If you had a full month, free, with just a bike and pannier, to go anywhere in Japan, where would you go?
This was the terrible dilemma I found myself in when I received a custom trip request from a family of three.
Client Request:
To: [email protected]
Subject: One month in Japan Guided Bike April
We are a family of 3 (Ages: 22, and 55) with experience on long bike packing trips through Europe, Canada, and the US.We are all fit and can ride long distances and hills. When we travel we also like to see the country, so we usually only do about 80km per day or less.
We usually do ride by ourselves, so are comfortable in strange places, but because of the language barrier, we would like some support in Japan.
We prefer simple but comfortable accommodation. Luxury is not needed unless it is something unique to Japan. We would like more traditional accommodation at least some times but we are not sure if sleeping on the floor is OK for riding so much, so we want to consider that as well.
We have never been to Japan, but we are fine to skip Tokyo unless you think this is a really must-see. We would like to spend a few days in Kyoto at the end.
None of us have food allergies, and we are generally quite open to trying new foods.
As much as I love to prioritize the area we are based, the thought of planning this made my winter. It helped that, given we are under two meters of snow, winter is a relatively slow season, allowing me plenty of time for research, and it would take a lot of time.
This was before the current tourism boom, and many rural regions didn't yet have websites showcasing their highlights, so the first step was to create a general, realistic, rough route - something doable with as little public transport as possible, but also covering enough ground to make it an expedition.
The hardest part was cutting out the places I really wanted to share but that were just too far away to make it realistic. This included the southernmost parts of Kyushu, as well as much of Shikoku. Shikoku and Kyshushu could both easily be a month long trip on their own, but we had to make sure to cover ground.
Fukuoka would be an obvious start, but it still felt a bit "on the beaten path", plus I personally really liked the Goto Islands and wanted antoher excuse to go back, so I made that the start, and would work our way back toward Kyoto.
The next order of business was to contact each of the local tourism offices for the prefectures and major cities along the way, requesting a copy of all the pamphlets they give out at their tourist desks, which would begin trickling in via snail mail over the next week.
Pro tip: even now, with so much online, paper pamphlets are incredibly helpful for planning. Bookmarking in the browser works for quickly retreiving informaiton, but pretty soon it's just a long list of forgotten links.
A paper map with post-its or clippings, a sort of scrap-book approach, gives me a visual anchor and tactile connection, helping me to zoom out and remember what's where, and what caught my eye. Especially on a trip covering this much ground, it helped to see everything at once so I could make sure most of the must-see or must-do experiences were included somewhere.
Going through the pamphlets gave me a strong base to work from. I started building a rough itinerary and sending ideas to the client who mostly left it up to me, with the occasional "no, I don't think we're interested in that," which was great. Lots of freedom, but helped narrow things down.
Having that visual layout also took the pressure off trying to include everything in every place. For example, we were going to pass multiple castles so when it looked as if there was a chance we wouldn't make it to Matsuyama Castle, we knew there would be others so ther was no pressire to try to force it into the itinerary.
Pro tip: Don't get too hung up on specific places or famous sites - plan based on what you hope to get out of the site. If the goal is a certain feeling or experience, rather than a name to check off a list, it opens a lot of felxibility when you realize you can get an equal experience in another place, even if the name is less known.
Once I had the general direction mapped out and a sense of the areas we'd ride through, I did a very loose check for accommodation options. I was not looking to book, but rather getting an idea of what areas had higher concentration of inns, as well as looking for any special places that realyl jumped out and I may want to book in advance.
I also was looking to see if any of the areas we might find ourselves in for a night were having any special festivals or anything that would cause hotels to fill up well in advance. Either we would want to book so that we could enjoy the festival, or else we would want to avoid that area at the end of a day - assuring we would not have to sleep on a park bench.
It turned out there were only a few places where I booked ahead. These were places where that accommodation was more than just a bed for the night, but also was part of the experience I wanted to share. They were also spread out enough that as long as we hit those few spots on the reserved days, the rest of the trip in between was super flexible - which came in handy when we decided to take a break, wait out the weather, or just stay put a little longer someplace we found more interesting than expected.
The overview also helped me map out "escape routes" - places where we could jump on a train o save time or escape bad weather (or just rest) without missing too much if needed. We were not always going to be near a train line, but I had a good idea were would be able to slow down, and use a train later to get back up to speed if needed.
On the tirp, each night we would look over options for the next day or two based on the weather, mood, and how tired we were. A few times, availability - or lack thereof - of accommodation influenced our route and left us with little choice. But most nights, we booked the day before, and sometimes even the same day.
Even though this was before the current tourism boom, it would still be possible now. I still often travel booking day of when it is just me, and the accommodation is not so important, and with a whole month to work with on this trip, we didn't feel like every night had to be a once-in-a-lifetime stay. An average, nothing to write home about hotel here and there wasn't going to ruin the trip. Flexibility was more valuable than assured luxury.
We also had bicycle bags (rinko bukuro) to take the bikes on trains when needed, and we ended up using them more than expected. That flexibility often saved the day - turning what could have been a stressful or exhausting ride into a more memorable relaxed day.
Highlights
With a trip this long, it's inevitable that we'd hit some of Japan's well-known highlights. While a main reason they wanted to do this bike trip instead of the Golden Route was to get off the beaten path, the majority of the trip was in non touristy areas, so running into crowds in popular places was not bad at all, and the parts that stuck with us the most anyway weren't in guidebooks. They were the tiny moments and unexpected places in between.
At the end of the trip we arrived in Kyoto. The clients stopped by the Kyoto Tourism Information box at the Station to get ideas for their final few days.
I felt a a bit bad for them, but also a bit happy when they found that almost everything being suggest... we had already seen in some form or other along the way. Temples? Plenty. Bamboo forests? Too many to count. Things to eat? Just check our list of regional cuisines we tried along the way. Shrines, gardens, museums? we'd seen them all - just smaller, quieter, and more personal.
The main thing that was different, that we had not experienced, and they were surprised by, was the crowds. As happy as I was that we had seen so much, it was a little of a let down that, aside from shopping, many of Kyoto's "must-sees" were now just names to drop at dinner parties later when friends ask "Did you go to ....?".
It's impossible to list every little museum, cafe, rest stop, or roadside waterfall we passed, but here are some of the more well-known places we visited - along with a few of the broader experiences that made the trip what it was:
Some of the more recognizable highlights included:
