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.
365 km from Kyoto to Kyoto, about 6 h 22 of riding. On the way it passes Nara Palace Site, Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Hongan-ji → Nara Palace Site for 38 km.
Kyoto's Hongan-ji, in the middle of the city a short walk from the main railway station, is a temple of the Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism, the largest branch of Buddhism in Japan, and one of the most important buildings in the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto inscribed by UNESCO in 1994. The city of one and a half million people spreads in every direction, and it is no place for fast riding, but the temple is one of the quietest and most human of the great monuments.
Read the complete Hongan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hongan-ji is where the day begins. Next is Nara Palace Site.
For most of the eighth century, Nara was the capital of Japan. The city, then called Heijō-kyō, was laid out on a grid modelled on the Chinese capital Chang'an, and at its northern end stood the imperial palace, Heijō-kyū, a vast compound of halls, offices and gardens. When the court moved away at the end of the century, the palace was abandoned and the land eventually returned to rice fields. Today the Nara Palace Site is a huge open space on the western side of the modern city, part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.
Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nara Palace Site comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb.
In the gentle hills of Asuka, south of Nara, the first capitals of Japan rose and fell in the sixth and seventh centuries, and the land is still dotted with the tombs of the powerful. Kengoshizuka is one of them, a mound on a low ridge that excavations revealed to be octagonal in shape, a form used for imperial tombs in that period. Inside were found twin burial chambers cut from stone, and many scholars believe it to be the tomb of Empress Saimei, who reigned twice in the seventh century, with her daughter buried beside her. Restoration work in recent years has given the mound back its original shape, faced with stones, so it is far more legible than many overgrown kofun.
Read the complete Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb. 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.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, about halfway. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K.
Mount Kōya is one of Japan's great sacred places, a high basin in the mountains of northern Wakayama where the monk Kūkai founded a monastic centre for Shingon Buddhism in the early ninth century. Today it is a town of over a hundred temples, many of which take in overnight guests, set among towering cedars. South of the summit plateau, deep in the forested ridges, run the old pilgrim trails that link Kōya with the Kumano shrines, part of the network inscribed by UNESCO as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji comes up about 250 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 294 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb. Next is back through Nara Palace Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nara Palace Site, late in the day. Next is Hongan-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hongan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 365 km.
Hongan-ji → Nara Palace Site is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nara Palace Site → Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb → 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 → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb → back through Nara Palace Site is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nara Palace Site → Hongan-ji is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.