The Michinoku Coastal Trail is a significant hiking route in Japan, stretching over 1,000 kilometers (approximately 637 miles) along the northeastern coastline of Honshu, from Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture to Soma in Fukushima Prefecture. Officially launched in June 2019, the trail serves not only as a recreational pathway but also as a symbol of recovery and resilience following the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that impacted the Tohoku region.
The trail traverses through four prefectures: Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, and features a diverse landscape that includes sandy beaches, cliffs, forests, and small coastal towns. It is recognized for its scenic beauty and cultural significance, earning accolades such as being listed among National Geographic’s Best Trips to Take in 2020 and Lonely Planet’s World’s Best New Coastal Trails
Our plan is to start at the northern end at Hachinoe and hike south for four weeks. It will be the start of autumn so we hope to see all the autumn colours on the way. This should get us 400-500km south before we have to go home and the weather gets too cold.
Next year we plan to come back in spring and start at the southern end at Soma. We hope to follow the cherry blossom north as we hike.
First up we have to get to Hachinoe in the north of Honshu. We caught the monorail from the airport to Tokyo station (one change at Hamamatsuchō Station).
We got some breakfast at Tokyo station. Pauline attached herself to a large pillar to avoid being run over by the morning commute.
Some of the drinks available are in the photo below with translations. We tried the pureed vegetable drink. It was good, no added sugar or salt!
Got the ticket for the shinkansen and waited and waited and waited. Our first failure of a train in Japan 😭 At the moment we are waiting along with hundreds of others.
https://traininfo.jreast.co.jp/train_info/e/shinkansen.aspx
We have taken up residence on the platform next to a New Days news agent / snack shop. It has no staff. You pick what you want, scan and pay for it (card only) . All unsupervised. The Japanese are really honest 😁
We have given up waiting as there was no ETA on when the trains would run again. Pauline had layed down on her pack and gone to sleep by now. Not much sleep on the overnight flight.
Tonight we have booked into a nice motel in central Tokyo. The Botanic Gardens aren’t far away so that will fill in the afternoon 😊
Rescheduling the train tickets was an exercise as well. Where we bought the tickets from in the station only sells tickets for today. We had to find the JR (Japan Rail) office which is outside the station to move the tickets to tomorrow. Luckily we were also able to move the accommodation we had booked in Hachinohe.
We finally made it to Hachinohe and settled into a hotel for two nights. Time to catch up on some sleep 🙂
We also needed to pick up some food for the next section of the hike. See the food planning for the trail page for more detail.
The last two days have been bucketing rain so we decided to delay starting the trail. There was severe flooding to the south with some fatalities. It would not be pleasant along the coast with a 4m swell and strong east wind.