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.
199 km from Kashihara to Kashihara, about 3 h 06 of riding. It goes by way of Yakushi-ji, Yamada-dera Temple Site, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Yamada-dera Temple Site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Nabezuka is a modest mound in the Kashihara district of Nara prefecture, in the part of Japan where the country's first centralised state took shape. It is the sort of site that does not make the headlines. A rounded hill in a field, perhaps with a few trees, it belongs to the thousands of burial mounds scattered across the Yamato plain, and its main interest is that it forms part of a whole landscape of tombs rather than being a single sight. If you want the big picture, the archaeological museum in Kashihara explains how the mounds changed from large keyholes to small round or square tombs as the centuries passed.
Read the complete Nabezuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nabezuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Yakushi-ji.
Yakushi-ji is one of the great temples of Nara, the capital of Japan in the eighth century. It was founded by Emperor Tenmu in the late seventh century, praying for the recovery of his ill empress, and moved to its present site when the capital moved to Nara in 710. Dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing, it is part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. The East Pagoda, which has stood since the eighth century, is one of the few surviving buildings from that era, and its layered roofs, with smaller roofs between each storey, create a rhythm described by one admirer as frozen music.
Read the complete Yakushi-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yakushi-ji comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yamada-dera Temple Site.
South of the modern town of Sakurai, in the Asuka region of Nara Prefecture, the grass and low walls of Yamada-dera mark the ruins of what was once a very grand temple. It was founded in the 640s by Soga no Kurayamada Ishikawamaro, a powerful minister of the Soga clan, who was caught up in court intrigue and is said to have taken his own life at the temple in 649, after being accused of treason. The story gives the quiet site a sad edge. In later excavations, archaeologists uncovered the foundation of the main hall and a long covered corridor whose timbers had collapsed and been buried in place, one of the best-preserved examples of seventh-century temple architecture in Japan.
Read the complete Yamada-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Yamada-dera Temple Site. 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.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, about halfway. Next is back through Yamada-dera Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yamada-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yamada-dera Temple Site sits at 121 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yakushi-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yakushi-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yakushi-ji comes up about 175 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nabezuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nabezuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nabezuka Kofun closes the day.
Nabezuka Kofun → Yakushi-ji is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yakushi-ji → Yamada-dera Temple Site is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yamada-dera Temple Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Yamada-dera Temple Site is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yamada-dera Temple Site → back through Yakushi-ji is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yakushi-ji → Nabezuka Kofun is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.