It’s my last day in Hiroshima and it was on my to-do list to do the Shimanami Kaido, after seeing it recommended by YouTubers and wanting to prove to myself that I can do it.
For reference, I’m a 19 stone 31 year old 6’3″ guy. I’m not just showing off my immense weight, it’s useful to frame my experience!
This is mostly aimed at inexperienced cyclists who want to experience the route. If you’re a pro cyclist, you can probably scroll on.
Clothing
Today was sunny and 20 degrees, I wore a t shirt (sweat wicking polyester so it didnt get gross) and cargo shorts and sketchers. I was perfectly comfortable… Except.
If you rent anything but the comfy bike with the basket, and you’re not used to cycling much, the saddle will be painful, and the pain will start fairly quickly. I really wish I had some padded cycle shorts, I’m going to be feeling this for days. As far as I understand road bikes are easier to ride with the skinny tyres compared to the wider tyres on the comfy bike, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend getting the comfy one if you’re unfit like me.
I had the sling bag that I always take; in hindsight this was a pain because it kept sliding forwards, I’d recommend a proper backpack. Also, bring a hoodie in the bag for the journey back; the boat that brings you back to Onomichi is long and the sea is open, the wind really gets to you. I’ve only just thawed.
Getting There
I recommend leaving Hiroshima during morning peak time. As painful as that sounds, the Sanyo trains that stop at Onomichi only seem to run at peak times. I missed my alarm and missed that window, so the options were a series of buses or a Shinkansen to Fukuyama and then the Sanyo line to Onomichi. I took the latter, but paid the price for it!
When you get there, turn right out of the station and head towards the bicycle rental place. It’s about a 5 minute walk, on the side of the road closest to the sea, through a car park. This rental place is part of a local government run (I think?) organisation [Shimanami Cycles](https://shimanami-cycle.or.jp/). The advantage of renting from here is you can return the bike to various stations along the way, which, spoilers, you’ll probably be doing. 3k yen for the rental.
Renting
You can reserve on the website I linked above; you’ll want to do that if you want anything fancier than a regular road bike (i.e. electrics). You need to do this at least 3 days in advance, the website doesnt let you do it any later.
The staff at the stand today had mixed levels of English, so be patient with them. The nice older gentleman told me the boat times (this will become relevant later) and said something about 500 yen and 30000 yen. I don’t know what it was, it didn’t become relevant, answers on a postcard.
After you’ve got the bike and helmet, they direct you to the ferry (110 yen) to take you to the starting point.
The Route
Just some cliff notes here. The scenery is stunning, obviously. Follow the blue painted line on the road and you can’t go wrong. Don’t be like me and miss the left turn to the first bridge and go 3km in the wrong direction, that would be silly.
The bridges are the hard part of the route; in general it’s fairly flat and drivers are considerate. The path up to the bridges (which are many hundreds of metres up) are as flat as they can be, but it’s still 1km of 0.3% incline. I put my bike in the lowest gear, kept my head down and kept telling myself not to stop. It was definitely a challenge, but achievable for most people imo.
The ride back down on the other end of the bridge is fantastic though, as are all the downhill bits.
The only other memorable hard bit is a bitch of an incline on the second island, a few km after the bridge. I didn’t even try that on the bike and walked it, I don’t know what they’re thinking putting that on an easy route, I’d hate to see the hard ones.
The end of the route
As mentioned, if you’ve read this far looking for advice, you won’t be doing it all in one day (and nor should you try). The staff at the rental place advised me to return the bike at terminal 4, which is on the third island and a 10 minute walk from a ferry terminal that takes you back to Onomichi (for 1100 yen). I began around 12.30 and got to the terminal just after 4. The last boat leaves at 5, so I hung around at the ferry terminal rehydrating. The ferry takes a while (I actually didn’t time it, at least half an hour?), and the journey back from Onomichi will probably be significant; I got back to my hotel in Hiroshima around 9. Factor this into your plans.
Of course, you could go further, but the staff advised that there wasn’t a great way to get back to Onomichi after terminal 4. There is a bus network and you could stay at a hotel and do the rest the next day or something, but the route I took was pretty simple and self contained so if you just want an easy day out I recommend it.
Having said that, I think general wisdom is the latter parts of the route have the best scenery. If I come back, I’ll probably start at the other end and do the other half.
Other notes
There are other rental companies operating, but they don’t give you the flexibility to return at other terminals (in general). You can bring your bike back on the ferry to Onomichi for an extra surcharge, and Giant in particular has fancier bikes if youre into that.
Stop wherever takes your fancy, but keep an eye on the time because your life will get a lot harder if you miss the last boat. I stopped at the Innoshima flower centre, which didn’t have many flowers (thanks March) but had a nice view from the roof.
The “cycling oasises” on some websites are pretty much a myth. There are a couple of dedicated viewpoints, some with vending machines, and obviously lots of vending machines along the route because it’s Japan, but certainly on the first 3 islands the rest stops aren’t noteworthy. From the 2nd island onwards you’ll pass a fair few konbini if you want to stop for food etc.
In hindsight, my fitness level was just about good enough for the amount of the route I did. I started to flag 2/3 through (especially without the padding) but an energy jelly and a painkiller saw me through to the end. If you saw my stats at the beginning and thought “Jesus, he needs to lay off the pies,” you’ll probably be fine.
I think that’s all I got for now, AMA.
by YourNameEnjoyer
