Next Trip: Biking Hokkaido

In 36 hours I return to Japan for my next assignment. But before work begins, I’ve made time for travel. I’m pleased to announced that my next trip is a tour around northern Japan.

The first leg of my journey is just a few days. I’ll join Joe of MF fame at Shinjuku station, from where we’ll take a night bus up to Aomori prefecture, where we plan to see and climb Mt. Osorezan. Then we’ll head over to the southern tip of Hokkaido to see the town of Hakodate and the ruins of its famous five-pointed Western-style fort, Goryokaku.

The second leg of the journey will be a bike trip around Hokkaido with a Sapporo-based friend. We plan to travel the northern length of the island, covering 50-70 miles a day for two or three weeks. Here’s the general route we have planned, and a rough outline of how much distance we plan to cover each day.

Posting while on the road will be irregular if at all. It’s interesting to note that I can always stay connected in the cities and countrysides of the third world because few people have computers at home and internet cafes are everywhere, whereas remote regions of Japan have no internet cafes. Regular readers may recall that the last time I was without Internet was my trip to the Izu Islands this time last year.

No matter what happens, you can be sure there will be lots of photos at the end of the journey, and more Tokyo-based blogging soon afterwards.