EDIT (2026-01-28): Thanks for the answers ! Cycling the Nakasendo itself is impossible, but doing a biking tour on the roads alongside it is possible. No clear answers yet on the bike rental options.
Hello everyone,
My partner and I travelled for 20 days in Japan doing the Golden Route, with a side trip cycling the Shimanami Kaido from Onomichi to Imabari. We loved doing the Blue Line, starting at 8AM with a ride up the Senkoji, before finishing barely in time to return our bikes at Imabari Station while it was closing at 7PM (a leisurely pace of 13 km/h, many stops along the way. I usually average 20 km on flat asphalt, else 16 km/h in the city).
We're going back to Japan for hanami (first half of April), this time focusing on the Japan Alps! It's a shorter trip, only 10 days, and I'd like to ride a portion of the Nakasendo. I had trouble figuring out where to rent the bikes though, as we'd prefer not doing a round-trip, but a one-way from one end to the other. After looking through our itinerary options, I was looking at starting from Nakatsugawa and ride all the way to Matsumoto, passing through the ever-popular Magome-Tsumago as well as Yabuhara-Narai scenic routes, for a total of 113-120 km.
I've seen ramblingramsbothams.com doing some parts of this itinerary on their tour. There was also Japan Bike Adventures, Bike Tour Japan as well as Astuto offering various ways to cycle that route, either through self-guided or joining a group.
Since I want to do a one-way trip and ride it all over a single day, it seems very hard to do? Unlike the Shimanami Kaido, I feel like there's not many options to be able to rent a bicycle in one space and have in returned in another location.
I've also considered hiking (with some bus transit) the same portion of the Nakasendo trail over 3 days, so it would instead look like this:
– A: Nakatsugawa to Tsumago
– B: Tsumago to Kiso-Fukushima
– C: Kiso-Fukushima into Yabuhara to Narai. Take a train to Matsumoto.
We'll be traveling with a backpack each, with a medium suitcase to luggage forward with Kuroneko if needed.
For anyone curious, here's what the itinerary looks like so far, with days 4 to 7 looking to be filled up with the Gifu/Nagano Prefecture's Nakasendo:
- Day 1: Narita Airport Landing@7 AM-> Tokyo Station -> Kanazawa (Hokuriku Shinkansen) (3D2N).
- Day 2: Kanazawa
- Day 3: Shirakawa-go, finish in Takayama (2D1N)
- Day 4: Takayama (Would've headed towards Nakatsugawa/Gifu at the end of the day here if one-day bike ride)
- (A) Day 5: Okuhida or Shinhotaka, finish in Matsumoto (3D2N)
- (B) Day 6: Matsumoto + Nakasendo Route (Magome-Tsumago Trail hiking day trip)
- (C) Day 7: Matsutomo, Nagano (transit), finish in Shibu Onsen (2D1N).
- Day 8-9: Shibu Onsen. Doing the Nine Bathhouses + Jigokudani Monkey Park. Day 9 finishes with a nighttime bus that'll take us from Nagano to Tokyo (either Shinjuku or Ikebukuro Station) (3D2N).
- Day 10-11: Tokyo. Departure from Narita Airport@5:35 PM
Thank you for your advice and experience !
by Aeternelle