Samurai Epic – Islands of the Rising Sun – Japan

Samurai Bike Tour Highlights

– Explore the ancient Samurai roads and learn about this fascinating period in history.
– Indulge yourself in the natural hot springs offered by most of our accommodations.
– Discover the unique tastes of Japanese cuisine that are distinct and varied across the islands.
– Experience the delights of Japanese style inns that offer a very different hotel experience to what you might be used to.

Honshu Stage
–  Visit the enchanting alpine village of Shirakawago that has attained UNESCO status for its multi-story 17th century steep grass-thatched farmhouses.
– Ride through the lands of the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Routes- ancient, spiritual paths through lush forests leading to grand shrines and breathtaking waterfalls.
– Discover the ancient art of cormorant fishing on the Nagaragawa River in Gifu City.
– Visit the famous Nachi Falls, Japan’s tallest waterfall, and the Seiganto-ji Temple, which offers spectacular views through this ancient valley.
– Cycle through the stunning coastal scenery and quaint fishing villages of the Kii Peninsula.

Shikoku Stage
– Share your route with pilgrims travelling in homage to the Buddhist saint, Kobo Daishi and visit some of the 88 temples that make up this 1,200-year-old pilgrimage.
– Climb over the highest mountain in Western Japan – Mt Ishizuchi (1982m / 6502ft)
– Cycle along Japan’s last pure waterway, the stunning crystal clear Shimanto River.
– Traverse the amazing 60km+ long Shimanami Kaido bikeway, a series of suspension bridges and six small islands that link Shikoku with the main island, Honshu.

Kyushu Stage
– Shimanami Kaido: Ride Japan’s most iconic cycling route, crossing a chain of islands via breathtaking bridges over the Seto Inland Sea.
– Dogo Onsen: Unwind in one of Japan’s oldest and most celebrated hot springs, steeped in legend and literary history.
– Mount Aso: Pedal through the heart of Kyushu’s volcanic wonderland, circling one of the world’s largest active calderas.
– Kurokawa Onsen: Soak in riverside baths surrounded by forested hills in one of Japan’s most picturesque onsen villages.
– Kumamoto: Conclude your journey in the vibrant city of Kumamoto, home to an imposing samurai castle and rich warrior heritage.
– Oboke and Koboke Gorges: Follow the Yoshino River through dramatic canyons carved over millennia — a cyclist’s dream of winding roads and wild scenery.
– Takachiho Gorge: Discover the mythic landscapes of Takachiho, where sheer cliffs and cascading waterfalls meet Japan’s ancient Shinto legends.
– Yufuin: Ride into the artistic hot spring town of Yufuin, surrounded by rice fields and overlooked by the twin peaks of Mount Yufu.
– Beppu: Experience the otherworldly steam vents and bubbling springs of Beppu, a geothermal wonderland unique to Kyushu.
– Local Cuisine & Culture: Savour regional specialties from Shikoku’s udon noodles to Kyushu’s tonkotsu ramen, and enjoy the warm hospitality that defines southern Japan.

Samurai Bike Tour Dates Spring 2026

Samurai Bike Tour Dates Fall 2026

All tours and individual stages are available as a custom tour for your group – contact us for details.

What’s Included?

• Accommodation in our carefully selected hotels (Bed & Breakfast)
• Transfers to and from gateway airports on set dates
• Snacks en route and pre/post-ride nutrition
• Most lunches
• Multi-course group dinners with a focus on the local cuisine *NB we include occasional independent dinners to break up the week.
• Ride and Seek Kit
• Garmin 1030 use with all routes preloaded
• Ride and Seek water bottle
• Kit laundry service once a week
• Passionate, experienced and knowledgeable guides always on hand to help

Not Included

• Alcoholic beverages
• Bike hire
• Occasional lunches
• Pre & post tour accommodation

Supplements

• Single supplement – Our prices are based on twin/double occupancy. If you wish to have your own room, then a supplement of US$90 per night is applicable.

Deposit

• To reserve a place on a stage of this tour we ask for a deposit of US$500 (or your local currency equivalent). We also accept payment in GB£, AU$ and EU€. The final invoice will include any applicable single supplements and bike hire costs.

Useful Information

• Climate – The end of September and October is known as the calm period in Japan after the mid-year storms. Average temperatures in Shikoku during October are 19°C (high is 24°C and low 13°C). Average rain days in October are 8 which is lower than the preceding 5 months. Central Japan shares its latitude with Morocco, southern California and the Mediterranean, about 200km south of Sicily, which provides a useful point of geographical reference.

Samurai Bike Tour Food

Cuisine is one of the great highlights of travelling by bike in Japan, and across our Japan tours it becomes a daily window into regional life, history, and culture.

Our Japan Tours covers several regions of Japan, and one of the highlights is the range of culinary offerings. For some of our guests, the dining aspect is the highlight of the entire tour, but for others, it can be slightly discombobulating. The idea behind this overview is to give you a better sense of what to expect on the tour.

Japanese Breakfast

A Japanese breakfast typically includes steamed rice, miso soup, grilled fish, pickled vegetables, nori (seaweed), and tamagoyaki (rolled omelette). Accompaniments like tofu, natto (fermented soybeans), and green tea are common. It is fair to say it is very different to the traditional Western breakfast that most of our guests are familiar with.

Some of our accommodations will also serve coffee and some pastries, but this is more to sate the Western palate than a reflection of what is considered a normal breakfast. Wherever possible, the guides will seek to offer alternatives, but there is a rigidity to the Japanese travel experience on the road less travelled that doesn’t always make this possible. For what it is worth we suggest that everyone at least try ‘natto’ once in their life. Some of the guides actually claim to pine for it post-tour, but that is not something this author can relate to! This BBC article on natto provides a great insight into what they describe as Japan’s most polarising ‘superfood’!

Our Japanese Trip Specialist Eri Nozawa had this to say about breakfast in Japan and natto specifically – “In Japan general, I love my go-to breakfast  – Natto and raw egg on top of rice”!! This gives me great energy to get going in the morning, and tasty! It is a very acquired taste, but I love it as I have been eating since I was little. Also, I like Soba noodles, especially when eating cold ones. They have the great flavour of the buckwheat, and each Soba restaurant has a slightly different taste sauce to dip into. And they normally have great selections of Tempra to go with!”

Snacks on Tour

We aim to provide coffee and tea at our rest stops, as well as a range of fruits and sustenance, to energise you for the riding ahead. You’ll also have the opportunity to enjoy the delights of the traditional convenience store experience in Japan. Lawson and 7-Eleven are the main convenience chain options and are cultural phenomena in their own right. Our GM Ben Weigl, who has designed many of the Japanese itineraries, says he often searches out Machi (chewy rice) covered vanilla ice cream balls.  He says – “They have been around forever and the packaging hasn’t changed. It is best enjoyed if you can muster some patience as allowing the vanilla ice cream to get a little soft makes them even better – eaten with fingers or a tiny fork.”

Eri and Nate, on the other hand, search out a doughnut hit – “Our favourite snack chain shop is “Mister Donut”!!! Hope you have been before, they have all different kinds of donuts, and some savory things too!”.

Lunch on Tour

Lunches offer a chance to try something different. These stops are intentionally flexible and exploratory, giving riders the chance to sample a wide range of foods. Along the way, you might enjoy regional Japanese specialties, casual noodle shops, bakeries, or even international cuisines such as Italian or Indian. What stands out is the consistency: food is fresh, fast, beautifully presented, and always prepared with care, even in the most unassuming settings.

Dinner on Tour

A huge highlight of the Japan Toura is the Kaiseki cuisine, which is a feature of many of our dinners on tour. Kaiseki cuisine is a traditional Japanese multi-course meal that emphasizes seasonal ingredients, intricate presentation, and a balance of taste, texture, and appearance. It showcases the chef’s skill and creativity, offering a harmonious dining experience that blends art and flavour, often enjoyed in a serene and elegant setting. Add into the mix some high-quality sake, and it is fair to say many of our guests consider the gastronomy on this tour to rival all the other tours we run combined! We also find that many guests appreciate the opportunity to eat earlier than is generally the case on the European tours we run. As with the breakfasts, though, there is no great flexibility to change these menus beyond us communicating dietary restrictions in advance of the tour. Personally, I suggest throwing caution to the wind and embracing the range of tastes and flavours that are served as a key part of your immersive travel experience. Our guides are always at hand to explain what it actually is that you are being served.

In terms of personal highlights Eri says – “I loved the meal in Oshima Island near Sukumo. They use all the locally sourced ingredients, and my favorite dish in Shikoku “Katsuo no Tataki” was amazing! This is also called “Wara Yaki”(meaning grilled by rice stalk). This charred bonito fish brings extra flavour.”

Special mention as well to the traditional attire that is provided in your rooms that you can wear to dinner – the yukata. The yukata is a casual summer kimono made of lightweight cotton, often worn in Japan during warm months. It’s typically worn at festivals, hot springs (onsen), and ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). Yukatas are designed to be easy to put on and are secured with an obi (sash). Samurai is the tour that arguably gives you the best opportunity to travel light, given the nature of the clothing that most people wear for dinner and, indeed, for the duration of your stay in any of the ryokans we stay in.

And in this respect, I think it would be remiss not to touch on the whole post-ride experience that is a feature of these tours. On arrival at your accommodation, you’ll find vending machines that cater to all sorts of requirements. The cold, crisp Japanese beer is usually my choice. Once in your room, you generally change into your yukata and then head to the onsen, which, like the kaiseki meals, is a feature on many of the evenings on the Samurai tour. Cold beer followed by onsen followed by Kaiseki cuisine is a post-ride ritual I find hard to beat.

Samurai Bike Tour Accommodation

We present a range of accommodation options across this tour, but without doubt, our favourite abodes are the Japanese inns. As with all of our tours we have searched out places that are not only ‘best available’, but also reflect the essence of the area in which we travel. The inns are a wonderful way to immerse yourself in the culture of Japan with their straw mat floors and futon beds. Many of them also offer baths in natural hot springs to soothe those aching muscles at the end of a day on the bike. The traditional cuisine served up in these inns is also a real highlight. Our Samurai tour has a good mix of traditional inns and more western orientated hotels.

Samurai Bike Tour – Epic History

Riding Through Edo-Period Japan
The Samurai tour is not about following the footsteps of a single historical figure, nor is it a catalogue of battles or armour. Instead, it is a journey through Japan as it was shaped during the Samurai era — the Edo period (1603–1868) — the last chapter of Japan before modernisation.
This was a time when the samurai class no longer lived primarily as warriors, but as administrators, landholders, and cultural leaders. With peace largely established under a single shogunate, daily life became more ordered, ritualised, and refined. Much of what travellers now recognise as “traditional Japan” was formalised during this period, and it is this Japan that the Samurai tour brings to life.

Experiencing the Legacy of the Samurai Period
Rather than studying history in museums, this tour allows guests to move through landscapes and communities that still operate at a pre-modern pace. You stay in traditional inns, eat meals shaped by centuries of repetition, bathe in onsens (hot-springs) that have served travellers for generations, and ride quiet roads that once connected domains, pilgrimage routes, and rural towns.
These experiences are not reconstructions, they are simply how life still unfolds outside Japan’s major urban centres.

Honshu: Pilgrimage Routes and Mountain Life
In Honshu, the Samurai tour passes through regions that formed the spiritual and cultural backbone of Edo-period Japan. Riding sections linked to the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage network, you experience routes that became widely travelled during the samurai era, when pilgrimage expanded beyond emperors and monks to include warriors, officials, and common travellers.
The mountain towns, forested valleys, and agricultural landscapes reflect a way of life shaped by seasons, religion, and self-reliance. Narrow roads, traditional villages, and temple precincts offer a sense of how travel, belief, and daily routine were experienced in Old Japan, far removed from modern transport corridors and city life.

Shikoku: Rural Japan and Preservation Through Isolation
Shikoku represents one of the clearest windows into rural Edo-period Japan. Long removed from the political centres of Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo), the island became a place where older customs endured. Historically, it was also a destination for defeated or displaced samurai, many of whom settled into farming and village life over generations.
Today, riding through Shikoku’s interior valleys and coastal roads means passing through small towns, terraced fields, quiet shrines, and working countryside that have changed very little in form. This is not curated heritage, it is everyday Japan, shaped by geography and continuity rather than reinvention.

Kyushu: Tradition at the Edge of Change
Kyushu has always sat at the edge of Japan’s story, geographically and historically. As a southern gateway, it was exposed earlier to outside influence, trade, and later, the forces that ended the Edo period altogether.
Cycling through Kyushu reveals this contrast clearly. Deeply traditional communities, long-established onsen towns, and agricultural regions coexist with landscapes that hint at transition. This balance between preservation and change makes Kyushu a fitting final chapter of the Samurai journey, a place where Edo-period Japan gradually gave way to the modern nation that followed.

A Journey Through Old Japan
The Samurai tour is about experiencing Japan before bullet trains, factories, and globalised cities, the Japan shaped by the Edo (Samurai) period. By travelling slowly through Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, riders encounter a version of the country where tradition is not performed, but lived.
You may arrive thinking of the samurai as warriors of the past. You leave understanding how their era shaped the rhythms, values, and everyday experiences that still define much of Japan today.