Yabitsu Pass and Lake Miyagase: Kanagawa’s Climbing Country
Among road cyclists around Tokyo, Yabitsu Pass is the climb you are either asked about or expected to know. 761 metres, Terayama in Hadano City, on prefectural Route 70. Hadano…
West Along the Shonan Coast: Enoshima to Odawara by Bike
An hour by train from Tokyo. Walk out of the station, build the bike, ride south for ten minutes, and Sagami Bay opens in front of you — Enoshima on…
Down the Tama River: A Flat Day on Western Tokyo’s Water
alk about cycling in Tokyo and the conversation goes to backstreets and temples. But the best cycling in Tokyo is probably not in the centre at all. It is out…
Okutama: Riding to the Highest Pass in Tokyo
There is a mountain pass at 1,146 metres inside the Tokyo Metropolis. About 50 km west of the Metropolitan Government building, still within the same administrative boundary, sits the highest…
Retro Tokyo by Bike: Where to Find the Golden Gai Feeling — and Actually Photograph It
You know the photograph. A lane barely wide enough for two people. Hand-painted signs stacked up a two-storey wooden wall. Paper lanterns, tangled wiring, warm light spilling out of a…
Tokyo Art by Bike: A Flat One-Day Loop Through Museums, Galleries and Free Art
Tokyo has one of the densest concentrations of art in the world, and almost no good way to see it. The museums are scattered across five or six districts that…
Tokyo Subculture by Bike: The Otaku Loop from Akihabara to Nakano and Ikebukuro
Tokyo’s pop-culture districts have a scheduling problem. Akihabara, Nakano Broadway and Ikebukuro’s Otome Road are each worth half a day — but they sit on three different railway lines, and…
Yanaka Ginza by Bike: A Slow Half-Day Ride Through Tokyo’s Old Town
Most of Tokyo was flattened twice in the twentieth century — once by the 1923 earthquake, once by the war. Yanaka was not. Ride ten minutes north of Ueno and…
Cycling San’in: A Rider’s Guide to Japan’s Quietest Coastline
Ask most travelers about cycling in Japan and they will mention the Shimanami Kaido or the routes around Kyoto and Nara. Almost no one mentions San’in, the stretch of Tottori…
Riding the Sea of Japan Coast: A Cyclist’s Guide to Hokuriku’s Best Routes
Riding the Sea of Japan Coast: A Cyclist’s Guide to Hokuriku’s Best Routes If you are looking for a cycling destination in Japan that still feels wonderfully undiscovered by international…