After a trip I write what my thoughts are on the country we visited. Japan was a tale of three separate parts.

Japan is made up of 6,852 islands although the four major islands Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku account for 97% of the population. The population of Japan is 123,103,479 and is declining. The population is aging, almost 30% of the population is over 65. In Canada the population over 65 is approximately 19%. However, in Canada the population is not declining.

There are a lot of cars, trains, taxis and bicycles in Japan. Cars are small and often look like the car a kid would draw – little boxes. Of course, everyone knows about the Shinkansen Train, however, there are local trains that are less expensive and are prolific. I would say that most towns have a train station, and the trains are clean and run regularly. The local trains run every 15 minutes to 30 minutes. The Shinkansen travels from major city to major city and on some routes runs every 15 to 20 minutes. If you want to take your bike on a train it has to be in a bag. These are called Rinko bags, and the bike must be dismantled to fit in one of these bags. At the very least the front wheel must come off. We had our full-sized folding bikes and were able to fold the bike quickly and put them in the bag that we had purchased prior to leaving Canada. Taxis are expensive but incredibly clean. The drivers all wear a uniform. Bicycles are everywhere in towns and cities. They are used to get to work, to go grocery shopping and transporting children. Approximately 75% of them are ebikes. Road bikes were few and far between. Apart from the Shinamikaido, there was only one other day (on the Lake Biwa Route) that we saw over 20 road cyclists. Apart from that we maybe saw one road cyclist every couple of days. We only met up with two other touring cyclists, a couple from Brazil and a couple from New Zealand.

Hotels were clean and not too expensive except on the weekends and then the price would go up. The hotel rooms were quite small and often the double bed would be against a wall. At most hotels the bikes would be allowed in the room so long as they were in a bag. Approximately 7 of the 30+ hotels we stayed at allowed us to take the bikes into the room without having to put them in a bag or had a safe place to keep the bicycles.

For the most part the country is very clean. We saw very little garbage. This is surprising as there are no public garbage bins. You are expected to take your garbage home with you. When we ate at a 7/11 or Family Mart for lunch we would take our garbage back into the store and there would be bins available.

The garbage collection in smaller towns was interesting in the fact that there were mesh/net containers where you would put your plastic garbage bag. There was often a note stating that you should ensure that the bag was closed as crows would get into the bag and cause a mess. Often there was a broom and pan to sweep up the mess, near these mesh nets.

Recycling was limited to plastic bottles and glass bottles. Almost everything else was put into a bin designated as combustibles. Seventy percent of Japan’s waste is incinerated.

Public toilets, aways something that touring cyclists need, were very clean. We used the ones at the 7/11, Family Mart and Lawsons convenience stores. All the toilets had bidets as part of the toilet seat and a lot of the seats were heated. Who knew you needed a warm bottom while using a public facility. The funniest thing was some of them had a sensor in the seat so that when you sat on it, birds would start tweeting, this was to disguise the noise of you using the toilet.

The food was good, and not too expensive to eat out. The best deal was the “set meal” which would include, salad, protein, rice and vegetables all in small dishes. Of course, there was sushi. I had to be careful of the sushi as I am allergic to shellfish. We were in one grocery store, and we were trying to check the ingredients. A security person came up and told us not to take photos. Ralf explained we had to check the ingredients as I was allergic. He proceeded to help us make sure that there was no shellfish in the items we were looking at.

Eating while you are walking is discouraged. If you were in a market where food was available, it was frowned upon for you to walk and eat at the same time. This was to prevent you from brushing against someone else and spilling your food on them and that food would not spill on to the floor and make a mess.

Smoking was quite common, although we didn’t see anyone walking and smoking. There were smoking rooms outside of train and bus stations and office buildings.

I would say that Japan is a very rule-based country. There are no rules with regards to giving a cyclist room when passing. However, in 2026 the government is looking at regulating cars passing cyclists and have not decided whether it will be 1 metre or 1.5 metres. When that rule is passed it will be safer to ride in Japan.

When a vehicle is making a left turn, they have to give way to pedestrians and cyclists that are crossing. It was easier for us to go on the sidewalk at intersections as the cars would not cut us off when they were making a left turn. However, if we were on the road they would pass us before the intersection and then have to wait until we went through the intersection.

We were told that theft is very rare (more prevalent possibly in big cities). We would leave our fully loaded bikes in the parking lots of castles or near the entrance to the castle. We only had small locks with us, that could easily be cut through with a pair of nail scissors!!  Nothing was ever removed from our bikes.

While I was in hospital Ralf was coming to see me and his phone fell of his bike, he heard something drop but did not realise it was his phone. When he realised it was not attached he went back a couple of blocks where he thought it might be. Only two people had passed him, a fella on a scooter and an older lady on a bicycle. He was upset when he got to the hospital. Fortunately, Mr. Oichi was in the room when he arrived. Mr. Oichi phoned the local police station, gave them a description of the phone. Ralf and I looked at each other both thinking what are the chances of it being turned into the local police. We were fully prepared in the possibility of having to buy a new phone. I asked Mr. Oichi what the chances were of the phone being handed in to a police station, and he responded with “Japan people do not steal” No finders keepers’ mentality here.

I had to go to physio and Ralf was packing his things and chatting to Mr. Oichi. When I returned there was a note from Ralf, someone had handed his phone in at the police station. We were gobsmacked. At the police station he had to prove he could open the phone, and he was given his phone back.

Everyone I spoke to prior to going to Japan told me I would love Japan.

The first two weeks I can honestly say, we didn’t know what all the fuss was about. We found the cycling to be horrendous, the hotels were not accommodating of cyclists and the people in general were not very friendly.

For example, the first day of cycling I suffered from heat stroke. I was lying on the sidewalk trying to cool down,. Ralf had come back down the hill to push my bike up and then came down again to help me up the hill. Several people passed me, some on motor-scooters and others in cars, not one person stopped to see if I needed help. We found a shaded area, I was again sitting down trying to cool down. Not one person asked if I was o.k. This is a first time on any of our bike trips, where no-one offered assistance. In other countries people have always stopped and offered assistance, even if we were only checking on the map for directions.

When I tried to shove Ralf in front of a moving train, and he went over the small wall and the barrier came down on my head. A man got out of his car, but as soon as he realised that the barrier was not stuck he got back in his car. Ralf was bleeding, no-one stopped to assist.

There didn’t appear to be any human connection. Most of the restaurants were automated. On entering the restaurant, you ordered your food at a machine, sat down, and the food would be delivered to you, by a person and on one occasion a robot.

Our first two weeks cycling left a lot to be desired. We went from City to City with very little green space in between. One concrete jungle after another. The Pacific Coast Cycle Route was hit and miss, sometimes you could follow the route and other times the signs disappeared, and you had to work out where you had missed the directional sign or turn.

The further south and west we went away from Tokyo the more enjoyable it became.

At about Day 10 my itinerary took us to more castles and away from the Pacific Coast cycle route. After that we were visiting castles or being tourists almost every day. The castles were amazing and the cycling improved, although the adherence to the rules of not checking into a hotel before 3:00 remained steadfast. Also, I had been led to believe that hotels were very accommodating to cyclists. This only applied to specific areas Lake Biwa and the Shimanikaido cycle routes.

I had been reading that Japan was getting overwhelmed by tourists and were not as welcoming as in previous years.  That certainly appeared to be true.

The last two weeks should have been more sight-seeing days. However, as previously written I spent them in hospital and Ralf stayed in a hostel.

This is when our opinion of Japan changed. The care I received in hospital was amazing. Ralf went to see the castle in Matsuyama and the shrine and other things that were not on the regular tourist itinerary. Ralf was visiting a shrine and noticed a lot of children dressed in traditional clothing. He asked one family what was happening, and they told him all about the 3, 5 7 traditions of blessings.

The owner of the hostel was very kind to Ralf. On the day I was to be released from hospital Ralf asked the owner if he would take him to the hotel in his van with the bikes that were already boxed. Ralf offered to pay him, but he would not accept any payment.

The staff at the travel agent was so helpful to Ralf when he was booking tickets from Matsuyama to Tokyo, ensuring that I had wheelchair assistance to the seat and from the seat.

Would we recommend cycling in Japan. Probably not, unless you only do specific routes – Lake Biwa and the Shimanikaido. I would suggest cycling Shikokou but only if you are really comfortable cycling in traffic.

Would we recommend going to Japan to see the sights Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and castles, yes probably. However, I would say that interaction with Japanese people is limited. We met one English fella who loved Japan, because you don’t have to speak to anyone!! You can order by machine, you can book hotels on-line, you can get your train tickets from a machine.

When we go to a country we like to interact to find out from the population what it is like to live in their country. We didn’t get any interaction like that in Japan.

Would we go back? Although we missed out on a few things I am not sure I would go back to Japan.