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 208 km round trip from Fujinomiya - roughly 3 h 23 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine, Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces and back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki is where the day begins. Next is Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine.
Mount Fuji was never meant to be seen only from a distance, and the shrines at its foot are where the older idea of the mountain as a god survives. The Kawaguchi Asama-jinja sits among tall old cedars on the north side, near Lake Kawaguchi, one of the five lakes that ring the mountain's northern foot, and it is one of the shrines that were used by pilgrims before they began the climb. The deity honoured at the Asama shrines is Konohanasakuya-hime, the princess of the blossoming trees, who is linked with the mountain and its volcanic fire.
Read the complete Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces.
Two pairs of tall brick chimneys stand in a quiet suburb at the base of the Izu Peninsula, looking strangely European against the green hills. They belong to the Nirayama reverberatory furnace, built in the 1850s to melt iron for casting cannons, at a time when Japan felt threatened by Western warships arriving in its waters. The project was led by Egawa Hidetatsu, the local magistrate, a forward-thinking official who studied Western military technology from Dutch books. He died before it was completed, and his son finished the work. It is the only surviving reverberatory furnace of its era in Japan that was actually used for casting, and since 2015 it has been part of the UNESCO site of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.
Read the complete Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces. Next is back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine, late in the day. Next is 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 at Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki. That is the ride.
Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki → Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine → Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces → back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine → Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.