Cycling the Peaceful Kibiji Bike Trail in Okayama, Japan
50km of rural Japan; rice paddies, temples, shrines and sunbathing turtles.
Hey you, I’m here with another bike themed letter. I hope you don't mind this sudden detour into cycling related content but I promise it'll be the last one in a while. Or perhaps you like the bike stuff. Who knows? But I wrote this letter wanting to share a recommendation for anyone visiting Japan and specifically the city of Okayama.
Okayama doesn't get nearly enough love from tourists as it's usually just one of the stops on the route from Tokyo, or Kyoto, to Hiroshima. Denim lovers will however know it as the mecca for Japanese denim. But the whole area is actually just really lovely and has some wonderful things to do that aren't saturated with tourists. One of the most beautiful gardens in Japan is also located here—Kōraku-en. I'll be writing about that in another letter soon.
But for now, one of those wonderful things to do whilst you're down in Okayama is to cycle the Kibiji Bike Trail. It's a guided route that starts near Bizen-Ichinomiya train station and ends in the town of Sōja. Just shy of 10 miles / 16km away.
Because it's an official recognised route, you can actually rent a bicycle from the starting point at Bizen-Ichinomiya Station. Just next to the exit to the station you’ll find a sweet old couple who speak absolutely zero English, so good luck with that one! Hand gestures and funny noises tend to work.
But what's nicer is if you do what most people do and start your journey from Okayama city. That way you can rent a bike from your hotel (which will be far cheaper) and you can see the city turn into the countryside at a slower pace which is gorgeous.
For the journey I was able to rent a "mamachari" from my hotel. A mamachari is a bike that is popular with mothers in Japan and they're often used to carry children in a child's seat attached to the back; hence the name which is a portmanteau of 'mama' and 'bike'. They're also ridiculously comfortable to ride and the basket is a life saver in the sweaty summers in Japan when you definitely don't want to be wearing a bag on your back! It only cost me 500 yen a day (£2.70 / $3.50) — far cheaper than renting a bike from Bizen-Ichinomiya Station which I think is around 1,500 yen (£8.10 / $10.35).
On the ride from Okayama to Bizen-Ichinomiya Station I basically just followed Apple Maps which took me along the Sasagase river. One lovely view that I was about to see a lot more of was turtles sunbathing on rocks in the river; something that filled me with so much joy! Ah, to be a turtle sunbathing in the Japanese countryside! The weather was glorious and apparently the turtles weren't going to miss out on any crucial sunbathing action.
As I hinted at earlier, this first part of the journey is just really satisfying to do as the surroundings slowly change from busy city to rural countryside at a nice slow pace. The houses getting further and further apart.
Once you get to Bizen-Ichinomiya station you should certainly wander around the nearby Kibitsuhiko shrine. They have some red torii gates that aren't anywhere near as magnificent as Fushimi Inarii, but are much less crowded which is something!
When you're ready to press on you can leave the shrine on the north-east exit and you'll come across your first blue and white sign marking the very beginning of the bike trail. There will be markings on the road and on signposts beside the road for the rest of your journey. Almost every crossroads is marked too, so there's very little guessing to be done.
At the time of my ride, in early June, all of the rice paddies were being prepared for the upcoming season. Something I found incredibly peaceful. One of the joys of the journey was seeing the sky and landscape reflected in the tranquil waters of the rice paddies. Lucky really, because that made up about 70% of what I saw on the journey.
After literally miles and miles of tranquil countryside and rice paddies, you'll come across a Lawson convenience store which, in the heat of June in Japan, filled me with as much joy as I imagine seeing an oasis in the desert would.
This is the perfect place to stop and refuel. Grab loads of tasty Japanese snacks and stuff them into every pocket you can. There's even a bike pump for any mishaps that might have happened on the journey. They're not called convenience stores for nothing y'know!
Get back on the trail once you've refuelled and you'll soon come across the pagoda of Bitchu Kokubunji peering out above the landscape beckoning you to visit. And visit you must! This is one of the highlights of the trip and it's definitely worth a look around the immaculate grounds. The small gardens were exceptionally tended to and the pine trees are particularly beautiful. I saw one of the gardeners picking weeds out of the ground with tweezers! Now that's dedication.
You’re getting really close to the end now. Only a few more miles until Sōja. Things start to look a bit more urban as you cycle past police stations, sports centres and the like. But once you get to Sōja the road markings do just end abruptly and without any warning. No fanfare, no round of applause from the locals who've been eagerly waiting for you to arrive, in fact you're not even told it's the end! After the final road marking, you're very much left to explore the town as you see fit.
By this point I'd ridden about 15 miles / 25km and that's about all you'll get out of a one-gear mamachari without pain starting to kick in. So in hindsight it was a bit of a shame that I had to turn right back around to make the return trip! Japan doesn't like bikes on trains, even on the quieter rural lines. So unfortunately taking my bike back to Okayama on the comfortable train wasn't really an option.
You can use the return journey to pop into any temples you might have missed on the way or just see if you can spot anything new as I did with this lovely tractor that was slowly being engulfed by the grass around it. I also have a bit of a fascination with Japanese tripod ladders so used the return journey to see how many I could count. There was surprisingly quite a few.
Please don’t hesitate to hit me up if you ever plan on visiting Okayama, I'd love to share some of the other nice places I visited, including a warm old jazz bar that alone is worth the trip.
Please share this letter with anyone you think might enjoy it and if you'd like to support my writing please purchase one of my albums over on Bandcamp, or consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack. My music is also on Spotify and Apple Music.
SJF
So wonderful - I’d also like be a turtle basking in the Japanese countryside sun! What a life!
Hope you are well Simon 💚