Velojim
Cruising
- Nov 16, 2009
- 35
- 3
My friend and I are from Vancouver (the wet coast of Canada!) and are planning a trip to Japan in September 2010 to do a cycling tour of Chubu and Tohoku. The tentative arrival date is the third week of September just before the Autumn Festival holiday on Sept 23. We would work off our jet lag in Tokyo over the weekend and start our cycling journey on Monday, Sept. 27. It might seem early to plan this trip but my friend has a great job with Xerox where they allow employees to bank 25% of their salary for 3 years and then receive the accumulated 75% of the salary in the 4th year which they have off to do whatever they want. What a great program! I wish more companies would do this. Anyway, she's off travelling in the New Year to South America and wants to finalize and budget the Japan portion before her departure.
We have some questions about cycling in Japan that I thought could be best answered in your forum.
1. As we are planning to take the Keisei Skyliner from Narita to an as yet unchosen hotel in Ueno (in order to minimize lugging our bike boxes and luggage around Tokyo), it would appear best to start our journey by taking the train in the mid-morning on Monday to a location on the outskirts of Tokyo. Are there any suggested stations where we could begin our journey? Our initial thinking is to start by riding up the east coast with no specific destination in mind at the moment. The goal is to do a loop by riding up to Miyagi or Akita Prefectures and then down the west coast and through the Nagano area and back into Tokyo. We like hills so one of the highlights for us will be the Japan Alps. The plan is to ride about 20 days or so.
2. Judging by some of the blogs of the various journeys of TCC members, there looks to be some great cycling to look forward to. It appears that most stopovers reported in the blogs are at minshukus or ryokans which look to be a little bit beyond our budget. We are looking more at youth hostels. Could someone provide an estimate of what the rates are for the ryokans and minshukus? My google searches show a minimum 10,000-12,000 yen and up for ryokans with onsens while a youth hostel is about 3,200 yen. Any suggestions for specific good value ryokans or minshukus would also be appreciated?
3. We are also planning to take advantage of the Japanese courier services which will ship your luggage around the country for a relatively modest fee. We figure around 2,500 yen for a suitcase. By doing so, we can travel light and ship our suitcase to the next chosen lodging location. Can anyone advise if this is feasible? Are these services not available at some of the more isolated locations that a cyclist may venture to such as in the Japan alps?
Anyways, I may have more questions as I continue to plan my trip. Thanks in advance for your answers and please throw in any suggestions or tips that may be useful for our journey.
We have some questions about cycling in Japan that I thought could be best answered in your forum.
1. As we are planning to take the Keisei Skyliner from Narita to an as yet unchosen hotel in Ueno (in order to minimize lugging our bike boxes and luggage around Tokyo), it would appear best to start our journey by taking the train in the mid-morning on Monday to a location on the outskirts of Tokyo. Are there any suggested stations where we could begin our journey? Our initial thinking is to start by riding up the east coast with no specific destination in mind at the moment. The goal is to do a loop by riding up to Miyagi or Akita Prefectures and then down the west coast and through the Nagano area and back into Tokyo. We like hills so one of the highlights for us will be the Japan Alps. The plan is to ride about 20 days or so.
2. Judging by some of the blogs of the various journeys of TCC members, there looks to be some great cycling to look forward to. It appears that most stopovers reported in the blogs are at minshukus or ryokans which look to be a little bit beyond our budget. We are looking more at youth hostels. Could someone provide an estimate of what the rates are for the ryokans and minshukus? My google searches show a minimum 10,000-12,000 yen and up for ryokans with onsens while a youth hostel is about 3,200 yen. Any suggestions for specific good value ryokans or minshukus would also be appreciated?
3. We are also planning to take advantage of the Japanese courier services which will ship your luggage around the country for a relatively modest fee. We figure around 2,500 yen for a suitcase. By doing so, we can travel light and ship our suitcase to the next chosen lodging location. Can anyone advise if this is feasible? Are these services not available at some of the more isolated locations that a cyclist may venture to such as in the Japan alps?
Anyways, I may have more questions as I continue to plan my trip. Thanks in advance for your answers and please throw in any suggestions or tips that may be useful for our journey.