Why this ride
From Aomori it runs 133 km to Aomori; allow about 2 h 29 of riding. On the way it passes Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle, Kamegaoka Burial Site and back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Komakino Stone Circle and Kamegaoka Burial Site
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 133 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 29
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Komakino Stone Circle
Four thousand years ago, someone on this hillside in northern Honshu lined up stones in a ring and built another ring around it, and they did it carefully enough that the circles are still there. Komakino is a Jōmon stone circle, from the hunter-gatherer people who lived in Japan long before rice farming, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of Jōmon prehistoric sites in northern Japan, added in 2021. The arrangement is quite small and elegant, a double ring of river stones in a grassy field, and nobody knows for sure what it was for. Graves, ceremonies and a calendar of the seasons are all guesses, and it is better to stand there and hold the question than to pretend to an answer.
Read the complete Komakino Stone Circle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Komakino Stone Circle is where the day begins. Next is Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kamegaoka Burial Site.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Kamegaoka Burial Site. Next is back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
4. back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle, late in the day. Next is Komakino Stone Circle.
5. Komakino Stone Circle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Komakino Stone Circle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Komakino Stone Circle. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Komakino Stone Circle to Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Komakino Stone Circle → Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle to Kamegaoka Burial Site
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 to back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Kamegaoka Burial Site → back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle to Komakino Stone Circle
back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → Komakino Stone Circle is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.