Why this ride
Out of Machida, one way: 352 km, roughly 5 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes near Ōiso, Kimitsu and Ishige. The climb of the day is near Ichihara.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gunma Three Mountain Day · short arc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 352 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 59
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
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.
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
about 143 km into the recorded legs 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 224 km, about halfway. 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 about 308 km into the recorded legs. 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.
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 108 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 94 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 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.