A Spring Bike Journey in Japan

In the month of April, I embarked on a second chapter of international cycling. Leaving Taiwan just before the earthquake, I landed in Tokyo a day before Claire’s school semester ended. Our hangouts generally track around her time off teaching, and her spring break was what we would utilize for a bike trip together into the mountains, followed by a swell length absorbing more of Tokyo’s vibes and a second, brief bike trip over the Golden Week holidays in May.

This was a momentous time for Claire, as she had actually cycled and camped her way across nearly all of Japan over her lengthy time living here. That’s one of the more obvious reasons we’re a good match. This leg together, reaching from a random small town north of Kyoto auspiciously named “Obama” to a snowy idyll in Nagano, Hakuba, would complete her last section of Japan. It was an honor to accompany her on that mission while starting my own journey. After this experience, I’d perhaps like to try again someday soon to knock off the country in a single shot.

I’d be remiss not to mention the onerous start of the journey. We biked fully loaded to Shinjuku, took a local train to Ōmiya, then a newly extended bullet train to Tsuruga and at last a tiny single car train to Obama. Bikes must be bagged and carried through stations and aboard, lugging those around along with camping gear was absolutely an ordeal. I wish I could just wheel a bike on. With all that work, it was a pretty limited amount of daylight left in Fukui, Obama’s prefecture, and we were soon seeking out camping in the gathering dusk.

The first few days of our trip we went through Fukui and Ishikawa prefectures into the regional hub of Kanazawa where we’d take our one day off for sightseeing, perfectly timed against a rainy day. This route hewed to the northern coastline, showing us some beautiful ocean views and reacquainting me with tunnels. I had to laugh about all the stress over whether or not to take them in Taiwan on only one day when a few weeks later in Japan it would be multiples daily. It doesn’t make them any less unpleasant to bicycle through, but at least I was well prepared. I would often sport my airpods with noise canceling just to dim out the cacophony of sound from traffic rushing by.

Bike touring with Claire was a pretty cool experience though. Being with someone as wise as I in sleuthing out campsites and DIY route planning was welcome, especially knowing the nuances of this foreign culture. Claire brought cookware for warm curries in the evening and coffees in the morning which was a nice touch. Her tent was quite spacious and freestanding, which was revelatory after a lifetime of staking mine in. It’s much easier to throw that down anywhere over my backpacking tent.

So how would this leg of cycling differ from my recent time in Taiwan? Most pronounced would be changing generally warm temperatures to nights near freezing in Japan. Although the weather made for great riding days, you get over being cold at night trying to sleep pretty quickly. At least the shops often sell hand-warmers that can be stuffed in your pajamas!

The conbini (convenience stores) in Japan felt like a major downgrade over Taiwan for roving cyclists. Although I’m always psyched to grab the vegan onigiri in Japanese conbini, the stuffed rice balls of seaweed, sour plum paste or fermented beans soon became akin to rations on this trip, as I was eating a dozen a day or so instead of the wider spread of microwave snacks or baked potatoes that Taiwanese ones often had. Rural restaurants with options were even sparser for vegan, alas.

Ranting about food in Japan wasn’t even my primary complaint about the conbini though. It’s always easy to get sidetracked when you venture onto the topic of cuisine. The real downer was that only a scant few could be used as a place to really stop, rest, charge devices and enjoy some snacks, purchased there! I’d have to embrace being a weird foreigner and sitting on the pavement snacking, breathing in cigarettes and car exhaust. I admit it bummed me out a little, but I’ve lived this life a lot and with Claire along and into it I found myself more often bemused. In Taiwan, the conbini is almost always a valid space to do these things, and I found it wanting that it wasn’t an option here.

But my favorite thing about riding with Claire in Japan had to be the bathhouses. We would plan each evening to drop in a sentou or onsen, wash up and soak away the day’s stresses before making camp with clean bodies. It is wonderful to travel within a culture that prizes cleanliness! Alas, it comes with a caveat in that they continue to discriminate against tattoos, which pointlessly complicated this ideal. The sentou, which use regular heated water to the onsen’s mineral springs, at least tend to not be assuming about your body, but I always ask. This was the first time I ever bikepacked with a towel and soap in my kit!

Back to the trip! After our day off in Kanazawa, we would attempt to venture into the Noto Peninsula, which had been badly stricken by an earthquake a year back. Much of it was still rebuilding, with multiple bridges and roads out. Along the roads cycled in Ishikawa, Noto’s prefecture, we saw many damaged buildings, but also a constant pace of work. We wound up turning around shortly after entering, with Claire making a resolution to return when the area’s in better shape.

It was probably for the best that we skipped most of Noto, as we were falling behind on our estimate to make her Sunday night train from Hakuba. Unlike most adventures I’ve done, this one came with a strict time limit that we had to abide. We did pull it off after another three days of hard riding through Toyama and a bit of Niigata prefectures though. The last day into Hakuba will stick in my mind, with its dozens of miles of tunnels, kilometer of elevation gain and the added stress of riding an entire day with a broken spoke (that would eventually reveal my whole rim was compromised).

Yet, we made it, celebrating very briefly as I bid farewell to Claire at the station there with about five minutes to go on the train. I checked into a hostel and found an onsen for myself before traveling on alone solo for a few days. It felt more meaningful to me to see a bit of the countryside on my own, and hell if I was keen on bagging up a bicycle if I didn’t have to!

On I rode through the frigid heights in Nagano and Yamanashi in early Spring for another four days. I wound up hosteling twice from rain and then cold, camping only once on the Tokyo outskirts. I got a beautiful view of Fuji on bicycle which is always a treat to lay eyes upon, and to see it wreathed amidst the late blooming, high elevation sakura was also quite inspiring.

Anyway, I finished on my own back in sunny Tokyo, rolled back up at Claire’s and happily put the bicycle away for a spell. Biking in Tokyo is not that fun, with its few bike paths and tight, winding roads. Plus the metro works so flawlessly it’s generally a pleasure to get around in. I think for the remaining few weeks in town that I used it maybe twice or thrice? Japan also has some laws about registering bicycles and serialization to reduce bike theft, but as mine didn’t have that, I’d be loathe to find myself profiled on the street without one and having to explain myself.

For this time in Tokyo, it was a simple idyll of hanging out. Claire worked, I kept her place in order, cooked delicious food, and figured out sightseeing or productive topics from home. I watched the last of the cherry blossoms fade away, saw old friends Radek and Paul each visiting as tourists, and also managed a day trip over to Nagano City to drop in for a day on my Japanese friend, Tatsuya, who I met hosteling in Melbourne! For Claire’s birthday, we made a trip to a friend’s cabin in Shizuoka for a weekend getaway and nature hikes. All of this has started to feel a little routine to me as I’ve continued to spend time in Japan, but it’s still magical and privileged to be a tourist there.

The last bit of time we had together coincided with the Japanese holidays around Golden Week and their corresponding school break. Travel is packed and generally ill-advised at this time without preparation, but we found last minute flights to Osaka that were still in budget. With that option, and Claire’s knowledge of the domestic bike options, we flew our bikes there, and engineered a trip back around the Kii Peninsula at the bottom of Japan’s main island, Honshu. We weren’t able to finish in time here, and got to struggle bus our way back across three trains, just like I remembered doing a month prior. Uggh!

With that second bike trip wrapped up, we had a day left before school and my return flight. Cue rushed packing and bike disassembly for me back into a box for the third and last time, and then off I was for Los Angeles with a fond farewell for Claire as guide and partner. It’s now a few months later, I’m still wandering about as I find my place in the world, and we will be seeing each other stateside again soon for a second time this Summer to continue our travel schemes!

With this chapter concluded, I’m going to end the “HFM Goes Global” series, and consider any future adventure chapters as part of a new story or standalone tales. Perhaps an epilogue summarizing this year and change mostly abroad will emerge, one is definitely due for this if I can wrap my mind around it. I’ve learned a lot, experienced some interesting things, challenged myself, and proved myself endlessly adaptable, yet I’ve also can’t help but feel I’m in some routines as well that I’d do well to break. I feel a force descending on me to again fit myself neatly into a box, restore my abilities, earn an income and strive within society’s boundaries, as I continue this risky balance of adventuring to productivity. Only time will tell if my story should consider so beautifully and if living unconventionally will always be so rewarding. I’m still willing to bet yes.