Japan
Cycling
Roadtrip

In Tokyo, we arrange our schedule according to the team's preferences. Our goal is to ensure that everyone gets to experience the several faces of one of the world's most exciting cities.

There are some must-visit neighborhoods and attractions that we can explore together on an optional basis, such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ueno, Asakusa, Akihabara, Yoyogi Park, or the fish market.

However, if someone prefers to spend both days shopping or diving into the depths of arcade games, there are opportunities to do so.

In the morning, we bid farewell to Tokyo and hop aboard Japan’s world-renowned rail network, speeding toward the Japanese Alps in Nagano Prefecture at up to 270 km/h.

In the afternoon, we pick up our bicycles, set them up, and take them for a test ride.

In the evening, we unwind in the hotel’s onsen, shaking off the urban chaos and preparing for the slower pace of rural life.

After breakfast, we hop on our bikes and head towards one of Nakasendo's former wealthiest post towns, where traditional wooden buildings now house restaurants, sake breweries, and craft shops. In an open house, we can also see how local merchants lived in the past.

For lunch, we sample Nagano’s famous soba noodles, then continue our ride to Kiso-Fukushima. There, we relax our legs in a roadside foot bath filled with thermal water and taste the sake we bought in Narai-juku.

We visit the Kiso Valley’s most famous Zen temple, renowned for Asia's largest dry rock garden, and then unwind in the hotel’s onsen in the evening.

In the Kiso Valley our journey is accompanied by gorges, waterfalls, estuaries, and sacred sites as we reach the most beautifully preserved section of the Nakasendo.

We ascend into the mountains along the Araragi River, where the atmospheric post towns of Tsumago and Magome welcome us.

After soaking in the ambiance of Japan from 300 years ago, we’ll descend the other side of the mountain and spend the evening relaxing in an authentic Japanese izakaya, enjoying a well-deserved break after a long day.

As we leave the Japanese Alps and Nagano behind, we enter a much more open landscape in Gifu Prefecture.

Following the Nakasendo, our route meanders through partially modernized post towns and scenic forests until we reach Inuyama. Inuyama, renowned for one of Japan’s oldest wooden castles, awaits us for exploration.

In the evening, we experience Japanese table grilling at an izakaya, discovering this unique method of cooking.

After a week on the road, we take a rest day, when everyone can explore, at their own pace, the town famous for one of Japan's oldest wooden castles, or simply relax and soak in the hotel's onsen.

For anyone who feels like it, we head out on an optional bike tour around the area and visit Seki, the world-renowned centre of traditional sword and knife making, where the history of bladesmithing goes back more than 700 years.

In the morning, we continue along the widening Kiso River and reach Ogaki, known as the city of water, where sake breweries, castles and onsens cross our path.

In the afternoon, we wind our way on through rice paddies, past forests and old post towns, passing through Sekigahara, the site of one of the most important battles in Japanese history, as we cross into Shiga Prefecture. Along the way, we visit a soy sauce brewery and a distinctive sacred site built around a natural spring. By late afternoon, we arrive at our accommodation on the shores of Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, where we watch the sun set behind the mountains on the far shore from a panoramic onsen.

In the morning, we visit Hikone’s key attractions: the Zen temple nestled in the forest, the prefecture’s most significant historical landmark—the castle—and its exceptionally beautiful Japanese garden.
Next, we head south, winding along the lake shore and through dense forests. After admiring the view of the lake and the Hira Mountains from the middle of the Biwako Bridge, we arrive in the suburbs of Kyoto on the opposite side of the lake.

In Kyoto, often referred to as Japan’s cultural heart, we bid farewell to our e-bikes and explore the city’s vibrant nightlife.

We spend a rest day in Kyoto, exploring the city's most important sights depending on the group's mood, or at least as many as fit into one day. Early in the morning, we visit the Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine, famous for its pathways lined with orange, cedar-carved torii gates.

From there, we head to the Imperial Palace, a symbol of Kyoto's history, and in the afternoon visit the famous Zen Buddhist Golden Pavilion in the north of the city. We wind down the long day of sightseeing at a local izakaya in the evening, and of course also explore Gion, the city's famous geisha district.

In the morning, we board a train and, in less than an hour, arrive in the ancient city of Nara, Japan’s first permanent capital in the 8th century, renowned for its oldest temples. We visit and pet the freely roaming deer in Nara Park. After lunch, we take a short train ride to Osaka. In the evening, we dive into the city’s most vibrant district, Dotonbori, where we sample Osaka’s famous street food.

We spend our last day in Japan at leisure, giving everyone time to pick up any essential souvenirs.

Private transfers take us to the airport according to each person's flight, and we fly home pleasantly tired after two weeks on the road.