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 205 km round trip from Sakai - roughly 3 h 18 in the saddle. On the way it passes Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area, Tachibana-dera Temple Site, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site. 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.
Most of the great keyhole tombs of Sakai are surrounded by houses, and the ordinary life of the neighbourhood goes on right up to the moat. Nagayama Kofun is one of the smaller ones, a mound that rises behind residential streets, with a path along the edge and a ring of trees. Locals use the moat's edge for the morning walk, children play on the grass nearby, and old men fish for carp in the water. It is a mixed picture of an ancient monument living quietly inside the modern city.
Read the complete Nagayama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nagayama Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
If you want to stand in front of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, this is the place. Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple in the town of Ikaruga south-west of Nara, was founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, and although it burned and was rebuilt not long after, its central buildings, including the main hall and the five-storey pagoda, date from around the end of the seventh century. They were among the first sites in Japan inscribed by UNESCO, in 1993.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tachibana-dera Temple Site.
Asuka is where Japan as a state began to take shape, and Tachibana-dera sits right in the middle of it, among rice paddies and low hills in a small valley south of Nara. Tradition holds that Prince Shōtoku, the regent who promoted Buddhism and wrote Japan's first constitution in the early seventh century, was born here, and the temple claims to have been founded by him. The present buildings are much later, but the site is ancient, and the atmosphere of the quiet temple grounds, with their wooden halls, gravel courtyards and a curious stone carved with two faces, one good and one evil, is very special.
Read the complete Tachibana-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Tachibana-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 Tachibana-dera Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tachibana-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site sits at 122 km, about halfway. Next is back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 177 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nagayama Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nagayama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nagayama Kofun closes the day.
Nagayama Kofun → Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Tachibana-dera Temple Site is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tachibana-dera Temple Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site → back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Nagayama Kofun is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.