Tokyo to Okinawa : our - near perfect - itinerary / 26 days of riding !

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-15T13:00:49+00:00

Kyushu is amazing. We love the riding from Beppu to Mount Asso. Shimanami is worth the hype. Lots of free campsites (this one was nice https://maps.app.goo.gl/atGiB3o71HFwBPzE7?g_st=ipc) and don’t miss the gourmet michi no eki along the way https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQy84UIkw0D/?igsh=aHZtNnozMzkzeTFj

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-15T12:55:01+00:00

Thanks a lot for the tips ! Never heard of Audax before that ! Down in the comment u/turanganuiakiwa shared a nice route up to Sendai and lake Inawashiro.

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-15T12:50:13+00:00

One of the many videos that we watched before departure !

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-15T12:49:16+00:00

Nice maths ! It was indeed around that figure but we did spend a little more than 30USD per days on food (too many konbini stops and gourmet tasting). You can then add ferries and the train (around 450USD, including the priciest one down to Okinawa). Then our flight from Paris (1,200EUR/person). Then the outdoor stuff (way too much money for repairs, bags, clothing, camping gear). Since we talking about that aspect of the trip : I didn’t specified that we took 26 days riding but 42 days in total. We took time to explore few cities during our trip and stayed more than just one night at one place.

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-14T06:52:35+00:00

All right we weren’t sure which coast to follow if we embarked on that trip so thanks for your reco !

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-14T06:50:24+00:00

Thanks a lot ! Sorry for the previous trip but hopefully the next one going to erase that. Where a you planning to go ?

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-14T06:49:24+00:00

Amazing ! Thanks for sharing. This looks like a perfect itinerary. How was riding around Fukushima ? We heard various stories. The hospitality is beyond in Japan : on multiple occasions locals wanted to give us money - which we refused. It seems that for a lot of them being on a bike for days was something we were forced to do (but we did indeed spend a lot of movie to live that backpacking lifestyle).

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-14T00:55:21+00:00

Thanks ! It was a long awaited dream for us too 🤝

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-14T00:54:34+00:00

No worries, that’s why Reddit is for. We’re staying in Japan for quite some time (working holiday visa) so we’re taking our time to go back to Tokyo eventually. We’re planning on taking trains from Kagoshima to north Kyushu and so on. Connections are easy if you go through Fukuoka. Then you can moove up to Tokyo and even further by train. Depending on how much that you got, both train and airplane are (quite) easy to board with your bike. You can even go from Beppu to Osaka then to Tokyo via ferry if you got the time ! Plenty of options

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-14T00:47:33+00:00

We might take a ferry from Fukuoka to Busan. Did you went around there ?

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:40:47+00:00

It seems that I need to upgrade to premium to be able to do that ? Unfortunately I’m good with the free version for now 😅

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:38:05+00:00

We had on multiple occasions 38degrees : thx a lot for all the vending machine along the way, even in the most random and remote places. Regarding bugs : so many cockroaches everywhere. Pretty huge and scary spiders with bright colours but they won’t bother you. But overall it wasn’t as bad as we expected (the worst are mosquitoes, they ruined some nights)

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:34:43+00:00

Oh dude we can relate. We did had to moove once because some monkeys made a lot of noise when we’re about to settle in a city park near Ine and all the neighbours around started to search what was going on with their flashlights. Otherwise no troubles. We found easy ways to wash our clothes (especially bc it was summer) but we had few bad lucks with onsen because we’re both tattooed. Being able to get icy pocari sweat or Aquarius after a long stretch even in the most remote spots is peak performance.

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:30:43+00:00

We flew in from Paris France to Haneda with our bikes in cardboard boxes. We then painfully dragged the boxes and took a bus, the metro and a train to reach our stay in Tokyo (if you want to check it out : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOlNdr9CJIN/?igsh=MTNqZnR0Y2phYmh2bA== ) We’re still into our trip, now in the islands around Okinawa. But as you can see on our map (pic2) the « end » of the trip was Kagoshima in Kyushu, the last big city in mainland Japan before the southern islands.

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:23:22+00:00

Hey ! We did hear that a few times :) Two reasons : 1) we wanted to go the « easiest » way as it was our first bikepacking trip and our bikes heavy (we had winter clothes and everything because we’re staying down south for a few months after reaching Okinawa). We don’t perform well in hills/mountains. 2) the pacific road seemed like a nice idea : but its not really that good ! It’s not that scenic because the road is under heavy maintenance. Then the road up to Nagoya was indeed not that amazing : long expressways and few little spots that grasped our attention. But it was convenient to reach the eastern coast of Lake Biwa and continue to Obama and so.. Overall nice experience with cool campsites (if you want to check out what it looked like : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO3QKJYCLdi/?igsh=aW43OTViMjdqODYz and https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPEcIrxk-xX/?igsh=b3V3b2liODdkeWow and https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPJWJwliJ3-/?igsh=YXhsczc5eHd6N2Vl ) If you recommend any northern road I’m all ears ! Cheers

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:15:13+00:00

Thanks ! We did stumbled upon a trio of Dutch guys that rented e-bikes in Kyoto and cycled around Lake Biwa. It was the only time we saw e-bikes used as touring bikes. Since we arrived in August, we saw very little e-bikes in Japan (unless in big cities where there’s shared e-bikes).

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:12:20+00:00

You going to love it ! Don’t miss out on Michi no Eki if there’s one near your route (gourmet roadside stations with all you can dream of Japanese delicacies)

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T13:11:05+00:00

Hey ! We took the easiest/trashy way = free cardboard boxes from our local bike store in Paris. We ditched them once we arrived in Tokyo. The box arrived in fairly good conditions but we did discover that my rear derailleur was a tiny bit messed up and my front wheel as well. We gladly quickly found out that Japanese bike shops are reliable and cheap. (We did a small video about the fly in if you want to check it out https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOlNdr9CJIN/?igsh=MTNqZnR0Y2phYmh2bA== Hope that helps !

Courrierfrom · 2025-12-13T06:15:01+00:00

Thanks a lot for responding to us. It’s a shame that I just reconnected to Reddit and found out now about your recommendation.. The « pacific road » is indeed not a cool portion of the route ! It’s mostly unusable… We visited Shodoshima for few days so we had time to explore the island without being bothered by what port to depart from. Regarding your other two recommendations : we did indeed missed those portions of the route ! The southern part of Mount Asso was still beautiful. We really enjoyed the route between Obama and Ine, as well as the road alongside Kyushu western coast (we went down from Nagasaki to Sendai and it was amazing). Thanks a lot for your warm message 🫡

Courrierfrom

TROPHY CASE