The Izu Peninsula is the closest serious riding to Tokyo, and the Izu Skyline is the reason. It is a 40.6 km (25 mile) toll road running along the eastern ridge from Atami Pass in Kannami to Amagi Kogen, opened in October 1962, two lanes the whole way, with eight signed viewpoints looking east to Sagami Bay, west to Suruga Bay and northwest to Mount Fuji. The toll system was rebuilt on 1 October 2025 into three simpler sections with an increase of roughly 30 percent, so older price guides are out of date. Add the free Nishi-Izu Skyline on the western ridge and the double-loop bridge at Kawazu in the south and you have a full weekend. This guide covers all three (verified August 2026).
What the Izu Skyline is actually like
It follows the spine of the eastern peninsula rather than climbing a single mountain, so the character is a long sequence of small ascents and descents with very little straight road. Corners are mostly medium to fast, which is why it has been a Tokyo weekend ride for sixty years and why it draws sports cars and motorcycles in numbers on a Sunday morning. That popularity has a cost. Accidents caused by riding beyond the road's limits have become a recognised problem on the Skyline, the operator campaigns about it, and ordinary tourist traffic shares the same two lanes.
The elevation profile is less dramatic than the reputation suggests. The highest ground is near Kurodake interchange at about 720 m, where the car park is a well-known Mount Fuji viewpoint. The lowest is Hiekawa at 176 m, and the southern third around there has no view at all, just forest. From Hiekawa the road climbs 456 m in one go to the Amagi Kogen terminus at 632 m, which is the best-sustained climb on the route. The stretch from the Takichiyama viewpoint, 3 km from Atami Pass, to Nirayama Pass at 8 km is generally reckoned the best of the eight viewpoints.
Route at a glance
| Length | 40.6 km (25 miles), Atami Pass IC to Amagi Kogen IC, about an hour end to end |
| Opened | 1 October 1962, in three stages completed by October 1964 |
| Operator | Shizuoka Prefectural Road Public Corporation; road numbering D10 |
| Highest point | Near Kurodake IC, about 720 m (2,360 ft); lowest at Hiekawa IC, 176 m (577 ft) |
| Tolls | Restructured 1 October 2025 into three sections with a roughly 30 percent increase; ETCX accepted, ordinary ETC is not |
| Nishi-Izu Skyline | About 10.8 km on the western ridge, free since 30 July 2004, no toll booths |
| Kawazu-Nanadaru loop bridge | 1,064 m long, 45 m of height, 80 m diameter, 720 degrees of turn, 40 km/h limit, no overtaking |
Open the Atami to Kawazu route in Google Maps — Atami, the Skyline, Amagi Kogen and Kawazu, so you can send the full north-to-south traverse to your navigation before you leave the coast.
The toll system changed in 2025, so ignore older figures
For most of its life the Skyline used a ticket system with six toll plazas and a fare table covering every combination of seven entry and exit points, which produced a genuinely confusing matrix of prices. Shizuoka Prefectural Road Public Corporation announced a rebuild in March 2025, obtained ministry approval on 28 July 2025, and implemented it on 1 October 2025.
Under the new arrangement the Kurodake, Nirayama Pass and Yamabushi Pass toll plazas are gone, the Kameishi Pass entrance plaza has been moved onto the main line, and the road is divided into three charging sections: Atami Pass to Kameishi Pass, Kameishi Pass to Hiekawa, and Hiekawa to Amagi Kogen. You pay per section you use. Fares rose by around 30 percent against the September 2025 level, and bus vehicle categories were revised at the same time. ETCX, the multi-purpose ETC service, was introduced alongside it; standard expressway ETC does not work here.
Motorcycles have always paid the lowest vehicle-class rate. We are deliberately not printing current prices, because road tolls in Japan are revised without much warning and a stale number in a guide is worse than none — check the operator's own page before you ride. One long-standing quirk survives the change: toll staff are not on duty overnight, so the road has historically been free after hours. It is also completely unlit, high, and reached by a long climb, which is why almost nobody uses it in the dark.
Nishi-Izu Skyline, the quiet alternative
The western ridge carries a road that most visitors miss. The Nishi-Izu Skyline runs about 10.8 km from Heda Pass south past Mount Daruma and Mount Garan to Toi Pass, and it was built in 1969 as another toll road on the never-completed western arm of the original Izu Skyline plan. It was transferred to the prefecture and made free on 30 July 2004, and is now part of Shizuoka Prefectural Road 127.
It is two lanes, well surfaced, and carries a fraction of the eastern road's traffic — in its final year as a toll road it averaged 158 vehicles a day. The ridge runs at around 900 m with low bamboo grass and azalea rather than tall trees, so the views open out on both sides: Suruga Bay and Mount Fuji to the west and north, Sagami Bay to the east, and the Southern Alps on a clear day. There are car parks at Heda (880 m), Kotoi (900 m) and Toi (800 m). Carry on past Toi Pass and Prefectural Road 411, the Nishi-Amagi Kogen road, continues the ridge to Nishina Pass.
The Kawazu loop bridge and the southern peninsula
South of Amagi, National Route 414 descends toward Kawazu through a piece of engineering that has become a destination in itself. The Kawazu-Nanadaru loop bridge, properly the Nanadaru viaduct, is a double 720-degree spiral: 1,064 m long, 45 m of height gained or lost, 80 m in diameter, carried on six piers. Riding up from Shimoda it turns anticlockwise; coming down from the Amagi tunnel it turns clockwise. It is single-lane each way with a 40 km/h limit and no overtaking, and the space in the middle of the loop is a town car park, which makes it one of the few structures of its kind you can stand under and photograph properly.
It exists because of a landslide. The old prefectural road switchbacked up the hillside until an earthquake off Izu Oshima in 1978 collapsed the slope and severed it. The replacement, opened in 1981, took the lesson and left the hillside alone; it won the Japan Society of Civil Engineers' Tanaka Prize the same year.
Season, weather and the practical details
Season. Izu is rideable all year, which is the main reason Tokyo riders come here in February. The Skyline is high enough that snow and ice do close it occasionally in winter, so check before committing to a January morning. Rain is the more common problem.
Traffic. The peninsula's coastal National Route 135 congests badly in holiday seasons, and one of the Skyline's original selling points was as a bypass around it. That works in both directions: when 135 is jammed the Skyline fills up too, and the daytime traffic on a fine autumn weekend is heavy enough to change the character of the ride. Early starts are worth a great deal here.
Fuel. There are no fuel stations on the Skyline itself and none on the Nishi-Izu ridge. Fill in Atami, Kannami, Ito, Shuzenji or Toi. Rural Japanese stations often shut in the evening.
Licences. Japan recognises only 1949 Geneva Convention international driving permits, valid for one year from the date you enter the country. Belgian, French, German, Monegasque, Swiss and Taiwanese licences are handled instead through an official Japanese translation issued by JAF. Permits issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention are not accepted.
Enforcement. Izu is heavily patrolled at weekends, speed limits are low by European standards, and the Skyline's accident record means the police pay it particular attention. Treat the posted limits as real.
Gear notes for a ridge with no services
Two things about Izu punish a setup built around a phone. The first is that the ridge roads have no fuel, no shops and patchy coverage between the interchanges, while the valley routes below them are a maze of prefectural roads that all look the same on a small screen. Loading the route before you leave the coast, and running it on a display that survives the rain this peninsula gets, is the difference between navigating and guessing — our guide to choosing a motorcycle GPS setup covers what offline capability means in practice, and a JADO S6 riding system puts the route and the cameras on one screen so the phone stays in your jacket.
The second is the climb. Going from sea level at Atami to 720 m at Kurodake and back down several times a day is a bigger pressure and temperature cycle than it feels like, and a slow puncture picked up on the Skyline is a problem you would rather find at the top than at the bottom — why tire pressure falls in cold weather explains what is happening, and a TPMS sensor tells you before the handling does. If you are doing the whole peninsula in a day with cameras running, a bi-directional fast charger solves the fact that the viewpoint car parks have toilets and vending machines but no sockets.
FAQ
How long is the Izu Skyline and how long does it take?
40.6 km from Atami Pass to Amagi Kogen, and the operator reckons about an hour end to end. With stops at the eight viewpoints, allow half a day.
How much is the Izu Skyline toll for a motorcycle?
Motorcycles pay the lowest vehicle class, but the fare structure changed completely on 1 October 2025 into three charging sections with a roughly 30 percent increase, so any figure published before that date is wrong. Check the Shizuoka Prefectural Road Public Corporation site for the current table. Standard expressway ETC does not work; the road uses ETCX.
Is the Izu Skyline open in winter?
Normally yes. It has no fixed winter closure, but snow and ice do shut it occasionally, and it is unlit, so a winter ride wants a weather check and a daylight start.
Which is better, the Izu Skyline or the Nishi-Izu Skyline?
They do different jobs. The Izu Skyline is longer, faster and busier with more viewpoints; the Nishi-Izu Skyline is shorter, free and much quieter, with Mount Fuji across Suruga Bay for most of its length. A good day includes both, linked through Shuzenji.
Can you ride the Kawazu loop bridge on a motorcycle?
Yes. Cars, motorcycles and bicycles may all use it. It is one lane each way with a 40 km/h limit and overtaking prohibited, and the car park inside the loop is the place to stop for photographs.
