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 378 km round trip from Shizuoka - roughly 5 h 42 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine, Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine, Shiraito no Taki waterfalls and “Oshi” Lodging House. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine.
Mount Fuji has been worshipped as a sacred mountain for as long as people have lived beneath it, and the Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha in Fujinomiya is the head shrine of that worship, the principal sanctuary of over a thousand Sengen shrines across Japan. Its main hall, rebuilt in the early seventeenth century under the patronage of Tokugawa Ieyasu, has an unusual two-storey design, painted in vermilion and set among tall trees. The shrine is dedicated to Konohanasakuya-hime, a goddess associated with the mountain, with blossoms and with fire.
Read the complete Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine. Next is Shiraito no Taki waterfalls.
The water that falls at Shiraito has spent a long time underground. Rain and snowmelt seep into the porous volcanic rock of Mount Fuji, travel through the layers for years, and emerge from a cliff face southwest of the mountain as hundreds of thin streams, pouring over a curved wall about twenty metres high and some one hundred and fifty metres wide. The name means white threads, and the effect is just that: a curtain of silvery strands falling into a clear pool, with the Fuji-ko pilgrims once performing purification rituals here. The falls are part of the Fujisan World Heritage Site, and the neighbouring Otodome falls, a single powerful cascade, roar a short walk away.
Read the complete Shiraito no Taki waterfalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls, about halfway. Next is “Oshi” Lodging House.
Mount Fuji has been a place of pilgrimage for a thousand years, and the lodging houses in Fujiyoshida are what the pilgrims used. Believers in the Fuji cult, called the Fuji-kō, travelled in confraternities from Edo and farther away, and when they reached the foot of the mountain they stayed with an oshi, a guide and priest who arranged their prayers, their meals and their climb. The streets of old Kamiyoshida still have a few of these houses, with deep entrances, long rooms and a small shrine inside, designed for groups to eat, sleep and prepare. UNESCO lists one of them as part of the Fujisan cultural landscape.
Read the complete “Oshi” Lodging House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
“Oshi” Lodging House sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shiraito no Taki waterfalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls comes up about 231 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 281 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine. Next is back through Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine, late in the day. Next is Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 378 km.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove → Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine → Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine → Shiraito no Taki waterfalls is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls → “Oshi” Lodging House is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
“Oshi” Lodging House → back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls → back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine → back through Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine → Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.