I slept outside 19 of the 22 days I was in Japan. Behind the rear wheels of a parked truck, under bridges, on top of bridges, behind AC units... urban camping is half the fun of it. Japan just sets the difficulty level to EXPERT.
A little town off the main road was my best bet at midnight for finding a dark corner. The stream running through the center had multiple bridges, but there was only one that was wide enough not to be seen from the road.
Behind a house under construction makes for an excellent sleeping spot. Only problem was, the neighbor caught me. He told me to leave by digging on his side of the fence, right by where my head was at.
For whatever reason, this bridge closes at night. So I slept on it.
This is another bridge I slept on. It was still under construction, so there wasn't any traffic.
The architect of this building must have included the wings to hide vagrant cyclists.
More like Happy Highway! The clearing was level but also still hidden from the road.
I found out this was a bullet train track about 7:00 am. As I was heading out, an old man asked if I slept there. He then gave me apple juice.
These park benches were in Amori, the end of my trip. I woke up to the sound of a jogger, and was so tired I thought I'd wait for them to wake me up again on their next lap.
Cycling across Japan