Cycle Around Japan
6
2014
Documentary
Come ride with us! Bicycle through the scenery of Japan, stay with locals and discover hidden traditions in a Japan you didn't know existed.
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- Cast:
Episode 11 : The Old Hokuriku Kaido - Exploring a Forgotten Highw
December. 10,2022
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.
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Episode 10 : Fukushima - Taking Life Day by Day
October. 08,2022
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.
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Episode 8 : Okayama - Sunshine and Smiles
August. 13,2022
In Okayama, Land of Sunshine, we meet high school students revolutionizing a town's famous denim, then ride into the countryside to see a traditional story teller and millennium-old rice terraces.
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Episode 5 : Tokushima - Where Teamwork Runs Deep
May. 14,2022
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.
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Episode 3 : Tokyo to Chiba - Finding Art along the Way
February. 12,2022
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.
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Episode 2 : Selfie Ride in Iwate - A Home Away From Home
January. 15,2022
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.
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Episode 1 : Saitama Traditions - Tokyo's Scenic Neighbor
January. 08,2022
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.
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Seasons
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