Grand Tour
The Touge
Five days of Japan’s mountain roads, Hakone to Nikko.
Japan built the world’s densest collection of perfect mountain roads and then, politely, told almost nobody. The touge, the mountain passes, are where the country’s driving culture lives: polished tarmac, hairpins stacked like switchback staircases, vending machines glowing at two thousand metres, an onsen waiting at the bottom. This arc runs the best of Honshu in five days: the Hakone triple above Ashinoko, both faces of Fuji, the high meadows of the Venus Line, Japan’s highest national route over Shiga-Kusatsu, and the Initial D hairpins of Haruna and Irohazaka. Go in late October when the momiji turns the whole route red.
The Hakone triple
Overnight: HakoneStart with the classics above Lake Ashi: the Turnpike’s smooth sweepers, the Ashinoko Skyline’s ridgeline, the Hakone Skyline to finish, with Fuji filling the windscreen on a clear morning. Onsen by evening.
Both faces of Fuji
Overnight: KawaguchikoRound the mountain: the Fujisan Skyline climbs the southern flank, then the Subaru Line takes you up the northern side to the fifth station at 2,300 m, the highest you can drive on Japan’s sacred volcano.
Route 299 and the Venus Line
Overnight: Lake SuwaNorth into Shinshu: Route 299 over the Mugikusa Pass through deep Yatsugatake forest, then the Venus Line’s open high meadows, 27 miles of alpine ridgeline that feels nothing like the Japan of the postcards.
The roof of the road network
Overnight: KusatsuAcross the Tsumagoi panorama farmland to the big one: the Shiga-Kusatsu road over Mount Shirane, the highest point on Japan’s national route network at 2,172 m, volcanic and treeless at the top. Kusatsu’s boiling onsen terraces wait below.
Haruna and the 48 hairpins
Overnight: NikkoFinish in legend: Mount Haruna’s lakeside switchbacks, the road Initial D made famous, then east to Nikko where the one-way Irohazaka stacks its 48 named hairpins down the maple gorge to the shrines.
