Futatsumori Site and Oyu Stone Circles starting at Misawa

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Futatsumori Site

   Futatsumori is a gentle hilltop near the town of Shichinohe in Aomori prefecture, overlooking Lake Ogawara, and to an untrained eye it is simply a grassy field among woods and farmland. But this is one of the largest shell mounds in the Tōhoku region, piled up by Jōmon people over thousands of years as they gathered shellfish from the lake and the sea, and it belongs to the same World Heritage group of Jōmon sites as the better-known Sannai-Maruyama. The shell heaps, rich in calcium, neutralised the acid soil and preserved bones, tools and ornaments that would otherwise have dissolved.

   Read the complete Futatsumori Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Futatsumori Site is where the day begins. Next is Sannai Maruyama Site.

2. 2. Sannai Maruyama Site

   On the outskirts of Aomori, at the northern tip of Honshu, archaeologists working on a site for a baseball stadium in the early 1990s found the remains of a large village of the Jomon period, a hunter gatherer culture that lived in Japan for over ten thousand years. Sannai Maruyama was occupied for around a thousand years, from about 5,900 to 4,200 years ago, and its finds changed ideas about the Jomon: long houses, pit dwellings, storehouses, burial grounds, and a huge structure of six massive chestnut posts, now reconstructed as a tall wooden tower. In 2021 it became part of the World Heritage listing of Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.

   Read the complete Sannai Maruyama Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Sannai Maruyama Site comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oyu Stone Circles.

3. 3. Ōyu Stone Circles

   Two great rings of river stones lie in a quiet field on a plateau near Kazuno, in the north of Akita prefecture, and at the heart of each stands a small arrangement of upright stones that has been called a sundial. The Ōyu Stone Circles, known as Manza and Nonakadō, were built by the Jōmon people around four thousand years ago, and they are the largest stone circles in Japan. Beneath and around them archaeologists have found graves, suggesting they were places of burial and ceremony. Some researchers believe the circles were aligned with the setting sun at the summer solstice. Since 2021 they have formed part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.

   Read the complete Oyu Stone Circles write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 154 km into the recorded legs you reach Oyu Stone Circles. Next is back through Sannai Maruyama Site.

4. 4. back through Sannai Maruyama Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sannai Maruyama Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Sannai Maruyama Site, late in the day. Next is Futatsumori Site.

5. 5. Futatsumori Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Futatsumori Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Futatsumori Site. That is the ride.