Kitakogane Site and Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kitakogane Site

   Hokkaido does not usually come to mind when people talk about ancient Japan, yet the shell heaps around Uchiura Bay are some of the oldest signs of settled life in the archipelago. Kitakogane sits on the edge of the bay near Date, roughly halfway between Muroran and the volcanic country around Lake Toya. The Jomon people who lived here gathered shellfish, hunted deer and fished, and they threw the shells onto the same pile for centuries, which is why a modern visitor can read a kitchen midden like a diary. It belongs to the group of northern Jomon sites that UNESCO listed in 2021.

   Read the complete Kitakogane Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kitakogane Site is where the day begins. Next is Ofune Site.

2. 2. Ofune Site

   Ofune is a Jomon settlement on the southern tip of Hokkaido, in the hills above Hakodate, and it is a lot bigger than the signboards make it look. The Jomon were hunter-gatherers who lived in the northern forests of Japan for something like ten thousand years, long before rice farming, and they built a settled life around chestnuts, fish, deer and the odd well-travelled trade good. Ofune was inhabited for centuries and is now part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, which UNESCO recognised in 2021. Reconstructed pit houses hold the grass in place, and the scale of the pits tells you someone intended to stay.

   Read the complete Ofune Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Ofune Site comes up about 170 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 352 km into the recorded legs you reach Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. Next is back through Ofune Site.

4. 4. back through Ofune Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ofune Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Ofune Site, late in the day. Next is Kitakogane Site.

5. 5. Kitakogane Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kitakogane Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Kitakogane Site. That is the ride.