I did the Shimanami Kaido over two days in January (~70km cycling route across islands of the inland sea)

I did the Shimanami Kaido as part of my recent 16 day trip to Japan, taking place on days 10 and 11.

I arrived at the Onomichi Port Bicycle Rental place just after 08:00 from my hotel in Mihara. I’ve read that the bicycles here are low quality, but they’re not much different than typical Dutch city bikes I’ve used for nearly half my life, so I think they’re perfectly fine. They even had Dutch style wheel locks and dynamo powered lights! The cost was ¥3,000 per day, so ¥6,000 in total.

So after a quick ferry ride to Mukaishima (the first island), off I went amidst some light rain, cycling for my first time outside the Netherlands.

The first thing I realized is how much more dangerous cycling is in Japan. Despite all the talk of Shimanami Kaido being made for cyclists, the vast majority of the route is on normal roads alongside cars and other vehicles, with no separated cycle lanes, except for the bridges.

There also doesn’t always seem to be clear rules about certain things, most notably when it’s OK (or not) to cycle on the pavement instead of the road. Regardless, I actually did cycle on the pavement when possible because it felt a lot safer and there were practically no pedestrians using the pavements anyway, so why not?

A nice thing about the Shimanami Kaido is how almost the entire route is marked by a blue line painted on the road, with occasional markers indicating remaining distance to Imabari (the city where it ends). That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to go wrong, as the blue line does *not* extend into road junctions, and there’s only small arrows before these junctions to indicate an upcoming turn that can be easily missed (as I did once or twice).

Now, although Shimanami Kaido is around 70km, I actually ended up doing around 90km in total, as my mid-point accommodation was a hostel on the far side of the Ohmishima (the fourth island), and I decided to detour around the north side of the island for some extra scenery rather than going directly through to the hostel, which added some extra time and distance to my journey.

Incidentally, getting to and from the accommodation was the only part of this journey that had hills that proved too difficult for me to climb on the bike, where I ended up having to get off and walk for a bit. I wasn’t walking for miles or anything, but certainly not something I’m used to with the flat terrain of the Netherlands. This is probably why the map I was given at the rental place indicates these parts as orange “Intermediate Course”, as opposed to the blue “Recommended Course” (there were also some red “Advanced Course” parts, but I didn’t attempt any of those).

Staying in Ohmishima was an interesting experience. The town is small with limited accommodation options, especially on a budget, so I had booked a private single room in a small hostel, rather than one of expensive ryokans. Needless to say, the hostel was basic; a very small room with a place to hang my coat, a shelf to put my cycling helmet on (first time I’ve ever used one), and a single bed that you climb in from the end due to the walls on both sides. Compared to the hotels I stayed in during the rest of my Japan trip, this felt more like staying in someone’s house.

Also for some reason, they had set the heating in the room to 26°C (79°F) when I arrived, so I had to shut that off immediately to stop the room from feeling like a sauna. Why the hell would anyone want a room to be that warm!?

After taking some time to rest and refresh, I decided to find somewhere to eat at around \~17:00, but Google Maps was showing nearly every restaurant in town as being closed for the day. In fact, I could literally only find one restaurant that was open until 20:00, otherwise I would’ve been stuck eating from the nearby Lawson, which isn’t a terrible thing, but I’d rather take opportunities to try new places.

So off I went to the one and only open restaurant, a local okonomiyaki place. The town was eerily quiet with a relaxed atmosphere created by the gentle rain and the lanterns on the main street. I barely encountering a single person during my walk to the restaurant and back. The same was true of the restaurant itself, where I entered through a sliding wooden door to find a place devoid of customers and the old lady who runs the place behind the counter watching a small TV in the corner.

I’m guessing they get more tourists at other times of year, since despite seeming very local, she did have an English menu for me, so I was easily able to choose something. The okonomiyaki was very nice and also very cheap, although I did feel a bit awkward for being the only customer there the entire time, and not knowing enough Japanese to attempt any conversation.

Without much to do for the rest of the day, I had a slow wander in the park near the hostel before heading in for the night to look through my photos, catch up with my parents on a WhatsApp video call, and get an early night.

The following morning, I picked up some onigiri and a Monster from the nearby Lawson for breakfast before checking out of the hostel, and then was on my way again.

I completed the last three islands fairly quickly as I didn’t want to hang around too much in the morning rain, but ended up spending a lot of time on the last bridge because the views there are just incredible, especially as the rain had stopped by then. Even in the January mists, it really is breathtaking to see all the islands and sea stretching off into the distance, and I couldn’t help but stop many times to “just take a few more photos”. I’ve really never seen anything like it.

Besides the views and the cycling itself, one other thing I love about the Shimanami Kaido is rolling down from the bridges, where the winding bicycle paths down to each island almost feel like a kind of “bicycle bobsled”. I found myself using the brakes very frequently just to feel safe, which is not something I’ve ever had to do in the Netherlands.

After reaching Imabari station and dropping off my bike, my hotel was only a 10 minute walk away. The hotel in Imabari was actually the nicest hotel I stayed at during my 16 days in Japan, which was a pleasant surprise after the hostel.

The room was very spacious even by western hotel standards, and had an incredible view over the city from the 15th floor, with Oshima (the last island) visible in the distance, and it also included access to the onsen. I had to double check that I really only paid £50 for the night!

A few more things to note:

**First:** Regarding luggage: I left my case in a coin locker at Mihara station, where it’s possible to use a locker for up to three days (it’s written on the locker, but only in Japanese). I chose the locker instead of luggage forwarding to save money, which was a mistake, because it really inconvenienced my onward journey from Imabari to Hiroshima, and likely didn’t even save me anything in the end.

See, when I was leaving Imabari, I had to take a “Highway Bus” to Innoshima Island (the 2nd island) to change to a local bus that would take me to Onomichi, where I could take a local train to Mihara to collect my luggage, then get the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. But Hiroshima was the destination of the Highway Bus I took from Imabari, so with luggage forwarding to my hotel in Hiroshima, I could’ve just taken that one bus for the entire journey, and it would’ve been cheaper and quicker than taking multiple buses and trains, and likely negating the higher cost of luggage forwarding.

I also had to spend some extra time in Mihara station because the coin locker broke and wouldn’t open, so I had to get someone to help. They ended up having to use some tools to get it open.

**Second:** What you’ll find on YouTube about the Shimanami Kaido is not a good representation of scenery of the entire route. Yes, there are a lot of nice views from and around the bridges, but there’s also large stretches of the route along the islands just going through normal towns with old houses, factories, etc. that you won’t see on YouTube.

**Third:** While I don’t regret doing the Shimanami Kaido at a relaxed pace over two days (it gave plenty of time to take photos), I’d probably do the whole thing in one day and spend the extra night at the nice hotel in Imabari or Hiroshima if I did it again, since there really wasn’t much to do in Ohmishima, and the hostel was very basic (and only marginally cheaper than the nice hotel in Imabari).

**Fourth:** I think it should be quite easy for most people to do the Shimanami Kaido one day as long as you start early enough. I’m 41 and not into sports or fitness, yet still found it pretty easy aside from the hills I encountered outside the recommended route.

**Finally:** I want to finish by saying that I really enjoyed doing the Shimanami Kaido in January. The cool temperature was nice for cycling, and I liked doing it with hardly any other tourists around. A greatly enjoyable experience overall. Recommended. Would do again.

by MartinB105