As a cyclist there is nothing more enjoyable than cycling the islands in the Seto-Inland Sea. This is our fourth time being in this region, and we are varying it a little by cycling the Yumeshima Kaido, and the Shimanami Kaido with one of our Brompton friends who moved here from Tokyo earlier this year.
We caught a couple of trains from Kashihara Monday morning… to meet in time for a fish lunch at Onomichi, before we set off on the ride.
When cycling here on a Monday you will experience places that are closed, or local food delicacy shops of the area which might be sold out (it was a Monday so I can’t complain), but we stopped at a great little spot for afternoon tea which also sold a variety of home wears and Japanese style items (handmade wooden chopsticks rests.. ah!).
As you can see by the pictures, the weather was a delight… and while the route is definitely not flat (they are islands… and to get to the bridges you gotta go up). the scenery is always changing as you reach a corner.
Here was Mondays Route
Distance- 32.4km
Weather – 17 degrees, wind a little cool, but sun was warm!
The first stop on the ride was the Sakura Deai Visitor Centre, which is the confluence of three rivers at Yodogawa Riverside Park. It’s been open since 2017 and is super popular with cyclists – of all kinds. It was a Saturday morning and we saw many road (team and track) bikes.
The site features an observation tower, information centre, a visitor centre with shop and local vegetables… and some vending machines (it’s Japan). We enjoyed the view and an ice cream before getting back on the bikes.
The forecast for the day was 20 degrees and as you can see by the photos- a perfect blue sky. The route is perfect for cyclists, it’s generally separated from cars, and there are the occasional joggers and walkers on the path.
Kozuya Bridge, often referred to as Nagare-bashi (Nagare Bridge), or ’The Flowing bridge across the Kizu River. It’s also the longest wooden bridges in Japan. It’s unique because when there is a flood or typhoon the segments of the bridge will float away in segments separating it from the base and flow like rafts while attached and prevent collapsing. Amazing!
Alongside the cycleway there are also many tea plantations. We stopped again before lunch for a break and take in some water.
Next stop was lunch… and, this was one of the best meals I can recall enjoying.
From the outside it’s a really non descript place… but it was recommended by our fellow cyclists… and I’m not one to go against a local suggestion. I love egg rolls.. and everything about this meal was perfect. Here is the name of I’m ever back this way. だし巻き専門店 京こっこ
After here about 5-6km up the road there was a back tyre blow out, thankfully not ours. The tyre was changed in under 10 minutes- amazing – and Kym contributed to the efficiency with his electric pump (yeah for being useful).
Once the tyre was replaced and we were back on the road, we stopped off at the Nara Palace site. This was was one of the sites of the capitals of Japan, and from AD 710-784 where is then was relocated. The site itself was approximately 1km square, and previously featured a variety of buildings and compounds for different purposes. Many of the buildings are being recreated using traditional Japanese skills and craftsmanship, based on records and archeological excavations of the area since 1959. We had a look the the Imperial Audience Hall.
From here we winded our way through the area towards the centre of Nara.
We stopped to look in Todai-Ji Temple – which is the largest wooden structure in the world, and was last reconstructed after a fire in 1567 (third one since the original was built when it was the capital of Japan. here there was a lot of tourists – when cycling you tend to forget how these sites can be. If you’ve never been to Nara you are lucky to be aware of the deer that live here and like to be fed crackers, and will attack peoples bags if they can smell them. We cycled around the upper sections of the park.. before heading into the main tourist shopping strip, where we enjoyed a fresh mochi (rice cake) from the place which is super trendy on tic-tok, before heading to check in to our hotel.
By the time we uploaded the trip to Strava, I had apparently cycled over 66km. Yes indeed it was an epic ride!
Today’s plan was a bit of cycling from Kyoto to Nara. However to get to the start we had to catch a Shinkansen from Tokyo… all sounds relatively easy so far. But to meet at the starting point we were at Tokyo Train Station by 6am. The only way to do this with luggage involved cycling from our hotel in Suidobashi at 5:30, it’s a short 20 minute ride which was familiar to us.
It’s always a relief to get to the platform with bags and waiting time. Kym went to the bento shop for breakfast and I minded the bags.
Once on board, with bikes and luggage stored behind us (yeah for booking the storage space – as you can’t guarantee there will be somewhere for large luggage), we enjoyed our breakfast bento in the time it took the train to get from Tokyo to Yokohama where our friend joined us with his bike.
A few hours later we were in Kyoto meeting new friends and unfolding the bikes to cycle the Keinawa Cycling road, which is well signed and marked with a blue line once you’ve reached it.
Doing a bit of shopping in Ginza, and need to park your bike..? No worries, Mitsukoshi has bicycle parking accessible via lift, with direct access to the store.
The above photos were taken during a night ride on Tuesday with Kanga, a Brompton cyclist who has lived in Japan for decades.
When cycling on holiday quite often you are on a high paying attention to everything around you, frequently stopping to check your phone, are you in the right place… and at the same time paying attention to everyone around so you don’t run into people walking or cycling. It can be exhausting.. but exciting at the same time.
On Tuesday night we organised to meet up with Ryan (Kanga) an Australian Brompton rider who has lived in Japan for a number of decades. We previously met at a Brompton in Palace meet years back, and he agreed to take us go for a night ride – and as you can tell by the photos – it was a fabulous ride through Tokyo.
The start was at Tokyo station… as we dodged the pedestrians, cyclists as we made our way through the maze of streets, buildings, and over bridges. I could try and explain the directions we took, but let’s face it I got no hope in remembering the names of places, but I did recognise a number of the buildings.
Our destination was Odaiba… and the foreshore which features an amazing view of the rainbow bridge lit up along with all the surrounding buildings. On the water there were a number of boats with colourful with lights We headed towards Toyosu to look at the view of the bridges and buildings which at night – and what a view!
Wednesday’s ride was inspired by the Tokyo Biennale.
Held every two years, the Tokyo Biennale is an international art festival that sets the city of Tokyo as its main stage. The festival aims to dig deep into the city, as it is created together with the area’s local citizens, as well as a wide variety of artists and creators from around the world. The theme of the Tokyo Biennale 2025 is “Wander for wonder.”
It was a loop route of about 20km that started and finished at our hotel in Suidobashi. We took in the sights of Tokyo Dome, Hongo, Ueno, Akihabara, Bakurocho, Nihonbashi, Kanda and Ochanomizu.
The first part of the ride involved visiting Tokyo Dome and then travelling through some small streets with traditional scenes of Tokyo life ending at a Yayoiken a chain store that did provide a lovely breakfast.
We continued on through Tokyo University through some more back streets towards Ueno Park adjacent to Yanaka Cemetery. We stopped of for some matcha and wagashi before arriving at Toeizan Kan’ei-Ji Temple. One of the two main sites for the biennale. There is usually some obvious parking for bikes. But this time it wasn’t so obvious. We negotiated with the biennale staff, who negotiated with temple staff for us. We ended up parking our bikes out the front entrance!
We then headed through Ueno Park towards the second of the two main venues. Etoile Kaito Living Building. This involved 6 floors of art in an abandoned department store building. But my stomach was grumbling for lunch so en-route we stopped off for a quick bite from a food truck.
A bit of holiday fatigue was setting in towards the end of the day. So not so many photographs of us weaving through the busy entertainment district of Kanda. But, I can show the Comfort Stand in Ochanomizu where we had our first coffee of the day and some cheesecake.
Once again credits to the Social Media Manager for the most excellent photos.
If you’d like to do this ride you have until 14 December!
Horray for wi-fi on a plane. I planned this route on the way to Japan high in the sky JL52. I was using Strava to plan this route – but is quite surprising that a premium paid product is almost useless for route planning in Japan. I typed in Tokyo as a location and it kindly offers suggestions of restaurants in the United States. In any case, I persisted using a combination of Google Maps (very useful for street view) and Strava to plan this route. The goal was to start and finish at trains stations along to Sobu line – the line that is literally only a few steps from our hotel.
The route includes a the opportunity for many good coffees! We had one from Little Nap Coffee Stand, a ride around Yoyogi Park, Blue Lug (if it’s open!), Planet of Curry, some vintage shopping, great back street riding in some interesting areas, and a afternoon tea at Petite Patisseries Yuki. If you had more time you could add a ride through/to the old Olympics site, visit Harajuku and cat street and Nakano Broadway.
Here are some photos to whet your appetite. I have to credit these photos to our most excellent Social Media Manager!
