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 228 km round trip from Fujiyoshida - roughly 3 h 14 in the saddle. On the way it passes Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine, Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove and back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Eight ponds of astonishingly clear water lie in the village of Oshino, at the northern foot of Mount Fuji, and the water in them is snowmelt from the mountain, filtered for many years through layers of volcanic rock before welling up here. The Oshino Hakkai, the eight seas of Oshino, were once part of a lake that dried up, and they became places of pilgrimage for people climbing Fuji, who purified themselves in the springs before their ascent. They are included in UNESCO's inscription of Fujisan as a place of worship and source of artistic inspiration.
Read the complete Oshino Hakkai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oshino Hakkai is where the day begins. Next is Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Murayama Sengen-jinja is the quieter ancestor of the Fuji pilgrimage. Long before the climbers of Edo came in crowds, ascetic mountain priests of Shugendō trained at Murayama on the southern slope of Mount Fuji, and the shrine stood at the beginning of a trail up the mountain. The old name for the place is a reminder that this was a monastery as much as a shrine, a base of mountain monks who practised purification and climbed in rigorous seasons. Large cedars shade the grounds, and a stone path leads between moss-covered stones and old wooden buildings, so the place feels more like a forest sanctuary than a tourist stop.
Read the complete Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove. Next is back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine, late in the day. Next is Oshino Hakkai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oshino Hakkai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Oshino Hakkai. That is the ride.
Oshino Hakkai → Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove → back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Oshino Hakkai is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.