Mick Turnbull’s latest video captures an easygoing bike tour across Japan’s picturesque northern island of Hokkaido. It’s a tribute to long days spent pedaling quiet roads, meandering along remote coastlines, and settling into the simple rhythms of traveling by bike. Watch the 25-minute video here…

Words, photos, and video by Mick Turnbull

At the height of Japan’s summer, we took our gravel bikes on a tour of Hokkaido. Riding in Japan was full of strange paradoxes: bitumen climbs at gentle gradients with not-so-gentle horse flies; convenience stores with inconvenient packaging; a tranquil, dream-like landscape with not-so-tranquil bears.

  • Bicycle Touring Hokkaido
  • Bicycle Touring Hokkaido

On the surface, our trip was full of things some normal people do on holidays: drink beer, eat ice cream, try different food (dried squid chips, anyone?), get a bit lost, gaze at the beautiful sea, mountains, and sky, and bumble about with only a smattering of language, trying to learn about life in a different place. Yet beyond the superficial, our days kept the same shape they normally do when travelling by bike. Our legs grew stronger; we sweated and gave driver commentary (in this case, respectful and without fault).

  • Bicycle Touring Hokkaido
  • Bicycle Touring Hokkaido
  • Bicycle Touring Hokkaido

We planned our days around the heat or rain, camped in odd places, and cooked meals with random supermarket ingredients on our Jetboil. We pedalled until we were ready for a rest day, and on our rest days set aside all our ambitious tourist-y plans and napped and ate instead. It was a holiday, it was a bike trip, and it was, really, just a very nice time. The 25-minute video above captures our journey.

The Route

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