The plan

Our ambitious plan is to cycle on all the four main islands of Japan: Honshu. Shikoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido in a mainly clockwise loop. We'll mostly follow the coastlines but won't even attempt to circle all the islands, and will be moving from island to island by ferries. We'll fly back home from Sapporo, located on the southern part of Hokkaido, but hope that our timetable will allow some exploration further north. During the first week we've been accompanied by our Japanese friend Maki, who has fixed all our problems with her fluent language skills, fearless attitude and smartphone. The rest of the time we'll be on our own (yikes!). We'll be avoiding the big cities - there won't be any stories here about cycling in Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka. But our readers can expect tips on low-cost travel in Japan: We're on a tight budget and will be buying our sushi from supermarkets, cooking our own meals, washing our clothes at laundromats and staying in our tent as much as the weather permits. We've been told that the Japanese rainy season will start at some time in June, but we're hoping that we'll get to enjoy the sun for as long as possible!