Hakone Turnpike and Skyline

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Odawara

   Odawara is a castle town at the foot of Hakone, and for most riders it is the place where the mountains begin. The castle, which belonged to the Hojo clan until Toyotomi Hideyoshi besieged it in 1590, has a reconstructed keep, built in 1960, with a museum inside. The old town around it is quiet, with a modest shopping street and some traditional shops. It sits on Sagami Bay, with the coast road leading east and west and the Hakone mountains rising behind.

   Read the complete Odawara write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Odawara is where the day begins. Next is Daikanzan.

2. 2. Daikanzan

   Daikanzan is where Hakone's motorcycles go to gather. It is a high lookout on the rim of the great volcanic caldera at about a thousand metres, and in the car park at the summit of the Hakone Turnpike on a fine weekend you will find a few hundred bikes lined up, from vintage Hondas to the latest superbikes, with their riders drinking canned coffee and talking in low voices about the road. The view is the other half of the story. Below the car park, Lake Ashi lies in the old crater, and beyond it, when the sky is clear, Mount Fuji rises in a perfect cone, framed by clouds and mountains.

   Read the complete Daikanzan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Daikanzan comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lake Ashi.

3. 3. Lake Ashi

   Lake Ashi fills the old crater of Hakone volcano, a long, narrow sheet of blue water ringed by forested mountains and watched over, on clear days, by the cone of Mount Fuji. The lake was formed when the volcano collapsed and a river was dammed, a few thousand years ago, and the surrounding hills still steam and bubble with volcanic heat. The whole area is a popular getaway from Tokyo, about a hundred kilometres to the east, and has been since the days of the shoguns, when travellers on the Tokaido road between Edo and Kyoto passed through on foot and horseback.

   Read the complete Lake Ashi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 19 km into the recorded legs you reach Lake Ashi. Next is Hakone.

4. 4. Hakone

   Hakone is where Tokyo goes to get away from itself. The mountain resort sits in the caldera of an old volcano southwest of the capital, about an hour and a half by road without traffic, with Lake Ashi in the middle and Fuji looming to the northwest on a good day. Odawara, on the coast below, is the practical town, with its castle and its fish markets, while the hot-spring villages scattered through the hills have catered to travellers for centuries. The old Tokaido highway crossed these mountains, and you can still walk stretches of its stone-paved surface and see a reconstructed checkpoint beside the lake, where officials of the Tokugawa shogunate once inspected every traveller's papers.

   Read the complete Hakone write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hakone closes the day.