Regarding the Shinamami akaido, I wouldn’t shorten it for the route to Hiroshima. Bike all the way to Onomichi, stay overnight, and bike back. You won’t regret it. Also, you might consider two nights in Onomichi with a day ride to Tomonoura.

Oh wow, I didn't realize that someone else had already asked you about your route. It's nice to touch base with you guys, regardless.

Great tip regarding the Onomichi-Hiroshima segment. We'll definitely try the alternate route, although it does cut off half the Shimanami Kaido. Usually by that point in a tour, we're more interested in taking the roads less traveled anyway.

I know what you mean about waiting too long to return to Japan. We're going to train as best we can for the constant climbing, but it's still going to be a big challenge whether we're in shape for it or not.

How funny - yours is only the second comment this old journal has ever received. The other was about a month ago, with almost the same question. You might read my response to that question also.

Yes, we based it almost completely on the Navigator, although we bought an atlas of detailed maps to help with the planning, and bought our first GPS devices and a CD of the map of Japan (this was well before RideWithGPS and readily available online maps) because we were sure we’d get hopelessly lost without them.

There weren’t many deviations. One was that we started from Narita instead of Tokyo, so we improvised a route from there to Noda where we linked up with the Navigator route.

Another was around Nagano. We went to Obuse (a recommended side journey), but we turned south to Matsumoto (which we loved) without going into Nagano itself. And from there we found our own way to Takayama, avoiding the high road through the Alps - south to Narai in the Kiso Valley, and then west from there. There’s a long, difficult tunnel (on Highway 19 I think) that we walked through on the sidewalk, but I would take this route again. Narai was amazing, as was everything west of the tunnel. I could probably do a credible job of sketching out a map for you for this section if you want.

The one section we followed but hated was the inland route from Onomichi to Hiroshima - a terrible road we were happy to get through alive. I see that the Navigator has added an alternative for this stretch, through the islands of the inland sea and then catching a ferry into Hiroshima. I would definitely do this instead.

I hope you go through with this, and blog it. This might have been the most interesting of our tours, certainly in the top 5. I’ve always wanted to go back to Japan - especially to see more of Kyushu and Shikoku, We had a detailed route for this mapped out and lodging identified for that at one point, but backed out - but at this point in our lives I think we’ve waited too long.

OK Scott and Rachael, time to climb aboard the wayback machine! Did you base this 2007 trip on the Japan Cycling Navigator route (http://www.japancycling.org/v2/cguide/part1/)? If so, did you stick to it? Are there parts you wish you would have routed differently?

I ask because we're planning a trip from Sapporo to Fukuoka starting mid-September. So far I'm using Japan Cycling Navigator for routing. There's an awful lot of climbing, and I'm considering ways to flatten it out a bit. The Japan Romantic Road looks great, so I would keep that on the itinerary. Other suggestions?

Oh my gosh! I hope you have a fantastic time. It’s been 16 years since we did this, and I’m surprised to see that the Navigator route still looks essentially unchanged.

I wouldn’t trust any lodging recommendations after all this time. As far as destinations though, many come to mind immediately that I would love to see again and consider unmissable: Nikko, Kusatsu, Narai, Shirakawa, Gujo Hachiman, Kyoto, Nara, Kotohira, the Shinamami Kaido, Tsuwano, Miyajima really stand out.

There are only a few spots that I remember not really caring for. I really disliked the ride from Onomichi to Hiroshima and would hope there’s been an improvement since then - it felt quite dangerous. Also, the long tunnel west from Narai was no fun. I’m sure you’d need to plan on walking the sidewalk the whole way, and a light would help.

Hi Scott, I was searching a mountain pass for Japan and your journal came up. I am actually going to do the same route in May and I was wondering if you or Rachel may have any suggestions of places to visit or places to stay. Always looking for good ideas. I will being following the Japan Navigator Length of Japan route.
Thank you.
Matthew
Toronto, Canada