Resources

Websites

Japan Cycling Navigator Japan Cycling Navigator
Tokyo Cycling Club Tokyo Cycling Club
Kansai Cyclist Kancycling
Japan Guide japan-guide
Bike Tours Japan Bike Tours Japan
Byron Kidd www.tokyobybike.com
Shimanami Bike Route
Photo Archive: meijishowa.com
Good Photos at Japan-Photo Archive japan-photo.de
Alien Times on Bike Riding in Japan alientimes.org/Main/WhatYouReallyNeedToKnowAboutBicyclesInJapan
Japan Visitor Blog japanvisitor.blogspot.com
Bicycles in Osaka runmuki.com/paul/writing/japantrip
Photos of Bikes in Japan bicyclefixation.com
Japan Bicycle History Research eva.hi-ho.ne.jp
Japan Guide first hand report Francois’s Japan blog
Bicycles and motorcycles in Japan

Books

Haruki Murakami (“Norwegian Wood” is my favourite, with ”South of the Border, West of the Sun” good second)
Banana Yoshimoto (“Kitchen”)
“Shogun” & “Gaijin” by James Clavell.
“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet” by David Mitchell. Set in Nagasaki in 1799. Truly remarkable and beautifully written.
“Cycling Japan” by Bryan Harrell.
“A Ride in the Neon Sun” & “The Sun in My Eyes: Two-Wheeling East” by Josie Dew
The Hunting Gun – Le fusil de chasse

Movies

Departure

Ran

Tatsumi
13 assassins

Twilight samurai

Musashi

Organisations

The Japan Bicycle Promotion Institute (☎ 03-3583-5444), Nihon Jitensha Kaikan Building, 1-9-3 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

BOOKS IN ENGLISH (from http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.jp/p/tokyo-cycling-magazines-books-and-maps.html)

There are very few books on cycling in Japan available in English. “Cycling Japan: A Personal Guide to Exploring Japan by Bicycle by Bryan Harrell” was published by Kodansha in 1993 and gives basic information about cycling as well as longer tours covering all of Japan. The Book is not in print any longer and somewhat outdated, but still the best and only choice available in English.

Niwa Takashi [Yamamichi.jp], a well known Japanese road cyclist and TV [NHK] commentator has published a series of books about cycle roads. One of the books “Cycling Japan” is bilingual and includes descriptions of ten bicycle tours between 100 and 350 km length in various parts of Japan. His other guide books, unfortunately only in Japanese, are covering tours in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chichibu, Chiba and other parts of Japan.

“The Sun in My Eyes: Two-Wheeling East “ by Josie Dew (Little, 2002), “Jitensha: Down the Japanese Archipelago on a Bicycle” by Donald R. Schlief (Trafford, 2006) are personal accounts of foreigners travelling by bike in Japan. Personally if it comes to travel accounts in Japan I prefer the not cycling related one, such as “The Inland Sea” by Donald Richie,

“The roads to Sata” by Alan Booth (Walking the length of Japan) and “Hitching Rides with Buddha” by Will Ferguson (Hitch-hiking the length of Japan in the other direction from one bar to the next). These are wonderful examples of travels which let you learn about the country and its people. No book review on Japan should miss Dave Barry’s “”Dave Barry does Japan” (1993) which is the most underrated true story of Japan.