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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
72 km from Fujiyoshida to Fujiyoshida, about 1 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Fujisan, Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki and back through Fujisan. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Eight ponds, one hundred yards from the road, and every one of them clear enough to count the pebbles. Oshino Hakkai takes its water from the snow and rain of Mount Fuji, which sinks into the porous volcanic rock of the mountain and takes decades to filter down, so the springs that emerge in the village of Oshino are astonishingly pure and cold. The water holds close to a constant temperature all year, so in winter mist rises from the ponds, and in summer they feel like cool air-conditioning. Carp and trout drift through the plants, water wheels turn quietly, and thatched houses stand behind the ponds, though these days they hold shops selling pickles, soba noodles and sweets.
Read the complete Oshino Hakkai springs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oshino Hakkai springs is where the day begins. Next is Fujisan.
At 3,776 metres, Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, and its almost perfectly symmetrical cone has been a sacred symbol and an artistic inspiration for centuries. UNESCO listed Fujisan in 2013 as a cultural site, a place of worship and source of artistic inspiration, rather than for its natural beauty alone, recognising the shrines, pilgrim trails, lakes and springs around the mountain, and the woodblock prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige that made its image famous around the world.
Read the complete Fujisan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fujisan comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki.
Deep in the lava forests on the western foot of Mount Fuji there is a cave formed when molten rock flowed down the slopes and its crust cooled while the interior drained away. The Hitoana lava tube is small and low, but in the sixteenth century an ascetic called Hasegawa Kakugyo is said to have practised extreme austerities inside it, and he became the founder figure of the Fuji-ko, the popular confraternities whose members climbed Fuji as an act of worship. Around the cave entrance stand hundreds of stone memorials erected by Fuji-ko groups over the centuries, mossy and leaning among the trees. The site is one of the components of the World Heritage listing Fujisan, Sacred Place and Source of Artistic Inspiration.
Read the complete Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 36 km into the recorded legs you reach Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki. Next is back through Fujisan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fujisan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fujisan, late in the day. Next is Oshino Hakkai springs.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oshino Hakkai springs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Oshino Hakkai springs. That is the ride.
Oshino Hakkai springs → Fujisan is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fujisan → Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hitoana Fuji-ko Iseki → back through Fujisan is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fujisan → Oshino Hakkai springs is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.