We planned our Shimanami Kaido cycling trip a year in advance. Shimanami Kaido is the highway which connects Japan’s main island of Honshu to the island of Shikoku, passing over six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea. It is a popular cycling route.
While the travel date approached (July 8 through July 10 2018), we got more and more excited. Who knew that we would have to change most of our plan on the fly due to the historic rainfall in western Japan (also see my story about visiting Rabbit Island in pouring rain). Luckily, we had an experienced local tour guide with us, so that all the changes in our plans turned into delightful surprises.
It was raining in Onomichi when I woke up in the morning (see my story about Onomichi). I saw the ferry was still running in the rain from the hotel window. We met our guide, Yuji Aboshi, in the lobby of our hotel (here is Yuji’s facebook. You can also find him on Tours By Locals and on Oka Tours).
It was the day after the heavy rainfall and it was still raining. Yuji stopped at a local police station to find out about the condition of the Shimanami Kaido cycling routes, but the condition of the cycling routes was unclear since the heavy rain started. I guess we would be the first ones to find out (and we turned out to be the local reporters of the cycling route conditions after the heavy rain in the following three days!).
We started to bike on Mukoujima Island in the rain. We prepared to bike in the rain, so it wasn’t too bad. However, we ran into land slides and road blocks not long after we started. The the coastline looked so beautiful, but we just couldn’t bike through the road along the coastline. What a dispointment! There was not much we could do if the only road through was blocked. We moved on to the next island Innoshima on the support van.
We stopped at the rest area after crossing the Innoshima Bridge. Due to the heavy rain, the water supply was cut-off in the Onomichi region (see my story about Onomichi). Luckily, when we passed this rest area for the first time, the water was still running in the bathrooms. I was reading the map of surrounding attractions along the Shimanami Kaido cycling routes and wondering how many I would see this time.
While Yuji was gathering information from locals, we went “sight seeing” in a grocery store. I love shopping in local grocery stores when visiting a new place. There were so many interesting and neat fresh produce and goods that I have never seen. We wanted to buy almost everything we saw.
Since Seto Inland Sea is famous for its citrus fruits, especially lemons on the Hiroshima side of the islands, we bought several different kinds of treats made out of lemons. They were really good! I wrote myself a note so that I will remember to buy those whenever I visit these islands again!
Because of the heavy rain and water supply cut-off, many restaurants and stores were closed. Ooyama Shrine was open for a short time only for us (thanks to Yuji). There are multiple shrines inside Ooyama Shrine for different gods, including, bicycle god, ear god, marriage god, architecture god and other gods. People can bring their new bikes to the Bicycle Shrine to get blessings.
We got a bicycle shrine goshuinchō with six different goshuins (my mom’s favorite Japanese souvenir). A shuin (“go” is a Japanese honorific prefix) is a seal stamp given to worshippers and visitors to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. I thought goshuin is usually written by a senior shrine staff (because they write good calligraphy), but the shrine staff who wrote the goshuins for us was young and beautiful and her writing was very pretty and impressive! I also recommend you try the the dried lemon peel snacks.
After saying goodbye to the friendliest Ooyama Shrine staff, we headed toward Ikuchi Island. By that time, the rain had stopped and the temperature had increased dramatically. Again, most of the restaurants and shops were closed due to the heavy rain and lack of water. We stopped by a very nice restaurant and souvenir shop, Shimanami Romance, in Setoda for lunch. The restaurant was only open to make one set of lunch that day, just for us (thanks to Yuji). Their lemon pork was very good. I have been thinking about it ever since! We also got some very nice lemon matcha from their souvenir store. Highly recommended!
The weather and road conditions finally allowed us to cycle a little more after lunch! We started from Setoda and headed to Tatara Bridge. Tatara Bridge was totally blocked due to the land slides on the other side. We were able to bike up to the bridge, but we were not allowed to pass through to Omishima Island. There were no cars on Tatara Bridge and we had the entire bridge to ourselves! Perfect time for pictures! The empty Tatara Bridge was amazing and the view of the Seto Inland Sea from the bridge was spectacular!
We tested the “Tatara Crying Dragon”, which is an interesting sound echo effect that only happens at this particular spot of the bridge due to the architecture. Because there were no cars, we were able to hear the echo very clearly.
Cycling around Ikuchi Island and heading back to Setoda, the sea looked so calm and beautiful, hard to imagine that the surrounding area was so pounded by the heavy rain. We passed by Dolce Ice Cream, which is the ice cream I have been dreaming about tasting. Of course, the shop was entirely dark (sob).
Originally, we were planning to stay in Setoda for the night, but the area was completely out of water, including the hotel we booked. The traffic around Onomichi and heading west was badly backed up. We ended up getting a room in a hotel in Fukuyama, where the water supply wasn’t cut-off (thanks to Yuji again for helping us finding an alternative hotel). Fukuyama seemed to be a charming city, but we were too tired to explore (next time!). After some wonderful ramen, we crashed for the night. Our Shimanami Kaido cycling adventure is to be continued…
Onomichi
Mukoujima Island
Innoshima Island
Ooyama Shrine
Innoshima Bridge
Setoda
Tatara Bridge
Ikuchi Island
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