Tomiura to Nojimazaki Cape Loop
A 591 km loop
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Why this ride
Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. Out of Kimitsu and back again: 591 km, roughly 10 h 45 in the saddle. It goes by way of Ōhara, Scenic stretch near Ishige and Annaka. near Ami is the high point. It tops out at about 1,250 m. Long stretches are under trees.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Kimitsu
fuel
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.
The scenic heart of the area is Kanōzan, a low mountain with an old temple at the top and a viewpoint over the Kujūkutani, the ninety-nine valleys. On autumn and winter mornings, mist often fills the valleys below, creating a sea of clouds with the ridges rising like islands. It is a famous sight, and photographers gather at dawn to capture it.
The Kameyama dam lake, further south, is a long, winding reservoir surrounded by forests, and in late November the autumn leaves turn the slopes red and gold. The roads around the lake are narrow and twisty, with little traffic and fine views.
For riders, the inner Boso offers a network of quiet roads with tight bends, steep climbs and tunnels. The tarmac is decent on the whole, though leaves, moss and fallen branches can make the roads slippery, especially in autumn and after rain. Watch out for deer and monkeys, which are common in the forests.
The Aqua-Line, the tunnel and bridge across Tokyo Bay from Kawasaki, lands in nearby Kisarazu, making the area easily accessible from Tokyo. Do your shopping on the coast. The hills are thinly populated, and the stations that do exist inland keep short hours, so leave the bay side with a full tank.
- Ōhara
food
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.
- High point near Ami
pass
Ami is a town in southern Ibaraki on the western shore of Kasumigaura, the second-largest lake in Japan, a broad, shallow sheet of water fringed with reeds, lotus fields and fishing villages. The land around it is flat to gently rolling, with fields, woods and scattered settlements, and Mount Tsukuba rises to the north-west, the only real mountain for miles.
Ami has a sobering place in Japanese history. During the Second World War, the Imperial Navy trained young pilots here, at the Kasumigaura naval air base and the Yokaren preparatory flight school, and many of them later died in the Pacific, some in kamikaze attacks. The Yokaren Peace Memorial Museum in Ami tells their story with letters, photographs and personal belongings, and it is a quiet, moving place.
Just to the south, in Ushiku, stands one of the largest statues in the world: the Ushiku Daibutsu, a bronze Buddha well over a hundred metres tall, rising above the surrounding fields. It is visible for miles, and you can take a lift up inside it to a viewing platform. Seeing it appear on the horizon as you ride is a surreal experience.
As a high point, the term is relative: the land is low, and the views are of the lake and the plain. But the lakeside roads offer long views over the water, especially beautiful at sunset. Riding is flat and relaxed, with little traffic away from the main roads. Fuel and food are available in Ami and the surrounding towns. The lotus fields around the lake, in bloom in summer, are a lovely sight.
- Scenic stretch near Ishige
scenic
In September 2015, after days of torrential rain, the levee of the Kinu River broke near Ishige, and floodwater spread across a huge area of the city of Jōsō, stranding thousands of people on rooftops while helicopters circled overhead. The images shocked Japan. The levees have since been rebuilt and strengthened, and the landscape has returned to its calm rhythm of rice paddies, villages and river embankments, but the event is a reminder of how much this flat land depends on its defences.
Ishige lies in south-western Ibaraki Prefecture, on the Kanto plain between the Kinu and Kokai rivers. The land is flat and fertile, given over to rice, vegetables and pears, and the twin peaks of Mount Tsukuba rise to the east, a landmark visible from much of the plain. Tsukuba is one of Japan's famous mountains, and the roads that climb its flanks are popular with riders, offering curves and views over the plain.
The riding around Ishige itself is easy and relaxed, with straight roads between the fields, but the roads towards Tsukuba and the hills of eastern Ibaraki are more interesting. Traffic can be heavy on the main routes, and the plain is exposed to wind. In summer, the heat and humidity are intense, while in winter, the air is clear and dry.
Ishige is well stocked with fuel stations, convenience stores and eateries. A local speciality is soba noodles made from buckwheat grown in Ibaraki. A short break here, before continuing towards the Bōsō peninsula to the south, offers a chance to appreciate the quiet beauty of the Kanto plain, its big skies and its wide rivers.
- Near Annaka, on the way back
swim
South-west of Takasaki the Kantō plain runs out and the mountains begin, and this stop lies right on that edge, between Annaka and Tomioka. Look west and the strangest skyline in Gunma comes into view: Mount Myōgi, a crown of jagged volcanic spires that looks as if someone took a rasp to an ordinary mountain. It is one of the three famous peaks of the old Jōmō province, and the road that skirts its flanks is a favourite with local riders for its tight, wooded bends.
Tomioka gave Japan its modern silk industry. The silk mill, opened in 1872 with French machinery and French engineers, was the government's showpiece of industrialisation, and its long brick buildings, now a World Heritage site, still stand in the town centre. Silk once paid for much of Japan's modernisation, and mulberry fields covered these hills.
Annaka is the gateway to the old Usui pass towards Karuizawa. At Yokokawa, where the railway once needed extra locomotives to climb the gradient, a railway park preserves old engines, and further up the valley the four-arched brick bridge of Usui, the Megane-bashi, stands in the forest like a Roman aqueduct. Yokokawa station is also famous for its boxed lunch of rice and chicken served in a small clay pot, which travellers have been buying for generations.
For a swim, keep expectations modest. The Usui and Kabura rivers are rocky, fast and cold, good for cooling feet on a hot afternoon but not for real swimming. Gunma's summer heat is fierce, so the shade of the riverbanks may be the best you get.
Fuel is easy in Annaka, Tomioka and Takasaki, and convenience stores are everywhere on the main roads. The roads into the mountains, though, have long stretches with nothing, so leave the plain with a full tank.
- Photo stop near Enzan
photo
Takeda Shingen, the warlord who dominated Kai province in the sixteenth century and remains a folk hero in Yamanashi, lies buried at Erin-ji, a Zen temple on the edge of Enzan. Its garden, laid out by the great medieval designer Musō Soseki, is a quiet masterpiece of pond, rocks and moss, and the temple is the spiritual heart of a town that now forms part of the city of Kōshū.
Enzan sits on the north-eastern rim of the Kōfu basin, and the slopes around it are covered with vineyards and peach orchards. This is the fruit bowl of Japan. In spring the peach blossom paints the valley pink, and in late summer and autumn roadside stands sell grapes, peaches and local wine; nearby Katsunuma is the centre of Japanese winemaking. On clear days, Mount Fuji rises to the south across the basin, framed by the Southern Alps to the west.
For riders, Enzan is the gateway to one of the great mountain routes of the region. National Route 411, the Ōme Kaidō, climbs north-east from the town over the Yanagisawa Pass, with steep grades, tight hairpins and views back over the basin, before dropping into the Okutama valley and the lake behind the Ogōchi dam. A side road leads up towards the Daibosatsu Pass, famous from an epic samurai novel. Traffic is light on weekdays, busy with bikes on weekends, and the upper road can be closed or icy in winter.
Enzan offers fuel, convenience stores and cheap restaurants. Try hōtō, the thick noodle stew that is Yamanashi's comfort food, before heading up into the mountains. The Bōsō coast lies far to the east, beyond Tokyo and the bay, a full day's ride from the vines.
- Near Kawaguchi
finish
Kawaguchi was Japan's foundry town. For centuries its workshops cast iron pots, kettles and temple bells from the sand and clay of the Arakawa, and by the twentieth century the town was famous for its cupola furnaces, whose chimneys filled the skyline. A classic 1962 film, set among the foundries, made the town a symbol of working-class Japan. Most of the furnaces have gone, replaced by apartment towers for Tokyo commuters, but a few workshops still cast metal in the old way.
This finish lies on the southern edge of the city, near the Arakawa, where Kawaguchi faces Tokyo across the river. Akabane, on the Tokyo side, is famous for its cheap, cheerful bars, where you can drink and eat for a few coins standing at a counter, and on weekend evenings the narrow lanes near the station are packed.
The Arakawa riverbanks are broad and green, with sports fields, cycle paths and reed beds, and the levee offers views over the city and, on clear days, to Mount Fuji. The river is a reminder of the floods that once threatened the low-lying plain, and the massive embankments were built to keep the water out.
Coming back from the Boso peninsula, the final stretch crosses Tokyo on the expressways or loops around it, and the traffic can be heavy. Plan for delays on Sunday evenings, and take care on the busy surface streets near the river.
Fuel and konbini are easy to find on the main roads. After a long day on the Boso coast, a seat at a counter in Akabane, with a cold beer and a plate of grilled skewers, is a deeply Tokyo way to end the ride.
- Back to Tomiura to
finish
Futtsu, with its long cape reaching towards the Miura peninsula, is a few kilometres to the south. The coast here is industrial, with the huge Nippon Steel plant at Kimitsu, but the hills behind are green, wooded and full of small valleys.
This is the midpoint of the Tomiura and Nojimazaki loop, and it is the part that pulls you into the countryside. The roads climb from the coast into the Bōsō hills, with narrow lanes, tunnels and bends through bamboo and cedar woods. The surface is mostly good, though some of the smaller roads have patches of loose gravel and fallen leaves. Traffic is light, apart from weekends, and the roads around Kururi, a small castle town inland, are some of the best in the region. Summer is hot and humid, and typhoons can bring heavy rain in September, so the clearest and best riding comes in November and spring.
The Bōsō hills are low, not much over three hundred metres, but they have a quiet, old feel. Nokogiri-yama, near Futtsu, is a ridge of jagged stone that was quarried for centuries, with a giant Buddha carved into the cliff in the eighteenth century and a viewing platform that juts out over a drop. Kururi has a small castle ruin and a lake, and in spring cherry and plum blossoms make the area colourful.
Fuel is easy in Kimitsu, a city of ninety thousand, with stations on the main road and supermarkets and restaurants. The Aqua-Line expressway, with its rest area in the middle of the bay, the Umihotaru, is not far, and it has a food court with views over the water. Local fish and seaweed are served in the small restaurants of the coast.
Take a moment at the viewpoint on Nokogiri-yama if you can. On a clear day the bay, the ships and Mount Fuji make a sweeping panorama.