Why this ride
417 km from Ichinohe to Ichinohe, about 6 h 27 of riding. The stops in between: Korekawa Site, Futatsumori Site, Komakino Stone Circle and Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Goshono Site and Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 417 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 27
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Goshono Site
In the hills of northern Iwate, a short ride from the town of Ichinohe, a group of round houses with grass-covered roofs sits in a quiet clearing among cedar and broadleaf woods. They look like something out of a fairy tale, low mounds with doorways and smoke holes, and they are reconstructions of pit dwellings from the Jomon period, the long prehistoric era of hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan from around fifteen thousand years ago until the arrival of rice farming. The Goshono site was a large settlement in the middle Jomon period, and excavations found that some houses here were roofed with earth rather than thatch, which is why the reconstructions look the way they do. Since 2021 it has been one of the components of the World Heritage site of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
Read the complete Goshono Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Goshono Site is where the day begins. Next is Korekawa Site.
2. Korekawa Site
The Korekawa site lies on the southern edge of Hachinohe, a port city on the Pacific coast of Aomori prefecture in northern Honshu, and it is one of seventeen locations in the UNESCO listing of the Jōmon prehistoric sites of northern Japan. The Jōmon were hunter-gatherers who lived in these islands for over ten thousand years, making some of the oldest pottery in the world and developing a remarkably settled, sophisticated way of life without farming. At Korekawa, waterlogged layers preserved things that usually vanish: wooden bowls, combs, bows and baskets, many of them coated in red lacquer, showing a level of craft that surprises everyone who sees them.
Read the complete Korekawa Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Korekawa Site comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Futatsumori Site.
3. 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
about 103 km into the recorded legs you reach Futatsumori Site. Next is Komakino Stone Circle.
4. Komakino Stone Circle
Four thousand years ago, someone on this hillside in northern Honshu lined up stones in a ring and built another ring around it, and they did it carefully enough that the circles are still there. Komakino is a Jōmon stone circle, from the hunter-gatherer people who lived in Japan long before rice farming, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of Jōmon prehistoric sites in northern Japan, added in 2021. The arrangement is quite small and elegant, a double ring of river stones in a grassy field, and nobody knows for sure what it was for. Graves, ceremonies and a calendar of the seasons are all guesses, and it is better to stand there and hold the question than to pretend to an answer.
Read the complete Komakino Stone Circle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Komakino Stone Circle, about halfway. Next is Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
5. Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Over three thousand years ago, Jomon people in northern Japan arranged stones into circles on a terrace at the foot of Mount Iwaki, the conical volcano that dominates the Tsugaru plain in Aomori prefecture. The Omori Katsuyama stone circle is one of these monuments, with a ring of standing and placed stones that may have been used for rituals, burials or marking the seasons. It is part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021, which celebrates a culture of hunter-gatherers who settled in permanent villages and made pottery for over ten thousand years.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle sits at 197 km, about halfway. Next is back through Komakino Stone Circle.
6. back through Komakino Stone Circle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Komakino Stone Circle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Komakino Stone Circle comes up about 248 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Futatsumori Site.
7. back through 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
about 314 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Futatsumori Site. Next is back through Korekawa Site.
8. back through Korekawa Site
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Korekawa Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Korekawa Site, late in the day. Next is Goshono Site.
9. Goshono Site
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Goshono Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 417 km.
Leg by leg
Goshono Site to Korekawa Site
Goshono Site → Korekawa Site is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Korekawa Site to Futatsumori Site
Korekawa Site → Futatsumori Site is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Futatsumori Site to Komakino Stone Circle
Futatsumori Site → Komakino Stone Circle is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Komakino Stone Circle to Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Komakino Stone Circle → Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle to back through Komakino Stone Circle
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → back through Komakino Stone Circle is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Komakino Stone Circle to back through Futatsumori Site
back through Komakino Stone Circle → back through Futatsumori Site is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Futatsumori Site to back through Korekawa Site
back through Futatsumori Site → back through Korekawa Site is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Korekawa Site to Goshono Site
back through Korekawa Site → Goshono Site is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.