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 Arashiyama it runs 170 km to Arashiyama; allow about 3 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Ujigami-jinja, Nara Palace Site, Fujiwara Palace Site and back through Nara Palace Site. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
30 km on Ujigami-jinja → Nara Palace Site.
Kozan-ji hangs on a forested ridge in the Toganoo hills, north-west of Kyoto, and the way there is the best part. Route 162, the old Shuzan Kaido, follows the Kiyotaki river up from the city through a narrow valley of cedar and maple, past the villages of Takao, Makino and Toganoo. The road is narrow and winding, with tight bends and blind corners, and it moves quickly from city to deep woods. In autumn the maples turn scarlet and the traffic can be heavy, so go on a weekday morning, or in early spring when the valley is nearly empty.
Read the complete Kozan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kozan-ji is where the day begins. Next is Ujigami-jinja.
Uji is a small city on the river of the same name, south of Kyoto, and it holds two treasures that face each other across the water. On the west bank stands the Byōdō-in, a temple whose Phoenix Hall, built in 1053, appears on the Japanese ten-yen coin. On the east bank, up a quiet lane, is Ujigami-jinja, a modest shrine whose main hall is considered the oldest surviving Shinto shrine building in Japan, dating from the late Heian period, in the eleventh century. Its simple wooden structure, with a cypress-bark roof, stands in a small courtyard surrounded by trees, and it is far less crowded than the Byōdō-in. Both are part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.
Read the complete Ujigami-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ujigami-jinja comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Nara Palace Site. Next is Fujiwara Palace Site.
Before Nara, before Kyoto, there was Fujiwara-kyō. In 694, the Empress Jitō moved the Japanese court to a new capital in the southern part of the Nara basin, the first in Japan to be laid out on a Chinese-style grid of streets, with the imperial palace at its centre. It lasted only sixteen years, until the court moved north to Nara in 710, but it marked a turning point in the history of the Japanese state.
Read the complete Fujiwara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fujiwara Palace Site, about halfway. 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 sits at 118 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ujigami-jinja.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ujigami-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ujigami-jinja comes up about 142 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kozan-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kozan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kozan-ji closes the day.
Kozan-ji → Ujigami-jinja is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ujigami-jinja → Nara Palace Site is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nara Palace Site → Fujiwara Palace Site is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fujiwara Palace Site → back through Nara Palace Site is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nara Palace Site → back through Ujigami-jinja is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ujigami-jinja → Kozan-ji is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.