6 Japanese Marathons Worth the Trip Beyond Tokyo

Ibusuki, Japan

1Ibusuki Nanohana Marathon: 42K through canola blossoms in January

The 2027 race starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday, January 10.

The course loops Lake Ikeda, the largest lake in Kyushu, then heads toward the sea with Mount Kaimon—known as “Satsuma Fuji”—in view. Online entry closes October 18, and the entry fee is 11,000 yen. The canola along the road doesn't bloom there by chance: According to the race, residents start planting it in mid-October to welcome runners.

Along the course, people hand out bonito belly and sweet potatoes, both local specialties, and past the finish there's hot udon or soba and zenzai, a sweet red bean soup. The 8-hour time limit is the most generous of the six races. But for a runner who made a marathon debut here in 2026 (YouTube: Aya - London), what stuck was the hills.

“Up and down these plain little hills, again and again … and from the 30K mark, those plain hills just keep going.” Another runner who raced in costume (002masami) admitted after the finish, “The time limit's long, so I let my guard down. I'm tired.

There's no such thing as an easy marathon.” Ibusuki bills itself as the town of sand-bath hot springs. For legs that have climbed and descended all those hills, the move the next day is a sand bath on the beach, buried up to your neck in hot sand.

Ibusuki Nanohana MarathonSun, January 10, 2027 · D-57 · Ibusuki, JapanSee race details

Kumamoto, Japan

2Kumamoto Castle Marathon: Climb after 40K to a finish inside the castle

“Like I'm gonna walk. I'll climb this anytime.” That's what a runner in the race for the first time in 2026 (YouTube: ハイメrunちゃんねる) muttered near 42K, looking up at the final climb.

Most of the Kumamoto Castle Marathon course is flat, just over 10 meters above sea level, so from the Torichosuji start downtown, south around Kawashiri, to the turnaround near Kumamoto Port, there's little strain on the legs. The race is decided after 40K, once you cross Taiheibashi bridge. The road starts climbing toward the castle, and the finish line sits in Ninomaru Plaza, inside the grounds of Kumamoto Castle, a Special Historic Site.

The 2027 race starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday, February 21, with a 7-hour time limit.

The marathon drew 23,390 applicants for 13,000 spots, a lottery at roughly 1.8 to 1, and results come out October 15. If you're drawn, you have to check in with facial verification at Hanabata Plaza on one of the two days before the race (February 19 or 20). There's no proxy check-in and no race-day check-in, so plan to arrive on Friday or Saturday.

That runner missed the sub-3:30 goal, but the postrace comments had nothing to do with time. “My motivation had dropped so low I was thinking this season might be my last, but it was so much fun it wiped that out in an instant.” Running the same day, a Kumamoto-born running coach (YouTube: 三津家貴也) cramped up and had to walk, but remembered the roadside support this way: “People kept calling out to me the whole time … my legs stopped, but my mouth kept going.”

And the last thing the runner from ハイメrunちゃんねる talked about was a kind of sadness. “The moment I saw the finish, it was like, oh, it's already ending.”

Kumamoto Castle Marathon 2027Sun, February 21, 2027 · D-99 · Kumamoto, JapanSee race details

静岡, Japan

3Shizuoka Marathon: Run with Mount Fuji and the sea in view to a finish at a train station

“Running along the sea feels so good.” That's what a runner in the race for the first time in 2026 (YouTube: ウルトラランナーみゃこ) said the moment the course reached the coastal road on Suruga Bay. A little later came, “There's no wind this year,” and after the finish, the runner talked about stopping cold at an aid station serving Shizuoka oden.

“It was so good. And Mount Fuji was really beautiful.” That year, six of the 15 aid stations, plus the rest points, served local food, and another runner (もーりーちゃんねる) confessed to stopping “for about 4 minutes” in front of the oden and motsu curry.

The race starts in front of Shizuoka City Hall and finishes at the east exit of JR Shimizu Station. Once you're out of the city, the ridgeline of the Southern Alps rises beyond the fields, and on the Abe River levee, Mount Fuji comes into view in the distance. Late in the race, you run along Suruga Bay, the deepest bay in Japan, toward Fuji.

A 2019 course revision made it the flattest in race history, and since the finish is right at the station, you can take JR straight back to Shizuoka Station. The 2027 race starts at 8:20 a.m.

on Sunday, March 14. First-come, first-served entry runs through November 12, but it closes earlier if the field fills. The time limit is 6 hours, with 10 cutoffs.

A sweep vehicle follows at a steady pace timed to the final cutoff, and one runner who always runs near the back (もんきち Channel) had legs give out around 17K that day and was eventually caught by the sweep bus. Before the start, here's what the runner told the camera: “I always end up not making it to the sea.”

2027 Shizuoka MarathonSun, March 14, 2027 · D-120 · 静岡, JapanSee race details

Nagano, Japan

4Nagano Marathon: Past Zenkoji to the Olympic Stadium—and 2027 is already full

This race crosses the city that hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics. At 8:30 a.m.

on Sunday, April 18, 2027, it leaves Nagano Sports Park, passes the gate of Zenkoji temple and the Olympic venues, and finishes in Nagano Olympic Stadium. If you were hoping to put it on your 2027 calendar, this news comes too late. General entry opened September 12, 2026, and organizers announced on October 9 that the race was full—reportedly three weeks earlier than last year.

So why is Nagano in this story? Because it's the strictest of the six. The time limit is 5 hours, with nine cutoffs roughly every 5K.

A runner who ran a first marathon here in 2026 (a companion in a video on the YouTube channel となりのCOCORO) fell apart after 25K and, once passed by the 5-hour pace group, thought, “This is over.” What got the runner going again was an older spectator by the road: “Don't give up here … don't look down.” Runners that year all said it was hot, and one running near the back (ばか夫婦のRUNちゃんねる) pointed a camera at the sky: “That's the Alps over there.

First time I've ever seen them that clearly.” After the finish, the shuttle to the east exit of Nagano Station takes about 60 minutes and can get stuck in traffic, so organizers suggest an alternative: the shuttle to Shinonoi Station, about 20 minutes away, then JR back. If you're aiming for 2028, and entry opens in September again as it did in 2026, keep the first week clear.

For runners confident they can finish in under 5 hours, this city offers a finish line in an Olympic stadium.

Nagano MarathonSun, April 18, 2027 · D-155 · Nagano, JapanSee race details

Yubetsu, Japan

5Lake Saroma 100km Ultramarathon: 100K along the Sea of Okhotsk in under 13 hours

“The first cool Saroma of my life.” That's what a runner who had only known hot Saromas (YouTube: ヘイジーのRUN ch.) said before dawn on June 28, 2026, while waiting for the start.

Another runner, back for a third attempt (はらはらえはら), remembered the race from 2023, 2024, and 2025 as “over 30° three years in a row. A seriously hot race.” That year was different.

The Hokkaido Shimbun reported cool, drizzly weather, and the 41st edition sent off 3,870 starters, the most in race history. Starting in 2026, there's also a commemorative medal for “Japan's Three Great Lake Marathons,” which pairs the race with the Lake Biwa Marathon and the Kasumigaura Marathon. According to Shiga Prefecture, 39 runners were the first to be recognized for finishing all three.

The course follows Lake Saroma in northeastern Hokkaido, separated from the Sea of Okhotsk by a single sandbar. You leave Yubetsu at 5 a.m.

, take in the lake and the sea in one view around 18K, and pick up the bag you dropped at the start at the 54.5K rest station. Past the Witch's Forest around 65K, you run out and back inside the Wakka Primeval Flower Garden from 80K to 98K. The time limit is 13 hours, with a 50K cutoff at 6 hours, 30 minutes.

The 2027 date and entry details haven't been announced yet. A video from a runner who dropped out at 60K in 2025 and came back (酒ラン / Sake Running) follows the 100K section by section. Last time, the runner rested too long at the 54.5K rest station, and “my spirit was half broken.”

This time, it was cool, and the Witch's Forest went by “without being led astray by the witch's whispers.” What remained was Wakka. “Wakka, which I thought might never end, finally hits the turnaround … and then the despair of having to come back down this same road.”

The runner crossed the finish line in 12:29 and change.

Lake Saroma UltramarathonJune 2027 · expected · Yubetsu, JapanSee race details

Sapporo, Japan

6Hokkaido Marathon: Sapporo cools the August heat with 10 tons of snow

Snow piled at the 28.2K mark: about 4 tons, trucked in from the town of Numata, with roughly 6 more tons at the runner support area in Maeda Forest Park. That's how a midsummer marathon in Sapporo fights the heat. There are 140,000 sponges spread across four locations, and at 13.2K and 31.3K, runners grab ice themselves.

If the heat index (WBGT) reaches 28 or higher, the race can be stopped, or cutoff times moved earlier. The start and finish are both in Odori Park, in the center of Sapporo. The course passes through Susukino, loops the south side of the city, exits the Sosei Tunnel, runs the roughly 13K out-and-back on Shinkawa-dori, and returns past the Hokkaido University campus and the front garden of the red-brick former Hokkaido Government Office.

The field is capped at 20,000, first come, first served, with a 6-hour time limit. The 2026 race was August 30. The 2027 date and entry schedule haven't been set; entry for the 2026 race opened March 29.

Bibs are handed out only at Odori Park 8-chome over the two days before the race, so book your flights around that first. Sapporo in 2026 was surprisingly cool. A runner aiming for 3:10 (YouTube: タケゾンチャンネル) said right after the start, “It's about 19°, and there's no humidity at all,” and two runners racing for sub-3 (TKD PROJECT) said, “It's totally different from last year.”

But after the finish, the タケゾンチャンネル runner summed it up differently: “Once you run, it's hot … pouring water on myself, cooling my neck with ice.” At the Shinkawa-dori turnaround, there was a headwind too. That was at 19°C (66°F).

It's why organizers lay down 10 tons of snow.

Hokkaido MarathonAugust 2027 · expected · Sapporo, JapanSee race details