010: Hokkaido, The Final Leg

Cycling the length of Japan Days 18-20: Sakata to Akita, Akita to Kazuno, Kazuno to Hakodate.

May 25, 2024

This post is brought to you from Passenger Room C of the ferry from Aomori to Hakodate. We are enroute to our last island of the trip and the final leg: Hokkaido. There are 700 kilometres still left to cycle, but the trip is now moving into its end phase. I can’t quite believe I’m writing that, it feels not that long ago that we were unpacking our bike boxes in Kagoshima, and setting out for our first day. Still, much excitement ahead, including two new additions to the team, who I’ll introduce later.

Day 18 (Sakata to Akita, 110km)

The north of Japan is home to some pretty remarkable, some would say cultish, religious practices. For example, in Aomori Prefecture there is the real burial site of Jesus Christ — y’know, the one who escaped crucifixion to live out his glory years in Japan. The tomb was discovered in 1935, and the local town hosts a festival there each year.

Then there are the sokushinbutsu, Buddhist priests who self-mummified themselves to achieve enlightenment. At the age of 50 they would head off into the forest and eat a diet consisting only of nuts, tree bark and lacquer. This continued for years, until they felt their attachment to the mortal world weaken. At this point they’d return to their temple, be buried alive three metres underground, and spend their final days chanting sutras and ringing a bell that could be heard through an air pipe above ground. When the ringing stopped, the priest would be left underground for three years, before being dug up.

If all went to plan, the priest would have successfully self-mummified himself, and thus be considered by his followers to be in a state of eternal enlightenment, his mummified body proof to us poor souls on earth that enlightenment is indeed possible. Several of these mummies remain, incredibly well preserved, including a pair of sokushinbutsu at Kaikoji temple in Sakata, sat in meditative poses and adorned in silk robes. The practice is now outlawed, but the bodies remain. (If you’re interested in learning more, check out Tim Bunting’s Substack, or this fantastic long read by former colleague at The Japan Times, Alex Martin).

After seeing the priests, we ventured out onto Route 7, a beautiful coastal road leading north of Sakata. We stopped at a set of 16 Buddhas carved into the seashore, and had a sashimi picnic on a long-forgotten beach. At a 7-11 we met Nick from South Carolina, who is also cycling to Wakkanai, though on a more circuitous route than ours. He finished the day with us to Akita City, which rapidly won us all over. We stopped to pick up some new coffee beans at Coffee 8 — excellent — and then found one of those perfect little five-seater ramen restaurants for dinner. Finally we visited Rondo, an old jazz cafe set inside a 150 year old former sake-brewery. The bar was immaculate, the acoustics a dream — apparently it was a favourite of jazz pianist Bill Evans. There’s tonnes of these little jazz cafes across Japan, and a handy Google Map if you want to go seek them out.

Day 19 (Akita to Kazuno, 140km)

Some places are worth the detour, even if it adds 40km to a 100km day in the pouring rain. Yuzaka is one of them. From Akita we cut northeast and into the mountains for the first time in a couple of days. The morning started humid and grey, until humid and grey turned into exceptionally rainy. We got lost, adding a detour to the detour, and at the 110km mark, soaked through, found an unbelievably good katsu curry restaurant (at least to this perennially hungry pair of cyclists) to warm our feet and fill our stomachs. Chef Ishigaki-san came out to see us off and told us we were going the wrong way to get to Hokkaido. “We know,” I said, wishing that we didn’t have another 30km of cycling in the rain, “but we’re doing a detour...”

At about 4pm, we made it to the small mountain village of Kazuno, and to Yuzaka. Located on a quiet street on the edge of town, neighbouring the local sake shop, this bar/hotel has been the project of Yoshiaki and Eiko Suwa for the past 5 years. They have fastidiously turned what was an old, abandoned ryokan, into a beautiful space, complete with an onsen and a zero-waste restaurant/shop. We hadn’t thought to ask ahead for dinner, but they cooked us up a feast. All the food was vegan, using the finest of local vegetables, much of it foraged from the nearby forests. We went to bed very pleasantly full, our longest day on the trip, and perhaps our best dinner.

Day 20 (Kazuno to Hakodate, 95km + ferry)

“Careful on the roads” said Yoshiaki, waving us off outside Yuzaka, “a man got eaten by a bear four days ago.” Thanks Yoshi!

It was cold as we left, and for the first time since Koya, I considered digging my gloves out of my bag. We weren’t that high up, but the northerly latitude is really starting to make itself known. We headed off into the mountains for our last proper climb on Honshu. The climb was stunning and at its crest we crossed into Aomori Prefecture, which greeted us with another Top 10 descent. Yesterday’s rain and today’s sun made for a fine combo, the forests around us were thrumming with life, the vegetation around us a bright tapestry of spring green. We saw several tanuki on the road but no bears, fortunately, and continued at a good pace toward the ferry port at Aomori City.

We had factored in the climb, but not the headwind that harried us as we approached the coast. It was a real grind to make it to the ferry on time, with me pulling an unusually fatigued Tom in my wake. We made it with a couple of minutes spare and are now halfway across the Tsugaru Straight, sitting on the comfy floor in Passenger Room C, writing this and trying to resist the pull of sleep.

New friends, old friends

When we reach Hakodate, Tom and I will be joined by two old mountaineering friends of mine: Kaz Firpo and Trent Kusters. Together we climbed Mont Blanc in 2019, the Matterhorn in 2021 and Mount Whitney in 2023. Neither Kaz nor Trent are cyclists, so they’re planning to rent e-bikes to cycle with us (and fly past us on the hills) for the last week of cycling to the top of Hokkaido. Welcome!

With reinforcements arriving, I want to pay tribute to Tom, who has been unrelentingly good company for the past 3 weeks, and the subject of a lot of fanmail as he cycles around Japan in increasingly skimpy cyclewear (alas the weather in Hokkaido might put a stop to that). It’s said that you can judge someone by the people they surround themselves with. But on this trip, where our lives are ruled by the need to pack light, it feels more appropriate to judge someone by the objects they carry.

Tom has many objects, some useful: tape, oil, Leatherman, Apple trackpad and keyboard; and some luxurious: coffee grinder, Aeropress, six convenience stores worth of chewing gum. The object that speaks to his character the best is the stupidly heavy cast-iron frying pan he picked up on Day 9 and has happily carried for well over 1,000kms since. The reason: “I want to think of this trip every time I cook eggs at home.” Talk about going the extra mile for an egg. This attitude has carried us through the last three weeks, as he’s pushed us to find more exciting roads, swap tunnels for the mountain passes, and find the best or strangest (to us) local cuisine in each town we visit. Add to that the coffee each morning and you’ve got a winner. At the beginning of the year, I was fully prepared to do this trip solo. Tom only signed up in March, and I’m very glad he did. Cheers to the final week together, with the new recruits in tow.

We’re about to pull into port, so I’ll sign off here. 700 kilometres and seven days of riding until we reach Cape Soya. Wish us luck,

Oscar

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