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.
258 km from Fujinomiya to Fujinomiya, about 4 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Yoshida lava tree molds, Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine, Lake Yamanakako and back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It strings together lakeside roads.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 25 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
The water that falls at Shiraito has spent a long time underground. Rain and snowmelt seep into the porous volcanic rock of Mount Fuji, travel through the layers for years, and emerge from a cliff face southwest of the mountain as hundreds of thin streams, pouring over a curved wall about twenty metres high and some one hundred and fifty metres wide. The name means white threads, and the effect is just that: a curtain of silvery strands falling into a clear pool, with the Fuji-ko pilgrims once performing purification rituals here. The falls are part of the Fujisan World Heritage Site, and the neighbouring Otodome falls, a single powerful cascade, roar a short walk away.
Read the complete Shiraito no Taki waterfalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls is where the day begins. Next is Yoshida lava tree molds.
Mount Fuji's lava does strange things to trees. When a flow of molten rock surges through a forest, it wraps around trunks and hardens, and when the tree burns away it leaves a hollow cast, a round tube in the rock that looks like a well or a chimney. The lava tree molds at Yoshida are formed in this way, found along the lower slopes in the dense forest known as Aokigahara, where the ground is black, rough and honeycombed with caves. The flows come from eruptions of Fuji in the ninth century and later, and the forest has grown up over the cooling rock ever since.
Read the complete Yoshida lava tree molds write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshida lava tree molds comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine. Next is Lake Yamanakako.
Yamanakako is the largest and highest of the Fuji Five Lakes, lying at nearly a thousand metres at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji, and on a clear winter morning, with the snow cone of the mountain mirrored in still water, it delivers the view that sells a million postcards. The lake was formed when lava flows from Fuji dammed the valley, and it is shallow, with reed beds, swans and boating piers along the shore. In summer it is a cool escape from the heat of Tokyo, busy with families, rowing boats and lakeside cafés; in winter the crowds thin and the mountain is at its most impressive.
Read the complete Lake Yamanakako write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Yamanakako, 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 sits at 114 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yoshida lava tree molds.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshida lava tree molds write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yoshida lava tree molds comes up about 197 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shiraito no Taki waterfalls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shiraito no Taki waterfalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls closes the day.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls → Yoshida lava tree molds is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshida lava tree molds → Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Lake Yamanakako is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lake Yamanakako → back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Suyama Sengen-jinja Shrine → back through Yoshida lava tree molds is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshida lava tree molds → Shiraito no Taki waterfalls is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.