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 Fujioka it runs 462 km to Fujioka; allow about 7 h 18 of riding. On the way it passes Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine, Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces and back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Silk built modern Japan, and the hills of Gunma prefecture were its engine room. In the second half of the nineteenth century, farmhouses across this region raised silkworms on the upper floors, and the quality of the cocoons decided the fortunes of families and, eventually, of the nation's exports. At the Takayama-sha site in Fujioka, a farmer named Takayama Chōgorō developed a method of raising silkworms that balanced ventilation and temperature, and he trained students from across Japan in his large farmhouse. You can still see the building, with its distinctive roof vents running along the ridge, designed to let warm, moist air escape.
Read the complete Takayama-sha Sericulture School write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Takayama-sha Sericulture School is where the day begins. Next is Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine.
Mount Fuji was never meant to be seen only from a distance, and the shrines at its foot are where the older idea of the mountain as a god survives. The Kawaguchi Asama-jinja sits among tall old cedars on the north side, near Lake Kawaguchi, one of the five lakes that ring the mountain's northern foot, and it is one of the shrines that were used by pilgrims before they began the climb. The deity honoured at the Asama shrines is Konohanasakuya-hime, the princess of the blossoming trees, who is linked with the mountain and its volcanic fire.
Read the complete Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces.
Two pairs of tall brick chimneys stand in a quiet suburb at the base of the Izu Peninsula, looking strangely European against the green hills. They belong to the Nirayama reverberatory furnace, built in the 1850s to melt iron for casting cannons, at a time when Japan felt threatened by Western warships arriving in its waters. The project was led by Egawa Hidetatsu, the local magistrate, a forward-thinking official who studied Western military technology from Dutch books. He died before it was completed, and his son finished the work. It is the only surviving reverberatory furnace of its era in Japan that was actually used for casting, and since 2015 it has been part of the UNESCO site of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.
Read the complete Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 232 km into the recorded legs you reach Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces. Next is back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine, late in the day. Next is Takayama-sha Sericulture School.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Takayama-sha Sericulture School write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Takayama-sha Sericulture School. That is the ride.
Takayama-sha Sericulture School → Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine is 160 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine → Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Nirayama Reverbatory Furnaces → back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kawaguchi Asama-jinja Shrine → Takayama-sha Sericulture School is 158 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.