CYCLING THROUGH JAPAN

The Route Plan:

South to North, approximately 2,500 miles total...average 50 miles/day. I will have to make a round trip of Kyushu island first to reach the "official" starting point of this trip.

KYUSHU REGION

Start in Kitakyushu, my family's hometown - Fukuoka - stopover in Karatsu to check out Onizuka train station & high school - Saga - Kumamoto - Hitoyoshi - Miyakonojo - Cape Sata, the southernmost point of Kyushu Island - Miyazaki -Nobeoka - Aso - Beppu - Nakatsu - back to Kitakyushu.

CHUGOKU REGION/SHIKOKU REGION

Start from Kitakyushu, travel under the channel to get to the main island. Moji - Hagi - Iwakuni - Hiroshima - Onomichi, take bridge over to Shikoku's main island - Imabari - Takamatsu, ferry back to the main island - Okayama - Himeji, the start of Kansai Region.

KANSAI REGION/CHUBU REGION

Himeji - Kobe - Nishinomiya, rest at my cousins for a few days - Kyoto - Lake Biwako, hopefully get to fish the largest freshwater lake in Japan - head towards Sea of Japan, Fukui - Kanazawa - Namerikawa - Itoigawa - Kashiwazaki -Niigata.

TOHOKU REGION

Niigata, end of Chubu Region, now entering the Tohoku Region - Murakami - Sakata - Nihako - Akita - Noshiro - Odate -Aomori, the gateway to Hokkaido Region. From Aomori, ferry over to Hakodate, Hokkaido.

SOUTH HOKKAIDO REGION

Hakodate, gateway to Hokkaido - Kikonai - Kaminokuni - Esashi - Setana - Kuromatsunai - Toyako - Noboribetsu -Shikotsu - Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido.

NORTH HOKKAIDO REGION

Sapporo - Yubari - Furano - Asahikawa - Shibetsu - Bifuka - Hamatonbetsu - Cape Soya, my goal the northern most point of Japan. Once I finish, I will head down to Wakkanai, which is the largest norhternmost town in Hokkaido. From here I will take the train all the way back to Tokyo.