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Week long tour - Route suggestions please

hat and beard

Maximum Pace
Apr 3, 2012
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I'm planning a minimalist style camping tour starting and ending at my house. My goal is to not use any trains no matter how tempting it may be (boats are okay though ;)) . The route below is basically what I want to do, but I thought I'd see if I could get some opinions on my chosen route. I'm particularly curious about the section between Hakone and western Tokyo since I have never ridden out that way. I used to live out Izu ways so I'm pretty comfortable with that part of the trip, but everything else I'm quite willing to change if anyone has any better ideas. I'm planning on doing this August 10thish to August 15thish. Any company would be more than welcome.


The section between Hajima and Kawasaki is supposed to be on the Tamagawa. I'm I correct that I can ride it the whole distance?
 
You have to cross over a couple of times to make the most of the psyclepath.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/144214407/

Here you stay on the left bank till Setagaya-doori (labelled 22km), whereupon you switch to the right bank until Marukobashi (labelled 11km). That works, but (following Ira Stevens) I now cross from the left to the right a bit earlier, at Koremasa-bashi (31km, or 632km on your map). That avoids various irritations, though you do get a stretch either of easy-to-understand busy road or pretty-easy-to-understand near-deserted suburban streets.

The difference between these two routes isn't important; what is important is that you're on the right bank where HFM says you should be on the right bank.

Remember that the "Tamagawa Cycle Road" is not intended for cyclists such as yourself (though these are abundant); it's instead a sort of footpath along which cyclists are grudgingly permitted.
 
Remember that the "Tamagawa Cycle Road" is not intended for cyclists such as yourself (though these are abundant); it's instead a sort of footpath along which cyclists are grudgingly permitted.

I'll behave myself. :D
I'm starting to think instead about going to Takasaki from Okutama, heading down towards Chiba along the Tonegawa, then turning south towards home just north of Narita.
Anyone know how easy (or not easy) the Tonegawa cycle path is to navigate between Takasaki and the start of the Edogawa? I've done the Chiba-Ken part of it before and there were a lot of unexpected detours.
According to this map ( http://www1.plala.or.jp/tone_cr/Main/river.html ) the Saitama and Gunma parts look pretty straight forward, but is there anything to look out for? I don't have a GPS and I assume my iphone will be long dead by this point, so it will all have to be done from memory.

Any advice on stealth camping in Japan? Anybody ever have any trouble with police doing this?
I'm bringing only a lightweight backpacking hammock and rain fly.
 
I'll behave myself. :D
I'm starting to think instead about going to Takasaki from Okutama, heading down towards Chiba along the Tonegawa, then turning south towards home just north of Narita.
Anyone know how easy (or not easy) the Tonegawa cycle path is to navigate between Takasaki and the start of the Edogawa?

I've only been along Tonegawa upstream from Tōsuibashi (切水橋). You can search for this within Google Map but you won't find it. Or anyway I didn't, when I tried just a few minutes ago. Which hints at a problem.

Self-plagiarism time. Earlier, I wrote of how hard it was to work out where you were relative to placenames or road names while on the Arakawa or Tonegawa "cycle road", and that

[...] for the upper Tonegawa (I can't speak for the lower), plan any turn off in terms of the number of kilometres you are up or down from the [...] Bandō bridge [...] and also perhaps look up the name of your bridge, which will be inscribed on the asphalt as you approach it or leave it. (Unfortunately the bridges' names are hard to find on maps, and [are] also generic and say little or nothing about where you are: Gunma, Shōwa, Heisei, etc. And whether it's the Ara or Tone, not every bridge is accessible from the cycle road.) Also, go into any sharp bend approaching a bridge more slowly than normal prudence would demand, because there might be a junction -- perhaps even (fingers crossed!) an informatively signposted junction -- that you'd otherwise fly through unawares.

More pedantically/helpfully, I should have written Bandō-ōhashi (坂東大橋) (here).

Here's Wikipedia's little article on Tōsuibashi. Actually if you know where Tōsuibashi is and you look for this place in Google Map and blow up the scale, yes you'll just about make out the characters 切水橋. (And if you're like me you'll guess wrongly that it's read "kirimizubashi".)

Tonegawa of course has more road bridges than any other kind of bridge, and Wikipedia helpfully presents the most important ones in order, upstream to down. If I were you I'd print out this page of the Wikipedia article, make an enlarged copy, and annotate a few of the bridge names.

But for all I know, once you go below Tōsuibashi the names of bridges may no longer be marked, distances from Bandō-ōhashi may no longer be marked, and the signposting (if any) could be totally different. (Cue for comment on the lovable [?] perversity of Japan's "cycle roads".)
 
Don't worry(except for the heat and mozzies),
I've stealth camped all along the Tone and Edo rivers.
The police have never bothered me.
Might be a problem to find a couple of trees to string the hammock up along both the rivers though,particularly now that they've RE-concreted over large portions of the river banks recently.
The Kokaigawa though has an abundance of trees,so that might
suit your purposes.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone.
I think I'm going to do the Tonegawa in a single day and camp around the Inbanuma cycling road in Chiba. I already have a particular batch of trees picked out.
 
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