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 Kashihara-shi it runs 167 km to Kashihara-shi; allow about 3 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of Kurizuka Kofun, Nara Palace Site, Byodo-in and back through Nara Palace Site. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Kurizuka Kofun → Nara Palace Site for 28 km.
Some mounded tombs have a name, a story and a signpost. Shōbuike has a pond. The tomb stands in Kashihara, in the flat, tilled country of the Nara basin, a large earthen mound from the late sixth or seventh century, and it is one of the big monuments of the period when the burial customs of the Yamato rulers were changing from the gigantic keyhole tombs of earlier centuries to smaller, more carefully built mounds with stone chambers. Scholars have suggested different candidates, as is common for these tombs.
Read the complete Shobuike Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shobuike Mounded Tomb is where the day begins. Next is Kurizuka Kofun.
South of Nara city, the plain is flat and green, with rice paddies in every direction and low, rounded mountains standing on its rim, and the first Japanese states grew here. Kashihara, on the southern side of the basin, sits near the old capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, where the court and the first lasting Buddhist temples took shape in the sixth and seventh centuries. Kurizuka is one of the many kofun, ancient burial mounds, scattered around the district, and it is a modest, tree-covered hump rather than a spectacular monument.
Read the complete Kurizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kurizuka Kofun comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nara Palace Site.
For most of the eighth century, Nara was the capital of Japan. The city, then called Heijō-kyō, was laid out on a grid modelled on the Chinese capital Chang'an, and at its northern end stood the imperial palace, Heijō-kyū, a vast compound of halls, offices and gardens. When the court moved away at the end of the century, the palace was abandoned and the land eventually returned to rice fields. Today the Nara Palace Site is a huge open space on the western side of the modern city, part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.
Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Nara Palace Site. Next is Byodo-in.
Take a ten-yen coin out of your pocket in Japan and you are holding a picture of this place. The Phoenix Hall of the Byōdō-in in Uji, with its wings stretching out on either side of a central hall and bronze phoenixes on the roof, is one of the most famous buildings in the country. It was built in 1053 by Fujiwara no Yorimichi, a member of the most powerful aristocratic family of the Heian period, who converted his father's villa into a Buddhist temple. Its reflection in the pond in front was meant to evoke the Pure Land paradise of the Amida Buddha.
Read the complete Byodo-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Byodo-in, about halfway. Next is back through Nara Palace Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nara Palace Site sits at 117 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kurizuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kurizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kurizuka Kofun comes up about 142 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shobuike Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shobuike Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shobuike Mounded Tomb closes the day.
Shobuike Mounded Tomb → Kurizuka Kofun is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kurizuka Kofun → Nara Palace Site is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nara Palace Site → Byodo-in is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Byōdō-in → back through Nara Palace Site is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nara Palace Site → back through Kurizuka Kofun is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kurizuka Kofun → Shobuike Mounded Tomb is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.