The start at Cape Sata in Kyushu
The end at Cape Soya in Hokkaido
- Number of days: 69 (including 11 rest days)
- Distance: 4529.9km
- Ascent: 37,312m
- Descent: 36,786m
My 4,529km route cycling the length of Japan (map from Komoot)
| Accommodation | No. of nights | Cost (¥) |
| camped | 25 | 3300 |
| Warmshowers | 3 | 0 |
| Couchsurfing | 5 | 0 |
| hostel / guesthouse | 13 | 36,730 |
| rider’s house | 3 | 1400 |
| with friends | 3 | 0 |
| minshuku | 4 | 23,522 |
| hotel | 11 | 63,220 |
| TOTAL | 67 | 128,172 |
Apps I used and recommend:
- Komoot – for planning my route on the go (on my iPhone) and voice turn-by-turn instructions in cities and towns. Komoot really was invaluable for me on this trip even though I never want to hear ‘You have left the tour, take a look at the map’ ever again!
- Couchsurfing – for accommodation
- Warmshowers – for accommodation
- Michi – this app shows Michi-no-eki’s as well as campgrounds, onsens and ryokans and I found the map really useful for offline use.
- FreeWiFi (also known as Town WiFi) – I was introduced to this just before arriving in Hokkaido so I didn’t get to use it much, but if you’re travelling without a Japanese sim and relying on WiFi as I was, then it would be an invaluable source.
- tenki.jp – this app is in Japanese but was the most reliable weather forecast I came across
Some of the wildlife I saw (plus 5 snakes and a few white-tailed eagles too):
A nutria in Okayama
A mukade centipede
Japanese badger
I’ve wanted to see a Tanuki in Japan forever, and this guy walked straight across the road in front of me… it was only as I tried to get a little closer that it ran away.
Bear warnings
A small squirrel visits Kanji and Mieko’s garden
Watch out for wild boar (inoshishi) along the Shimanami Kaido cycling path
A kite – more common than seagulls in Japan!
Cute Hokkaido fox
I took a GoPro with me and have hundreds of hours of footage which I hope to someday get around to doing something with 😉 In the meantime, here’s a slideshow of friendships and selfies…
Happy trails and happy cycling 🙂
followingthearrows 
Amazing trip, Kat! Thanks for sharing it. We had no idea that there were so many kms in a small country like Japan. Gerry and I were there for a month for our honeymoon. We remember all the hills but didn’t cycle them, thankfully. 🙂
Gerry, our daughter and I are planning to cycle the Danube River from Germany to Hungary beginning Aug. 15. We’ll do about 1200 kms or so – not nearly as many as you!
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Hi Jeanie,
It’s wonderful to hear from you 🙂 Have a fantastic time cycling the Danube, this is definitely on my cycling bucket list now too xxx
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