Hiking the Michinoku Coastal Trail in Japan | Video

After an absolutely incredible first trip to Japan in the fall of 2024, we knew that we had to go back. The first trip we focused on the typical tourist destinations like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Mount Fuji. This time, we wanted to do more of things we love to do like hiking and surfing, while circulating through some of the more rural areas of Japan. After a little research, we settled on a week in Miyazaki on the island of Kyushu to surf and a week of hiking on the Michinoku Coastal Trail in northern Honshu. The video below focuses on our hike on the Michinoku Coastal Trail, but this blog post will detail the rest of the trip too.

Miyazaki

We spent just a few days in Tokyo getting adjusted to the massive time change and then caught a flight south to Miyazaki. It was immediately apparent how different Miyazaki was to Tokyo. Obviously, there’s a huge gulf in their size, but their environments were also very different. Miyazaki felt tropical! There were palm trees everywhere and mangos were growing in the airport. We absolutely loved it.

Owen at the Aoshima Shrine near Miyazaki, Japan

We booked a place in the nearby town of Aoshima, home to one of the area’s surf breaks. It was the perfect location because we could just walk to the surf with our rented equipment. We had one really fun day of waves in Aoshima and then the wind turned up and the surf died down. Being out surfing in Japan was a surreal experience and everyone in the water was friendly and welcoming. 10 out of 10 would recommend!

After those first few days of surfing we turned our attention to other attractions in the area. We visited several shrines, a garden and even an onsen!

The Udo Shrine in particular was very unique. After an hour long bus ride south, we arrived on a beautiful, sunny day. What made the Udo Shrine so special was that it’s built into a cave. After a short walk along the cliff side you descend down into the cave and are greeted by the amazing shrine. We spent the day walking around here seeing the different shrines and enjoying some ice cream!

The Udo Shrine, looking out towards the opening of the cave

Fukuoka

From Miyazaki we made a long commute up to Kanazawa. We ended up breaking up the travel into two days and stayed over in the city of Fukuoka for a few days before making it all the way to Kanazawa. In Fukuoka we managed to link up with our friends, We Will Roam (they make some amazing work so please do check them out!). We had an amazing time getting to hang out with Emma and Ant for a few days in Japan!

Kanazawa

When we made it to Kanazawa, we didn’t have any real plans. The town is known as a hub for culture and arts so we wanted to wander around for a few days and take it in. While there we visited the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kenrokuen Garden and ate so much good food!

MAK on one of the famous streets in Kanazawa, Japan

While in Kanazawa we also managed to catch a train out to the coast and explore some of the small seaside communities. It was a day full of walking and the small towns were so peaceful. We really loved doing little side quests like this throughout the month we spent in Japan.

Michinoku Coastal Trail

The Michinoku Coastal Trail is a 1,000 kilometer hiking trail in northeast Honshu. We didn’t have the time to do the whole thing, so we picked a portion of the trail that goes through Sanriku Fukkō National Park. In total, the section we were hiking would be around 150km.

Coastal view in Sanriku Fukkō National Park

I don’t want to spoil the video so I won’t dive into the details of how the hike went here. What I will say is that the Michinoku Coastal Trail was unlike any through hike we’ve done. We learned so much about this often overlooked part of Japan and we were met with some of the kindest people we’ve ever met. We are so grateful to have gotten to spent a week basking in the beauty of this place.

A seastack along the Michinoku Coastal Trail

We hope you enjoyed this video and blog post about our second trip to Japan and the Michinoku Coastal Trail. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below! See you down the road!