Return to Japan 2023

It’s time again to pack my bags for another trip to Japan. This will be my longest consecutive stay in Japan with 3+ months. The original plan was to take 3 months off completely but then work got too busy so I’ll be taking off 1 month and then work part time from Japan, splitting my work commitments across work for our charity here in the UK and for a Japanese organisation in a the same field.

What would a Japan stay be without some cycling!!! I’ve done 2 big cycle rides here since 2009; the first around central Japan from Tokyo to the western part of Japan and back, which brought me all the way over the Japanese alps and along the eastern coast around Kanazawa and back to Tokyo. I think this took me around 3-4 weeks and was pretty much completely without tech. No phone, no internet, just a map, a compass and a digital camera that I had to bring to various stores to offload pictures from and then onto this blog. The second trip just a few years ago brought me to Hokkaido, and Japans North. This time already with tech, from mobile Wi-Fi router to iPhone, using Google maps for navigation. This was much easier even though I really enjoyed the low tech times too. The clear advantage is flexibility when using a more tech-enabled style of travel as you get to find good routes, good accommodation and things to do, all at the tip of your fingers. For me, this does not replace interacting with people as this really is the best when travelling solo but being able to easily navigate and find good places to stay has been important, convenient and often also cost-effective.

My 2023 trip to Japan will go to Kyushu, the largest, most southern part of Japan and also called the land of volcanoes and accident religious sites. I’ll be cycling around Kyushu and my plan is currently for around 1,000 km, starting in Fukuoka, the gateway to Kyushu and then simply cycling anti-clockwise… I might need to take the occasion ferry for some island hopping and to see some more remote parts of it. I’ve only just now realised how very different Kyushu looks from Hokkaido, being so far south that the vegetation seems rather tropical!

Back in 2018, I left my trustworthy bike in Hokkaido as the hustle of getting it back was too much (Sapporo city council had impounded it and I had to get back to Tokyo, with no time left to free it, so I left the keys with a ihn who still enjoys my bike now). The bike was also 10 years old and had done its miles, with many parts needing to be replaced and the cost of that no longer being worth it. This meant I had to get a new bike, which I bought in 2019, hoping to travel to Japan in 2020. We all know what happened next…

The bike I went for is the same bike as my 2008 bike, made by Focus. It’s an Arriba and it set me back around £400, by most standards a relatively affordable touring bike. Of course it’s not electric but it’s got disc brakes, a big advantage to the old bike as stopping the bike, myself and the 20kg of extra weight is easier done with disc brakes. Here it is, already with most of my stuff I’ll be taking with me to Japan on it. I won’t take any cooking equipment as the hustle and weight was too much and knowing Japan so much better now, I know where to get hot water if I needed to or how to go about sourcing food and drink. Last time, I carried too much weight which meant that I had occasional spokes breaking.. I couldn’t address this issue in any other way, other than to reduce what I’m carrying… I might still need to lose some more weight to bring me in line with what I weighed last time 2018 :)

I’ve also had to invest into a new tent as my old tent was heavier and also was pretty worn out from 12 years regular use in summers. The new tent is a Vango Hydra 200 for around £130, which I’m hoping will last me for the next decade or more. I had to mock pitch it to see how it all works and it seems much better than the vango tornado from 2008/9 as the poles fit in so much easier. It’s a little smaller, which also helps with the weight without compromising much on the actual interior space.