Travel around all cities and towns in Japan twice!
Traveling around Japan by motorcycle may not seem like an exaggerated feat, but photographer Katsusuke Nishina has traveled to every city, town, and village in Japan on his Honda Super Cub, and is currently continuing his journey by Cub, visiting the former cities, towns, and villages from before the great mergers of the Heisei era, as well as the wards of designated cities. As of March 2024, he has visited a total of 2,748 municipalities.
"Originally, I started a two-year journey in 2018 while I was still a university student, visiting every city, town, and village in Japan. At the time, I wanted to see with my own eyes the lives of people all over Japan and record them through photography."
The bike he chose as his partner was Honda's Super Cub.
"When I thought about traveling around each city, town, and village, I considered various means of transportation: car, motorcycle, bicycle, or walking. What I wanted to do was observe the daily lives of the people who live there and take photographs. I gathered information about traveling around Japan from blogs and books, and the Cub seemed like the best fit for the speed and scale of my trip."
He found the Cub in good condition at a local motorcycle shop. He slipped and seriously injured himself on the first day of his trip, and his hands went numb in the winter cold. It was a tentative journey, but he's now on his second trip. He plans to visit even more municipalities, visiting 2,094 of them.
"On my last trip, even though I went everywhere, I still didn't feel like I'd seen everything. I felt that the people who still live in the area still had a lot of the community that existed before the great mergers of the Heisei era. That's why I wanted to explore more thoroughly."
Because this is my second Cub trip, I am able to put what I learned on my first trip to good use.
"After experiencing all the hardships of traveling on a Cub last time, I've gotten used to it quite a bit, now wearing full body protectors and being able to do simple maintenance myself. One thing that really impressed me after riding it once was its fuel economy. Even now, it can get me about 200 km on one tank of gas. But even so, I've still calculated that I've stopped at gas stations about 300 times.
I don't usually ride that fast, around 40 to 50 km per hour. Of course, I can go faster, but I think this sense of speed suits the Cub. Also, even if I think, 'Oh, that's nice,' I'm sure with a car I can't stop quickly, and it might be too much trouble and I might overlook it. But if I ride a Cub slowly, I can stop quickly and point the camera at it.
He modestly says, "Many of them have over 100,000 km on them," but the actual mileage is over 65,000 km. This may be the Cub that has been driven the most in Japan during the four years he has been traveling.
"I still have more than half the route to go, but I'd like to slowly but steadily travel around on my Cub while maintaining it. I feel like our lives are repainted over time, so I want to record as much as I can while I still can, and continue to pass on the fact that these places and lifestyles exist."
Everything I need for the trip is packed into the white box behind my seat and the black bag on the left side of the car. 
A carefully selected set of equipment, including Super Chain Lube and Fuel One, which are essential for daily maintenance. 
The camera bag is always slung over the shoulder while riding so that the camera can be quickly accessed. The repaired seams are visible. 
She posts daily on her social media accounts and on the website "Furusato no Techo," which compiles her travel records, but she also never fails to write in her diary.
Nishina's travel map of all cities, towns and villages in Japan
