About Us
Best Places for Adventure Seekers, The Northern Michinoku Coastal Trail
This website covers the northernmost 240 kilometers (150 miles) of the Michinoku Coastal Trail, as it runs from Kabushima Shrine in Hachinohe to breathtaking clifftop views in Fudai and Tanohata villages. On route, it’s a stretch of trail that traverses a range of scenery and terrain, from fields of wildflowers to rocky shoreline, tranquil coves to sandy beaches. But more than that it’s a trail that connects people.
Planned and built in close collaboration with locals, the Michinoku Coastal Trail offers travelers a way to slowly immerse themselves in local culture, whether that’s visiting everyday fish markets, taking in traditional dance performances, sampling regional foods, or just stopping to talk to the people they meet along the way. In a region that has long gone under the radar, the Michinoku Coastal Trail is a way to truly go off the beaten path: to experience Japan as a traveler not a tourist.
Coastal Culinary Artisans
We often hear comments like
“I want to walk the Michinoku Coastal Trail!” but…
“I don’t know how I should walk?”
“Where should I start walking?”
“What should I do with my luggage?”
Therefore, we thought about what we could do to increase the number of people who are currently walking and the number of people who want to start walking.
This is where the idea of “Trail and Train” was born. We want to show how easy it is to take the Shinkansen and local trains to a nearby spot and then enjoy the trail.
Even when we first started walking, we found it challenging to understand the timetables, where to access the trail from, and what to do with our luggage.
Once I started walking, I wanted to stop and eat various local foods along the way and learn more about the local area rather than just walking.
Based on firsthand experience as a hiker, we have created a new way of walking called “Trail & Train” by organizing information about routes that can be walked as section hikes utilizing the local trains and having your luggage transported from one hotel to the next so that you can walk with just a light pack.
This site not only lists recommended routes, including train times, but it also lists information such as places to see, things to eat, and more along the route, as recommended by local guides.
We hope that it will be helpful for your trail trip.
The trail cannot continue without people walking and enjoying it. That is why we would like to increase the number of people walking not only for the continuation of the trail but also to interact with the local community. Why not utilize the Trail & Train initiative and challenge yourself to walk to the first 240km(150 miles) of the beautiful Michinoku Coastal Trail?
※Section Hike: A thru-hike refers to walking the entire length of a long trail at once, whereas a section-hike refers to walking only one section of the trail.