Bikepacking trip on Japan’s Amaharashi Coast! 🚲🇯🇵 Toyama Prefecture Bike Route and 雨晴海岸 Camping

Bikepacking trip on Japan’s Amaharashi Coast! 🚲🇯🇵 Toyama Prefecture Bike Route and 雨晴海岸 Camping

[Music] hello it’s a beautiful day in early May and let’s go camping on the Sea of Japan coast so today I’ll be taking you with me on my first solo bike packing trip in Japan I plan to go camping on the Amah harashi Coast in Toyama prefecture I started at the Sea of Japan outside kazawa in Ishikawa prefecture and crossed over the hills to the city of HEI and Toyama Bay on day two I would return a different way which I’ll get to later I had my sleeping bag and tent poles attached to my seat post and my tint and sweater in this handlebar bag I put a flat kit portable battery pack and a t-shirt in my frame bag I also had some snacks a book a paint kit and a rain coat in my backpack the first day I would be riding 47 mil or about 76 km across the base of the notto peninsula to a campsite on the Amah harashi Coast speaking of the notto peninsula this area had a pretty severe earthquake on New Year’s Day about 5 months ago I didn’t share any videos from this part of my town before because I didn’t want it to feel like I was putting people’s tragedy on display just for views now that it’s been 5 months and some repairs have begun I wanted to show how long lasting earthquake damage can be and how this area still needs support this isn’t even the hardest hit Area since the epicenter was farther north on the notto peninsula there are ongoing donation efforts to raise money for earthquake repairs and helping people relocate and I’ve linked some of those below I grew up in an area in the US that doesn’t really have earthquakes so the lasting damage that they can cause was something really new to me while the northern part of noo Peninsula isn’t quite ready to welcome tourists yet I hope that the kazawa and Toyama areas of the hokar region continue to get more tourism and can use that money to rebuild because this is a really beautiful part of Japan with a lot to offer I turned across the kahoku Lagoon here which is a big agricultural area mainly for rice and Lotus root the rice has actually just been planted a couple weeks ago I noticed a little turtle in the road here and I turned back to move him so he wouldn’t get run over he’s so cute he’s so tiny look at how incredibly tiny and cute he is I moved him to the side so hopefully he can go swim around on the rice patties the mirrored surface of these rice patties is a highlight of this season because in just a few weeks the rice will grow tall enough to make that reflective mirror appearance go away rice has historically been a very important crop for Japan so much so that Rice was the center for the whole economy and a unit of measurement during the Edo period one coku is the amount of rice needed to sustain a person for a whole year and Samurai were often paid in koku kazawa was a wealthy area because of its high rice production boasting 1 million coku of rice production annually during the MAA family rule hyakuman means 1 million and that’s why our mascot is named hyakuman San or Mr 1 million there’s also the annual hakum Goku Festival in June here which celebrates the history arts and wealth of this region [Music] so usually the type of bike trips that I do are more like credit card camping than actually bike packing but it’s the first time that I’ve carried my tent with me during the trip so if you’re looking for a tips for bike packing this is not the video for you I’m trying to figure it out too but if you’re trying to find somewhere cool to bike then yeah stick around this area is really beautiful this is a natural spring which is really convenient for filling bottles although I have to say that even in the countryside there’s such a plethora of vending machines and convenience stores that I really don’t worry about running out of water on cycling [Music] trips so I’m going on a Thursday because the campsite that we’re going to be at is actually free on weekdays and I’m also hoping that it’ll be less crowded than it would be on a weekend night so yeah we’ll see my bike is definitely harder on the Hills cuz it’s a lot heavier with all this stuff I rode through this area in a previous video when I went to check out these suore castle ruins I’ll link that video in case you want to check it out most of my videos are about isikawa prefecture since that’s where we’ve been living but Toyama is a great prefecture too 30% of its land is in national parks and it has both beautiful beaches and Scenic Snowy Mountains I’m riding underneath all this wisteria and it’s really pretty TOA prefecture here you’ve probably seen pictures of the tatama kurobe Alpine route and mount Tate or tateyama is one of Japan’s Three Holy mountains along with Mount Haku and Mount Fuji tonami has an awesome tool Fair which I included in a previous video and I would love to see the Firefly Squid one day called hotaru Ika let light up Toyama Bay [Music] [Music] about 40 m in I reached the coast HEI is an old fishing Town located at the southeast base of the noo peninsula in Toyama prefecture it’s also the birthplace of manga artist fujo fujio so there are cute statues with his characters all over town like Ninja hatun [Music] [Music] [Music] the final stretch of my ride was along a nice bike path on the Amah harashi [Music] Coast Amah harashi means rain clear the weather today is so perfect on the right here is the HEI Seaside Botanical Garden which seems like a cool place to come back and visit I was planning to camp at this quasi National Park apparently a quasi National Park means that it’s designated by the national government but maintained by the prefecture camping here is free on weekdays which is awesome but it’s an affordable 1,000 yen on weekends and holidays too okay found a little campsite for the night I was really happy to find a nice quiet spot away from the other camping groups having the ocean and the sound of the Waves right next to me was really relaxing by now it was around 5:30 p.m. so I wanted to ride into town a bit to enjoy the ocean views and get something to eat this building on the right is where you go to pay for the campsite during weekends and holidays Toyama Bay is unique because while you bike along the ocean you have a view of the snowy tatama mountain range towering 3,000 M high in the distance so I made a video about riding the baram Monta train and we rode the line to Joanna this is the HEI line that goes along the coast and I really like trains and I’m really hoping that the train will come by while I’m standing here I didn’t see that same Baron train that we rode but I did see the local train that runs on the same tracks this building on the right is a me noi or roadside station and it actually has a cafe on on the second floor where you can watch the trains go by along the coast and here comes the local train poets have been writing about this beach since the 8th Century in the year 746 the poet Oto no Yakami wrote this poem about the coast why don’t we ride our horses together to see the waves washing the pristine beaches of shibutani sounds like a pretty fun day to me this was included in the famous 20 volume early Japanese poetry anthology the Manu during that time the Amah harashi Coast was known as shibutani it wasn’t until a few hundred years later in 1187 when the beach became known as Amah harashi this is because that year the founder of the Kamakura shogunate’s younger brother The Warrior minamoto Yoshi was hiding in a cave here to wait for a rainstorm to end Amah harashi means rain clearing named because of this Legend where Yoshi is sheltered here from the storm I waited long enough and here comes the train again this Railway line from takaoka to heimi opened in 1912 the little red local train line runs here and so does the sightseeing train the baron okay I’m so pleased that I got pictures of the train that was really cool and the sunset on the mountains right now is so pretty I was pretty hungry at this point so I just got some curry rice at the convenience store not very exciting but it’s so easy cheap and fast on my way back to the campsite I passed a public bath I was excited to get nice and warm after being out side all day and this bath has natural hot spring water it cost 750 Yen for an adult bath ticket and I paid 200 yen for a towel too you use this ticket machine to buy your bath pass kind of like the ramen ticket machines that some shops use they also serve dinner here but it stops at around 6:00 p.m. the woman’s bath is on the right side by by the time I was leaving it was already pretty dark out the bath was so relaxing and there were both indoor and outdoor baths to enjoy little nighttime snack guilty cheeseburger flavor they’re like sweet and savory Cheetos the local train passed by like one final good night and then I tucked into my tent to get some sleep I did not sleep great because it was pretty cold I didn’t I wasn’t able to bring a ton of layers even though it was cold it was pretty nice to be kind of lulled to sleep by the ocean and then woken up this morning by birds the sun comes up really early in Japan especially in the summer in miday right now the sunrise is already at 4:45 in the morning so by 5:30 a.m. things are warming up I got everything packed up and then spent a bit of time at the ocean before starting my ride also brought a little bit of watercolor paint here’s what I have some little paints eraser couple of little paint brushes pencil few pieces of paper okay so I painted this but then I also painted some little bike Spirits for day two I was taking a slightly longer way home following Toyama Bay into the capital city of Toyama then cutting back towards Ishikawa prefecture by going through tonami and OAB on the way to kazawa this is part of the Toyama Bay cycling route a 102 km bike route along the perimeter of the bay the campsite has bathrooms but the ones at the roadside station here were so nice and they were always open I’m always grateful for the quality and quantity of free public bathrooms in Japan it makes bike packing and general traveling so much nicer I hadn’t had any breakfast yet so I was on the lookout for a convenience store luckily about 8 or so miles into my ride I passed a Lawson on my route I don’t really have a favorite Kini chain because they all have their unique perks but I do think that Lawson has the best coffee let me know what your favorite convenient store or convenient item is in the comments I’m curious what you think I got an egg salad sandwich this time which is one of my favorite things besides onigiri you can actually take your bike across this huge bridge if you want it took me a while to figure out how in a previous ride that I did through Toyama but there’s an elevator that takes you up to The Pedestrian walkway and from there you can just walk your bike across and admire the views today I was keeping it simple though by staying on ground level there were lots of rice patties around here I got onto the jinuk gawa river path here and followed it into the Toyama downtown area I actually didn’t get a photo of it because I was on the other side of the road but I passed a hair salon here called lovable potato I would come back just to get my haircut at a place with a name like that the capital city of Toyama has some amazing bike infrastructure there are dedicated lanes for bikes separately designated from The Pedestrian part of the sidewalk in the road this is Toyama station and these cool manhole covers have characters from an anime series that apparently takes place at a fictional High School in Toyama biking through downtown was nice but once I got into the urban sprawl part of the city the bike paths were much less ideal I think I would take some different roads between Toyama and tonami next time once I got closer to the countryside again there were better places for me to ride though and it was more comfortable okay I’ve been passing the first signs for kazawa so we’re getting closer I think there is less than 20 mi left I’m very close to Ishikawa now but I stopped for a snack break cuz I got this custard tayak back when I started in alassan and they’re so good they’re kind of squishy and they have custard inside and it sounds kind of gross but if you let them get warm with the sun in your pocket they’re so good [Music] Crossing back into Ishikawa prefecture again here most of this ride was super flat but this downhill section into subata is always really fun thanks for joining me on my ride I hope to see you in the next video [Music] oh [Music]

The Amaharashi Coast (雨晴海岸) in Toyama Prefecture (富山県) is a beautiful place for cycling and camping in Japan! This was my first bikepacking trip, and I included the bike routes linked below. I started at the sea of Japan outside Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, and crossed over to Toyama Bay. On Day 2 I returned a different way, through the capital city of Toyama.

Jump to…
00:35 – my bikepacking setup
2:42 – rice fields & history
5:35 – Toyama Prefecture
6:30 – reaching the coast
8:08 – Amaharashi Campground
10:46 – Himi Line train
12:25 – starting day 2
13:45 – bike route back to Ishikawa
15:44 – Toyama city
17:30 – snack break

Ride Data and Bike Routes:
Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/11374191679
Day 2: https://www.strava.com/activities/11374191766

🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com

More about…
Noto Earthquake Information and Donations (Japanese): https://www.pref.ishikawa.lg.jp/suitou/gienkinr0601.html
Noto Earthquake Relief (English): https://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/2024NotoPeninsulaEarthquake.html
Noto Earthquake Relief (English): https://aarjapan.gr.jp/en/blog/365/

Campsite (free on weekdays, 1000 yen on weekends and holidays): https://g.co/kgs/XJisKXY
Amaharashi Coast: https://visit-toyama-japan.com/en/places-to-go/21011
How to get there: https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/1413/
Amaharashi Roadside Rest Station: https://michinoeki-amaharashi.jp/
Toyama Bay Cycling: https://cycling-toyama.jp/en/course/
National Cycle Routes in Japan: https://www.mlit.go.jp/road/bicycleuse/good-cycle-japan/national_cycle_route/english.html
Tourism in Toyama: https://toyama-bunkaisan.jp/en/features/2718/

🇯🇵 More videos about Japan here:
Cherry Blossom Bike Route: https://youtu.be/YqQJQW4w-64
Gravel Cycling in Wakayama Prefecture: https://youtu.be/weifAuHdJ0Q
Cycling Mt. Ontake in Nagano: https://youtu.be/0woNldsxgaw
Week-long Bike Tour Kanazawa to Matsumoto: https://youtu.be/OOgtL6N20mY

#cycling #lifeinjapan #富山観光 #富山旅行 #雨晴 #japanlife #lifeabroad #雨晴海岸 #japantravel #biketour #cyclingjapan #toyama #amaharashi #amaharashicoast #bikepacking #富山県