Cycling Noto, Japan: Part 1
The Noto Peninsula (能登半島, Noto Hantō) juts out into the Sea of Japan from the northern half of Ishikawa Prefecture and is more secluded than other parts of the country, retaining much its rustic old world charm. The peninsula is particularly known for its remarkable coastal scenery with small fishing and farming towns, as well as the raw beauty of national parks.
For Maya, Nadiah and myself, this was our very first cycling trip together and the experience definitely left us pining for more! Looking back, I can no longer imagine myself traveling without a bike – it just adds such a wonderful dimension that you would otherwise miss out on if traveling in a bigger vehicle.
Why Noto?
What better way to begin touring than in a completely different country, culture and landscape! And to top it all off, neither Nadiah or I had any touring experience, while Maya had only toured in a fully supported group of road cyclists. Noto was our first self-planned and self-supported tour, and we absolutely loved it.
Enjoying the golden hour along the beautiful bike path while going through Hakui.
Although the Noto peninsula is in a more isolated part of Japan, we never felt that we were in any real danger of getting lost or not being able to find food and shelter. In fact, we fully believe Japan is the best place to start cycle touring because help is never too far away in the event of an emergency. Mobile phone connectivity is also superb even in rural locations.
The Noto Peninsula was the perfect place to begin our cycling adventure because of its beautiful natural landscape, moderately challenging terrain, and quaint seaside towns with wonderful hospitality. We recommend starting from Kanazawa and going clockwise from there.
OUR NOTO CYCLING ITINERARY
Stage 1: Kanazawa to Togijitomachi - 44km
Stage 2: Togijitomachi to Wajima - 56km
Stage 3: Wajima to Noto-cho - 30km
Stage 4: Noto-cho to Wakura Onsen - 60km
Stage 5: Wakura Onsen to Takaoka - 65km
Train to Takayama
Rest day in Takayama and trip to Shirakawa
Train to Tokyo
In retrospect, our very first cycling tour was an extremely brief seven days with only a day of rest at the end, but it proved to be one of the best traveling experiences. We’d previously enjoyed a five day walking tour of the Nakasendo road immensely, the old road that connected Tokyo to Kyoto during the Edo Period. The walking tour allowed us to see a different historical post town every night, but we realised we were very much limited to how far and how fast our legs could carry us. Missing our train in the end and the subsequent expensive taxi ride later also made us realise that we didn’t want to be bound by public transport either. And so began the idea to embark on a bicycle tour instead. We earmarked a route that would start in the beautiful historic city of Kanazawa, cycling along the Noto Peninsula coastline until we reached Takaoka. From there, we would take the train to the alpine town of Takayama. We carried approximately 10kg of luggage each, spending the night at a mixture of hotels and small inns along the way.
The tour wouldn’t be too highly strenuous with extremely manageable distances, which was fairly small wheel foldie friendly. While some gradients got a little bit steep in certain areas, the uphill climbs were not too long if you end up having to dismount and push. If you are a newbie cyclist, I highly recommend finding a day in between to have a rest off the bike, when you can give your legs some active recovery. A day of exploring and walking around town do help tremendously in rejuvenating tired touring legs (in addition to onsen time of course!) provided you don’t overdo yourself.
2022 UPDATE: I’ve omitted the elevation stats for this article as we have found that strava elevation has been inaccurate, particularly back when we did this tour.
Our trip stretched from the last days of October into the first week of November in 2016. The daily temperatures averaged around 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, with a fifty percent chance of showers. There also weren't many daylight hours with the sun setting at around 5pm (something to take note of when planning a similar trip). With that said, we packed our base layers and rain layers and were more or less prepared.
The total traveling distance between Kanazawa and Takaoka was approximately 330km for the route that we planned. We booked our lodging ahead of time so we knew exactly where we would finish for each day of travel.
Flying to Japan with a bike
The first challenge was to figure out how to transport the Birdy itself. I have tried looking for a suitcase that could fit the Birdy, but all options would have required me to do quite a bit of disassembly. After extensive research, I chose to go with a padded bag for the following reasons:
The Birdy’s most sensitive components such as the rear derailleur and chain are already protected by virtue of the Birdy's fold itself. I only had to remove the rear rack and saddle.
I used the Dahon carry bag, while another great option in a similar size is the Tern Stow Bag. I added an external luggage strap to keep things together, leaving the overall weight around 17kg, which was safely under my flight’s 30kg weight limit.
I could check this in with my airlines as sports equipment i.e. oversized luggage. Since the overall package isn't that heavy, it was easier for baggage handlers to treat it well (which they did).
The padded bag doubled as a cover for the bike when we needed to take the train, in line with Japan railway rules.
Kanazawa: Our starting point
Kanazawa is a beautiful and historical city that serves as the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture. There's so much to explore here including many historical attractions such as restored residences and old tea house districts, as well as modern museums. For those who have been to Kyoto, Kanazawa feels very much like it without the tourist hordes, and is sometimes dubbed "Little Kyoto."
The sublimely beautiful gardens of Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, right before sunset.
This quaint city has a unique gem that sets it apart from any other. No visit to Kanazawa is complete without basking in the sublimely beautiful gardens of Kenrokuen, one of Japan's "three best landscape gardens" and considered by many to be the most beautiful of them all. It was only appropriate to kickstart our journey in this city.
Getting to Kanazawa is fairly straightforward from Tokyo. Upon landing at Narita International Airport, you can take a connecting flight to Komatsu airport, or taking the Shinkansen directly from Tokyo station all the way to Kanazawa station. Mobile data plans are available at the airport like in most countries, but I highly recommend purchasing a data plan or e-SIM ahead of time as it is cheaper. I went with Yokoso SIM and had no complaints throughout my travel period.
When traveling on the Shinkansen or any train in Japan, please ensure that your bike is completely covered in a bag. If you need to have a wheel or two stick out for easier rolling mobility, make sure that it's hidden towards the bottom so it's not obvious. Get a seat that's closest to the front or rear of the carriage where there is space to stash a folding bike, be first in line at the platform, and always have bungee cords or voile/velcro straps to secure it in place.
We used Hyperdia to navigate the train system back then, but Google is now more widely used. Technology has advanced a fair bit and it is essential for ease of public transport use in Japan.
What to bring for a Noto tour
Before we started our cycling tour into the Noto Peninsula, we made a few decisions about how we wanted to travel while we were cycling. As we were using folding bikes and it was our first time touring in Japan, we wanted to keep things as simple as possible.
Each of us kept our luggage under 10kg, carrying enough essentials for three days, consisting mainly of clothing, some snacks, cameras, cables, chargers and other small things. I had a pair of the Ortlieb Sport-Roller Classic panniers which fit everything I needed just nicely.
Nadiah and Maya chose to go with a small backpack and dry bags strapped to their rear racks with bungee cords.
We packed mostly synthetic and semi-synthetic clothing that was lightweight and easy to dry. I was more or less a Uniqlo advert with rain resistant Uniqlo pants (with Airism undies which are so nice for cycling), heat tech base layer, lightweight fleece and down jacket. Plus it's Japan, so Uniqlo :P
Prepped and serviced by the kind folks at Model T in Kanazawa. Ready for the long ride ahead!
We also made a pit stop at Model T in Kanazawa, a quaint bike shop that had everything we needed including Panaracer spare tubes in the right size. Nadiah had to replace her front tube, no thanks to a puncture from Malaysia that was patched up but didn't quite hold up. The mechanics at the shop also helped to check our disc brakes and derailleurs (always a good idea after transport) to make sure that everything was in working order. With a few minor servicing tweaks, we were all set to go.
My sashimi dish just about to be served. Fantastic Izakaya experience at Itaru Honten in Kanazawa.
Before setting off though, we wanted to celebrate the start of our adventure with a hearty meal. After doing a bit of quick research and speaking to a few locals, we went searching for a neighborhoud Izakaya restaurant that actually wasn't too far away from the bike shop. Itaru Honten Izakaya was the place, and it did not disappoint! Maya ambitiously ordered the "Samurai set meal" which pretty much translated to A LOT OF FOOD, so we ended up having to help her finish. Great selection of dishes and a wonderful Izakaya experience not to be missed! And make sure to bring enough cash, because that's just how they roll.
Luggage forwarding
The luggage forwarding and delivery services in Japan are amazing and deserve special mention. The most famous of them is Yamato, fondly remembered by their logo of a mommy cat carrying her kitten. Their service is called TA-Q-BIN and is very well known across all of Japan. When traveling, there is often very limited space in trains (or in panniers for that matter), so it is always best to forward your luggage to the next destination if you happen to be carrying a lot of stuff. It's also a great way to make sure that you can continue to collect souvenirs along the way while traveling.
From Kanazawa station, we packed up everything we did not need into one big suitcase and forwarded it to our hotel in Wajima, our midpoint destination. When we arrived in Wajima a few days later, our suitcase was waiting for us and we took the opportunity to reconfigure our belongings and forwarded it to Takoaka, where we repeated the process one last time for Tokyo. Most hotels already have all the delivery forms handy at the front desk, and will gladly arrange the entire process for you. Note: Yamato charge per piece of luggage, so use a single suitcase for everything to make the delivery easier and cheaper.
Read the next part: Cycling Noto, Japan - Part 2
For full sized bike travel, read also:
Cycling Spain’s Andalucia 2017
Cycling Taiwan’s East Rift Valley, Jiufen and Houtong 2019
