Japan

That's really weird...its like you parodied our holiday!

Good vid. Those deer in Nara are douchebags.

The board walk in Nikko was so awesome. We had it all to ourselves on a lovely crisp sunny day. Didn't see another soul till we hit the town at the top.

Man I want to go back now.

haha yeah it was great! what you mean parodied out?

Meant 'our' - typo. We basically went to the same places, did similar things.

oh right hahaha, how did you find the whole foreigner thing?

People were nice and friendly - I loved it. I didn't experience the whole gaijin (sp?) thing which is probably more of an issue if you are there long term.

well im chinese so i didnt get any but my friends got some weird looks, i guess it really depends on what youre doing and all. the people were very cool! even got to stay at a few peoples flats so got the full experience!

what i did find weird was that every one sleeps on trains lol

My wife is half Chinese which may have helped.

We fell asleep on a bullit from Kyoto to Tokyo and woke up in Tokyo station about half an hour after the train had terminated. The cleaning staff were just sweeping around us. Did lol.

Cheers for all the advice, just beginning to book it all now. Anyone know good cycle shops in Japan? Hoping they have some nice cycling clothes on the cheap because fuck me, London is expensive. Is it the same there?

@Mi_Amigo

created this list of places from a post on this forum which I can no longer find, and wrote up on my blog when I was travelling.
Apologies for the length of it.

Original post with google map links lives here.
https://mrverte.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/fixation/

The shops out here are full of good bits, frames, hubs, wheels, stems, chains, bags, top tube pads, pedals, anything and everything coloured and anodized to within an inch of its life that you could possibly want to put on your very first fixed wheel dream machine. The shops range from the old school, one man and a back room full of bits such as: Punch Cycles up past where I was staying in Kuramae, whose owner would say in accented English with a smile “not for sale” everytime I would point out a frame I liked and guessed was in my size;

PUNCH CYCLE Google maps
1-5-10 Kaminari-mon, Taito-ku, Tokyo.
TEL 03-3841-5080
Open 18:00-23:00 (Tue to Fri), 13:00-21:00 (Sat,Sun)

or Dreamworks down in Shibuya round the corner and I do mean literally round the corner from Sexon Super Peace, whose owner was much more welcoming and whose frames were priced to sell.

Dreamworks

1F Eden Bldg. 11-11 shinsencho Shibuya-ku Tokyo
Tel 03-6416-1050

To the boutique cleanliness of Sexon Super Peace, all shiny new bits, colour co-ordinated with a price to match, whose owner was friendly and pointed out that Max Leonard’s lovely book Fixed – insert URL to Amazon here – was owned by pretty much every fixed rider in Tokyo and probably Japan;

Sexon Super Peace Google maps
New store 01/11/07
22-5 Kamiizumi Cho Tokyo Shibuya Ku
Tel 03-3485-5506
OPEN 12:30 – 20:30

or Carnival, further along in shibuya, on your way to Shinjuku, above WBase a skate/BMX shop, specialising in vintage European frames and bits, a one room operation, but nicely laid out, with t-shirts that I liked but wasn’t willing to spend fifty notes on;

CARNIVAL Google maps
J-SIX BLDGS 2F. 6-23-11 Jinguu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
TEL 03-5485-8581
Open 13:00-21:00

or Blue Lug which was up past Meiji Jingu, with their more reasonably priced t-shirts, one of which I did purchase alongside a wallet and chain bracelet. Which was filed to bursting with merchandise, clothing, hubs, forks (they seemed to be importers/distributors for wound up as there were plenty hanging up there), cogs, grips, saddles, and a couple of frames;

Blue Lug Google maps
New Store 03/11/07
1-58-7 Down town Shibuya Ku
Tel: 03-6662-5042
Open from 14:00 – 22:00 (closed Wednesdays)

or Depot Cycle and Reycle which was out in Chiba/Ichikawa, run by the lovely Seiyo who was packing up to move into new premises when I rode down there, and was kind enough to invite me back when they opened the new store down the road the following Monday. Its was wet, I was soaked and coughing and spluttering, but I was offered a warm welcome, by him and his family.

DEPOT CYCLE & RECYCLE
TEL 047-322-2210
Open 12:00-20:00 (Sat 11:00-19:00)

or Gira Gira down in Minima Horie, Osaka run by an Australian guy called Rene, who I was going to buy a lovely un-decaled Panasonic frame from, who explained that Keirin frames are built by small groups of men, with Panasonic being the largest with like twelve, who spend their days welding and brazing, bringing that well known Japanese devotion to quality to the frames they construct. How having NJS stamped onto a product is a symbol of years of hard work and development to get it past the ruthless and all seeing eye of the holders of the NJS flame;

Or the three or four other bike shops I found, either by chance or with the help of some local forum knowledge, that were repositories for good bike stuff, that went above and beyond the usual fare to make sure that those thagt wanted to go a bit above and beyond the normal could build a bike that they would love for a long long time.

Thanks go out to Jason/Build for creating the original list of bike shops in Tokyo, which allowed me to go and visit all of the Tokyo shops.

.

That was @Build 's list for me back in 2007!
I went to Kalavinka, met Tomity and bought one of his old bikes for £45. Ahh the old days...

I know do you know where the original would live?

It was still valid when I headed out in 2010..

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/5913393/
http://www.bikeforums.net/singlespeed-fixed-gear/260233-track-bikes-tokyo-picture-heavy.html

If you want a bike shop, @tomity is your man.

Your jaw will drop at the steel he has in his place.

Add to that he's a complete gentleman.

Details in this thread.

This place is about one hour by train from Shinjuku in Tokyo suburb

1-9-2,Nangai,Higashiyamato,Tokyo,Japan Zip.207-0014

facebook.com/cycleateliertomi­ty

Go in. Have some tea. Talk to an ex-keirin racer.

Directions from Tokyo station: Chuo Line - Seibu Haijima Line - 10 minute walk

Jesus, that's bloody extensive and exactly what I was hoping for. Cheers all for input! Gonna be a ridiculously brilliant trip

I haven't been on the forum in quite some time but ex Londoner here living in Kanazawa, which I somewhat biasedly would whole heartedly recommend visiting, beautiful, incredible seafood and sushi. It's often called little Kyoto, geisha and stuff hanging around the tea district usually.

If you head this way and want a bike, happy to lend mine out if it will fit, 58cm 14bikeco fixed, not ideal for the mountains but does the job!

A friend of mine just did Koya-san a few weeks ago to stay in the Zen Buddhist Temple and said it was intense but a great experience, I can ask him about how he did it if you need some info.

Shopping wise, I haven't really bought any bike stuff since being here but I will say right now is great coming from the UK to Japan because of the weak yen...there are some great savings to be had.

Kyoto is quite lovely, Kiyomizu-dera won't fail to impress even with a bazillion tourists swarming around you.

Osaka is lovely for the food, beer and friendly atmosphere - eat plenty of okonomiyaki, takoyaki. It's a great place for street food and plenty of night life as a large city - warm up for Tokyo.

Plenty to do in Tokyo - you won't regret eating lunch at Tsukiji - any restaurant there no matter how it looks on the outside will do fantastic sushi.

Ginza is mainly fashion shopping but also has some vintage camera shops (highly priced) and other tech stuff - the MAP Camera there is amazing and vast - every technological gizmo you can imagine and worth a visit. Also a pretty good alcohol section.

Shijuku/Shibuya - great for the shopping, again lots of big tech outlets and all manner of other stores. If you end up in Shinjuku at night then the Golden Gai area is a nice old fashion place to go get a drink.

Wouldn't bother these days with Akihabara unless you happen to be in the area anyway (it's not far from Ueno or Asakusa by rail) used to be the tech meca but all the old videogame shops/stock have gone, most of the small electronics boutiques too. What's left now are the same shops you can find in the other parts of Tokyo and swarms of Otaku.

Aoyama has a bit of a bike thing going on, there's the Cherubim store which is nice (coordinates on their website). Same street also has a few other bike shops including a large Anchor/Bridgestone one.

There's obviously plenty of mountain/great lake places to visit, but Nikko is pretty impressive and if you've a bike or car to get up above it then there's some lovely lakes (Chuzenji), views, and roads.

Lovely cycling around Japan in the countryside, particularly the time of year you'll be there - very mountainous, forested. Also the coastal roads can be lovely too, up and down between bays. Less interesting is cycling in the built up areas - very stop start, narrow streets, lots of intersections. Not much fun but perhaps still interesting if it's your first time, you still get to see a lot more than if you were just on a train.

You can get a Mama-chari for not much at all, maybe 15,000yen or less from one of many family bike shops. But it's not much use on the open road, not very fast at all in fact and will only come in small size which may be no good at all to you.

As said before, the Keirin racing is actually incredibly dull.

I'm not a huge bike shop fan generally so feel free to ignore me, but Blue Lug you can see everything they sell (and buy it too) on their online store. Don't see too much point in actually visiting the shop personally unless you have a lot of spare time on your hand. I wasn't too impressed by Dreamworks when i passed by - there were a couple of frames hidden at the back of the (ridiculously) small store, otherwise they mainly had lots of overpriced vintage European parts - kinda silly going all the way from Europe just to see that. With Punch cycles you can't really guarantee they'll open at 6pm, so maybe have something else to do in the area..

Other bike-ish things not yet mentioned I think in Tokyo: http://www.abovebike.com/ , Kinfolk, http://www.kuhnsbar.com/entry.html, http://www.cycles-yokoo.co.jp/, http://www.level-cycle.com/, http://www.kalavinka-bikes.com/, http://tempracycle.com, http://www.rew10.com/, http://www.sunrise-cycles.com/Home.html

If you've a fixed address somewhere a lot of parts (Nitto, Shimano etc) can be bought on amazon.co.jp at cheaper than store prices - it's easy enough to sign up, they even have an english mode when logged in, and take foreign cards. Any of the independent dealers on the site will take payment and ship in Japan for peanuts (amazon themselves will ship abroad fwiw), far easier than traipsing around the stores to buy the more common stuff IMO.

Eat lots over there, the food is lovely - not just the fishy things but all sorts of fried and curried goods too. Don't forget to drop in to any of the 711/Family Part/Lawson etc stores any hour of the day to stock up on fried chicken from the hot food counter at the front of each store, and other fast food too, it's great fuel for cycling and tourism :)

Also if you plan on catching the Sakura, know that it travels slowly day by day from south-west to north-east (like the autumnal foliage too), you can completely miss it if you're not careful by being in the wrong part of the country on the wrong date, even criss crossing from places it's not really started yet to places where it's almost over. So check your dates.

Cheers both! Great to keep these recommendations coming in. Gerryys, Kanazawa sounds fantastic, definitely going to make an effort to get up there. Perhaps drop by for a drink? As for your friend doing Koya-san, it would be brilliant to hear how he went about it. Right now, struggling for details!

Thanks Tychom, excellent advice! Gonna print all this off for reference...

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/special/cycle_around_jpn.html

These programmes are really interesting and lovely- I found torrents for them on eztv yesterday. Dude rides Japan on a BMC road bike. With Campag, lol.

https://eztv.ch/ep/63705/nhk-cycle-around-japan-to-lake-biwa-and-kyoto-720p-x264-hdtv-mvgroup/

https://eztv.ch/ep/57923/nhk-cycle-around-japan-izu-peninsula-x264-hdtv-mvgroup/

https://eztv.ch/ep/61556/nhk-cycle-around-japan-tomioka-to-nikko-720p-x264-hdtv-mvgroup/

Mi_Amigo, yeah for sure, let me know when we can see about getting in a little ride and a few beers!

As for Koya-san, will ask and find out the details and drop you a PM

In Tokyo for 4-5 days in June. Have read all of the above - little mention of accommodation - can anyone recommend any gems? I wanted to see sumo but it appears that I'm there at the wrong time of year, and someone further up said Keirin in the flesh was a bit meh? Very much a whistle stop tour so would appreciate some first hand advice re: must-sees and missables! Not too interested in shopping - but authentic sightseeing and food are high on my priority list, although trying not to break the bank. Love the list of bike shops above, but my other half would probably become murderous if I dragged her around this many - what's best bet for a local branded cap/shirt etc?

^ I'd totally recommend http://www.andon.co.jp/

It's a Ryokan rather than a full Western-style hotel, but that's good if you want somewhere authentic. Very friendly, cheap (for Tokyo) and relatively central. Rooms are seriously tiny and you sleep on a tatami mat, but we loved it.

Me and @ninelives just went for a few weeks and a couple people asked me about where was good etc so effort post incoming -

First off - an update on the bike shops in Tokyo

W Base - Really cool little shop. Sort of like a boutique version of the old Tokyo fixed. Stocks Brooklyn, Heavy Pedal and Bombtrack frames. Maybe some others too. Has DA and Sugino bits too, as well as loads of own brand and other shirts/hoodies/hats.
The guys in there were sound to talk too, and both times we went past there were people sitting around on nice bikes. Very 2008 vibe going on.
W BASE on gmaps

Blue Lug - The best shop we went to for buying stuff. Big store with loads of stock, helpful staff who chatted in English. Sold a load of their own brand stuff, the bags looked really good quality. Had loads of components at the best prices we saw (sugino/DA/Suze/nitto - hubs/cranks/chainrings/bars). Definitely worth visiting. Blue Lug on gmaps

LUG - Plus! Blue Lug also run a cafe which is 10 mins walk/5 mins cycle away from ^ that store. Have free wifi, JP beer on tap and did good food. Sort of like LMNH but a bit smaller and more local. Definitely go if you go by the store and are into that sort of thing. We found it sort of hard to find but its on a pretty small cross street and the store front just brilliantly says 'BEER COFFEE' Lug cafe/bar on gmaps

Tempra Cycles - Favourite shop we went to in Tokyo. The staff were the nicest we met. One guy (whose name I've forgotten) had spent time in the UK and chatted to us for ages and loaded us up with stickers and stuff from the store (He also looked helped me with the Keirin but I'll talk about that below).
They stock used NJS frames as well as having some crashed ones on display and other Keirin stuff, the prices were pretty much the same if not a bit better than they are on NJS export (but obvs you can get through customs yourself) there are 3enshos, nags etc. They are also are the guys who anodise NJS hubs themselves.
And they have a bar in the store! Wish we'd gone at night so it was more appropriate to stay for a beer. Tempra Cycles on gmaps

Brotures - BLB tokyo, meh. Round the corner from WBASE.

Sexton - has closed down according to the locals.

Dreamworks - was also either closed down or just very closed on the day we were in the neighbourhood .

Other Stuff -

Cycling - Definitely take your bike if you can. Everyone cycles in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara and its clearly the best mode of transport. But remember that your bike needs two working brakes and be prepared to ride mainly on pavements and through clouds of seemingly insane locals (there doesn't seem to be any discernible rules, but its fun). One of the WBASE guys had br8less installed but told me he just rode fast if he saw cops. If taking your bike isn't practical you can rent 'Mamacahri' bikes for like £3 a day from shops/hostels everywhere and thrash it around on those, we did this and it was super fun.

Keirin - I'd heard mixed reports about this so was unsure if it was worth going (especially if you were gonna have no idea what is going on). I'd say it definitely is. One of the guys in Tempra Cycles looked up what races were on for me, and told me which one to go to (which probably helped me a lot). I asked him if he thought it would be worth going and he said 'yes go, drink beers eat some food.' Which I did and it as totally worth it. Its 200 yen to get in the one I went to and beer was like £3 and food on sticks was good. I had no idea what was going on with the betting system which is the only reason locals go (the majority watched the races on TV screens). I went to Matsudo Veledrome, which is the furthest out of Tokyo (of the three that are nearby) but it was only an hour on the tube and super easy to find and everyone there was a mixture of super friendly/confused as to why I was there.
Its pretty much like going to the Dog Track with NJS replacing greyhounds and feels like Herne Hill on Acid.
If you want to go, get someone fluent in Japanese to look up which days you should go, the races operate over three days and the schedules are pretty much opaque to non-speaker.

Food - Is amazing. Go everywhere and just gesture at things, most places seem really okay with this and have big picture menus for pretty much this reason. Don't be snobbish about trying the western food out there too, Mos Burger is amazing.

Accommodation - We stayed in a mixture of Hostels, Air Bnb and one Guesthouse. In Tokyo we stayed here for a few nights Nui and if/when I go back to Tokyo I'd probably book in there for the whole time, was super nice, cheap and cool.

That's about all I can think of right now. Its an amazing country and I definitely want to go back.

@shinkuu_kiss took us out for a night around his local area in Tokyo and it was hilarious and involved Horse Sashimi and loads of sake. Thanks again!

@Chak hope this helps for your trip, give me a shout if you want to know about any other less cycle specific stuff.

TLDR - go to japan

I'm guessing it would be practically impossible to get to ride in the velodrome in Japan on a holiday visit?