Japan for Cyclists & Bike Travelers

About this book

Japan has a second transport network, quieter than the famous trains and older than the motorway: the station-front rental fleet, the riverbank path, and the painted blue line of a cycle route stepping over bridges from island to island. This is the complete English guide to travelling Japan by bicycle — 200 entries in eight parts. It begins with the machines (the mamachari that carries the nation, road and cross bikes, folding bikes built for trains, electric assistance) and the three ways to get wheels — rent, buy or bring. It rides the flagship routes end to end, from the Shimanami Kaidō's six bridges over the Inland Sea to the Pacific Cycling Road, the Ring-Ring Road and the wild Noto loop; circles the lakes (Biwaichi and six more), descends the great river paths, and loops Awaji, Sado, Okinawa and the Amami chain; climbs the Venus Line, Norikura, Shibu Pass, Aso and the snows of the far north; and takes twelve cities at pedal height. Then it teaches the system no diary ever explains: rinko, the bagged bicycle on the train; cycle trains, ferries and couriers; lodgings that keep your bike indoors; registration, insurance, impound lots and the traffic law of the Japanese road — plus the riding year, month by month, from the sakura front to the December illuminations. Fares, timetables and fine print change, and the book never freezes them into promises: every entry closes by pointing to the official source, so your plan is confirmed before it is trusted. For the cyclist flying in for the Shimanami, the traveller who wants a bicycle between stations, and anyone who has ever watched Japan roll past a train window and wished to be outside it.