Tokyo · Nikko Irohazaka and Lake Chuzenji
A 303 km loop from Utsunomiya
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Why this ride
Hairpins, altitude and shrine-country atmosphere for a serious day. 303 km round from Utsunomiya - plan on about 5 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of Nikko shrine stop and Lake Chuzenji water view. Irohazaka hairpins is the high point. It tops out at about 1,350 m. The passes are the reason to go.
Roadbook
- Utsunomiya fuel gate
fuel
Say gyoza in Japan and most people will say Utsunomiya. The capital of Tochigi has made the dumpling its civic emblem, with dozens of specialist shops, statues of dumplings in the station area and a popular rivalry with Hamamatsu over which city eats more of them. It is a cheerful, big-city sort of town, home to four hundred and fifty thousand people, and for riders it is the gateway to Nikkō, thirty-odd kilometres to the north-west.
The city is also built on stone. Ōya, a soft, greenish volcanic tuff quarried nearby since ancient times, forms the walls of old warehouses and churches, and Frank Lloyd Wright used it in his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The quarries have left enormous underground chambers, now used as an eerie, cool museum and event space. Utsunomiya was a castle town and a key stop on the Nikkō Kaidō, the road that pilgrims and lords took to the shrines of Nikkō.
The road to Nikkō is one of Japan's great avenues. A long line of cedar trees, planted in the seventeenth century by a feudal lord as an offering to the shrine, still runs along the old highway, forming a corridor of dark trunks that is among the longest tree-lined roads in the world. Riding under them in the early morning, with dappled light and the smell of resin, is a gentle pleasure. The modern Nikkō-Utsunomiya road is faster but less memorable, so choose the old way if time allows.
Fuel is no problem here. Utsunomiya is full of stations, and there are plenty more along the route. For food, gyoza is the obvious choice, served pan-fried, boiled or in soup, usually in a set with rice, and a plate is cheap and quick. Check the weather in Nikkō before you go, since the mountains can be cold and foggy while the city is warm. If you reach the avenue in the evening on your way back, the light through the trees is worth the wait.
- Nikko shrine stop
sight
The shrines at Nikko are among the most lavish in Japan, and they are there because of a single man. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified the country and founded the shogunate that ruled for over two and a half centuries, died in 1616 and was enshrined here the following year, in a mountain setting selected for its sacred character. His grandson Iemitsu rebuilt the complex on a grand scale in the 1630s, and the result is Toshogu, a collection of buildings covered in gold leaf, carved animals, flowers and painted beams, set among very tall cedars.
Some of the carvings are famous. The three monkeys, who see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, are on a stable building. The Sleeping Cat, over a doorway, is small and easy to miss. The Yomeimon, the gate, is so elaborately decorated that it is sometimes called the gate you could look at until sundown. Nearby are Futarasan Shrine and Rinno-ji temple, and the whole complex has been a UNESCO site since 1999. The famous red bridge, Shinkyo, crosses the Daiya River at the foot of the hill.
For the rider, Nikko is a rewarding place at the right time. The old cedar avenue that leads in from the south, planted over decades, is one of the longest of its kind, and its dark, cool shade is a pleasure on a hot day. Parking near the shrines is limited and at busy times it is crowded, so go early on a weekday, and wear shoes you can take off easily, as some buildings require it. The town has fuel and cafes, and the local specialty is yuba, the skin of soy milk, served in many forms.
The approach is by the Nikko-Utsunomiya road, easy and well kept, or from Tokyo on the expressway, about two hours in light traffic. Beyond the town the Irohazaka road climbs to Lake Chuzenji and the high ground, a short ride that is among the best in the region. Autumn is the most colourful season and the most crowded.
- Irohazaka hairpins
pass
The Irohazaka is the most famous road in Nikko, and one of the best known in Japan. It climbs from the town at about 640 metres to Lake Chuzenji at roughly 1,270 metres, in a series of forty-eight hairpin bends, each marked with a sign bearing one of the characters of the old Japanese alphabet, called iroha, which has forty-eight letters. The road is split into two one-way sections, with the original, built in the 1950s, carrying traffic down and a second, with twenty-eight bends, carrying traffic up, so you never meet oncoming vehicles on the corners.
The hairpins are tight, but the surface is good and the camber is generous, which makes the climb a joy on a bike. Rhythm matters, because the bends come fast, and the gradient requires you to use engine braking on the descent. Wet leaves and fog can make things slippery, and you should watch for monkeys, Japanese macaques, which sit by the road and sometimes wander into the lanes. Do not feed them, because they can be aggressive.
The best time to come is in October and early November, when the maples and birches turn red and gold, and the whole mountainside seems to be on fire. It is also the busiest, and traffic can crawl for hours, with queues stretching back toward town, so start at dawn. In winter, snow and ice often close the road to vehicles without chains, so check before travelling.
At the top, the Kegon Falls drop nearly a hundred metres into a gorge, one of Japan's three great waterfalls, and an elevator takes you down to a viewing platform at its base. There is also a ropeway at Akechidaira, which gives a panoramic view of the hairpins, the lake and the mountains.
Nikko itself has about sixteen thousand people, with fuel and plenty of food.
- Lake Chuzenji water view
swim
Lake Chuzenji lies at about 1,270 metres in the mountains above Nikko, and it was born in violence. Some twenty thousand years ago, an eruption of Mount Nantai, the cone that now rises above the northern shore, sent lava across the Daiya river and dammed the valley, and the water that built up behind it became the lake. The result is a deep, cold, clear body of water, shaped like a crescent, with wooded slopes plunging into it and no real beach.
For many years the lake was a summer retreat for foreign diplomats, who escaped the heat of Tokyo by travelling up to Chuzenji in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the British, Italian and other embassies built villas on the shore. A few have been restored and are open to visitors, and the sight of wooden houses in a Western style, with verandas looking over the water, gives the lake a faintly colonial air. Boats and a few small cruise vessels operate in summer, and fishermen cast for trout from the shore.
The way up is the Irohazaka, the famous road of forty-eight hairpin bends, named after the forty-eight characters of the old Japanese syllabary. Today two one-way roads climb and descend the same slope, so you either climb or drop, and the bends come one after another with a drop on the outside and forest on the inside. It is a thrilling ride, though demanding, and best taken at a steady, controlled pace. In mid-October, the maple and birch trees on the slope turn red, orange and gold, drawing crowds, and the road can be slow and busy.
Nikko, twelve kilometres below, has sixteen thousand people and all the usual services, including fuel, and Imaichi, a little farther, has more. At the lake itself, there is a village with restaurants, shops and inns, and fuel is limited, so fill up in the valley. Temperatures here are well below those in the lowlands, with frost in October and snow in winter. When the weather is clear, the view from the shore, with the mountains reflected in still water, is among the most beautiful in Japan, and in morning mist it takes on an almost Chinese ink-painting quality. Bring layers, because the wind off the water is cold.
- Back to Utsunomiya
finish
Back at Utsunomiya. That is the ride.