Ride Nagano: Take Slow Travel to Another Altitude

Raita Suzuki has ridden bicycles all over the world.

As a professional mountain biker, he represented Japan at the Olympics before going on to manage the national team. Yet the further his career took him from home, the more he began to appreciate the place where he had started.

“As a professional cyclist, I’ve raced in countries all over the world. Experiencing those different places and environments made me increasingly appreciate how unique Japan’s cycling is. The more I travelled, the more aware I became of what it is we have right here. And after all those years abroad, my conclusion is and will always be ‘Nagano’.”

Today, Raita is back on the roads of his home prefecture.

Only now, rather than racing through the landscape, he is inviting others to slow down and experience it with him.

“For me, cycling has never been just a sport. It is a way to move through the world, to journey through scenery, food, people and culture.”

It is this idea that became Ride Nagano.

Knowing the Road

Raita knows Nagano from the saddle.

He knows the mountain roads that climb away from the valley floor and the quieter routes that disappear between rice fields. He knows which turn leads towards a small village and where it is worth getting off the bike altogether.

Some of that knowledge has quite literally been built by him. Raita led a project to develop 100 kilometers of cycling routes through the Japanese Alps, helping establish the region as a destination for riders.

But the roads themselves are only part of the story.

Years spent riding through Nagano have also created relationships with the people who live along them. These connections are what transform a cycling route into something much more personal.

A stop might mean meeting a farmer whose fields you have just ridden past, visiting a local producer or arriving somewhere that would be difficult to experience without an introduction.

These are not experiences added to a route afterwards. They are part of Raita’s Nagano.

A Journey Shaped Around You

There is no standard Ride Nagano journey.

For an experienced cyclist, a day might mean a demanding climb into the Japanese Alps. Another guest may prefer an e-bike and a slower route through the valley, stopping whenever something catches their attention.

Both can reveal just as much about the region.

The bicycle simply provides a different way to move through Japan. There is no window separating you from the landscape and no need to keep moving when somewhere invites a closer look.

It also means guests with different cycling abilities can experience Nagano together. With high-quality e-bikes available, routes can be adapted without losing the pleasure of travelling under your own power.

Where you stay is equally connected to the journey.

Some journeys lead even further from the conventional route, including stays at working temples where morning begins with prayers alongside the resident monks.

Luxury here is not about removing the adventure. It is about having access to places that belong naturally within it.

Moving Through Nagano

There is a particular pleasure in experiencing rural Japan at cycling speed.

In Nagano, the landscape changes gradually around you. Roads run alongside orchards before beginning their climb towards the mountains. Villages appear between stretches of farmland. Old routes lead towards post towns that once welcomed travellers crossing the region on foot.

You notice things that are easily missed when the destination is the only focus.

The smell of something being cooked as you pass a house. A small shrine at the edge of the road. Someone working in a field who stops to talk.

And when something does catch your attention, you can simply stop.

This freedom is what allows Ride Nagano journeys to take on very different characters.

For guests interested in food, the road can lead through some of Nagano’s most productive agricultural areas. Rather than encountering local ingredients for the first time at dinner, you might spend the day riding through the landscape that produced them, meeting the people responsible along the way.

At other times, the journey becomes quieter.

A ride through the mountains might end with time in an onsen, while a slower route can be combined with meditation or time spent in the forest. The distance covered matters less than the experience of moving through the landscape.

Nagano’s history can be approached in much the same way. Historic roads still connect former post towns and mountain communities, allowing guests to follow routes that have carried travellers through the region for centuries.

Raita knows when to leave those roads too.

It might be for time with a local craftsperson, a secluded place of worship or an encounter that exists because someone has taken the time to build a relationship there.

A Journey That Belongs to the Place

Working alongside Raita is award-winning guide and rural development specialist Yukie Sawada.

For both, cycling and rural tourism are closely connected.

Nagano’s countryside is not simply scenery to ride through. It is a living landscape, shaped by the people who farm it and the communities that continue to call its mountain villages home.

Ride Nagano’s journeys are designed with that in mind. Spending time with independent businesses and local producers allows tourism to remain connected to the places guests are experiencing.

It is an approach that has developed through years of living and working here rather than something added to an itinerary as a sustainability statement.

And perhaps that is what makes travelling with Ride Nagano feel different.

Raita has already spent a lifetime discovering these roads. He has raced them, helped build them and returned to them again and again.

Now, the bicycle is simply his way of introducing guests to the Nagano he knows.

Not just where to go, but where to slow down.

Speak with our travel designers to discover how a private Ride Nagano cycling or e-bike experience can become part of your journey through Japan.