Michinoku Coastal Trail: hiking the rebuilt coast of Tohoku

1000km of trail

The Michinoku Coastal Trail stretches more than 1,000 kilometres along the northeastern Pacific coast of Honshu, from Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture down to Soma in Fukushima. It passes through forests, river valleys, fishing ports, rocky headlands and remote beaches — most of it with few other walkers in sight.

Michinoku みちのく is the ancient name for the northern Tohoku region. The trail opened officially in June 2019 and is one of Japan's longest long-distance hiking routes. It is also one of its most recent, and the reason it exists at all is inseparable from one of the worst natural disasters in modern Japanese history.

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami

The tsunami that followed the earthquake swept inland with waves reaching up to 40 metres in some locations, destroying entire coastal towns within minutes. Nearly 20,000 people lost their lives. Kamaishi and Miyako — both of which the trail passes through — were among the most severely affected. The concrete sea walls that now line much of the coast are impossible to miss: enormous structures, sometimes blocking the view of the sea entirely, built to protect communities that were left with nothing.

The trail runs through Sanriku Fukko National Park — Japan's first national park created specifically as part of a post-disaster reconstruction effort, established in 2013. Walking it feels like a small act of solidarity with that effort, even years later.

At Nakanohama, where the Miyako section begins, a memorial park now stands on what was once a busy camping ground. Waves here reached 21 metres. It is a sobering place to start a walk.

Walking the trail

The route runs north to south and is divided into sections, each with downloadable maps and route information on the official website. Because it is linear, you will need public transport to return to your starting point after a day hike — which is straightforward in most sections but worth planning in advance, as some trains run only every two hours.

In 2019 I walked three sections over several days, combining day hikes with overnight stays along the route. Each section has its own character, difficulty level and atmosphere, and I've written about each one separately:

• Hachinohe section — a gentler introduction along a dramatic rocky coastline, popular with locals at weekends
• North to Central Miyako section — the most demanding and rewarding of the three, with steep cliffs, forest paths and almost no other walkers
• Ryōishi to Kamaishi section — a mixed experience, partly along a busy road, but worth visiting for the town itself and the views from Kamaishi Dai-kannon

Ryōishi to Kamaishi section

The Kamaishi section was the most mixed of the three we walked — worth including here for what it reveals about the rebuilt coast, but not quite enough for a separate post.

We reached the trail by taking the train from Miyako to Ryōishi Station, one stop before Kamaishi, and started walking from there. The first part followed a busy road for several kilometres, passing a campground and Mizuumi Park before reaching Kagami-kaigan. After that, the route dropped into the woods, climbed to a viewpoint above Kamaishi port, then descended again toward the industrial waterfront.

As a hike, it did not leave the same strong impression as the other sections. But Kamaishi itself is worth visiting: a small industrial port town devastated by the 2011 tsunami and rebuilt in the years that followed. The Iron and Steel History Museum adds useful context, and the views from Kamaishi Dai-kannon on the Kamazaki Peninsula are wide — and sobering, looking out over the mounded storage sites where radioactive debris from the cleanup still sits in the landscape below.

Hotel Folkloro Sanriku Kamaishi was a comfortable place to end the day, with wide views over the town.