For general information on Japan, there are any number of guidebooks and web sites. Many people will be familiar with the Lonely Planet guide, and it’s a good one. However, I’d like to recommend another source of information that, though now a bit long in the tooth, still stands out above the rest: Japan Inside Out, a massive guidebook written by longtime Japan (and Kansai) resident Jay Gluck (who sadly passed away a few years ago). It’s an astonishing 1341 pages and includes 135 maps & plans, 85 sketches, and many times the information and insight contained in any other guide. The authors had to use a tiny font and adopt a very terse, abbreviated writing style to get it down to even this size! The amount of information can be overkill; if you're new to Japan, you might want to use a more general guide to find the parts of Japan you'd like to see, then consult this one for more detailed information. For more experienced cyclists, though, this guide is worth its weight in gold; it can give you historical data and point you to accommodations even in many of the tiny out-of-the-way places that you'll most likely be heading to on your cycle tours.