Nikko Irohazaka and Lake Chuzenji
A 307 km loop
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Why this ride
Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. 307 km round from Tokyo - plan on about 5 h 35 of riding. The highest point is about 1,200 m.
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.
- Nikkō
food
Nikko is where Tokugawa Ieyasu was laid to rest, and the town lives with the weight of that. Ieyasu, who founded the shogunate that ruled Japan for two and a half centuries, died in 1616 and was enshrined here in the mountains north of Tokyo, and the Toshogu shrine, completed a year later and enlarged by his grandson, is a riot of gold leaf, carving and colour, quite unlike the restraint most people associate with Japanese temples. The famous carving of the three monkeys, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, is here.
The setting matters as much as the buildings. Huge cedars, planted over decades as a gift by a loyal lord, line the approaches, and the mist often clings among them. The town sits at the foot of the mountains of Nikko National Park, and above it rise volcanic peaks, a high lake and waterfalls. Autumn colour is spectacular, usually in mid to late October, and brings crowds.
For a rider, the climb is the event. The Irohazaka road, with its forty-eight hairpins named after the letters of the old Japanese alphabet, climbs the steep slope toward Lake Chuzenji in two one-way sections, one for each direction. The curves are tight and the surface is good, but the road is busy in autumn and misty in the mornings. At the top, the lake and the Kegon Falls drop in a single plume of nearly a hundred metres, and beyond lies the Senjogahara marsh, an open plain of grass and birch beside a ridge of volcanic hills.
Nikko itself is a small town with fuel, restaurants and plenty of hotels. A local speciality is yuba, thin sheets of tofu skin, served in various forms. Summer is cool by Tokyo standards, which is why imperial families built holiday villas here. Snow can close the high road from late autumn, so check ahead if you ride in November. Arrive early or late to avoid the tour buses, and give the temple a proper morning.
- Tokyo finish