Why this ride
752 km round from Machida - plan on about 13 h 44 of riding. On the way it passes near Ōiso, Kimitsu and Ishige. The climbs: near Ichihara and near Sagamihara.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gunma Three Mountain Day + Mount Haruna and Ikaho Onsen
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 752 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 13 h 44
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop near Machida
The northern part of Machida climbs into the Tama Hills, where the old ridge roads once linked villages scattered through woods and valleys. Today much of the area is covered by Tama New Town, one of the largest housing developments in Japan, built from the 1960s onwards, but the ridges still offer views, and pockets of woodland, temples and farms survive between the estates.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Machida write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gunma Three Mountain Day is where the day begins. Next is Food stop near Ōiso.
2. Food stop near Ōiso
Inland from the coast at Ōiso, the land rises into a line of low, green hills between Hiratsuka and Ninomiya, and from their tops you look out over Sagami Bay, the Shonan coast and, on clear days, Mount Fuji and the Hakone mountains. The Shonan-daira hilltop park, above Hiratsuka, has an observation tower with a panoramic view, and in Ninomiya, Azumayama Park is famous for its early-spring display of rapeseed flowers with Fuji in the background.
Read the complete Food stop near Ōiso write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Food stop near Ōiso is where this day stops to eat. Next is Gunma Three Mountain Day scenic road.
3. Kimitsu
Kimitsu runs from the industrial shore of Tokyo Bay deep into the forested hills of the inner Boso peninsula, and the contrast is striking. On the coast, the Nippon Steel works stretches for kilometres, a tangle of furnaces, chimneys and cranes. Inland, within half an hour, you are among steep green hills, narrow valleys and reservoirs, with hardly a building in sight.
Read the complete Kimitsu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
92 km in you reach Gunma Three Mountain Day scenic road. Next is High point near Ichihara.
4. High point near Ichihara
A layer of rock in a riverbank near Ichihara has given its name to a slice of Earth's history. In 2020, the international body that decides such things named a geological age the Chibanian, after a cliff on the Yōrō river where the last reversal of the Earth's magnetic field is recorded with unusual clarity. The site is small and muddy, reached by a short path, but standing in front of it is a strange experience, a few hundred thousand years of time in a single bank of clay.
Read the complete High point near Ichihara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The high point of this section. Next is Tokyo / Kanto rides return.
5. Near Ishige, on the way back
The Kinugawa river looks placid enough as it slides through the rice fields of south-western Ibaraki, but in September 2015, swollen by days of torrential rain, it breached its levee at Jōsō and flooded a vast area of the plain, forcing thousands to flee and leaving towns under water for days. Driving the levee road today, high above the fields, you can see how flat and vulnerable the land is.
Read the complete Near Ishige, on the way back write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tokyo / Kanto rides return sits at 183 km, early in the day. Next is Photo stop in Kukichūō.
6. Photo stop in Kukichūō
Kuki is the kind of place that rarely appears in travel guides, a pleasant, low-rise city in the flat farmland of north-eastern Saitama, crossed by railways, rivers and expressways. Kukichūō is its central district, with shops, homes and offices, and it makes a practical stop on the long run north from Tokyo towards the mountains of Gunma and Tochigi.
Read the complete Photo stop in Kukichūō write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Photo stop in Kukichūō comes up 229 km in. Next is Gunma Three Mountain Day checkpoint 8.
7. Near Tokyo
When the poet Bashō set out in 1689 on the journey that became The Narrow Road to the Deep North, he left from Senju, on the Sumida river, where friends saw him off. This finish lies in that same old northern edge of Edo, in Arakawa ward, a neighbourhood of narrow streets, small workshops and wooden houses that still feels more like shitamachi, the old downtown, than the glassy Tokyo of Shinjuku and Roppongi.
Read the complete Near Tokyo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gunma Three Mountain Day checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Back to Gunma.
8. Back to Gunma
Zama is home to an American army base, Camp Zama, which has been there since the 1940s and is the headquarters of the US Army in Japan. The Sagami river runs a few kilometres to the west, and Mount Oyama, a sacred peak, rises on the horizon on a clear day.
Read the complete Gunma write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Back to Gunma. That is the ride. Next is Mount Haruna and Ikaho Onsen.
9. Fuel stop near Machida
Machida is a big commuter city on the south-western edge of Tokyo, poking into Kanagawa prefecture like a thumb, so that locals joke about whether it really belongs to Tokyo at all. It is busy, built-up and practical, with department stores, train stations and endless convenience stores, and it makes a straightforward starting point for rides into the mountains to the west.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Machida write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Next is High point near Sagamihara.
10. High point near Sagamihara
Sagamihara is a big city on the western edge of the Tokyo sprawl, but it stretches surprisingly far into the mountains. Its western part takes in the Tanzawa foothills, Lake Sagami and Lake Tsukui, two reservoirs on the Sagami river surrounded by forested hills, and the change from suburb to mountain happens quickly.
Read the complete High point near Sagamihara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
High point near Sagamihara tops the climb. Next is Mount Haruna and Ikaho Onsen checkpoint 8.
11. Near Kokubunji
Western Tokyo does not look like much from the train, a continuous sprawl of houses and stations, but walk a little and the old landscape shows through. Springs emerge at its foot, feeding small streams like the Nogawa, and some of the paths along them feel almost rural, with bamboo groves, old trees and the sound of running water.
Read the complete Near Kokubunji write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Mount Haruna and Ikaho Onsen checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch in Ageoshimo.
12. Scenic stretch in Ageoshimo
Ageoshimo is a district of Ageo, a commuter city in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo, on the flat Omiya plateau between the Arakawa and Ayase rivers. In the Edo period, Ageo was a post town on the Nakasendō, one of the five great highways that radiated from Edo, linking the capital with Kyoto through the mountains of central Japan. Travellers, merchants and feudal lords on their way to and from the capital stayed in its inns.
Read the complete Scenic stretch in Ageoshimo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Scenic stretch in Ageoshimo, late in the day. Next is Photo stop near Satte.
13. Photo stop near Satte
Every spring, along an embankment in Satte, about a thousand cherry trees bloom at the same time as fields of yellow rapeseed beneath them, and the combination of pink and yellow draws huge crowds. Gongendō Park, on the levee of an old river, is the place, and if you happen to ride through in late March or early April, it is a sight to remember. The rest of the year, Satte is a quiet town in the flat farmland of north-eastern Saitama.
Read the complete Photo stop near Satte write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Photo stop near Satte sits at 550 km, late in the day. Next is Tokyo / Kanto rides return.
14. Near Ōami, on the way back
It is farming country: rice paddies, vegetable fields, greenhouses and patches of woodland, with low hills to the south and a scattering of small towns. Chiba is famous for its peanuts, and in autumn the fields are dotted with drying stacks, called bocchi, a sight unique to this part of Japan.
Read the complete Near Ōami, on the way back write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tokyo / Kanto rides return comes up 596 km in. Next is Food stop near Kisarazu.
15. Food stop near Kisarazu
Kisarazu is the Chiba end of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, and for riders that alone makes it special. The Aqua-Line crosses the bay from Kawasaki in two halves: a long tunnel under the water, then a low bridge that skims across the surface for several kilometres into Kisarazu. In the middle sits Umihotaru, an artificial island with a parking area, restaurants and a deck with views over the bay, where on a clear day you can see Mount Fuji to the west and the towers of Tokyo and Yokohama to the north. It is tolled, and crosswinds on the bridge section can be fierce.
Read the complete Food stop near Kisarazu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
A break here. Next is Back to Mount Haruna.
16. Back to Mount Haruna
Minamirinkan, in Yamato city, is a little to the south, and the road that connects them is Route 16, the great ring road around Tokyo, which carries enormous traffic.
Read the complete Mount Haruna write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back to Mount Haruna closes the day.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop near Machida to Food stop near Ōiso
Fuel stop near Machida → Food stop near Ōiso is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop near Ōiso to Kimitsu
Food stop near Ōiso → Kimitsu is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
High point near Ichihara to Near Ishige, on the way back
High point near Ichihara → Near Ishige, on the way back is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop in Kukichūō to Near Tokyo
Photo stop in Kukichūō → Near Tokyo is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Gunma to Fuel stop near Machida
Back to Gunma → Fuel stop near Machida is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Machida to High point near Sagamihara
Fuel stop near Machida → High point near Sagamihara is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Sagamihara to Near Kokubunji
High point near Sagamihara → Near Kokubunji is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch in Ageoshimo to Photo stop near Satte
Scenic stretch in Ageoshimo → Photo stop near Satte is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Satte to Near Ōami, on the way back
Photo stop near Satte → Near Ōami, on the way back is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Kisarazu to Back to Mount Haruna
Food stop near Kisarazu → Back to Mount Haruna is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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