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.
A 129 km round trip from Sakurai - roughly 1 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Asuka-dera is where Japanese Buddhism first took root in earnest. The temple was started in the late sixth century by Soga no Umako, the most powerful minister of his day, as the first full-scale Buddhist temple in the country, built with the help of craftsmen sent from the Korean kingdom of Baekje. Tile makers, bronze casters and architects crossed the sea, and the layout they used, with a pagoda surrounded by three golden halls, was a new thing on these islands, where until then the gods had been honoured in groves and simple shrines.
Read the complete Asuka-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Asuka-dera Temple Site is where the day begins. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji.
Every April, the hillsides of Yoshino turn pink and white as tens of thousands of cherry trees burst into bloom, and the narrow ridge-top town fills with visitors who come to see one of Japan's most famous blossom displays. But Yoshino is more than a flower show. It is the heart of Shugendō, a mountain religion that blends Buddhism, Shinto and ancient nature worship, and the Kimpusen-ji temple, with its enormous wooden main hall, the Zaō-dō, is its spiritual centre. The temple is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, listed by UNESCO in 2004.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Ōminesan-ji is a temple on the summit of Mount Sanjō, one of the peaks of the Ōmine range in the heart of the Kii peninsula, and it holds a special place in Japanese religion. It is a centre of Shugendō, the mountain ascetic tradition that blends Buddhism, Shinto and older mountain worship, and its practitioners, the yamabushi, undergo arduous training on the ridges. The temple is famous for another reason too: the mountain is still closed to women by tradition, one of the last such places in Japan, which has become a subject of ongoing debate.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. Next is back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji, late in the day. Next is Asuka-dera Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Asuka-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Asuka-dera Temple Site. That is the ride.
Asuka-dera Temple Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji → Asuka-dera Temple Site is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.