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.
From Shimokizukuri it runs 277 km to Shimokizukuri; allow about 4 h 19 of riding. The stops in between: Kamegaoka Burial Site, Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, Tagoyano Site and Odai Yamamoto Site. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Over three thousand years ago, Jomon people in northern Japan arranged stones into circles on a terrace at the foot of Mount Iwaki, the conical volcano that dominates the Tsugaru plain in Aomori prefecture. The Omori Katsuyama stone circle is one of these monuments, with a ring of standing and placed stones that may have been used for rituals, burials or marking the seasons. It is part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021, which celebrates a culture of hunter-gatherers who settled in permanent villages and made pottery for over ten thousand years.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is where the day begins. Next is Kamegaoka Burial Site.
In 1887, a farmer digging in the fields near Kamegaoka, in the Tsugaru region of northern Honshu, found a strange clay figure: a stocky body covered with patterns and a face dominated by huge eyes like snow goggles. The shakōki-dogū, the goggle-eyed figurine, became one of the most famous objects of the Jōmon culture, the hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan for more than ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. Kamegaoka was a burial and settlement site of the final Jōmon period, about three thousand years ago, and it has yielded lacquerware, pottery and figurines of remarkable sophistication. It is part of the Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Kamegaoka Burial Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kamegaoka Burial Site comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
At the foot of Mount Iwaki, the solitary volcano that rises above the Tsugaru plain in Aomori prefecture, there is a flat terrace where people of the Jomon period laid out a large oval ring of stones a few thousand years ago. The Omori Katsuyama stone circle is one of the sites that make up the Jomon Prehistoric Sites of Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021, and it is a quiet, grassy place where you can stand in the middle and look straight up at the mountain the builders must have looked at every day.
Read the complete Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. Next is Tagoyano Site.
In the far north of Honshu, on the Tsugaru plain of Aomori Prefecture, the Tagoyano site is a shell midden left by people of the Jomon period, the long era of hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan for over ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. The mound consists mainly of shells of shijimi, a small freshwater clam that thrived in the brackish water of the old lagoon. Along with the shells, archaeologists found pottery, tools and bones, and the site has become part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021. There is little to see above ground now, just a grassy area and information boards, but the picture it paints is rich: people living by water, fishing, gathering, making beautiful vessels.
Read the complete Tagoyano Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tagoyano Site, about halfway. Next is Odai Yamamoto Site.
Some of the oldest pottery in the world was found on a hillside near the northern end of Honshu, and nobody was looking for it. At Odai Yamamoto I, on the Tsugaru Peninsula in Aomori prefecture, archaeologists dug up fragments of fired clay that date back more than sixteen thousand years, among the earliest known ceramics in Japan, made by hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age. The site is part of the Jomon prehistoric sites of northern Japan, a World Heritage listing from 2021 that celebrates a long era of settled life without agriculture, with Sannai Maruyama as its best-known example.
Read the complete Odai Yamamoto Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Odai Yamamoto Site sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tagoyano Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tagoyano Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tagoyano Site comes up about 174 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 211 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. Next is back through Kamegaoka Burial Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kamegaoka Burial Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kamegaoka Burial Site, late in the day. Next is Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 277 km.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → Kamegaoka Burial Site is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kamegaoka Burial Site → Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan → Tagoyano Site is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tagoyano Site → Odai Yamamoto Site is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Odai Yamamoto Site → back through Tagoyano Site is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tagoyano Site → back through Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan → back through Kamegaoka Burial Site is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kamegaoka Burial Site → Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.