Cycle Around Japan - Season 9

The late autumn gingko trees are a brilliant yellow in Tokyo's neighboring prefecture of Saitama. Surprisingly unexplored, this is an area of great natural beauty with its own distinct traditions. We learn how a family of dollmakers breathes life into their creations, treasured for generations. In Kawagoe, a town with the atmosphere of centuries past, we marvel at the speed and skill of an old-style candy maker. And we discover how Saitama's special climate is the secret behind a world-class whisky.

James Hobbs, living in Japan for 30 years, teaches at a medical university in Iwate Prefecture. He takes us along on some hard weekend training with cycling friends and on a camping trip with his wife to enjoy the famous evening views of Mt. Hayachine, where they show their skill at cooking local Iwate ingredients. After riding along the Sanriku coastline, James tackles a tough hill climb with a friend who describes how cycling gave him the strength to recover from the devastating tsunami of 2011.

On this winter ride through sun and snow from northern Tokyo into neighboring Chiba Prefecture, our New Zealand cyclist Paul Imperatrice encounters a variety of artists. He meets an artisan with 55 years of experience in traditional Edo embroidery who now creates his own groundbreaking designs, another who uses local rice and seaweed to craft astonishingly complex sushi rolls, and in the old castle town of Sakura, he visits a dojo where the martial arts of the samurai are taught in all their original depth.

Zac Reynolds has lived in Japan for over 20 years, and now works for a bicycle maker in Mie Prefecture. As a crossroads on the old Tokaido Highway, Mie has a unique cultural legacy. In the post station of Sekijuku, we visit a sweets store run by the descendants of a famous ninja spy. We meet young newcomers using organic farming to revitalize a country town, and on the south coast, a couple who have cultivated pearls for 45 years. This remains one of Japan's most vibrant and exciting places to live.

As the cherry blossoms bloom in spring, our cyclist Bobby rides through Tokushima Prefecture from the coast to its hidden mountain valleys. At the Naruto Straits, famous for their whirlpools, he goes out with a team of fishermen to catch cherry sea bream. High in the mountains at Kamikatsu, he finds a town where the elderly population have a thriving business cultivating plants to decorate Japanese cuisine. And in an even deeper valley, he discovers a village with an unusual approach to attracting visitors.

In early spring, Australian cyclist Zac Reynolds rides through Gunma Prefecture. Starting from the capital Maebashi, he sees a 5th century ritual atop an ancient king's burial mound before cycling up the Tone River to Itakura, famous for its catfish. In Kanna-town, he meets a master blacksmith whose hand-crafted blades are in demand nationwide. Finally, in the mountain village of Nanmoku, he talks with a young man revitalizes the area backed by the encouragement and advice of its energetic elderly inhabitants.

We set off under the bright summer sun to the coast of Fukui Prefecture. After a night with a fishing family, it's out before dawn on their boat to help with the day's catch, served up later for breakfast. Then to Echizen, center of traditional crafts, trying our hand at a unique method of decorating washi paper before meeting a master knifemaker, famous worldwide for his blades. Finally, we ride with a high school cycling team, youthful examples of the Fukui spirit of developing inner strength as the way to success.

Okayama Prefecture, known as the Land of Sunshine, is a fertile farming region. At the coastal town of Kurashiki, we meet high school students revolutionizing its famous denim, then ride to Kojima Bay to use an old-style scoop net to fish for our dinner. Deep in the countryside we find a traditional rakugo storyteller, and discover how local volunteers have restored a millennium-old terraced hillside with over 1,000 rice paddies. And finally, in an old post town we meet an artisan making inkstones for calligraphy.

A 400km ride through Kyoto - the prefecture, not the city. Farms in this lush countryside supported the ancient capital's unique cuisine and tea culture, while artisans used local wood and stone to craft tools for Kyoto artists. We take tea in an 800-year-old teahouse, go deep in the forest with a whetstone craftsman to mine for stone, experience a 1,000-year-old drumming tradition, and finally, on the Sea of Japan coast, hear the story of a mother and daughter selling fish from their mobile store.

Fukushima Prefecture, with its beautiful mountains and coastline, is home to people who have survived disaster and come out stronger. We meet a peach grower thriving again after the great 2011 quake, a family that rebuilt their seaside hotel destroyed by the tsunami, shopkeepers organizing a summer festival after a two-year pandemic gap, highschoolers continuing Fukushima's samurai horse riding legacy, and three women friends who have staffed a tiny country station together for 35 years.

Japan's pre-modern network of highways, the Kaido, is now largely forgotten. In the first of a new series, we explore the Old Hokuriku Kaido between Fukui and Niigata Prefectures, discovering unique local cultures inspired by travelers on the old highway. Visiting post stations that provided food and rest for weary voyagers, and the castle town of Kanazawa, with its wooden machiya townhouses, we also meet an artist in glass and some inventive highschoolers revitalizing their town with locally-sourced products.