Aso Milk Road and Yamanami Highway

Open volcanic grasslands and flowing highland roads.

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Why this ride

Open volcanic grasslands and flowing highland roads. The road: Routes 11, 45 and 212. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Kumamoto start

   Kumamoto is the big city of central Kyushu, with a population of around 680,000, and its centrepiece is a castle. Kumamoto Castle was built in the early seventeenth century by the warlord Kato Kiyomasa, who was a master of fortification, and its great stone walls curve upward in a flare that is said to defeat any attempt to climb them. In April 2016 a pair of powerful earthquakes badly damaged the castle and brought down parts of its walls and roofs, and restoration work has been long and careful. The scale of the damage, and the care of the repair, are part of the city's character now.

   The city has other claims on your attention. Suizenji, a landscape garden laid out in the seventeenth century, recreates the Tokaido road in miniature, with a small mound representing Mount Fuji. The local food is distinctive: thick, garlicky tonkotsu ramen, and basashi, thinly sliced raw horse meat, which is a regional specialty. The city's bear mascot, Kumamon, is everywhere, on trains, signs and souvenirs, a marketing success that has made the red cheeks famous across Japan.

   As a place to start a motorcycle ride, Kumamoto is convenient. Fuel stations are everywhere, parking for bikes is manageable if you book a hotel with space, and the roads east toward Aso quickly leave the city behind. Getting out takes patience, though, because the central streets are busy with trams, buses and commuters, and the ring roads are slow at rush hour. Early on a weekend morning, you can be out of the suburbs and among the rice fields in under half an hour.

   The route heads for the Aso caldera, one of the largest in the world, and the landscape changes steadily, with farmland giving way to ridges, grassland and then the volcanic bowl itself. Spring and autumn offer the best conditions, with clear air and moderate temperatures, while summer can be hot and humid, with heavy rain in June and July. Stock up on water, eat a proper breakfast, and enjoy the feeling of heading for the mountains.

2. Aso Caldera stop
3. Daikanbo stop · 936 m
4. Kuju Highlands stop
5. Beppu finish

   Beppu steams. Walk down almost any street in this city on the east coast of Kyushu and you will see white plumes rising from vents, drains and rooftops, because the ground below is boiling. With some two thousand hot-spring sources, among the most of any place in Japan, Beppu produces more hot water than almost anywhere in the world, and the city is organized around it, with public bathhouses, steaming ponds and a faint smell of sulfur everywhere.

   The best-known attractions are the Jigoku, the Hells, a group of spectacular hot springs meant for viewing rather than bathing. One is a bright, blood-red pond; another, a milky, cobalt-blue; another spouts a geyser at intervals. Locals cook with the steam, using it to steam vegetables, eggs and pudding at the Kannawa district, a method called jigoku-mushi. At the old Takegawara bathhouse, built in 1879, you can be buried in warm sand, a Beppu specialty, and the experience is oddly relaxing.

   Geography makes the riding. Behind the city rise the volcanoes of the Beppu-Yufuin region, including Mount Tsurumi, and the road known as the Yamanami Highway climbs from here through highland grassland toward Mount Aso, the huge caldera in the heart of Kyushu. The route offers wide views, open ridges of silver grass and gentle curves, and the surface is generally good, with relatively little traffic outside holidays. The area around Yufuin, a hot-spring town with a lake and a lively tourist street, makes a pleasant stop.

   Beppu is a city of over a hundred thousand, so fuel, convenience stores and restaurants are everywhere, and Oita, a short ride south, is bigger still. Local food includes toriten, a fried chicken dish, and dango-jiru, a dumpling soup. The best months are April for cherry blossom, and October and November for color on the mountains; summer is hot and humid, with typhoon risk in late summer and autumn. Winter brings occasional snow on the high roads, which can close them, and the steaming town is a pleasure at that time of year.

Where this sits

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