Tokyo · Izu Skyline and Ocean Return
A 263 km loop from Atami fuel and coast
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Why this ride
Skyline curves, hot-spring towns and Pacific air if the weather behaves. Out of Atami and back again: 263 km, roughly 5 h 03 in the saddle. On the way it passes Shuzenji onsen and Ito ocean stop. The climb of the day is Izu Skyline high road. It is a high-mountain day.
Roadbook
- Atami fuel and coast gate
start
Atami is where Tokyo comes to forget about Tokyo. It is a hot-spring resort stacked up a steep hillside above Sagami Bay, with concrete hotels, narrow lanes, a small harbour and a long curve of beach, and it has the happy, slightly faded air of a seaside town that was fashionable in the 1960s. The city has fewer than forty-five thousand people, but it feels bigger, because everything is vertical and every street seems to have a view of the water.
Atami has a place in popular culture, too. On the seafront, a statue of a man kicking a woman recalls a scene from the Meiji-era novel Konjiki Yasha, and every Japanese person seems to know the story. There are fireworks over the bay on a number of nights across the year, the town has a castle, a modern reconstruction on the hill, and the plum garden blooms in February, early enough to make the resort worth a winter day trip.
For riders, Atami is a base. It is the doorway to the Izu Peninsula and to the Hakone region, with the coast road toward Itō running south on the one side and the toll roads up to Hakone leading north-west on the other. Fuel is easy in town and on the outskirts, which is just what you need before heading into the hills, where stations are fewer and the roads are long. The streets in town are steep, with sharp turns and a lot of one-way sections, so take it slowly, and park where it is legal, since Japanese enforcement is strict.
The seafront is the right place for a pause. The beach promenade is wide and calm, and cafes around the harbour serve fresh seafood, especially horse mackerel and dried fish, which Atami is known for. An early start makes the best of the day: the morning light on the water is lovely, and the coast road is quieter before the day-trippers arrive.
- Izu Skyline high road
high
At the high end of the Izu Skyline, with Atami five kilometres away and the Tanna basin tucked in the valley to the west, the road runs along a grassy ridge where the wind is a constant companion. Gusts can be strong enough to push a bike sideways, particularly at the exposed corners, so keep a firm grip and reduce speed when the grass starts to bend. On the ridge the air is cool and clean, and even in July the temperature can be ten degrees below that on the coast.
The Izu Skyline links the Atami Pass with the Amagi mountains to the south, and the high section is a place of long views. To the west, across the Tanna basin, a quiet farming district with dairy cattle and green fields, the white peak of Fuji sometimes appears, and to the east the Pacific lies spread out like a sheet of metal. In the evening, the lights of Atami and the coast glow below, and the sky turns deep violet.
The Tanna basin is worth knowing about. It is a bowl of farmland pocketed in the hills, home to a well-known dairy industry whose milk and ice cream you can try in the small shops around the area. Beneath it, a long railway tunnel, dug in the early twentieth century with great loss of life, carries the Tokaido line toward Numazu and was one of the hardest tunnelling projects in Japanese history. It is a reminder of how steep and difficult the geology of this region is.
Practically, there are no services on the ridge, and fuel must be bought in Atami or Mishima before you start. Atami has forty thousand people, and Mishima over a hundred thousand, with stations all over. Pack water and a snack. The road is a toll road, and the toll is paid at a booth, so keep coins ready. Quite a few cyclists and other motorbikes use it, and on a fine weekend the car parks at the viewpoints fill up with sightseers. The best time to ride is on a weekday morning, when the road is quiet and the light is crisp, and the best season is autumn, when the pampas grass is silver and the air clear.
- Shuzenji onsen food
food
Shuzenji sits in a narrow valley in the middle of the Izu peninsula, on the Katsura river, and it is the oldest hot spring resort on Izu. The onsen town grew around a temple, Shuzen-ji, founded according to tradition by the monk Kobo Daishi in the early ninth century, and it has an old-fashioned, quiet charm that the busier resorts on the coast have lost. Hot water comes from springs beneath the town, and an open-air bath in the middle of the river, called Tokko no Yu, is the symbol of the place.
History here is dramatic. In 1204, Minamoto no Yoriie, the second shogun of Kamakura, was confined at Shuzenji after being removed from power by his mother's family, the Hojo, and was killed in a bath by assassins. His grave lies in the temple grounds, and the story is told with some relish by local guides. The whole episode is an example of the ruthless politics of medieval Japan, and Shuzenji's quiet setting makes it all the more striking.
Walking through the town is pleasant. A path through a small bamboo grove, the Chikurin no Komichi, leads along the river, and small shops sell local specialities. Izu is famous for wasabi, grown in cold, clear streams on terraced fields in the hills, and the fresh root, grated on a sharkskin board, tastes far milder and sweeter than the paste from a tube. Soba noodles with grated wasabi, wild vegetables and mushrooms, or a bowl of rice topped with fish from the coast, are good choices for a meal here.
The roads into Shuzenji run through forested valleys, with tight bends, a mix of old and new tarmac, and the occasional tunnel. Traffic is lighter than on the coast, and the route over the Amagi Pass to the south is one of the best rides on the peninsula. Fuel can be found along the main road in town, though the bigger supplies are in Ito and Numazu, fourteen and fifteen kilometres away. Rain falls often in the Izu mountains, and the moss-covered cedar forest is lovely when wet, but take care on the shaded corners. Autumn leaves are splendid in November, and spring cherry blossom lines the river.
- Ito ocean stop
stop
Itō sits on the eastern side of the Izu Peninsula, a city of about seventy thousand strung along a coast of black lava and quiet coves. It is a place of hot springs, fishing boats and gentle roads, and it has an unexpected piece of history. In the early 1600s the English sailor William Adams, who became a samurai advisor named Miura Anjin, supervised the building of Japan's first Western-style ships here, and a small monument by the river recalls it. It is a small but real moment: the beginning of Japan's contact with European shipbuilding.
The coast around Itō is a geological curiosity. Nearby, the Jogasaki Coast is a ragged shoreline of lava, left by the eruption of Mount Omuro, a symmetrical cinder cone just inland that is easy to spot, and a suspension bridge crosses a cove between sea cliffs. The sea here is deep blue, the sunlight is sharp, and in spring the camellias and the cherry trees along the river bloom early. Fishing boats unload squid, sea bream and horse mackerel at the port, and the restaurants close to the harbour serve what has just come in.
The riding is relaxed. The coastal road north toward Atami and south toward Shimoda has plenty of gentle bends and wide views of the water, with islands on the horizon on a clear day. It is also busy at weekends, with traffic backing up through the small towns, so the secret is an early start or a weekday. In summer the beaches fill and the sea breeze is a relief. In winter, the air is clear and the low sun makes the water glitter.
Fuel in Itō is easy, with stations along the main roads, and there is plenty of food and coffee near the station and the river. Take a break at the seaside and watch the boats, and if you are tired, public baths near the centre are an inexpensive way to restore yourself before the ride onward. Rain can make the road surface slick, particularly under the trees.
- Back to Atami fuel and
finish
Coming back to Atami at the end of a long day on the Izu roads has its own pleasures. The town appears first as lights climbing the hillside, hotels glowing up the slope like a stack of lit windows, and the harbour below dark and still. The road drops down a series of tight curves, and the temperature changes as you descend, usually a degree or two warmer at sea level, with a smell of salt and sulphur in the air that is the signature of a hot-spring town.
This is the place to end the loop. From here, the way back toward Tokyo leads along the Sagami Bay coast through Yugawara and Manazuru, past fishing harbours and orange groves, and then either on the toll road around Odawara or onto the Tomei Expressway. The distance is about a hundred kilometres, and on a busy weekend evening the return can be slow, so allow time. Japanese expressways are well maintained, speed is closely policed, and the rest areas are good, with decent noodles, coffee, and clean facilities.
Atami is also a good place to refill and rest before the trip. Fuel is plentiful in town and on the main road at the edge, which is useful because the journey ahead is long. Cafes and small restaurants near the station serve seafood, and many ryokan and hotels offer day-use baths, an inexpensive pleasure after a day of riding. Sitting in hot water is a well-earned reward, and your shoulders will thank you.
If you arrive after dark, take care on the steep, narrow streets, where one-way systems and pedestrians catch out newcomers. Let the evening settle: eat something simple, watch the bay lights, and treat the last forty minutes into the capital as a separate ride with its own concentration. The hills of Izu behind you will still be there next time, and you will have left room to come back.