The Tateyama region is a natural for bicycling. Bike rentals, including battery-assisted bikes, are available right at the station and at several shops nearby.  You’ll also find maps at the Tourist Information offices and at your hotels detailing cycling “courses” for every skill level and interest, with markers to guide you to cliffside temples, historic monuments, and scenic overviews.

Or, make your own way along the roads of flowers and beaches, and from them onto almost any road heading inland from Kagami Bay on the west or Heisa Bay on the south. You’ll soon find yourself on Tateyama’s rural byways. The climbs are gentle, over hills on one side that lead to others beyond, down into one small valley and then another, each sheltering its own hamlet.

Just a few hundred meters from the coast, your world will turn from sea- and sky-blue to sun-dappled greens and the brilliant hues of fields of flowers. The region as a whole is one of Japan’s most prolific agriculturally, and indeed, locals describe Tateyama as abundant in the fruit of the earth as of the sea. “That’s why we’ve never had to worry ourselves much about anything. We could just live on the plenty all around us.”

Tateyama is famous for its peanuts and for its prolific harvests of rice, expanses of yellow rape seed, orchards of orange biwa, and acres of warm-winter lettuce and juicy, red strawberries. Take a moment to chat with some of the bonneted women when they’re taking a break in their kitchen gardens, or stop at a “pick-your-own” farm and bring home a sackful of seasonal flavor.