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 286 km round trip from Fujiyoshida - roughly 4 h 59 in the saddle. The stops in between: Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine, Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces, Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove and back through Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Hakone Turnpike and Skyline, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
On the southern flank of Mount Fuji, above the town of Susono, a quiet shrine stands among tall cedar trees at the start of one of the oldest climbing routes on the mountain. The Suyama Sengen-jinja is dedicated to the goddess of Fuji and marks the beginning of the Suyama trail, used by pilgrims for centuries before falling into disuse in the twentieth century and being partly revived in recent years. It is one of the component sites of Fujisan, Sacred Place and Source of Artistic Inspiration, listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Read the complete Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces.
Two pairs of tall brick chimneys stand in a quiet suburb at the base of the Izu Peninsula, looking strangely European against the green hills. They belong to the Nirayama reverberatory furnace, built in the 1850s to melt iron for casting cannons, at a time when Japan felt threatened by Western warships arriving in its waters. The project was led by Egawa Hidetatsu, the local magistrate, a forward-thinking official who studied Western military technology from Dutch books. He died before it was completed, and his son finished the work. It is the only surviving reverberatory furnace of its era in Japan that was actually used for casting, and since 2015 it has been part of the UNESCO site of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.
Read the complete Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces. Next is Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove.
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, about halfway. Next is back through Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces sits at 164 km, about halfway. Next is back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine comes up about 250 km into the recorded legs. Next is “Oshi” Lodging House.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete “Oshi” Lodging House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
“Oshi” Lodging House closes the day.
“Oshi” Lodging House → Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces → Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove → back through Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces → back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine → “Oshi” Lodging House is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.