MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN Japan

Riding the Izu Skyline by motorcycle is, for a large share of riders searching for routes in Japan, the first name that comes up: it's the 40-kilometer toll road running along the volcanic ridge of the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, a little over two hours southwest of Tokyo.

The road connects the Atami-toge pass with Amagi-kogen and stays almost entirely above the treeline, with simultaneous views of the Pacific Ocean, Suruga Bay and, on clear days, Mount Fuji rising across the gulf.

It's a toll road (around 580 yen for a motorcycle), paved end to end with well-banked curves — the kind of fast, technical road that made generations of Japanese riders choose it as their favorite weekend escape, long before it showed up in international travel forums and videos.

Climbing the Venus Line by motorcycle means entering Nagano's most photographed mountain balcony: 76 kilometers of pavement that climb from Chino city up to the Utsukushigahara plateau, reaching 1,954 meters.

The name, according to local tourism tradition, comes from the almost celestial beauty of the landscape the road opens onto — mountain meadows, the Yatsugatake volcano in the background and, on clear days, even Mount Fuji outlined on the horizon.

It's a toll-free route less than three hours from Tokyo, which made it the favorite weekend escape for riders from the capital long before it appeared on any international list of Japan's routes.

Crossing Kyushu on the Yamanami Highway by motorcycle means linking two of Japan's most contrasting landscapes in a single day: the hot-spring resort town of Beppu, with more active thermal springs than anywhere else in the country, and the caldera of Mount Aso, one of the largest in the world.

The route, officially Route 11, climbs the Makinoto Pass and crosses the Yufuin plateau before opening onto the grasslands surrounding the still-active Aso volcano, permanently monitored by authorities.

Along with the Milk Road that continues it inside the caldera, it's the route combination most recommended by Kyushu touring agencies for any rider visiting the island for the first time.

The Milk Road by motorcycle traces the northern rim of the Mount Aso caldera, a volcanic basin about 25 kilometers north to south and 18 kilometers east to west — one of the largest on the planet, formed by successive massive eruptions tens of thousands of years ago.

The name isn't a coincidence: the route crosses the Kusasenri grasslands, where dairy cows have grazed for generations, with the five peaks of the Aso Gogaku silhouetted against the sky and, on active days, the steam column of the still-active Nakadake crater visible in the distance.

It's one of the most repeated postcards of motorcycle touring through Kyushu — a wide road, sweeping curves and kilometers of green grassland without a single building in sight.

Climbing Irohazaka by motorcycle means chaining together 48 hairpin curves on two one-way roads that climb from Nikko town, at about 600 meters, up to the shore of Lake Chuzenji, at 1,269 meters.

Each of the 48 curves carries a sign with a character from the iroha, the classical Japanese poem that uses every character of the hiragana syllabary exactly once — the first curve is named "i", the last one "su", following the poem from bottom to top.

The road became known worldwide outside Japan thanks to the manga and anime Initial D, which set several of its night drift races there, and today it remains one of the most-ridden touge — winding mountain roads — in the country, by motorcycles and sports cars alike.

Riding the UFO Line by motorcycle means taking Shikoku's highest paved road, along the ridge of the Ishizuchi mountain range, with the peak of the same name — the highest in western Japan, at 1,982 meters — always in view.

The nickname was coined by riders themselves for the feeling of riding suspended above a sea of clouds, the horizon curving on both sides as if piloting something not of this world; officially the route is Route 494.

It's narrow, without guardrails on several stretches, and without a single gas station along its 26 kilometers, which keeps it less traveled than other routes of similar fame — part of what made it a cult favorite among riders who already know Honshu's most famous roads and are looking for something less crowded.

Riding the Bandai-Azuma Skyline by motorcycle means crossing 28 kilometers of toll road inside Bandai-Asahi National Park, in the volcanic heart of Tohoku, reaching 1,622 meters at its highest point.

Japanese riders themselves nicknamed it "the road that runs above the clouds" for the views that open up on low-fog days, when the pavement sits above the cloud cover and only the neighboring volcanic peaks poke through.

A mandatory stop is the crater of Azuma-kofuji, an almost-perfect volcanic cone reached by a roughly fifteen-minute walk from the route's parking lot, with the crater still visible from the rim.

Crossing the Shiretoko Pass by motorcycle means entering the peninsula UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 2005 for being one of the few places in the northern hemisphere where sea ice still reaches a temperate zone, sustaining a full food chain from plankton to orcas.

The route climbs from the fishing town of Utoro, crosses the pass through conifer forests at mid-altitude, and descends toward Rausu on the other side of the peninsula, with the Sea of Okhotsk on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

It's also one of the areas with the highest density of brown bears — Ussuri brown bears — in Hokkaido, and national park authorities explicitly recommend against stopping on foot along the route or camping outside designated areas.

The Tsurugi Super Rindo by motorcycle is, according to several specialized touring guides, the longest continuous gravel road in all of Japan: 88 kilometers of rindo — forest road — winding through the mountains of Tokushima, in the interior of Shikoku.

The route skirts the slopes of Mount Tsurugi, at 1,955 meters the second-highest peak in Shikoku and a Shinto pilgrimage site for centuries, cutting through dense forest where another vehicle is rarely seen.

Unlike the paved skyline roads that dominate the rest of the country, here the challenge is genuinely off-road: loose surface, blind curves between trees, and after heavy rain, sections that get closed by landslides until the prefecture reopens them.

Crossing the Shimanami Kaido by motorcycle means linking Honshu with Shikoku over the Seto Inland Sea, passing through six islands — Mukaishima, Innoshima, Ikuchijima, Omishima, Hakatajima and Oshima — connected by seven bridges, opened in 1999.

The final stretch, the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge between Oshima and Imabari, was the world's first triple suspension bridge when completed, with a total length of about 4,105 meters across its three spans.

Almost every bridge has a dedicated lane for motorcycles and bicycles, separate from car traffic — the exception is the Shin-Onomichi Bridge, the first on the route, which has no such dedicated lane: there, the official cycling route crosses by a small local ferry between Onomichi and Mukaishima Island, though motorcycles can simply continue on the general roadway without needing the ferry.