South of the modern town of Sakurai, in the Asuka region of Nara Prefecture, the grass and low walls of Yamada-dera mark the ruins of what was once a very grand temple. It was founded in the 640s by Soga no Kurayamada Ishikawamaro, a powerful minister of the Soga clan, who was caught up in court intrigue and is said to have taken his own life at the temple in 649, after being accused of treason. The story gives the quiet site a sad edge. In later excavations, archaeologists uncovered the foundation of the main hall and a long covered corridor whose timbers had collapsed and been buried in place, one of the best-preserved examples of seventh-century temple architecture in Japan.
Asuka is where Japan first took the shape of a state. The Soga, the Prince Shotoku circle, the first great Buddhist temples and the first capital-like palaces were all here, a landscape of small valleys, rice paddies, mysterious carved stones and burial mounds. In autumn, red spider lilies line the rice-field edges, and in early spring rape blossom turns the fields yellow. The nearby sacred mountain of Miwa, with its Omiwa shrine, is one of the oldest cult sites in the country, and Miwa is also famous for its thin somen noodles.
For riding, the roads of Asuka are narrow, winding and quiet. Many are one lane wide, with paddies on both sides, small shrines at the corners and plenty of cyclists in the tourist season. This is a place to ride slowly and take a break. A proper fill-up is easy in Sakurai, a town of sixty thousand people about three kilometres off, and in neighbouring Kashihara, which has more shops and cafes. Both are on the old routes that link Nara, Yoshino and Osaka.
Travel to the Ōmine mountains and Yoshino, the other direction, takes you from the plain up into steep forested country with proper mountain roads. To Himeji, you will take the main routes across the Kansai plain and its congestion. Autumn is the most colourful season here, spring the most delicate, and summer very hot and humid. Early morning is the easiest time for quiet photographs.