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 229 km round trip from Fujikawaguchiko - roughly 3 h 39 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine, Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine, Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove and back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. Lakes are the scenery here.
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 27 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 Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine.
On the eastern side of Mount Fuji, in the village of Subashiri, a shrine has stood at the start of the pilgrims' path for more than a thousand years. The Fuji Sengen shrine, often called Higashiguchi Hongū, the eastern main shrine, marks the beginning of the Subashiri trail to the summit, and pilgrims traditionally prayed here before starting their climb. The shrine is set in a forest of tall cedars and old trees, with a red gate, wooden halls and a quiet, spiritual atmosphere, and it is one of the components of the Fujisan UNESCO site, recognised as part of the mountain's cultural and religious landscape.
Read the complete Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Murayama Sengen-jinja is the quieter ancestor of the Fuji pilgrimage. Long before the climbers of Edo came in crowds, ascetic mountain priests of Shugendō trained at Murayama on the southern slope of Mount Fuji, and the shrine stood at the beginning of a trail up the mountain. The old name for the place is a reminder that this was a monastery as much as a shrine, a base of mountain monks who practised purification and climbed in rigorous seasons. Large cedars shade the grounds, and a stone path leads between moss-covered stones and old wooden buildings, so the place feels more like a forest sanctuary than a tourist stop.
Read the complete Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine. Next is Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove.
Miho is a thin hook of land curling out into Suruga Bay, and Mihonomatsubara is the pine grove that covers it: tens of thousands of dark pines behind a long beach of grey, pebbly sand. People come for the view. On a clear day Mount Fuji sits on the other side of the bay, framed by the trees and the curve of the shore, and that image has been painted, printed and photographed for centuries. It is why the grove was included in the UNESCO listing for Fuji in 2013, as an artistic setting for the mountain rather than as a piece of nature in itself.
Read the complete Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove, about halfway. Next is back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine sits at 132 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine comes up about 204 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Lake Kawaguchiko closes the day.
Lake Kawaguchiko → Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine → Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove → back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine → back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine → Lake Kawaguchiko is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.