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 Shimokizukuri it runs 136 km to Shimokizukuri; allow about 2 h 11 of riding. The stops in between: Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle, Sannai Maruyama Site and back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle. The line favours views over speed.
In the far north of Honshu, on the Tsugaru plain of Aomori Prefecture, the Tagoyano site is a shell midden left by people of the Jomon period, the long era of hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan for over ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. The mound consists mainly of shells of shijimi, a small freshwater clam that thrived in the brackish water of the old lagoon. Along with the shells, archaeologists found pottery, tools and bones, and the site has become part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021. There is little to see above ground now, just a grassy area and information boards, but the picture it paints is rich: people living by water, fishing, gathering, making beautiful vessels.
Read the complete Tagoyano Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tagoyano Site is where the day begins. Next is Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
Over three thousand years ago, Jomon people in northern Japan arranged stones into circles on a terrace at the foot of Mount Iwaki, the conical volcano that dominates the Tsugaru plain in Aomori prefecture. The Omori Katsuyama stone circle is one of these monuments, with a ring of standing and placed stones that may have been used for rituals, burials or marking the seasons. It is part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021, which celebrates a culture of hunter-gatherers who settled in permanent villages and made pottery for over ten thousand years.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sannai Maruyama Site.
On the outskirts of Aomori, at the northern tip of Honshu, archaeologists working on a site for a baseball stadium in the early 1990s found the remains of a large village of the Jomon period, a hunter gatherer culture that lived in Japan for over ten thousand years. Sannai Maruyama was occupied for around a thousand years, from about 5,900 to 4,200 years ago, and its finds changed ideas about the Jomon: long houses, pit dwellings, storehouses, burial grounds, and a huge structure of six massive chestnut posts, now reconstructed as a tall wooden tower. In 2021 it became part of the World Heritage listing of Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan.
Read the complete Sannai Maruyama Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Sannai Maruyama Site. Next is back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle, late in the day. Next is Tagoyano Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tagoyano Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tagoyano Site. That is the ride.
Tagoyano Site → Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → Sannai Maruyama Site is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sannai Maruyama Site → back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Omori Katsuyama Stone Circle → Tagoyano Site is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.