Bandai Azuma Skyline Weekend

3 passes in 435 km, topping out at 2220 m

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Why this ride

Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. A 435 km loop that starts and ends near Honchō, about 8 h 04 of riding. The stops in between: near Ishige and Ōtsuki. The climbs: near Sakai, Scenic stretch near Hannō and near Ōiso. It tops out at about 1,150 m.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Honchō fuel

   Honchō is the central district of Funabashi, a big commuter city on the northern shore of Tokyo Bay in Chiba Prefecture. This is not riding country in itself; it is the urban sprawl you have to pass through to get from Tokyo towards the mountains and coasts beyond, and the best attitude is patience and a full tank.

   Funabashi has been a stop on the road for centuries. During the Edo period it was a post town on the routes leading east from the capital, and its old shrine, Funabashi Daijingū, is said to be very old. Today the city is a dense mix of apartments, shopping streets, railway lines and expressways, with the vast Lalaport shopping complex and the Sanbanze tidal flats on the bay, where shellfish gatherers still work and migratory birds gather. The area is also known for its nashi pears, sold in late summer at roadside stands on the outskirts.

   Riding here means traffic lights, scooters, delivery vans and lane splitting by locals. Routes 14 and 357 run along the bay, while the Keiyō Road and the Higashi-Kantō Expressway offer faster escapes. Expressways are tolled, and ETC cards make the process smoother, though cash lanes still exist. Summer heat and humidity can be oppressive in stop-start traffic, so plan an early departure.

   Fuel stations are plentiful, many of them self-service, others with attendants who will guide you in, fill up and even wipe your mirror. Convenience stores are everywhere and make great rest stops, with coffee, onigiri and clean toilets. Take a break here, check your route, and head out towards the Bōsō Peninsula or north towards the mountains of Tochigi and Fukushima, where the real riding begins.

2. Food stop near Ishige food

   Ishige is a rural district of south-western Ibaraki, now part of the city of Jōsō, on the Kanto plain between the Kinugawa and Kokai rivers. It is a gentle, open landscape of rice paddies, vegetable fields, groves of trees around old farmhouses and shrines in small woods, with Mount Tsukuba standing alone on the horizon to the north-east.

   This area is part of the old Shimōsa and Hitachi provinces, and in the tenth century it was the stronghold of Taira no Masakado, a warrior who rebelled against the imperial court and declared himself the new emperor in the east. His rebellion was crushed and he was killed in 940, but he became a legend, and shrines dedicated to him are found across the Kanto region, including the famous Kanda Myōjin in Tokyo. His spirit was long believed to be powerful and vengeful.

   As a food stop, the area offers the simple pleasures of rural Japan. Roadside michi-no-eki rest areas sell local vegetables, rice, sweets and bento, and restaurants serve soba, udon and tonkatsu. Ibaraki is known for its melons, chestnuts and natto, fermented soybeans, which are an acquired taste but a source of local pride.

   The riding is flat and relaxed, with straight roads through the paddies and along the rivers, and very little traffic away from the main routes. Fuel and food are available in Jōsō and the surrounding towns. The views of Mount Tsukuba across the fields are lovely, especially in the morning light.

3. High point near Sakai pass

   Sakai, in the far south-west of Ibaraki, sits on the Tone river, Japan's largest river by drainage basin, at a point where the river makes a broad sweep across the Kanto plain. In the Edo period, Sakai was a busy river port, where boats loaded with rice, soy sauce and other goods passed on their way to and from Edo, and the town grew rich on the trade.

   Across the river, on a narrow tongue of land where the Edo river branches off from the Tone, stands Sekiyado, once a castle town guarding this strategic junction. A reconstructed castle keep there houses the Chiba Prefectural Sekiyado Castle Museum, which tells the story of the rivers and the efforts to control them, including the great Edo-period project that diverted the Tone eastward to protect the capital from floods. The view from the top of the keep over the rivers and the plain is excellent.

   Calling this a high point is relative: the land is almost perfectly flat, and the highest ground for miles is the river embankment. But the embankments offer long views across the plain, and on clear days Mount Fuji, Mount Tsukuba and the mountains of Nikkō and Chichibu can all be seen on the horizon.

   For riders, the roads around Sakai are flat and straight, with little traffic away from the main routes. The bridges over the Tone offer views of the wide river. Fuel and food are available in Sakai and the surrounding towns. It is a peaceful, unhurried place to pause on the way north.

4. Scenic stretch near Hannō pass

   Hanno is where Saitama's flat suburbs run out and the green ridges begin, at about 100 metres above the sea, on the Iruma river at the mouth of the valley that leads up toward Okutama and Chichibu. It is a city of about eighty-six thousand people, so a fuel stop is easy, and it has a long history as a timber town. For centuries the cedar and cypress felled in the mountains upstream were floated or hauled down here to supply the building boom of Edo, and the old lumber trade gave the place much of its wealth.

   Today Hanno is better known for something gentler. Moomin Valley Park, beside Lake Miyazawa, is a Finnish-inspired village with a theme dedicated to the beloved trolls of Tove Jansson, and it is a favourite family outing. The lake itself is a quiet reservoir surrounded by woods, with a path around its shore, and it is often the starting point for walking and cycling trips into the hills. Cherry blossom in early April and the autumn colours bring crowds.

   The Hanno riding starts the moment you leave the town. Routes 299 and 70 climb into the valley through cedar forest and small hamlets, with tight bends, shade and occasional mossy patches, and it is known among riders as the gateway to the best roads west of Tokyo. The Shomaru and Tokigawa areas have cheerful, winding roads, and the Chichibu basin lies just over the hills. At weekends, the road is thick with bikes and cars, so a weekday or a very early start is a good idea.

   Convenience stores and petrol stations are plentiful in town, but they become sparse as you climb, and some mountain stations close early in the evening, so fill up before you head into the hills. Many riders gather at a few popular stops near the foothills, particularly on Sunday mornings, and the atmosphere can be quite sociable.

   Check your tyre pressures, warm up the engine gently and enjoy the long, shaded climb. After the grey suburbs, the green of the mountains feels like a reward.

5. Near Ōtsuki, on the way back swim

   The Katsura river runs below, cutting a gorge near Ōtsuki that is crossed by Saruhashi, the Monkey Bridge, one of Japan's three great strange bridges, a wooden cantilever construction that has been rebuilt many times since the Middle Ages. Enzan, to the north-west, is the gateway to the Daibosatsu mountains and the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park.

   This is a landscape of terraced orchards, with grapes, peaches and persimmons ripening along the slopes. The Kōshū grape, grown here for over a thousand years, makes the white wine of Katsunuma, and the vineyards have given the area a growing reputation among wine lovers, with tasting rooms open to visitors. The old Kōshū Kaidō, the road from Edo to Kōfu, ran through here, and Sasago Pass, a long climb to the east, was one of its steepest sections, with checkpoints and inns that have mostly vanished. Mount Fuji appears on the southern horizon from many viewpoints, a huge white shape above the lower hills.

   The roads are a pleasure. From Ōtsuki, routes climb the valleys toward Kosuge and Lake Okutama, with sharp bends, narrow sections and a thick cover of forest, and the Matsuhime road in particular has a fine reputation among riders. The surface is mostly good, but narrow in places, and rockfalls, wet leaves and fallen branches are common. In winter, ice persists in the shade, and snow can close the higher roads. Autumn is the best time, with the orchards and forests in colour, and spring brings blossom in the valleys.

   Fuel and food are easy in Ōtsuki, Enzan and the Kōfu basin, with convenience stores and restaurants along the main roads. The local dish is hōtō, a thick noodle soup of flat wheat noodles, pumpkin and vegetables, served in an iron pot and perfect for a cold day. Fresh fruit is for sale at roadside stands in season.

   The label mentions Bandai Azuma and Shōsenkyō, but the mountains here have their own appeal, quieter and little known to visitors.

6. Photo stop near Ōiso pass

   Ōiso is a quiet seaside town on Sagami Bay, west of Hiratsuka, and it has an important place in Japanese social history: in 1885 it became the site of Japan's first public sea bathing beach, promoted by an army surgeon who believed that sea bathing was good for health. Wealthy families from Tokyo built villas here, and the town became a fashionable resort for politicians and aristocrats.

   Among them was Yoshida Shigeru, prime minister in the years after the Second World War, who lived in Ōiso for many years. His former residence, with its gardens overlooking the sea, has been restored and is open to visitors. Ito Hirobumi, Japan's first prime minister, also had a villa here.

   The old Tōkaidō highway, which linked Edo and Kyoto, passes through Ōiso, and a stretch of the old road is still lined with ancient pine trees. Each January, the Hakone Ekiden, a famous university relay race from Tokyo to Hakone and back, runs along this route, and the roadside is lined with spectators.

   For riders, Route 1 and the Seishō bypass run along the coast, with views over the sea and, on clear days, Mount Fuji to the west and the Izu Peninsula to the south-west. Traffic can be heavy, especially on weekends. Fuel and food are available in Ōiso and Hiratsuka. As a photo stop, the coast near Ōiso, with the sea and Fuji, is lovely, especially in winter, when the air is clear.

7. Near Wako finish

   In 1964 the world's best oarsmen raced on a straight, two-kilometre channel dug beside the Arakawa at Toda, a few minutes from this finish. The Toda rowing course was built for the Tokyo Olympics and is still busy with university crews, whose coaches cycle along the bank shouting through megaphones at dawn. Next door, crowds gather to bet on the motorboat races at the Toda kyōtei stadium, one of the few forms of legal gambling in Japan.

   This is the low, flat land where Saitama meets Tokyo, between Toda, Wakō and Shimotoda, crossed by the great embankments of the Arakawa and the expressways that carry the weekend traffic home. It is not beautiful, but the river gives it space: the floodplain is a broad green belt of baseball pitches, golf driving ranges, reed beds and cycle paths, and on a clear winter day Mount Fuji appears on the western horizon, framed between the apartment blocks.

   The last kilometres after the Bandai Azuma Skyline are rarely relaxing. The Gaikan ring road and the Shuto expressways jam up on Sunday evenings as the whole of Kantō returns at once, and the surface streets are a grid of signals, trucks and scooters. Keep your gaps generous; drivers here are polite but tired.

   Practicalities are simple. Petrol stations and konbini line the arterial roads, family restaurants stay open late, and the station areas have counters serving gyōza and beer to salarymen. If it is early enough, a slow walk along the rowing course, with the eights gliding past in the evening light, is a strangely calming way to step off the bike.

8. Back to Bandai finish

   The city has more than half a million people, and the district here is a mix of apartment blocks, shops and small parks, with the bay a few kilometres to the south. Nakayama racecourse, home of the Arima Kinen, one of Japan's biggest horse races, lies a short way to the north-west.

   The ride that ends here has crossed the Bandai-Azuma mountains, so this is a long step down. The roads are busy, flat and full of lights, and the surface is good. The expressway along the bay carries heavy traffic, and the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line is not far. On race days, the area around Nakayama is thick with cars and buses, so check the calendar. Funabashi's name means boat bridge, a reminder that the city began as a landing place for ships on the old Edo coastal route.

   The bay itself has a story. Until the 1960s, the shallow waters off Funabashi were a major fishing ground, and the Sanbanze tidal flat, a protected wetland south of the city, is still a vital stopover for migrating birds. Funabashi was famous for its seaweed and clams, and a few old fishing families remain. The city also has a ski dome and a large shopping centre, a sign of how much the area has changed.

   Fuel and food are plentiful, with stations on the main roads and a huge variety of restaurants. The city's fresh seafood and, nearby, the peanut products of Chiba are typical local items, and a bowl of ramen is always easy to find. The JR and Tobu lines, and the subway, connect the city to Tokyo.

   If you have time, take the road to the Sanbanze wetland and watch the birds at dusk. The flat light on the water is very calm.

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