Shosenkyo Gorge and Lake Kawaguchi
A 361 km loop
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Why this ride
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. 361 km round from Matsudo - plan on about 6 h 41 of riding. The stops in between: near Kurihashi, near Shiraoka, Scenic stretch near Hachiōji and Uenohara.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Matsudo
fuel
Fuel at 0 km.
- Food stop near Kurihashi food
- High point near Shiraoka swim
- Scenic stretch near Hachiōji
swim
Mount Takao stands at the edge of Hachiōji like a patient dog, a green hill of about six hundred metres that Tokyoites climb in their hundreds of thousands. For a rider, it is a start and finish point, a convenient place for fuel, parking and a good bowl of ramen before the mountains begin. The city sits at the foot of the Tama hills, and the climate here is a few degrees cooler than central Tokyo.
Hachiōji has a clear identity. The local ramen is a shoyu broth with chopped onions floating on top, a simple, comforting bowl that sells at counters across the city. The city was an important silk centre, and its merchants traded in bales of silk that travelled to Yokohama along a road still called the Silk Road. In the sixteenth century, the Hōjō clan of Odawara held a castle on a hill here, which fell to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army in 1590, and the remains of its walls can still be walked. In late November, the avenue of ginkgo trees along the road to Mount Takao turns a brilliant yellow, and the city holds a festival beneath them.
The riding that starts here goes west. Route 20, the old Kōshū Kaidō, climbs past the foot of Mount Takao and through the long Kobotoke tunnel, then continues toward Sagamiko, Ōtsuki and the Chūō corridor. Other roads lead north-west to Ōme and the Okutama valley, or south-west to the Tanzawa foothills. The early morning is the best time, when the city is quiet and the mountains are cool. Sunday traffic is heavy on the way out.
Fuel and food are everywhere. The city has hundreds of stations and restaurants, and the area around Hachiōji station is lively with cafés and small bars. If you finish here at the end of the day, plan to arrive before the evening rush, when the roads back into central Tokyo are slow. A bowl of ramen after a long ride is hard to beat, and the soy broth, rich and salty, is just what a tired rider needs.
- Near Uenohara, on the way back
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Route 413, the Dōshi road, is the motorcycle road of western Kanagawa. It runs from Sagamihara up the long, narrow valley of the Dōshi river to Lake Yamanaka at the foot of Fuji, and on a weekend morning the parade of bikes heading west is almost continuous. This stop lies in that valley, south of Uenohara, where the river runs clear and green between forested slopes and the villages are strung out along the road.
The Dōshi river is famous for its water. It is cold, clean and fast, tumbling over boulders and pooling in deep green basins, and in summer the riverside campsites fill with families from Tokyo who come to paddle, fish and barbecue. For a rider, a riverside stop with boots off and feet in the water is the best kind of break. Swimming is possible in the calmer pools, but the current is strong after rain, and the water is very cold, even in August.
The road itself is a joy, with a rhythm of bends that follow the river, good surfaces and long stretches without junctions. It is also busy and closely watched by police, especially at weekends. Watch for cars stopping suddenly at campsites, cyclists on the climbs, and gravel washed onto the road after storms. In winter, ice lingers on the shaded sections.
Lake Miyagase, the reservoir at the eastern end of the valley, is a popular stop with a large park and views over the water. At the western end, the road climbs to the Yamabushi pass and drops to Lake Yamanaka, with Fuji suddenly filling the view.
Fuel is limited in the valley. Fill up in Sagamihara or at Lake Yamanaka, and do not count on the small stations in between. The roadside stations, michi-no-eki, sell local vegetables, soft ice cream and grilled river fish.
- Photo stop in Zushi
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Zushi is a small, relaxed seaside town on the western side of the Miura Peninsula, tucked between Kamakura and Hayama, with a crescent of sandy beach facing Sagami Bay. It has long been a retreat for Tokyo families, and in summer the beach fills with swimmers, windsurfers and stand-up paddlers. Out of season, it is quiet, with dog walkers and joggers on the sand and fishing boats pulled up at the end of the bay.
For a swim, Zushi Beach is one of the most sheltered on this coast, with gentle waves and shallow water, and during the official swimming season in July and August, lifeguards are on duty and beach huts sell food and drinks. Outside that season, swimming is at your own risk. The water is coolest in early summer and warmest in late August and September.
On clear days, especially in winter and early spring, Mount Fuji rises across the bay, and the sunset view from the beach, with the mountain silhouetted against the sky and the sea glowing, is one of the most famous on the Shonan coast. Next door, Hayama is home to an imperial villa, and its coast is lined with rocky coves and small beaches.
As a start, Zushi gives easy access to the coast road around the Miura Peninsula and to Kamakura, with its temples and shrines. Traffic can be heavy, especially on summer weekends, and parking near the beach is limited. Fuel and food are available in Zushi and the surrounding towns. Go early to enjoy the beach in peace.
- Wako
finish
Honda's engineers have tested ideas in Wako for decades; the company's research and development arm grew up here, and the name still turns up on buildings around town. So does RIKEN, Japan's largest research institute, whose headquarters and laboratories occupy a large campus in the city. For a rider ending a long weekend, there is a pleasing symmetry in finishing a ride where so many motorcycles were born on drawing boards.
Wako lies on the north-western edge of Tokyo, just across the boundary in Saitama, where the Arakawa river and the big expressways meet. It is a residential city of apartment blocks, schools and parks, with a small-town feel despite its size. The Arakawa riverbanks, broad and grassy, are popular with joggers, cyclists and baseball teams, and on a clear day you can see Mount Fuji from the levee.
Coming back from the north, the Kan-Etsu expressway and the Gaikan ring road deliver you to Wako, and the final stretch is a short ride through local streets. Traffic can be heavy, especially on Sunday evenings, when the expressways fill with people returning from weekends in the mountains.
Around the station, counters serve ramen, curry and set meals until late, and that is the right way to close a weekend that began on the Bandai Azuma Skyline: elbows on the counter, helmet on the next stool, steam on your glasses.
- Back to Shosenkyo Gorge
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Matsudo is a city of nearly half a million people on the Chiba side of the Edo River, the border with Tokyo, and nothing about it says Shosenkyo or mountains. It is a commuter place, an hour or so from the gorge's Yamanashi valleys, and so a natural endpoint when the day's riding has taken you back through the whole sprawl of the Kanto plain. Think of it as the dock where the ship comes in.
The Edo River gives the place its character. It was dug and straightened in the seventeenth century to control the Tone river's floods and to carry goods to Edo, and its broad, grassy embankments now hold cycle paths, sports fields and fishermen. Across from Matsudo, in Tokyo's Katsushika ward, lies Shibamata, the setting of the long-running Tora-san film series, and the Yagiri no Watashi, a small ferry that has crossed the river here since the Edo period. It carries foot passengers and cyclists for a small fare, and it is a charming bit of surviving old Japan in a modern suburb.
For a rider, the roads are urban and dull, laced with traffic lights and trucks serving the logistics parks along the Joban line and the Gaikan expressway. The best moments are along the river embankment roads in the early morning, when the light is soft and the air is cool. Rain and typhoons can flood the low ground, and in summer the humidity is something to be endured, with cicadas shouting from every tree.
You will not struggle for services. Petrol stations line every major road, and ramen, curry and sushi shops are around the station. Matsudo also has a pear story: the Nijisseiki variety, still the classic Japanese pear, is said to have been found as a chance seedling here in the 1880s, and Chiba remains famous for its pears and peanuts. Autumn is the most pleasant season, with clear air and dry weather. Park the bike, walk the embankment at sunset, and let the day wind down slowly.