RIDE REPORT Hashimoto city to Kibi

National Route 371

Last updated  June 2, 2002

Let me say for the record,
 "This is the best bike-road in Kansai!"
 I defy anyone to come up with a better road, in the Kansai area, for riding a bike.

Start: Osaka

NR 26 south to Sakai

NR 310 to NR371 to Hashimoto.

At Hashimoto turn left on to NR 24. After less than a Km you will turn right for NR 370/ 371

Taking 371 to Koyasan. This will turn left in Koya and become the KoyaRyujin Skyline. Continue on for approx. 60 km.

NR 371 will turn right onto NR 425. After 3 km turn right onto NR424. At the town of Kinyacho, turn left and follow the signs to the Hanwa Expressway at Kibi.

2001

Initially, one of the reasons that I bought my HD was that I was convinced that there were countless beautiful scenes and vistas all around me, but just out of my reach without independent transport. I really had not much evidence but just this feeling that over there in that direction there were some really cool places to see some great stuff. I had heard of waterfalls and deep river gorges. But of course all of these were in secluded parts of Japan. Most notably there was the entire Kii peninsula ( 紀伊半島 ) (I was living on the edge of it) that showed on a map some really great looking topography and roads.  Alas I had no way to get there. I needed to get a bike.

Once Mithril arrived I suddenly had access to these places and the first trip I took was up to Koya san. On paper the route looked easy enough. However as this was near to one of the first trips on the bike I had yet to come face to face with the evil that is the Japanese Department of Transportation, Sign Division.

I planned to head south on National Rt 26, head east on NR 310 until I came to NR371 and then take that into the town of Hashimoto. I made the turn onto NR310 and was following the signs all nice and neat. Suddenly there are no more signs and the rout I am on becomes something like route 119. I double back to find my mistake and try again. Same thing with no improvement. I finally headed SW, ran into a road that was on my map and followed that to NR371. Sweet. Now I was getting into it. At Hashimoto the plan was to follow NR371 over a river and to the back side of Koya mountain. So of course at the intersection with NR 24, NR371 simply disappeared. I was here that I first learned that Japan is quite loathe to have one road with 2 route numbers on it. In the States this happens all the time as 2 roads merge and share the same stretch of blacktop for a short distance. Well after much deliberating and magnifying glass use I concluded that if I went North on NR24 I would come to the continuation of NR371. I did and it worked.

After crossing the river I turned right and then immediately left to stay on NR371 and avoid NR370. One of the first things I noted was that the right away there was a LARGE overhead sign stating that large trucks and wide loads were prohibited from using this road. I got goose bumps in anticipation of what lay ahead.  And sure enough, after about a mile of narrow residential meanderings the road got twisty in a hurry. After climbing up and over some mountains to get you into the center of this secluded area you settle down into a path of following a small stream or river that runs for miles between two sets of mountains. This road has some amazing cutbacks, so tight in places that you pass your self going by. The government has placed large convex mirrors on poles at these turns to allow you to see what is in fact coming on the other side of the turn. This in and of itself is not so strange in Japan. You see this just about everywhere. However, there are about 163 of these mirrors set up on this small stretch of road.

As the road follows the river you are treated to some really amazing views. Harsh, craggy rocks that spring from the sides of the hill and jut from the water. There are some enticingly inviting looking pools of water that are so blue and clear that pull you to leave your bike and go for a dip.

October 5 began with Steve Jeffereys and I planning to meet in front of my building at 8:30 am to find this amazing road. I had worked very late the night before and had left my cell phone on silent mode so when I overslept and he called me I missed the heads up. I finally awoke and got his message but then misunderstood him to say that he was still at his house eating breakfast. What he in fact said was that he was in FRONT of MY house eating some breakfast. I looked over my balcony while watering my plants and saw him pacing the street below. Yikes!  I hauled myself down there right quick, forgetting to bring along water and other useful items.

One we got underway we headed for NR 310 and I explained to him that the last several times I tried to use this road I had gotten lost and that it had just disappeared. So with great vigilance we moved through south Sakai city checking all the road signs for a departure of this road. Soon we passed over a land bridge and we both realized at the same time that we had just missed the turn. NR 310 is to head off to the right. To do this it exits the main road via a small "off ramp" on the left. This despite the fact that this is not the kind of road where you would expect to find on and off ramps and accompanied by the fact that there is only 1 sign for this move and it is directly above the the turn off. As the main road was divided and had limited access to the other side we had to turn around and circle back.

Once back on NR 310 things were much better. The drive through the small towns seemed endless though only about 20 km. Be careful as many roads merge and cross NR310 before you can finally get to the place were NR371 meets this road. Again we followed NR371 into central Hashimoto. They are working on a By-pass that will let you skip some of the congested areas leading into Hashimoto and the one long tunnel just before. The By-pass however is not yet complete or the bridge was under construction or something cause when we got about half way through we we re-routed back to the regular NR371 to head into Hashimoto with the rest of the riff raff. Again we took the left onto NR24 and then the right onto NR371 again. just after crossing the river we went right and then stopped to check directions. here for about 50 meters NR370 meets NR371. You want to make an immediately let onto NR371. Before you cross the small single set of train tracks you should see a large overhead sign in Japanese telling you that wide vehicles, long vehicles, trucks and generally everyone should refrain from using this road. This is how you know that this is going to be a special ride.

We again headed down this road. As we began to twist and turn into the mountains, one cutback had half the road cordoned off with bright yellow tape. It seems that in a recent rain half the road had washed away. Cool! As we went through the forest and followed the river I was struck by how beautiful and almost perfect the stream and surrounding area was. As Steve and I parked our bikes at the junction to head up to the top of Koya San, Steve's face said it all. A smile so big that I think the ends met somewhere in the back of his head. His first words were, "Wow, this is a great road!" "yeah, I know," was my reply.

The hits just kept on coming as we approached the mountain top. Steve began to stop and take pictures of the wide sweeping vistas that you normally do not associate with Japan. From up here you could see everything. Or so we thought.

After luck in the tourist area of Koya we headed for the Koya Ryujin Skyline
( 高野龍神スカイライン ) toll road. The entrance to this is about 1 km from the main parking lot for the busses. In my previous visit I had not entered the toll road as I was near broke, was low on gas, and could not find a gas station to get me home much less farther south. On that day while sitting outside the toll booth trying to estimate the toll, I had seen a grand total of 1 car go by in a little under 10 minutes.

This time as we approached the toll booth it looked weird. All the windows were covered over in large sheets of white paper. As Steve stopped at the window I saw a sign off to the left that said some thing about October 01, 2003. Steve pulled out, obviously having not paid. I got to the window and slowed. No one home so I shot through. We found out later from talking to some of the nearly 300 motorcyclists that we saw that  day that the toll had been removed on October 1. So this was the first Sunday that the road had ever been free. This certainly explained the exorbitant number of cars and bikes. People were flocking to this place the Filipinos did to Malacanyan after Marcos fled the Philippines. People wanted to see! Cars were piling through the gate about every 10 seconds.

It turns out that the local businesses had petitioned the government to remove the toll because it prevented people from coming in and staying at the scenic hotels and eating at their restaurants. Well it worked.

And wow! what an amazing road this was. It is fine and wide. Nice turns with decent amounts of banking for bikes to take advantage of. The Koya Ryujin Skyline ( 高野龍神スカイライン ) can be loosely translated into the dragon god sky road. And it was like riding the ridges on the back of a dragon. Up down and all around. The hardest part of the ride was trying not to get squished or running off the road while rubbernecking at all the great scenery. Suffice it to say that it easy to

The weird thing is that this skyline, on the south end,  just seems to abruptly end in the middle of....nowhere. I mean there ain't nothing there 'cept a sign telling you that if you follow the extension of this road you will come to Ryujin Mura. However even this is about 15 km further south. The two or three roads leading off at the exit clearly lead to some pretty micro sized towns.

This all leads one to question how or why this road got made in the first place.

From here we continued on 371 through Ryujin Mura and took a right at national road 425. After a short distance we changed to 424 and began slowly heading back north towards Kibi. This road is more of the same nice traveling as you turn off of 425. However as you get closer to Kibi and Wakayama the road grows more congested with traffic and traffic lights.

As we headed west at Kinyacho town the directions were clear to get to the expressway but the travel had slowed to a crawl.

Finally we entered the express way to...immediately be stopped in traffic. This far south the express way is a limited access 2 lane road, (one north one south) which means no passing. One slow car brings everything to a crawl for all.

Soon however the road upgraded to a more normal 4 lane highway status and things began to really pick up the pace. Were were home a short while later.