Tanzawa and Doshi Road

A 614 km loop

Open this ride in the planner →

Why this ride

Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. A 614 km loop that starts and ends near Kazo, about 11 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of near Hokuto, Itō and Scenic stretch near Miura. The climb of the day is near Kodamachō-kodamaminami. It tops out at about 1,350 m. Much of it runs through woodland.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop in Kazo fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. High point near Kodamachō-kodamaminami pass

   You top out here; the road stops climbing.

3. Food stop near Hokuto food

   A break here at 196 km.

4. Itō swim

   In 1604 an English pilot named William Adams, shipwrecked in Japan a few years earlier and taken into the service of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, built the first Western-style sailing ships in Japan at the mouth of the river in Itō. Adams, known in Japan as Miura Anjin, became a samurai and an adviser to the shogun, and his story inspired the novel Shōgun. Itō remembers him with a festival every August and a memorial by the river.

   Itō is a hot-spring town on the east coast of the Izu peninsula, with dozens of inns, public baths and a long promenade along the bay. The Tōkaikan, an old wooden inn on the river, has been preserved and opened to the public, with three storeys of carved wood, tatami rooms and a lookout tower.

   South of the town, the Jōgasaki coast is a dramatic shoreline of black lava cliffs formed by an eruption of Mount Ōmuro, a perfectly shaped cinder cone that rises behind the coast. A suspension bridge spans a gorge above the waves, and the coastal path is spectacular. Mount Ōmuro's grass slopes are burned every year in a spring ritual, leaving the cone black for a few weeks.

   The beach in Itō is a long, sandy strip in front of the town, open for swimming in summer, with calm water and lifeguards. It is a good place for a dip after a day on the Izu Skyline.

   Route 135, the coastal road, is often congested, especially on weekends and holidays. The roads into the hills behind Itō are quieter, winding up to the Izu Skyline and the plateau of Izu Kōgen. In town, the shops along the harbour sell himono, fish split and dried in the sea air, grilled for breakfast all over Izu. Buy a pack for later, top up the tank on the way out, and save the onsen for when the riding is done.

5. Scenic stretch near Miura scenic

   Scenic stretch near Miura sits at 393 km, about halfway.

6. Photo stop near Ōhara photo

   Every September the men of Ōhara carry portable shrines straight into the Pacific, running through the surf to the beat of drums in a festival that has been held for centuries. It is a wild, joyful sight, and it sums up this small fishing town on the eastern coast of the Boso peninsula, where life still revolves around the sea and the boats.

   Ōhara is part of Isumi city, and its harbour lands some of the largest catches of Japanese spiny lobster, ise-ebi, in the country. In season, the restaurants near the port serve it grilled, boiled or in miso soup, along with whatever else the boats brought in that morning. It is a good place to eat, and lunch here is reason enough to stop.

   The Isumi railway, a little single-track local line, runs inland from Ōhara through rice fields and wooded hills. In spring, rapeseed flowers bloom along the tracks, and the small yellow trains pass through a sea of colour. Railway fans travel from all over Japan to photograph it.

   The coast road south towards Katsuura is a pleasant ride, with views over rocky bays and small beaches, and Katsuura's morning market, one of the most famous in Japan, has been held for over four hundred years. Inland, the roads wind through quiet valleys with little traffic, and the hills are green and wooded.

   The town covers the basics, pumps and konbini included. Beaches along this stretch open for swimming in July and August, but the Pacific does not do gentle here; stay between the flags and leave the reef edges to the surfers.

7. Near Tanashichō finish

   The western suburbs of Tokyo go on and on, and Nishitokyo, Kiyose and the old town of Tanashi sit in the middle of them: a quiet, flat, residential belt of low houses, apartment blocks, train stations and shopping streets, about twenty kilometres from the centre. Nishitokyo was formed in 2001 when Tanashi and Hoya merged, and its tallest landmark is a slim tower that carries broadcasting and observation equipment, visible from far away.

   Kiyose, just to the north, has an unusual history. In the early twentieth century its clean air and woods made it a centre for tuberculosis sanatoria, and the town became one of Japan's main hospital areas. Many medical institutions remain today, and the woods that once healed the sick still survive in patches, along with the Yanase river valley, where you can walk along the water among fields and groves. Elsewhere, the suburbs are a mix of new houses and old farm plots, where vegetables are still grown in small fields between homes.

   It is a logical end to a Tanzawa and Doshi Road day. The Doshi Road, Route 413, runs from Sagamihara through a beautiful forested valley to Lake Yamanaka at the foot of Mount Fuji, with river crossings, tight curves and steep climbs, and it is a favourite with Tokyo riders, though it gets crowded at weekends and police are often present. The ride back usually comes in on the Chuo expressway or along the roads through Hachioji and Tachikawa, and then into the long suburbs. Expect heavy traffic, lots of lights, and slow progress in the late afternoon.

   There are plenty of convenience stores, family restaurants, ramen shops and fuel stations around, and many train lines into central Tokyo, which helps if someone is collecting you. It is not a beautiful place, but it is calm, safe and practical, and after a long day in the mountains, a hot bath at a local sento, the public bath that many Tokyo neighbourhoods still have, may be the best end you could wish for.

8. Back to Tanzawa finish

   Kazo sits on the flat floor of the Kanto Plain, in northern Saitama, about seventy kilometres from the centre of Tokyo, and the land here is so level that the horizon is a ruler. It is a town of seventy thousand people with rice fields, vegetable plots and factories, and next to it flows the Tone River, the largest river in Japan by drainage area, which for centuries was a danger and a highway at once. The Tone was moved eastward in the seventeenth century to protect Edo from floods, and its broad embankments are now popular for cycling and fishing.

   Kazo has one great spectacle. Every spring, huge carp streamers, koinobori, are strung across the river, some as long as a hundred metres, and they billow in the wind like enormous coloured sleeves. Children's Day, in early May, is the occasion, and the sight of the fish flying above the water is a lovely one. Not far to the north is the Watarase retarding basin, a large wetland of reeds that is protected under the Ramsar convention and home to herons, harriers and many other birds.

   The riding here is flat and easy, with long straight roads through farmland and the occasional levee track, so it will not thrill you with corners. What it does give is space, a feeling of being on a plain with the horizon at all points and, on a clear winter morning, a line of snowy mountains far to the north-west: Tanzawa is nowhere near, but Akagi and Nikko's peaks stand on the skyline. Wind can be strong in winter, a dry cold gale coming off the mountains, and in summer the heat and humidity are heavy.

   Fuel is plentiful in Kazo, with stations at all the major crossings, and roadside stations sell fresh vegetables and cheap lunches. If you are travelling on the long link through the plain toward the mountains, this is a good place to eat and refill before the road begins to rise. Stay out of the city's rush hours, and give yourself time.

Where this sits

Rides near here