Biwaichi: Cycling Around Lake Biwa
The great loop of Japan's largest lake
There is a particular satisfaction in riding all the way around something. Not out and back, not point to point, but a complete circle — setting off along a shore, watching the water stay always at your side, and arriving, hours or days later, exactly where you began, having drawn a closed loop around a whole inland sea. This is the quiet pleasure of Biwaichi — Biwako isshū, “once around Lake Biwa” — a ride around the largest lake in Japan, and one of the country’s officially designated National Cycle Routes.
Lake Biwa is vast: nearly 700 square kilometres of freshwater, cradled by mountains, a short train ride from Kyoto yet a world away from its crowds. To cycle its shoreline is to trace the edge of old Japan – past castle towns and lakeside shrines, merchant streets and spring-fed villages, rice paddies and quiet fishing harbours, with the water on one side and the hills on the other the whole way round. It is a bigger undertaking than the Shimanami Kaidō, and a different kind of pleasure: less a series of dramatic bridges than a long, meditative circuit of a single great lake, ridden at whatever pace you choose. Complete it, and you can even claim a certificate to prove it.
This is one of Japan’s great long-distance rides. For the national picture — other famous routes, rules and rental across the country — see our companion guide, Can I See Japan by Bike?
The ride in brief
Biwaichi circles Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, immediately north-east of Kyoto. The Biwako-Ōhashi bridge divides the lake into a larger northern basin (Hokko) and a small southern basin (Nanko), and this gives you two main options:
- The full loop — about 200 km. The complete circuit of both basins, and the ride that earns the name. A serious undertaking.
- The North Lake loop — about 150 km. Using the Biwako-Ōhashi bridge as a shortcut across the middle, cutting out the busier southern basin. This is the recommended route for most riders, especially first-timers — quieter, more scenic, and with the best of the lakeside.
The riding is largely flat, particularly along the whole eastern shore, with some gentle ups and downs in the north where the route swings inland, and a few less pleasant stretches of busy road in the south around Ōtsu. The route is waymarked throughout with a blue line and Biwaichi signs, and dotted with convenience stores, rest stops and cycle-support stations, so you never need carry much.
Most riders go counter-clockwise, which keeps the lake on your left — the side you’ll want to be looking — and puts the prevailing wind more often at your back.
How long does it take — and how fit do you need to be?
This is a bigger ride than the Shimanami Kaidō, and honesty about the distance matters. At a realistic touring pace of around 12–15 km/h including stops, the numbers look like this:
- The full 200 km in one day is the preserve of fit, experienced cyclists – a 10-to-14-hour epic that’s genuinely demanding. Impressive, but not the way to enjoy the scenery.
- Two days suits a reasonably fit regular rider, splitting the ride into two big but manageable days with an overnight on the shore.
- Three days is the relaxed, recommended pace for most people – and the standard advice for beginners tackling the 150 km North loop is two nights and three days, riding around 50–80 km a day with plenty of time to stop, explore and rest.
In other words: the terrain is easy, but the distance is real. Unlike the Shimanami, which many ride in a day, Biwaichi rewards giving it time. If you’re an occasional rider, take three days over the North loop, keep each day’s distance modest, and you’ll find it well within your reach — the climbs are few and gentle. An electric-assist bike makes the whole thing easier still, and takes the sting out of the northern inclines. And if you get into difficulty, Shiga even has a “Biwaichi Rescue” taxi service that will carry you and your bike.
What is it like to ride?
You set out, most likely, from Ōtsu – the lakeside city nearest Kyoto, barely ten minutes by train from the old capital — or from Maibara on the eastern shore. Whichever way you begin, the pattern of the ride soon settles: the great sheet of the lake always at your side, the mountains rising beyond the far shore, and a shoreline that shifts in character with every dozen kilometres.
The eastern shore is the gentlest and most beloved stretch — flat, open, and lined with rice paddies, with the lake to the west and, on a clear day, mountains ranged across the water. Here you pass Hikone, whose beautiful original castle is one of only a handful to survive intact from the age of the samurai, and Ōmihachiman, a former merchant town threaded with willow-lined canals you can even explore by boat. Further north stands the Nagahama Biwako Daibutsu, a great Buddha watching over the road, and the harbour from which boats cross to Chikubushima, a sacred island of shrines rising from the water.
The northern shore is quieter and wilder, the route occasionally leaving the lake to climb gently inland through more rugged, forested country — the scenery some riders love best, with views north toward the mountains and, in one celebrated spot near Makino, an avenue of towering metasequoia trees that turns to gold in autumn. Near here, too, is the spring-water village of Harie, where pure water flows through every house in channels called kabata — a glimpse of a older, gentler relationship with the lake.
The western shore brings the ride’s most photographed sight: Shirahige Shrine, whose great red torii gate stands in the water offshore, especially magical at dawn or dusk. Beyond it, the western and southern stretches toward Ōtsu are the least peaceful — some busy national road, and a gap where the cycle path runs out — which is exactly why so many riders take the bridge shortcut and skip the southern basin. But by then you have ridden most of the way around a sea, and the satisfaction of closing the loop carries you home.
Renting a bike, and the certificate
Bike rental is well established around the lake, concentrated near Ōtsu, Maibara, and towns like Ōmi-Maiko and Imazu on the western shore, plus Hikone and Nagahama in the east. Standard touring bikes typically run around ¥2,000–¥5,000 per day, and electric or higher-spec road bikes ¥4,000–¥8,000; helmets, locks and repair kits are usually included, and many shops let you book online in advance — wise in spring and autumn, and essential for e-bikes.
Two practical points make a multi-day loop easier. Some shops offer a one-way drop-off (returning the bike to a different town — for example finishing at Kinomoto rather than your start), though this must be arranged ahead and may cost extra. And several offer a cloak or luggage service so you can ride unburdened. For a multi-day ride, a two- or three-day rental is usually the most economical.
A lovely touch: Biwaichi offers an official completion certificate. Register through the Biwaichi app or website, answer a short quiz at checkpoints around the lake as you pass them, and for ¥1,000 you receive a certificate and sticker marking your circuit of the lake — a small but satisfying reward for closing the loop.
Getting there
Lake Biwa’s great advantage is how close it sits to the cities of Kansai. Ōtsu, on the southern shore, is only about 10 minutes by train from Kyoto and well under an hour from Osaka, making it the most popular starting point. Maibara, on the eastern shore, is a Shinkansen stop and the convenient gateway for those coming from Nagoya or Tokyo. Trains on the JR lines run to many points around the lake — Ōtsu, Hikone, Nagahama, Ōmi-Maiko — which is useful not only for reaching the start but as a safety net: if you tire or run short of time, you’re rarely far from a station to shorten the ride.
Where to stay
For a multi-day loop, plan your overnight stops around the shoreline towns. On the 150 km North loop over three days, common staging points are Hikone or Nagahama in the north-east and Ōmi-Takashima or Ōmi-Maiko on the west — pleasant lakeside towns with guesthouses, business hotels and cyclist-friendly hostels (the well-known J-Hoppers hostel at Ōmi-Maiko is set up expressly for Biwaichi riders). Many lakeside inns and ryokan welcome cyclists, and there’s real pleasure in ending a long day’s ride with an onsen soak and a lakeside dinner before the next stage.
When to go
Spring (especially May) and autumn (October–November) are far and away the best times — mild, clear and comfortable, with cherry blossom in spring and fine colour in autumn, and enough other cyclists on the route to swap tips and lend a hand. Avoid the rainy season (mid-June to mid-July), and be very wary of high summer (mid-July to end of August), when Shiga’s temperatures regularly top 35°C and a long day in the saddle carries a real risk of heatstroke. Winter brings heavy snow to the northern shore and is not the season for a loop. Whenever you ride, start early each day and aim to be off the road before dark — some lakeside stretches get genuinely black at night.
A ride worth the distance
Biwaichi is a quieter achievement than the island-hopping drama of the Shimanami Kaidō — a long, contemplative circuit rather than a procession of great bridges. But that is its charm. Over a day or three, you trace the entire edge of Japan’s largest lake, watching its shores change from castle town to spring village to wild northern forest, the water always beside you, until at last the loop closes and you arrive back where you began — tired, accomplished, and carrying a certificate and a set of memories earned one kilometre at a time. For anyone who likes the idea of riding all the way around something, few rides in Japan are so satisfying to complete.
Need more information?
Official and authoritative
Biwaichi Cycling – official site: the official route, rental and certificate information from Shiga Prefecture (English).
Biwako Visitors Bureau- official Shiga tourism, with sights and accommodation around the lake (English).
Japan National Tourism Organization – JNTO’s official travel site (English).
Rental
Biwaichi Rental Cycle (Gok-Seikatsu) – established rental base at JR Maibara station, hybrid and road bikes (English).
Distances, prices and rental policies change — please confirm current details directly with these sources before you ride. The southern and western shoreline includes some busy-road and no-cycle-path sections; ride with care, and consider the North Lake loop if you prefer to avoid them.