Hi, my wife and I are planning a cycling trip to Japan this April and May - little did I know about Golden Week! We've signed up for the 8 Day Japan Highlights tour with Thomas and Japan Biking. After seeing how much great cycling Japan has to offer we decided to extend the trip by arriving 3 weeks early and doing some cycling on our own, or possibly sign up for another tour although it doesn't look like there are many group tours during GW.
We plan to bring our coupled Co-Motion tandem, rent a car and tour around - just like we did in the Pyrenees a few years ago, with the only difference that we don't speak or read Japanese - I'm crash coursing.
Questions:
What car to rent? We fit our tandem on it's side into the back of a 4-door station wagon in Europe any car recommendations in Japan? Was looking at Mazada 5 Premacy wagon or Honda Stepwagon van (it looks like we could fold down the back seats and fit the tandem upright down the middle which is what many people do here in Toyota Sienna vans).
Where to go? The 8 day Japan Highlights tour ends in Izumi so we're planning to fly to Kagoshima, rent the car, leave our bike boxes at the same hotel as we'll stay in at the finish of the tour, go for a couple of rides around Kagoshima then work our way up Kyushu. I've read the ride descriptions on KANcycling and several nice rides posted by Ian Dagnall on Ridewithgps and will look to incorporate some of those locations like North Kyushu, Aso and Yufuin (the 8D tour includes the Nagasaki peninsula, some of Amakusa and Kumamato to Izumi so I'll try not to duplicate those areas). From Kyushu we plan to take the ferry over to Shikoku, maybe stay in Uwajima, ride along the Shimantogawa river and other local routes then move to Kochi (looks like many accomodations are already sold out) and do a few rides from there. Then drive to Kyoto and do several rides from there along with sightseeing until our tour starts on 16th. Any other places anyone would recommend? I was thinking about the Noto Peninsula but don't think we have the time, plus with bike and car it's better to find a location from which we can do several rides.
Thanks for any suggestions and recommendations.
We just returned from riding on tours in Columbia, Chile, and Argentina so I would be glad to return the favor with recommendations for those areas or for the San Francisco Bay Area.
Doug Sherman
We plan to bring our coupled Co-Motion tandem, rent a car and tour around - just like we did in the Pyrenees a few years ago, with the only difference that we don't speak or read Japanese - I'm crash coursing.
Questions:
What car to rent? We fit our tandem on it's side into the back of a 4-door station wagon in Europe any car recommendations in Japan? Was looking at Mazada 5 Premacy wagon or Honda Stepwagon van (it looks like we could fold down the back seats and fit the tandem upright down the middle which is what many people do here in Toyota Sienna vans).
Where to go? The 8 day Japan Highlights tour ends in Izumi so we're planning to fly to Kagoshima, rent the car, leave our bike boxes at the same hotel as we'll stay in at the finish of the tour, go for a couple of rides around Kagoshima then work our way up Kyushu. I've read the ride descriptions on KANcycling and several nice rides posted by Ian Dagnall on Ridewithgps and will look to incorporate some of those locations like North Kyushu, Aso and Yufuin (the 8D tour includes the Nagasaki peninsula, some of Amakusa and Kumamato to Izumi so I'll try not to duplicate those areas). From Kyushu we plan to take the ferry over to Shikoku, maybe stay in Uwajima, ride along the Shimantogawa river and other local routes then move to Kochi (looks like many accomodations are already sold out) and do a few rides from there. Then drive to Kyoto and do several rides from there along with sightseeing until our tour starts on 16th. Any other places anyone would recommend? I was thinking about the Noto Peninsula but don't think we have the time, plus with bike and car it's better to find a location from which we can do several rides.
Thanks for any suggestions and recommendations.
We just returned from riding on tours in Columbia, Chile, and Argentina so I would be glad to return the favor with recommendations for those areas or for the San Francisco Bay Area.
Doug Sherman