Did you know that there are hundreds of varieties of cherry blossom trees and the earliest variety blooms from February each year? This species of cherry blossom is called ‘Kawazu Sakura (河津桜)’ and can not only be found in its’ originating town called Kawazu on the Izu Peninsula, but also in a few spots close…
Category: Cycling
Exploring Shizuoka by Bike
Most of you who follow our blog have probably figured out by now that we love cycling off the beaten track in Japan! As it’s often hard finding information online about good bike routes in Japan, we decided to film our bike rides and write these blog articles to provide other cycling enthusiasts with valuable…
Kyushu’s Sakura Cycling Road
Home to wondrous landscapes and lush green fields, Kyushu is Japan’s secret garden. If you get the chance to travel to this wonderful part of Japan, consider renting a bike for at least a day to explore Kyushu’s marvels deeper. Oita Prefecture in Eastern Kyushu is known for having the most hot spring sources in…
Ibaraki’s Lakeside Cycling Road
The designated national cycling road around Lake Kasumigaura located in Ibaraki prefecture shows us: when the Japanese put their mind to it, they make cycling roads extremely well! We cycled around Lake Kasumigaura with our own bikes in late September and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Japan, looking for day trips in nature…
Cycling the Wakayama 800
As we loved cycling one of the world’s best cycling paths across the Seto Inland Sea, called Shimanami Kaido, we were eager to try out another route promoted to cyclists called “Wakayama 800” during a week-long trip this autumn. The route we chose was a mix of mountainside and seaside with some challenging climbs and…
2 Weeks Shikoku Road Trip
Last summer we were faced with deciding where to travel to in Japan with about 2.5 weeks of summer holiday left. After exploring Ishigaki for a week and going with the flow, we booked the cheapest flight going from Ishigaki to Osaka and then decided to rent a car from Kobe and do a roadtrip…
Cycling Along Tottori’s Coastline (Pt. 3)
We suddenly found ourselves in a super efficient coin laundry to wash our clothes, conveniently located right next to a 7-11 convenience store AND ramen restaurant with excellent reviews AND a manga museum when it suddenly hit me: this is Japan!
Cycling Along Tottori’s Coastline (Pt. 2)
Time to see the famous castle ruins! With the cherry trees in bloom all around the vast park area, this place really exceeded our expectations. There was a small scale cherry blossom festival going on and we were able to buy a taiyaki (fish shaped waffle) and sit by the castle walls after having enjoyed the view from the top.
Cycling Along Tottori’s Coastline
It’s already been three weeks since we’ve returned from our first one-week bikepacking trip to Tottori and Shimane prefectures, collectively known as “San’In”. This region calls upon tourists to “discover another Japan” and we think rightly so, as our trip started with walking on sand dunes, cycling up a cliffside path to see crystal clear water dotted with tiny islands, wandering through immaculate farmlands and ending our adventure by staying on a tiny island in the middle of on a lake.
The Shimanami Kaido – Japan’s Best Cycling Route
Designated as one of the seven best bike routes in the world by CNN, we were determined to discover the Shimanami Kaido on our Shikoku roundtrip in the summer. Not only did we have high expectations, but this trip turned out to be one of our best holiday experiences in Japan. Getting Started The Shimanami…
Jitensha Adventure 