CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
From Kashihara-shi it runs 169 km to Kashihara-shi; allow about 3 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Kurizuka Kofun, Nara Palace Site, Byodo-in and back through Nara Palace Site. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
28 km on Kurizuka Kofun → Nara Palace Site.
Fujiwara-kyō was Japan's first real city, and the grid that was laid out on this plain in 694 under Empress Jitō was a deliberate imitation of the Tang capital of Chang'an. Until then, the court had wandered from one palace to the next, and each reign built afresh. Fujiwara-kyō fixed the capital in one place, with straight avenues, a walled palace compound, and blocks for officials and temples. It lasted only sixteen years before the court moved north to Heijō-kyō, today's Nara, in 710, but the idea of a planned capital stayed, and Nara and Kyoto followed the same pattern.
Read the complete Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara is where the day begins. Next is Kurizuka Kofun.
South of Nara city, the plain is flat and green, with rice paddies in every direction and low, rounded mountains standing on its rim, and the first Japanese states grew here. Kashihara, on the southern side of the basin, sits near the old capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, where the court and the first lasting Buddhist temples took shape in the sixth and seventh centuries. Kurizuka is one of the many kofun, ancient burial mounds, scattered around the district, and it is a modest, tree-covered hump rather than a spectacular monument.
Read the complete Kurizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kurizuka Kofun comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nara Palace Site.
For most of the eighth century, Nara was the capital of Japan. The city, then called Heijō-kyō, was laid out on a grid modelled on the Chinese capital Chang'an, and at its northern end stood the imperial palace, Heijō-kyū, a vast compound of halls, offices and gardens. When the court moved away at the end of the century, the palace was abandoned and the land eventually returned to rice fields. Today the Nara Palace Site is a huge open space on the western side of the modern city, part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.
Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Nara Palace Site. Next is Byodo-in.
Take a ten-yen coin out of your pocket in Japan and you are holding a picture of this place. The Phoenix Hall of the Byōdō-in in Uji, with its wings stretching out on either side of a central hall and bronze phoenixes on the roof, is one of the most famous buildings in the country. It was built in 1053 by Fujiwara no Yorimichi, a member of the most powerful aristocratic family of the Heian period, who converted his father's villa into a Buddhist temple. Its reflection in the pond in front was meant to evoke the Pure Land paradise of the Amida Buddha.
Read the complete Byodo-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Byodo-in, about halfway. Next is back through Nara Palace Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nara Palace Site sits at 117 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kurizuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kurizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kurizuka Kofun comes up about 142 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara closes the day.
Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara → Kurizuka Kofun is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kurizuka Kofun → Nara Palace Site is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nara Palace Site → Byodo-in is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Byōdō-in → back through Nara Palace Site is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nara Palace Site → back through Kurizuka Kofun is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kurizuka Kofun → Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.