Outdoor life, usually from central Japan. Cycling, bike-packing, hiking, and photography.
Mt. Norikura (乗鞍) is considered a right of passage for many cyclists in Japan. It’s the highest road in the country and only bicycles, taxis, and official buses are allowed up. It’s sometimes called Japan’s version of Alpe d’ Huez with plenty of switchbacks, 1200m of elevation gain from the Norikura Heights car park, and […]
Fukui prefecture (福井県) seems to be a fairly unexplored region of Japan for cyclists and as a region along the Sea of Japan coast it used to be considered an isolated region before modernization. It’s northeast of Gifu prefecture and getting there from Aichi (愛知県) by riding through Gujo Hachiman (郡上八幡) in central Gifu (岐阜県) […]
Friday evening after work I hitched a ride with a friend and his wife to Gokayama (五箇山), a world heritage site, high in the mountains in Toyama prefecture (富山県), about 3 hours north of Nagoya. Arriving around 11pm we all chose to sleep at one of the Michi-no-eki (道の駅) that you can find everywhere throughout […]
Mizunami – Tatsuno – the Akiba Highway Sometimes rides don’t go according to plan. This trip was certainly one of them. This one had both positives and negatives which added up to probably the most epic day in the saddle I’ve endured for a very long time. The original plan: Day one – catch the train […]
It’s no secret among cyclists in Japan that Mt. Norikura (乗鞍岳) is the highest road passable by bicycle in the country. Some call it the Japanese Alpe d’Huez but I think comparing mountains is somewhat silly. All mountains differ, and all mountains have the potential to change character within minutes. Most road bike cyclists start […]
The good thing about living in central Japan is that you are only a few hours away from the Japanese Alps. The bad thing is that these mountains make planning a bicycle route pretty difficult at times. The Minami Alps in particular are tricky to navigate from the Tokai area. This means that, for the […]
