CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
186 km from Nonoichi to Nonoichi, about 2 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Suganuma Village, Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka, Ainokura Village and Ogimachi Village 2. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 36 km this is Noto Peninsula Coastal Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Kanazawa escaped the bombs of the Second World War and kept its old quarters, which is a large part of its charm today. The city sits on the Sea of Japan coast of Ishikawa Prefecture, between two rivers and a hill, and for centuries it was ruled by the Maeda clan, the second richest domain in feudal Japan. Their money went into art and craft, and Kanazawa is still known for gold leaf, lacquerware, ceramics and tea ceremony. Kenroku-en, the garden the clan laid out over generations, is counted among the three great gardens of Japan, with its pines held up by rope umbrellas against the heavy winter snow.
Read the complete Kanazawa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kanazawa is where the day begins. Next is Suganuma Village.
Suganuma is one of the two small villages in Gokayama that kept their thatched farmhouses, and it is the quieter of them. It sits on the bank of the Sho River in the mountains of southern Toyama Prefecture, in a steep, forested valley that for centuries was cut off by deep snow for months at a time. A cluster of about nine gassho-zukuri houses, with steep thatched roofs said to resemble hands pressed together in prayer, stand together on a small terrace above the water, and the effect, particularly in morning mist, is of a village from a woodblock print.
Read the complete Suganuma Village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Suganuma Village comes up 17 km in. Next is Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka.
Shirakawa-go and Gokayama together form one of the most photographed rural landscapes in Japan, and for once the photographs are not misleading. Across the border between Gifu and Toyama prefectures, in the deep valley of the Sho River, farming families built houses with huge triangular thatched roofs, some of them three or four storeys high, angled at sixty degrees to shed the heavy winter snow. The roofs are made of reeds without a single nail, and they need rethatching every few decades, a task the village does collectively, in a tradition called yui, with the whole community turning out to help.
Read the complete Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
35 km in you reach Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka. Next is Ainokura Village.
Ainokura is the smaller, quieter sibling to Shirakawa-go, tucked at the head of a side valley in the Gokayama district of Toyama prefecture. About twenty houses stand in the steep thatched gassho style, a name that means hands pressed in prayer and describes the roofs, which are steeply pitched to shed heavy snow. Inside, big wooden frames are lashed together with rope and not nails, and the top floors were built for silk and, famously, for making gunpowder ingredients. The remote location mattered. The Kaga domain, which ruled the area, valued the saltpetre, and the valley was a quiet place where people could make it out of sight. The village forms part of the UNESCO listing with Ogimachi, which is the bigger one.
Read the complete Ainokura Village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ainokura Village, about halfway. Next is Ogimachi Village 2.
Ogimachi is the largest of the gassho villages and the one most people picture when they think of Shirakawa-go, a cluster of steep thatched farmhouses in a valley of the Sho river in Gifu prefecture. Some sixty houses survive here, dark with age, their roofs angled at about sixty degrees so that deep snow slides off. Families once lived on the ground floor, kept silkworms in the attic spaces, and shared the work of rethatching in a communal effort called yui, in which the whole village turned out to rebuild a roof in a day or two. The practice carries on in a smaller form, and a roof is replaced every few decades. The village shares its UNESCO listing with Gokayama, 1995.
Read the complete Ogimachi Village 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ogimachi Village 2 sits at 70 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ainokura Village.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ainokura Village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ainokura Village comes up 87 km in. Next is back through Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
104 km in you reach back through Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka. Next is back through Suganuma Village.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Suganuma Village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Suganuma Village, late in the day. Next is Kanazawa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kanazawa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 186 km.
Kanazawa → Suganuma Village is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka → Ainokura Village is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ainokura Village → Ogimachi Village 2 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ogimachi Village 2 → back through Ainokura Village is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ainokura Village → back through Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Goka is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Suganuma Village → Kanazawa is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.