Some Selected Photos from My 2004 Cycling Trip in Hokkaido, Japan

I went up to Hokkaido from Nagoya by ferry.  This picture was taken in Sendai where we stopped for a few hours.



A lot of time cycling in Hokkaido the roads looked about this empty.



Some roads even had wide sidewalks I could ride on.  This made for a very relaxing ride.



Sometimes the sidewalk were so bumpy and had so many driveways, that it was still better to ride on the road.



Some roads had enough shoulder to ride on that you could keep away from the cars and trucks.



There are still some unpaved road.



Hokkaido has a lot of interesting-looking bus stops.



There are a lot of signs warning about animals.



I found a few "cycling roads." I think all of them used to be railroad tracks.



Many campsites were not crowded at all.



One campsite (Teshio), was not only free, but had free washing machines you could use. That campsite also had free warm-water showers



It's hard not to get sand in your tent when you camp on the beach.  Sometimes the wind gets pretty strong, too.



One of the more interesting places I camped was in the "Dome" in Wakkanai.




All campsites that I visited had sinks. Many also had places to barbeque.



A lot of campsites had signs saying "Carry Your Trash Home."  However, the campsite at Kutcharoko let you throw your garbage away.



Some farmer was using old bicycle tires as scarecrows.



There are a lot of tunnels in Hokkaido.  Some of them have sidewalks, some don't.



I often ate a bento at convenience stores.



Sometimes I would buy a bento and eat it later.



On past trips to Hokkaido I often found restaurants to eat in, but this time I only stopped at a few.



I rode quite a few kilometers with these windblocks (to prevent snow drifts) along the side of the road.  When I was lucky, they provided shade.



There were quite a few attractive rest stops.



I found many informative tourist maps along the way.



There are many cows in Hokkaido.



There were many farms.



I carried this small camp stove for cooking.



I didn't have a speedometer on my bicycle, so I relied on the kilometer markers.



I crossed many rivers.



I saw a lot of wide open spaces.



If you plan to go to Hokkaido and don't know how to read "campsite," you'd better study these signs.



Buying one of the campsite guidebooks is a good way to find the free and inexpensive campsite.  You are more likely to find other cyclists at the free campsites.



When I was lucky, I could find an onsen (hot spring) for a bath near the campsites where I stayed.



I rode in the rain a few days.



You don't often see train stations this small.



Ocassionally I remembered to take photos of all the people I talked to.



It's amazing how much luggage some people carry.



I met a group of 5 from Kyushu Sangyo Daigaku who were walking around Hokkaido pulling a cart (called "rear car" in Japanese.)



This is how road signs look in Japan.



A couple of times I was able to see the time and temperature as I was riding.



I saw quite a few beautiful sunsets.



In this picture, you can see the "arrows" to show the snowplow driver where the road is.



I saw many fishing ports.



There were a lot of curves in the mountains.



Riding along the coast was beautiful.



Along the coast, I often saw people harvesting kombu (a kind of seaweed) or putting it out to dry.



Big rocks in the ocean always look scenic.



Soya Misaki is the northern-most part of Japan.



Though I saw other cyclist, there were many more motorcyclists.



That's Rishiri Island in the background. Later in the day, the clouds cleared and it was more beautiful.



I often saw unpainted wooden houses.



The sake brewery that I visited was also an unpainted old building.





In windy areas along the coast, I saw house that had tall fences for windbreaks.



I saw many, many, many windmills for electrical power. There was one section I rode through where they were lined up for more than 3 kilometers.



Of course any traveler to Hokkaido will see some oriental things.



I saw Bon-odori one night.



Teshio had a free museum with a very old Indian motorcyle with an owner-built sidecar.



I saw one vending machine that sold bait for fishing.



I sometimes left early enough in the morning to catch the sunrise while I was pedalling.




You can also see a 9 selected larger photos of me taken on this trip.