BOOK with them, do not make the same mistake as us, their service is horrible and we took a huge loss because of them, it is a company that does not worried about your customers. We recommend you also buy the ticket at least 4 days in advance, otherwise the fare increases and it is only possible to make the purchase in the port.

JAPAN GOOGLE KEYWORDS

Michi no Eki – 道の駅
Love Hotel -ラブホテル
Sento – 銭湯
Onsen -温泉
Supermarket -スーパーマーケット
Ride a House – ライダーハウス

USEFUL PHONE NUMBER

Polícia 110
Bombeiros, Ambulância 119
Marinha 118
Bombeiro em Tokyo (24h) 03 3212 2323
Helpline Japão (24h, Atendimento em Inglês) 0570 000 911

TOURIST INFORMATION

Japan National Tourist Oganization (JNTO)
Travel-Phone English toll-free info; except Tokyo & Kyoto
Daily 9am-5pm (0120 444800) or (0088 224800)
Tokyo Tourist Information Center 03 5321 3077
Yokohama Tourist Information Center 045 441 7300
Osaka Visitor Information Center 06 6345 2189
Kobe Convention & Visitors Association 078-303-1010
Kyoto Tourist Information Center 075 344 3300
Sapporo Tourist Information Center 011 209 5020
Sendai General Tourist Information Center 022 222 4069