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 Gotenba it runs 157 km to Gotenba; allow about 2 h 39 of riding. The stops in between: Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine, Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki, Lake Kawaguchiko and back through Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 30 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
On the eastern side of Mount Fuji, in the village of Subashiri, a shrine has stood at the start of the pilgrims' path for more than a thousand years. The Fuji Sengen shrine, often called Higashiguchi Hongū, the eastern main shrine, marks the beginning of the Subashiri trail to the summit, and pilgrims traditionally prayed here before starting their climb. The shrine is set in a forest of tall cedars and old trees, with a red gate, wooden halls and a quiet, spiritual atmosphere, and it is one of the components of the Fujisan UNESCO site, recognised as part of the mountain's cultural and religious landscape.
Read the complete Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine is where the day begins. Next is Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine.
There is a good argument that this is the most atmospheric shrine at the foot of Mount Fuji, and it has nothing to do with the view. Omuro Sengen-jinja stands in a grove of huge old cedars on the northern side, close to the lake town of Kawaguchiko, and the trees are so tall and so quiet that the sound of the road disappears within a few steps of the torii. The shrine is attached to the cult of Fuji itself, the idea that the mountain is a goddess to be placated, and it is part of the World Heritage listing for Fujisan as a sacred place and not simply a pretty one.
Read the complete Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki.
Deep in the lava forests on the western foot of Mount Fuji there is a cave formed when molten rock flowed down the slopes and its crust cooled while the interior drained away. The Hitoana lava tube is small and low, but in the sixteenth century an ascetic called Hasegawa Kakugyo is said to have practised extreme austerities inside it, and he became the founder figure of the Fuji-ko, the popular confraternities whose members climbed Fuji as an act of worship. Around the cave entrance stand hundreds of stone memorials erected by Fuji-ko groups over the centuries, mossy and leaning among the trees. The site is one of the components of the World Heritage listing Fujisan, Sacred Place and Source of Artistic Inspiration.
Read the complete Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki. Next is Lake Kawaguchiko.
You can ride around Kawaguchiko in a morning and spend the next three days waiting for Mount Fuji to come out of the cloud. That is the local joke, and it holds a grain of truth: the volcano, at 3,776 metres, makes its own weather, and the summit often hides until the cold, clear hours just after dawn, especially in winter. Lake Kawaguchiko is the most visited of the Fuji Five Lakes, sitting at about 830 metres on the north side of the mountain, in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, and the classic view is from the northern shore with the cone reflected in still water.
Read the complete Lake Kawaguchiko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Kawaguchiko, about halfway. Next is back through Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki sits at 114 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine comes up about 132 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine closes the day.
Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine → Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine → Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki → Lake Kawaguchiko is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lake Kawaguchiko → back through Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki → back through Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuji Omuro Segen-jinja Shrine → Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.