Izu Skyline and West Coast

A Tokyo-accessible ridge road with Fuji and Pacific views.

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Why this ride

A Tokyo-accessible ridge road with Fuji and Pacific views. The road: Izu Skyline and Route 136. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Tokyo start

   Every ride from Tokyo begins with a negotiation. The roads are good and the drivers are disciplined, but traffic lights are many and the pace is steady rather than fast, so patience is part of the toolkit. A Sunday dawn is the easiest time to slip away.

   Tokyo is a city of more than thirteen million, and the metropolitan area around it is the largest in the world. It was once the fishing village of Edo, and it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early seventeenth century, then Japan's capital in 1868. That history is visible in odd places: a small shrine tucked between apartment blocks, a stretch of old canal, a temple with incense drifting over a car park. For a rider, it is worth looking up between traffic lights.

   Practicalities are simple, because everything is close. Fuel stations are everywhere, with attendants at many of them, and the city's convenience stores sell hot coffee, rice balls and sandwiches at any hour. The expressways are tolled, and an electronic toll card makes them smoother, though paying at the booth works. Parking for motorcycles is trickier than in many places, so choose a hotel with a bike space in advance and check the rules before leaving the bike anywhere on the street.

   Once you reach the open road, the contrast is striking. Heading south-west along the coast toward the Izu Peninsula, the landscape changes from concrete to hills, tangerine groves and sea views, with Mount Fuji appearing on clear days. The best time to ride is autumn, when the air is dry and cool and the visibility is highest, and spring, when the cherry blossom runs up the coast. Summer is hot and humid, and the rainy season in June can be grey and heavy, so pack proper waterproofs.

2. Atami stop

   Atami is a hot-spring resort on the eastern coast of the Izu Peninsula, a town that climbs the hillside above Sagami Bay in a tumble of hotels, apartment blocks and narrow streets. It has been a place of rest for centuries, and the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu is said to have visited for the waters. Today the town is quite easy to reach from Tokyo, with a bullet train stopping here, which makes it a favourite weekend escape, and it still has a faintly retro seaside air, with old inns, souvenir shops and steaming vents.

   About forty thousand people live in Atami, so you will have no trouble finding fuel, food or a bed, and Yugawara and Hakone are the neighbouring resort towns. The steepness of the streets is a notable feature: roads switch back and forth up the slope, with sharp turns and tight junctions, and you will find yourself in low gears more than expected. Parking can be limited near the seafront, so check before you leave the bike.

   Atami is known for its early-blooming cherry trees, which flower in January and February, long before most of Japan, and for a fireworks display held through the year that reflects across the bay. A reconstructed castle looks over the town from the hill, and a famous art museum stands on a ridge with sea views. The hot springs are the real reason people come, and a soak in an outdoor bath after a day in the saddle does wonders for tired shoulders.

   For riders, this town is the doorway to the Izu Skyline and the coastal roads to the south. The surrounding hills hold forests of cedar, camellia and bamboo, and the sea is often visible between the trees. Weather can be changeable, especially in the rainy season and typhoon months, when the roads may be wet and visibility poor. Spring and autumn are best. If you eat here, look for fresh fish from the bay, dried horse mackerel, and the town's sweet shops, which sell steamed buns and hot-spring-style treats.

3. Izu Skyline stop

   The Izu Skyline is a ridge road, and that one fact explains why motorcyclists have loved it for decades. It runs for tens of kilometres along the high spine of the Izu Peninsula, a toll road that keeps to the crest rather than diving into valleys, so the view changes constantly: on one side the Pacific and Sagami Bay, on the other the deep green slopes toward Suruga Bay, and, on a clear day, the near-perfect cone of Mount Fuji across the water.

   The riding is fluent rather than frantic. The road links long curves with gentle rises and falls, the surface is generally good, and traffic is lighter than on the roads below, though weekends bring groups of cars and bikes. Limits are enforced and the road is monitored, so the pleasure is in rhythm and in the views. Morning is usually the best time for Fuji, since haze builds later in the day, while cold, clear winter days give the sharpest outline but also bring a chance of ice at height.

   The mountains here were built by volcanic activity, as the Izu Peninsula is the northern tip of the Izu-Bonin arc, which has been colliding with the main island of Honshu for millions of years. That is why the peninsula has so many hot springs and why its slopes are covered in dense forest, with bamboo, cedar and broadleaf trees. Mist drifts in easily, and the ridge can be in cloud while the coast below is sunny, so check the forecast and carry a waterproof.

   Fill up in Atami, a short way below, which has everything you need, before you climb onto the ridge. At the lookouts and rest stops you will find vending machines, a few cafes and parking, and the views are well worth the pause. Because this is a toll road, you pay on entering or leaving, and having change or an electronic card ready makes life easier. Autumn gives the clearest air and the best colours.

4. Shuzenji stop

   Shuzenji is an onsen town in the middle of the Izu Peninsula, laid out along the Katsura river in a narrow valley of cedar and bamboo, and it is one of the oldest hot-spring settlements in Japan. Legend credits the monk Kobo Daishi with starting it: he is said to have struck a rock in the river with a ritual implement, and the hot water that gushed out became the town's famous open-air bath, which still sits right at the riverside. A temple founded here has given the town its name.

   History has also left darker marks. The second Kamakura shogun, Minamoto no Yoriie, was confined at Shuzenji by his Hojo in-laws and killed in 1204, a family story that fed into centuries of drama and theatre. Later, in 1910, the novelist Natsume Soseki came here to recover from a serious stomach illness and nearly died, an episode he wrote about afterwards. These details give the town the feel of a place where people come to recover, and perhaps to be forgotten for a while.

   Walking is the main activity: a path through a bamboo grove runs beside the river, lanterns light the bridges in the evening, and the inns serve multi-course dinners of local fish and mountain vegetables. Wasabi grows in clear streams in these hills, and you will find it fresh-grated in the restaurants. For a rider, the town is a place to slow down. The streets are narrow and often busy with walkers in yukata, so park the bike and explore on foot.

   The road toward Shuzenji from the surrounding ridges is a pleasure, a series of moderate bends and climbs through forest, with changing views of the valley. The surface is generally good, though leaf litter and damp patches can be slippery in autumn and the rainy season. Itō, about fourteen kilometres away, and Numazu are the larger towns for fuel and supplies, though the town itself has services. In autumn the maples colour the river banks, and in the cooler months a long soak is the best possible ending to a ride.

5. Dogashima finish

   Dogashima is the finish, and it earns it. On the western coast of the Izu Peninsula, the sea has carved the soft volcanic rock into a scatter of small islands, arches and stacks, with pale cliffs dropping into water that turns from emerald to deep blue. A short boat trip runs out to a sea cave called Tensodo, whose ceiling has a hole that lets light fall onto the water, and at low tide a sandbar appears between the shore and a nearby island, letting people walk across on the sea floor.

   The scenery is the product of volcanic ash laid down under water and then lifted and eroded, which is why the rock is light, layered and easy for waves to shape. Along the coast the cliffs of Sandanbeki, a short drive away, add a darker drama in the form of columnar basalt. Sunset is the moment people come for here: the sun sinks into Suruga Bay, with Mount Fuji sometimes visible in silhouette across the water, and the whole shoreline turns orange.

   Reaching this far-western stretch means a long ride along the coastal road, with curves that follow the cliffs, small fishing harbours and views that open and close between headlands. The road is not fast, but it is rewarding, and traffic is light outside holidays. It can be wet and misty, especially in the rainy season and when a typhoon is passing offshore, and the sun glare at the end of the day can be fierce, so a clean visor is worth carrying.

   The nearest town of any size is Shimoda, about nineteen kilometres to the south, and it is the sensible place to plan fuel and a bed, although small inns and shops can be found locally. Seafood here is fresh: sea bream, squid, and the local specialties of the Izu coast, with dried fish and seaweed on sale in the harbour shops. Sit by the water with a drink, watch the boats go out and the light go down, and let the day's ride settle quietly.

Where this sits

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