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.
Out of Yokosuka, one way: 574 km, roughly 9 h 30 in the saddle. It goes by way of Scenic stretch near Ōtsuki and near Yoshii. Atami is the high point. It tops out at about 1,100 m. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Yokosuka occupies much of the Miura Peninsula, south of Yokohama, and it has been a naval town since the 1860s, when the Tokugawa shogunate built a shipyard here with French help. Today it is home to the US Navy's Seventh Fleet and a major Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force base, and the mix of cultures gives the town a distinctive feel. Dobuita Street, near the base, is full of bars and shops, and Yokosuka navy curry is a local speciality.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Yokosuka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boso Peninsula Pacific Sweep is where the day begins. Next is Boso Peninsula Pacific Sweep high point.
Atami is a hot-spring resort on the eastern coast of the Izu Peninsula, a town that climbs the hillside above Sagami Bay in a tumble of hotels, apartment blocks and narrow streets. It has been a place of rest for centuries, and the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu is said to have visited for the waters. Today the town is quite easy to reach from Tokyo, with a bullet train stopping here, which makes it a favourite weekend escape, and it still has a faintly retro seaside air, with old inns, souvenir shops and steaming vents.
Read the complete Atami write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Ōtsuki.
Ōtsuki sits in a deep, narrow valley in the mountains of eastern Yamanashi, where the old Kōshū Kaidō highway from Edo to Kōfu meets the road south towards Mount Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes. The Katsura river runs through the valley, and steep, forested mountains rise on every side, giving the town a closed-in, mountain feel despite being only about an hour from western Tokyo.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Ōtsuki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 201 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch near Ōtsuki. Next is Photo stop near Yoshii.
One of the oldest written stones in Japan stands near Yoshii. The Tago stele, carved in the early eighth century to commemorate the creation of a new district, is part of a group of three ancient monuments in the area that were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2017. It is a modest stone under a protective roof, but its age and significance give pause in a landscape of fields and low hills.
Read the complete Photo stop near Yoshii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Yoshii, about halfway. Next is Tokyo / Kanto rides return.
Kashima's great shrine claims to be one of the oldest in Japan, and its deity, Takemikazuchi, is a god of thunder and swords. A stone in the shrine forest, the kaname-ishi, is said to pin down the head of a giant catfish beneath the earth whose thrashing causes earthquakes. Only a small rounded top shows above ground; legend says that no amount of digging has ever reached its bottom. The forest around the shrine, with tall cedars, deer and a spring-fed pond, is a cool, dark refuge on a summer day.
Read the complete Kashima-shi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tokyo / Kanto rides return sits at 430 km, late in the day. Next is Food stop near Kashima-shi.
Kashima's great shrine claims to be one of the oldest in Japan, and its deity, Takemikazuchi, is a god of thunder and swords. A stone in the shrine forest, the kaname-ishi, is said to pin down the head of a giant catfish beneath the earth whose thrashing causes earthquakes. Only a small rounded top shows above ground; legend says that no amount of digging has ever reached its bottom. The forest around the shrine, with tall cedars, deer and a spring-fed pond, is a cool, dark refuge on a summer day.
Read the complete Kashima-shi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 538 km.
Fuel stop near Yokosuka → Atami is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Ōtsuki → Photo stop near Yoshii is 149 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Yoshii → Kashima-shi is 215 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.