Kiusu sits within the city limits of Chitose, but you would never guess it from the gentle forest and the soft ground underfoot. This is one of the strangest ancient monuments in Japan: circular graves enclosed by a raised embankment of earth, made by Jomon people about three thousand years ago. They dug a great ring pit, piled the soil into a bank around it, and placed their dead inside. The largest circles are many metres across, and the earthworks are still easy to read as mounds, grassy and a bit like a stage set. It forms part of the northern Jomon listing, which UNESCO inscribed in 2021. The reason for such labour is still discussed, but the effort tells you the dead mattered to the group.
Chitose is known to most travellers for the New Chitose Airport, so it is a common start or end point for rides in Hokkaido. That makes this one of the easiest ancient sites to reach from a landing. Fuel, food and rental shops are a few kilometres away, and the city has everything. From here a ride south goes to Lake Shikotsu, a deep, clear caldera lake ringed by volcanoes including Tarumae and Eniwa, whose cone is a good silhouette in the afternoon. The road around the lake is quiet and well surfaced, and the water stays cold and very blue even in August.
Roads in this part of central Hokkaido are broad and smooth, with long, easy bends and good visibility. Speed limits are low and enforcement is real, with unmarked cars, so keep it measured. The surface can be slick in morning dew and after rain, and gravel sneaks onto corners near farms. Deer and fox cross at dusk. In winter the roads are closed to everyday motorcycling because of snow and ice, and the riding season runs from May to October.
The surrounding landscape is wet woodland, volcanic soil and marsh. Kitahiroshima, fifteen kilometres away, is a lively town where the farmland begins. The air smells of pine and cold water, and early morning here is calm.