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 318 km round trip from Sakai - roughly 5 h 28 in the saddle. The stops in between: Byodo-in, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Byodo-in. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A heron stands in the moat as if it has been paid to be there. That is the first thing worth knowing about Magodayuyama: like most of the large burial mounds of Sakai, it is surrounded by water, and the water is full of life. Carp, turtles, reeds and a surprising amount of birdsong turn up in a part of Japan that otherwise has plenty of concrete. The mound itself is covered in trees that nobody has felled for centuries, since the Imperial Household Agency looks after many of these tombs and keeps people off them. You walk around the edge, not over it, and you read the shape from the lie of the moat.
Read the complete Magodayuyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Magodayuyama Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Byodo-in.
Take a ten-yen coin out of your pocket in Japan and you are holding a picture of this place. The Phoenix Hall of the Byōdō-in in Uji, with its wings stretching out on either side of a central hall and bronze phoenixes on the roof, is one of the most famous buildings in the country. It was built in 1053 by Fujiwara no Yorimichi, a member of the most powerful aristocratic family of the Heian period, who converted his father's villa into a Buddhist temple. Its reflection in the pond in front was meant to evoke the Pure Land paradise of the Amida Buddha.
Read the complete Byodo-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Byōdō-in comes up about 59 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 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. Next is back through Byodo-in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Byodo-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Byodo-in, late in the day. Next is Magodayuyama Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Magodayuyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Magodayuyama Kofun. That is the ride.
Magodayuyama Kofun → Byodo-in is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Byōdō-in → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Byodo-in is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Byodo-in → Magodayuyama Kofun is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.