Asia - Cycling In Japan

Hi,
My wife and I will be traveling to Japan for a couple of weeks. I will be left to my devices for about 3 days around Tokyo and I was wondering if there is any good cycling around the area. I would consider myself an experienced cyclist and travel by bike everyday, about 25,000km a year would be typical. I am confident cycling on roads.
The following are issues I have:

1. Bike rental: I have a bike bag but my wife will probably not allow me to bring my bike so I will have to rent one. I would like to rent a road bike suited for touring. Does anyone know if there are bike shops that rent out their bikes?

2: Touring the country side: I don't really want to be riding around the city as well, so I would probably take a train out of the city to ride around country roads. So ideally it would be best to rent the bike at the other end of the train ride.

3. Nice places to ride: I have never ridden in Japan before and only been there once in my life a long long time ago. Can anyone recommend nice places to ride?

4. If I was allowed to bring my bike, can someone tell me what I should be looking out for when traveling with my bike? I have only traveled interstate within Australia with my bike but never international. I will also have to transit in Singapore Airport. Basically, what I am looking for are bike transport traveling tips..... cost, inconvenience, lessons learnt etc.

Thanks,
Jon

I wonder if you could rent a folding bike that you could take on the train? But yes it would be preferable to rent a bike at the end of the train ride.

Thanks for the tip. is bike rental difficult in Japan? Alternatively, i was thinking of purchasing a used roadie and leave it with the in-laws who live in Japan. But I understand that there is a bike registration cost and it can get quite complicated for a foreigner?

I've never been to Japan, but there's a member named TrekJapan who lives in Japan and posts in the folding bike section - do a search.

Thanks. I will get in contact with him/her.

Cheers

OzJon, I have a bike rental and tour business in Yokohama about 30 km south of Tokyo. I only rent small folding bikes (and a couple minivelos) which are good for short rides in the city but if you are interested (and aren`t too big) I would be happy to rent you my own bike, a Dahon Curve SL. It`s really a great little folder definitely capable of longish rides - plus it folds quickly and compactly.

click the link below for photos and also -

www.yokohamaliving.blogspot.com (http://www.yokohamaliving.blogspot.com)