Outdoor life, usually from central Japan. Cycling, bike-packing, hiking, and photography.
I’ve been wanting to combine cycling with hiking for a while now and decided that this weekend was going to be the time to actually try it out. This is the hike up to Sanpukutoge (三伏峠) on the Nagano/Shizuoka border in the Minami Alps. On a clear day Mt.Fuji is clearly visible so it would […]
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This is going out there as an outdoor adventure. Midnight, deep in Gifu, fire, samurai, tradition. Godo-cho, Gifu.
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Solitude. A walk in the mountains. A day away from the internet. A life without Zuckerberg. Wouldn’t that be something.
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Old friend Alex – an English, Japanese, French, and German speaker – has finally opened a guest house in Urugi, southern Nagano. A great place for cycling, hiking, and rural Japanese life. Find him on Google and Facebook at Urugi International Center.
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When on high or open ground in Nagoya it’s not unusual to see Mt. Ibuki (伊吹山) looming far off in the distance to the northwest (not to be confused with Mt. Ontake to the northeast). It’s a popular and well known hike that I am yet to complete. I’ve driven up at least twice on […]
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You may or may not have noticed that there haven’t been that many posts in 2018. While I’ve been spending more time than ever outdoors in the countryside road cycling, bike packing, mountain biking, hiking, and photographing in Japanese mountains, the Australian countryside, or back ‘home’ in the U.K., the name Bike Packing Japan has […]
Read more "A New Direction"
I did a short trip from Agematsu (上松) on the Nakasendo (中山道) to Mt. Ontake (御嶽山) recently, catching the late afternoon train from Kachigawa (勝川) north of Nagoya to Nakatsugawa, where I changed trains to Agematsu. Altogether about two hours of travel. From there I rode just under 40kms or so west towards Kaida Kogen […]
Read more "Agematsu – Mt. Ontake"