Miura Coast and Enoshima Dawn
A 160 km loop
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Why this ride
Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. Out of Tokyo and back again: 160 km, roughly 2 h 54 in the saddle. Much of it runs through woodland.
Roadbook
- Tokyo
start
Every ride from Tokyo begins with a negotiation. The roads are good and the drivers are disciplined, but traffic lights are many and the pace is steady rather than fast, so patience is part of the toolkit. A Sunday dawn is the easiest time to slip away.
Tokyo is a city of more than thirteen million, and the metropolitan area around it is the largest in the world. It was once the fishing village of Edo, and it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early seventeenth century, then Japan's capital in 1868. That history is visible in odd places: a small shrine tucked between apartment blocks, a stretch of old canal, a temple with incense drifting over a car park. For a rider, it is worth looking up between traffic lights.
Practicalities are simple, because everything is close. Fuel stations are everywhere, with attendants at many of them, and the city's convenience stores sell hot coffee, rice balls and sandwiches at any hour. The expressways are tolled, and an electronic toll card makes them smoother, though paying at the booth works. Parking for motorcycles is trickier than in many places, so choose a hotel with a bike space in advance and check the rules before leaving the bike anywhere on the street.
Once you reach the open road, the contrast is striking. Heading south-west along the coast toward the Izu Peninsula, the landscape changes from concrete to hills, tangerine groves and sea views, with Mount Fuji appearing on clear days. The best time to ride is autumn, when the air is dry and cool and the visibility is highest, and spring, when the cherry blossom runs up the coast. Summer is hot and humid, and the rainy season in June can be grey and heavy, so pack proper waterproofs.
- Miura
food
At the very tip of the Miura Peninsula, south of Yokosuka, the land ends in low cliffs, rocky shelves, cabbage fields and a fishing harbour that has supplied Tokyo with tuna for generations. Misaki port is the heart of Miura, and that is where you go to eat. The city has around fifty thousand people, but it feels like a coastal country town, with the sea always close and the smell of salt and fish on the wind.
Misaki maguro is the dish. The harbour is lined with restaurants serving tuna in every form, raw on rice in a big bowl, grilled, fried, as sashimi or as rich slices of fatty toro, and the long queues at lunchtime on weekends tell you how famous it is. Miura is also known for its vegetables, especially its big white radishes, the daikon, and its cabbages, grown in fields that stretch right to the edge of the cliffs, with the sea glittering behind them. In winter you will see daikon hanging to dry on frames by farmhouses.
Just across a bridge from the harbour lies Jogashima, a small island with a lighthouse, a park and rocky shores carved into strange shapes by the waves. The walk along the southern cliffs is lovely, with views across the mouth of Tokyo Bay to the Boso peninsula and, on clear days, Mount Fuji to the west and the island of Oshima to the south. Kites, hawks and cormorants ride the wind. The poet Hakushu Kitahara lived here and wrote a famous song about the rain on Jogashima, and there is a monument to him on the island.
The ride down the peninsula follows Route 134 and the coast roads past Hayama, where the imperial family has a seaside villa, and then through hills, tunnels and farmland. Expect traffic on weekends, especially in summer, when beaches like Miura Kaigan fill with Tokyo families. Early morning is the best time, when the light is soft and the roads are quiet, and the wind off the sea can be strong in winter and spring.
Fuel, convenience stores and food are easy to find in Miura and in Yokosuka on the way back. If you only do one thing here, eat a tuna bowl by the harbour, then sit on the rocks on Jogashima and watch the waves come in from the Pacific.
- Tokyo finish