A Love Letter to The Tsubaki Line

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 21:22:24 +0000

The Tsubaki Line is a roughly 17Km long road winding up from the small coast town of Yugawara in western Kanagawa Prefecture, up to the mountains around Hakone, and it’s a phenomenal ride for most bikers, so I thought I’d do a bit of a post about it since I’ve also done a couple of videos on it.

For what it’s worth, a ’ tsubaki’ is a species of shrubbery called Camellia - they tend to have a lot of thick green leaves and some winter blossoms and can be anything from a metre tall to over 10m tall.

I think I’ve ridden the Tsubaki line in every month and in pretty much every type of weather over the years - and I really don’t think there’s a bad time for it, or ‘bad’ weather. Fun all around. It’s over an hour’s ride to either end of it from greater Tokyo, but if you’re out for the day or a tour to Izu, it’s a worthy bit of road to check out.

The road itself forms part of Route 75, so let’s spend a bit of time talking about that.

It’s twisty, I don’t know how many turns, but it’s a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zh0QcMtKmL4

It’s mainly a single lane each way but some parts are narrower than others, with passing points where needed. The quality of asphalt is also … variable, but to be fair, over the years they’ve resurfaced quite a few stretches, which is nice, but be aware there are some rough patches still up there.

There are some tight - and I mean tight - corners. In a land where a mirror on a corner to show oncoming vehicles is a daily occurrence and almost mandatory, the Tsubaki line adds a few corners which also have special green chevrons on the corner to really remind you how tight that turn is going to be, and yes, you’re going to want to be in 1st or 2nd gear.

There are some straight bits but they’re a couple of hundred metres as best and even a few places where you can stop and take photos, but why are you thinking about the view when you should have your eyes on the road. Actually the view in place is awesome, and worth a look. One of the straights leads up to a wide hairpin, which is clearly popular with drifters, as there’s usually a lot of leftover tyre rubber around the apex. You can take photos near there too.

There’s also a lot of nature nearby, so following storms and typhoons be a little wary, as there can be a lot of debris on the road and also snow in winter the road winds up towards Hakone, so you’re getting some vertical too and the top is always several degrees cooler than the base, and since quite a bit of the road is on a westward lea side of the hills, there can be water and snow left well after other parts are dry.

Another thing to note is that at the sides of much of the run there are open storm gutters. Riders in Japan would be familiar with these and they always give you a little pause for thought, because if you over- or undershoot a corner and your front wheel goes into one of these gutters you’re at the very least going to burn a few calories getting it out, and you could well be looking at a broken rim, and then sorrowful sobbing and a recovery bill.

En Route

Perhaps because it’s such an engaging road, it’s easy to miss a few things you can check out along the way, but if you’re interested in some stops and general wandering around:

Tsubakidai - This is a car-park, viewing spot and toilet spot about a third of the way up, which also has a great view out over the countryside and down to the ocean. The toilet block also has an oddly abandoned building which might have housed some vending machines in the dark past.

Statue of Kobo Daishi - Don’t leave the car-park too quickly though; pop through the tunnel and there’s another small parking / turning area, and some steps down to check out a collection of small shrines and statues. It’s a walk, but exercise is a good thing.

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Hakuun Falls and Tenshozan Shrine - Further down the Tsubaki Line you can find the trail head for this, and it is actually more of a walk since it forms part of a hiking trail which also comes up from Yugawara passing by several temples, shrines and other sites. This one has an impressive waterfall too, so if you’re the kind of person who likes to wash their feet, rest their feet or whatever then the waterfall is the place for you. A nice place to have a rest and a cup of tea.

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There’s a few other bits to point out if you have some time, so let’s start from the bottom.

Yugawara - the town at the bottom of the Tsubaki line as of this writing is being somewhat rejuvenated with apartment buildings and new accommodation for the wealthier, older people.

The main road follows the valley river and waterfalls all the way down to the ocean. It gets more picturesque the further inland you get. However, if you’re not interested in the river and town, but still need to get from the coast road to the Tsubaki line, might I recommend the Orange Line - a short burn along the side of the valley and what used to be a more used toll road but is now free. When in season, you can also buy fruit from stands along the way. I prefer this route to be honest.

If you want a cafe and a park for some reason, check out Manyou Park and the tourist centre, which also has a nice cafe.

There’s actually a lot more in the area, but that’s for other posts, so I’ll stop here.

Bottom line: check out the Tsubaki Line and answer the question: is it better going from bottom to top, or top to bottom. I vote bottom-to-top.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

TougeExpress — 2025-02-19

Bottom to top 100%. Good stuff G.

March Sea to Snow

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:05:00 +0000

I don’t remember seeing snow during March in our area, so it was odd driving back from the AutoBACs car service and accessories shop on Saturday, March 14th, to see thick flakes falling. Even more surprising given the mild Winter we’d been having. Fortunately it had been a miserable and wet morning so that at least near sea level it didn’t settle.

When Sunday morning rolled around I went out on the bike taking the coast road down to Manazuru. I don’t know how many times I’ve taken that winding road down to the harbour, but for the first time I decided to stop down by the jetty and had a cup of tea in the light rain, watching some people fishing. Hailing from a (slightly larger) fishing town, I find boats and the sea quite relaxing and familiar.

What I wasn’t expecting was that slight drizzle turning into hail stones - lucky I had a helmet I suppose. After a walk around the place, getting some confused looks, I made my way around the peninsula, and headed towards the Route 75 Tsubaki line, a nice little set of twisties up to the old standard Anest Skylounge cafe.

I planned to get to the Tsubaki line via the Orange line - a short run bypassing central Yugawara town with some nice views of the valley, but as I rounded the curving uphill at the beginning I remembered the road had been closed at the other end following last years typhoons. It still is. Cue a quick U Turn. Sure, I could have gone all the way back, and up through the main town road, but instead I decided to try a little road which according to OpenStreetMap was a nice direct shortcut. Of course a short cut into a valley means we’re looking at vertical, and it was. Very. As I made my way down narrow roads at what felt like 45degrees, navigating metal grates and cracked asphalt, on a road only just wide enough for a single car, winding my way down with drains and houses on both sides, I was just hoping no one was coming the other way. Fortunately, I got lucky and no one did. Fun road, so I put a pin in the map for it.

The Tsubaki line from there is about 15Km of uphill curves, enjoyed by those on both two wheels and four. I made my way up initially at a fairly leisurely speed limit pace, testing myself on corners, focussing on entry, exit and throttle control, making sure I wasn’t picking up any bad habits. After a few kilometers I noticed some snow on the odd leaf, and bits at the side of the road, and it was getting a misty. As I got further up, the amount of snow by the sides of the road was getting notably deeper. I was taking care into corners to make sure there wasn’t any ice, and it seemed there wasn’t, but given visibility was down to ‘smoking carriage on a bullet train’ levels, I was keeping a fairly conservative line through pretty much every corner. I saw one car coming down, at least suggesting the road stayed passable, and the last 5Km was mainly making sure to avoid clumps of snow which had fallen from overhead branches. Yes, this was fun.

As I rounded the last corner to the cafe, I only really knew I was there due to the sign as I passed it, the mist was so thick. Fortunately there were a few other bikers in the car park who told me that the roads were good for getting down on the other side.

As you can see, there was plenty of snow and mist. However, I still couldn’t see any ice. I suspect this is because some of the roads are heated by water piped in and making use of local volcanic activity, which regular snow resorts often do.

In a strange twist, after I came out of the cafe, and was drinking some tea in the carpark, someone I’d never met before in person from a motorcycle group I’m a member of on the LINE application, came over and introduced himself. He’d just arrived and seen the photo above I’d posted to the chat about 15 minutes earlier! It was good to put a face to the name for sure, and it just about summed the day up. We talked about some road conditions and when he went to get breakfast in the cafe, I headed down through the mist, watching the snow get thinner on the bushes before the more familiar green became the predominant cover.

I thought that was the latest I’d seen snow in Kanagawa at lower reaches, but just 10 days later it snowed again. Strange times indeed. Stay safe out there, socially distancing on two wheels!

Tsubaki on Nanikore

A Love Letter to The Tsubaki Line

En Route

Original Comments

March Sea to Snow