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 Takanosu it runs 489 km to Takanosu; allow about 9 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Shirakami-Sanchi, Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle, Kamegaoka Burial Site and Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
In a quiet corner of Akita prefecture, near the town of Takanosu in the north of Japan's main island, a set of stone circles lies on a low terrace above the Yoneshiro river. The Isedotai stone circles were built around four thousand years ago by the people of the Jomon culture, hunter-gatherers who lived in the Japanese archipelago for more than ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. The site is part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021, a series of seventeen sites across Hokkaido and the north of Honshu that illustrate the long, settled life of these people.
Read the complete Isedotai Stone Circles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Isedotai Stone Circles is where the day begins. Next is Shirakami-Sanchi.
Shirakami-Sanchi is one of the largest remaining virgin beech forests in East Asia, a vast tract of mountains straddling the border between Aomori and Akita prefectures in northern Honshu. It joined the World Heritage list in 1993, one of Japan's first natural sites, and the core area is left almost untouched, with no roads or facilities. Siebold's beech, a species found only in Japan, dominates the forest, and it shelters black bears, Japanese serows, golden eagles and the black woodpecker. The trees are at their most beautiful in autumn, when they turn gold and copper, and in spring when the new leaves are a startling pale green.
Read the complete Shirakami-Sanchi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shirakami-Sanchi comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 179 km into the recorded legs you reach Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle. Next is Kamegaoka Burial Site.
In 1887, a farmer digging in the fields near Kamegaoka, in the Tsugaru region of northern Honshu, found a strange clay figure: a stocky body covered with patterns and a face dominated by huge eyes like snow goggles. The shakōki-dogū, the goggle-eyed figurine, became one of the most famous objects of the Jōmon culture, the hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan for more than ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. Kamegaoka was a burial and settlement site of the final Jōmon period, about three thousand years ago, and it has yielded lacquerware, pottery and figurines of remarkable sophistication. It is part of the Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Kamegaoka Burial Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kamegaoka Burial Site, about halfway. Next is Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
At the foot of Mount Iwaki, the solitary volcano that rises above the Tsugaru plain in Aomori prefecture, there is a flat terrace where people of the Jomon period laid out a large oval ring of stones a few thousand years ago. The Omori Katsuyama stone circle is one of the sites that make up the Jomon Prehistoric Sites of Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021, and it is a quiet, grassy place where you can stand in the middle and look straight up at the mountain the builders must have looked at every day.
Read the complete Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan sits at 157 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kamegaoka Burial Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kamegaoka Burial Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kamegaoka Burial Site comes up about 281 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 312 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle. Next is back through Shirakami-Sanchi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shirakami-Sanchi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Shirakami-Sanchi, late in the day. Next is Isedotai Stone Circles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Isedotai Stone Circles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 489 km.
Isedotai Stone Circles → Shirakami-Sanchi is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shirakami-Sanchi → Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 117 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → Kamegaoka Burial Site is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kamegaoka Burial Site → Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan → back through Kamegaoka Burial Site is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kamegaoka Burial Site → back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → back through Shirakami-Sanchi is 115 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Shirakami-Sanchi → Isedotai Stone Circles is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.