At the southern end of the Skyline, the road leaves the barren high ground and comes down into a gentler landscape of forest, lakes and wide views toward Mount Bandai. This is the part of Fukushima prefecture that surrounds Lake Inawashiro, the fourth-largest lake in Japan, and the land is dotted with hot springs, ski resorts and small farms. Mount Bandai itself is a famous volcano, and its great collapse in 1888 buried villages and dammed rivers, forming the lakes and ponds of the Urabandai area, which now look like a scatter of coloured jewels in the forest.
The road here is easy and relaxed after the high section, with long, sweeping descents and gentle bends through cedar and beech forest. Autumn brings a bright flush of red and orange, and the combination of volcanic landscape and forest is famous. Surface conditions are good, but fallen leaves and damp patches can reduce grip. Rain is common in summer, and fog can settle in the valleys.
Inawashiro and Nihommatsu are the nearest towns of any size, with fuel, shops and restaurants. Inawashiro is also the birthplace of Hideyo Noguchi, a bacteriologist whose face appeared on the thousand-yen note for two decades, and a museum there tells his story. In the Aizu region nearby, the old castle town of Aizuwakamatsu has a fine castle and a samurai heritage connected with the Boshin war of the 1860s, when local warriors fought on the losing side against the new imperial government.
Local food includes soba noodles, miso-glazed grilled rice balls and Aizu sake. The region is cold in winter, with heavy snow, and the roads close on the upper sections. For riders, the best months are May to October. If the sky is clear, pull over where you can see Bandai, whose broken, crater-scarred shape is a reminder of what the mountain did.