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 Fujikawaguchiko it runs 134 km to Fujikawaguchiko; allow about 2 h 57 of riding. The stops in between: Lake Yamanakako, Fujisan and back through Lake Yamanakako. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 21 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
You can ride around Kawaguchiko in a morning and spend the next three days waiting for Mount Fuji to come out of the cloud. That is the local joke, and it holds a grain of truth: the volcano, at 3,776 metres, makes its own weather, and the summit often hides until the cold, clear hours just after dawn, especially in winter. Lake Kawaguchiko is the most visited of the Fuji Five Lakes, sitting at about 830 metres on the north side of the mountain, in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, and the classic view is from the northern shore with the cone reflected in still water.
Read the complete Lake Kawaguchiko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Kawaguchiko is where the day begins. Next is Lake Yamanakako.
Yamanakako is the largest and highest of the Fuji Five Lakes, lying at nearly a thousand metres at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji, and on a clear winter morning, with the snow cone of the mountain mirrored in still water, it delivers the view that sells a million postcards. The lake was formed when lava flows from Fuji dammed the valley, and it is shallow, with reed beds, swans and boating piers along the shore. In summer it is a cool escape from the heat of Tokyo, busy with families, rowing boats and lakeside cafés; in winter the crowds thin and the mountain is at its most impressive.
Read the complete Lake Yamanakako write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Yamanakako comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fujisan.
At 3,776 metres, Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, and its almost perfectly symmetrical cone has been a sacred symbol and an artistic inspiration for centuries. UNESCO listed Fujisan in 2013 as a cultural site, a place of worship and source of artistic inspiration, rather than for its natural beauty alone, recognising the shrines, pilgrim trails, lakes and springs around the mountain, and the woodblock prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige that made its image famous around the world.
Read the complete Fujisan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Fujisan. Next is back through Lake Yamanakako.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lake Yamanakako write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lake Yamanakako, late in the day. Next is Lake Kawaguchiko.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lake Kawaguchiko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Lake Kawaguchiko. That is the ride.
Lake Kawaguchiko → Lake Yamanakako is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lake Yamanakako → Fujisan is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fujisan → back through Lake Yamanakako is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lake Yamanakako → Lake Kawaguchiko is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.