Mount Tsukuba Fruits Line (筑波山フルーツライン)

The Fruits Line is the mountain road that climbs from Ishioka to Asahi Pass, 282 m up on the southern ridge of the Tsukuba mountains in Ibaraki. At the pass it joins the Omote Tsukuba Skyline. Officially it is the Yasato Line, a wide area farm road.

In Initial D this is Tsukuba, home course of Purple Shadow, the Ibaraki team led by Toshiya "God Arm" Joshima in a Honda S2000 and Kozo "God Foot" Hoshino in an R34 Skyline GT-R. Project D takes them on in Fourth Stage: Takumi against Joshima downhill, Keisuke against Hoshino uphill. The Asahi Pass car park where the teams meet in the story sits where the Fruits Line meets the Purple Line. Tsukuba debuted in Initial D Arcade Stage 4 and the Extreme Stage console game.

Car magazines made the pass known nationwide in the 1980s, and a run of fatal crashes followed. A collapse of the road surface closed the Fruits Line for several years before it reopened.

• From Ishioka the Fruits Line climbs through woods to Asahi Pass, where it meets the Omote Tsukuba Skyline.
• The Initial D downhill starts at a junction a few hundred metres below the Asahi Pass car park, the turnaround point of the uphill battle in the story, and runs about 2.5 km of tight, tree lined bends down to a Flower Park sign.
• Open roadside gutters line the bends, the ones the story's gutter shortcuts are drawn from. The run of S bends near the bottom is where Takumi's AE86 uses them against Joshima's S2000.
• In the manga the Tsukuba downhill is an endurance battle over repeated runs. Joshima only loses because he has to pull over and be sick, and Hoshino pulls out of his uphill battle with his tyres worn out. Purple Shadow is the only team whose course record Project D never beats.
• Fans in sports cars stop at the Asahi Pass car park, the meeting spot in the story.
• Asahi Pass Observation Park beside the car park looks over the Kanto Plain and Lake Kasumigaura, and on clear days to the Tokyo skyline and Mt Fuji.
• Hang glider and paraglider launch sites sit along the ridge near the pass.
• Best way to experience it: driving it yourself in your own car or a hire car.

• Motorcycles and mopeds are banned all day on the Fruits Line from Tsuji intersection in Ishioka to the Asahi Pass junction, a 3,570 m section, under Ibaraki Prefectural Police rules. The roads from the Asahi Pass junction down to Fudo Bridge carry the same all day ban. Signs mark the start of each section.
• Raised bumps are built into the surface on the sharp bends to stop reckless driving.
• The road over Asahi Pass often closes when it ices up in winter. The Asahi Tunnel runs beneath the pass as the way round.
• Cycling events close roads around Asahi Pass on some mornings: the Tsukuba Asahi Pass Hill Climb shuts the road from the Ono area of Tsuchiura over Asahi Pass and along the Purple Line from 7:00 AM to 10:30 AM on race day.
• The Asahi Pass car park sits on the old pass beside the observation park. Tsuchiura City is closing part of it for forestry work from 1 December 2026 until about the end of August 2029.
• Tsuchiura and Ishioka, both on the JR Joban Line, are the towns at either end of the drive.

• Last verified: 3 November 2026