From Tokyo to Kyoto by E-Bike

This trip has been on my mind for a while now, and recently I’ve been monitoring the weather closely, in hopes of catching a few consecutive days without rain. Luckily, starting this coming Saturday, the forecast looks decent for the next four days or so.

As usual, I planned the ride using Komoot (a very handy cycling route site, in case you don’t know it). I will depart from my home in northern Tokyo, cut through central Tokyo into Kanagawa, then continue through Shizuoka and along the coast all the way to Nagoya, up to the northern end of Lake Biwa, and finally along the lake’s shore into Kyoto — with Kyoto Station as the grand finale. Unless something unpredictable happens along the way, I plan to stick to this route and schedule.

The trip should take me five days, doing about 100km a day for a total of around 600km. My steed is a Yamaha YPJ-TC, a touring e-bike that’s very comfortable for long rides like this (though this is my first time going so far on it). I don’t have a definite plan for what comes after, but I’m thinking of staying in Kyoto for about four days, then riding the same route back, so add another 600km to that.

I’ve been neglecting updates on this blog for a while now, but fear not — I’ll be posting detailed daily updates from this adventure, along with some photos. I’m going super lightweight, no gigantic cameras coming with me. Just the bike, myself, my MacBook, and some essential clothes (there’s a Uniqlo everywhere in Japan, so in the rare case that I get attacked by a stray bear and it shreds my shirt, I can just buy a new one at the next incoming Uniqlo). For the camera, I’m bringing the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which I bought last year specifically for photos and videos. Everything goes in two waterproof Ortlieb panniers and a waterproof Motul 300V backpack. Waterproofing matters here. Japan does not mess around with rain.