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 253 km round trip from Kyoto - roughly 4 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
On the eastern hills of Kyoto, the great wooden veranda of Kiyomizu-dera juts out over a slope of maple and cherry, held up by a forest of pillars. The stage is about thirteen metres above the ground, and there is a Japanese saying, to jump off the stage of Kiyomizu, that means to take a bold, irreversible step. In the Edo period, people did really jump, hoping that survival would grant a wish, and a surprising number survived. The temple was founded in 778, and the present buildings date mainly from the 1630s, built without nails, using interlocking beams of Japanese zelkova and cypress.
Read the complete Kiyomizu-dera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kiyomizu-dera is where the day begins. Next is Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun.
On the plain south-east of Osaka, among suburbs, railway lines and car dealerships, the land is dotted with huge grassy mounds shaped like keyholes, surrounded by water-filled moats, and covered in trees. They are kofun, the burial mounds of Japan's early rulers and aristocrats, and the Tsudoshiroyama Kofun is one of them, in the Furuichi group, about two kilometres from the town of Kashiwara and not far from Habikino and Fujiidera. The group, together with the Mozu group in Sakai, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. Next is back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun, late in the day. Next is Kiyomizu-dera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kiyomizu-dera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kiyomizu-dera. That is the ride.
Kiyomizu-dera → Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun is 57 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun → Kiyomizu-dera is 57 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.