Trip Report: Shimanami Kaido 2023

My husband and I are currently doing a two week trip including Osaka, Shimanami Kaido, Kyoto, and Tokyo in that order. I wanted to write up a trip report for the trail because I was researching a lot and want to give my experience.

We are not hard-core bikers. We work out at the gym weekly and live in a city where we walk around a lot but we did not train for this. We stayed the night in Onomichi the night before because we wanted to wake up and go. We split the biking into two days with an overnight stop in Setoda and ended in Imabari.

Because of jet lag we wake up at 5am everyday. Not a bad thing if you want to have a full day but Japan does not really open until 9am. We ate breakfast at a cafe called Rio because they open at 7:30am. Lovely owners and a small set breakfast with coffee for around 500 yen.

We stayed at Urashima INN – GANGI and shipped our luggage while checking out to Imabari Urban Hotel. These hotels were on the recommended list on the Shimanami Cycle website to ship luggage from hotel to hotel so we just stuck to it. It was 2,200 yen per luggage to ship. You have to pay in cash and the hotel front desk helped us fill it out because you have to write kanji for the address. We each had a 10 liter day pack with a change of close for the next day, toiletries and snacks.

We then walked over to the Lawsons to pick up drinks and food. We had bike reservations at Shimanami Cycle. We paid 5,000 yen for the bikes and a 1,000 yen deposit that you don’t get back if you return the bikes in Imabari. So we paid 12,000 yen for both of us in cash. They also give you a paper map, helmet and bike lock. We only used the bike locks at night.

Speaking of cash, if you do this trail have a lot of cash. The bikes were cash, shipping luggage was cash, ferry is cash and you’re biking through small towns and you’ll want to stop at vending machines for more water. The large cyclist stops will have card payments but theres only a few of those along the trail.

The first day from Onomichi to Setoda took us 5 hours, got on the ferry at 9:30am and got to Setoda at 2:30pm. The ferry is 100 yen per person and 10 yen per bike. Pay the ferry man after you board. After you get off the ferry start following the blue line to Imabari. We didn’t stray off this line the whole time. There are many outlooks and stopping points along the trail. We would stop and eat snack while enjoying the view then refill our snack bag at the convinience store when we saw them. On the first island an older man stopped us and gifted us a local citrus from his grove. It was so nice. We also stopped at a free flower center half way through the day and a juice stand closer to Setoda. There’s also gelato next to the juice stand but we couldnt pass up fresh squeezed local citrus.

I have a N5-N4 level of communication and reading. So I do know enough Japanese to talk to people and understand them. Even if you don’t know Japanese the trail is English friendly enough that if you stay on the blue line you won’t get lost but do learn basic phrases to use and listen for. If you stop at the convinience stores along the way like us learn the checkout phrases they say. It’s the same questions everytime so after awhile you’ll get it.

There are so many restrooms and vending machines along the way. This trail isn’t exactly roughing it even though you are in a lesser foreigner traveled area. Lots of free and clean restrooms. Many of them are squatting toilets without toilet paper so bring your own if you want. There also won’t be soap in a few of them so we brought sanitizing hand wipes.

We arrived in Setoda around 2:30pm but couldn’t check in until 3pm so we enjoyed a coffee at Soil Setoda Living. We then checked in at the Ryokan SUMINOE. Amazing experience. We had an onsen bath and traditional dinner which was very appreciated after a long day of biking. If you are just biking through, there’s a temple which is worth it to check out, Kousanji. Massive complex that costs 1,500 yen per ticket. There’s temple buildings, a crazy cave with waterfalls, and a white marble mountain top with a view over looking the town.

We headed out the next day at 9:00am again and arrived in Imabari at 4:00pm. It took us 7 hours the second day. We definitely were more tired and sore. The back half of the trail has a lot more hills than the first half. We pushed our bikes up the big hills. We stopped a few times and I even picked up a Imabari hand towel at one of the cyclist stops which I used to protect my neck from the sun.

Bring sunscreen and a hat! We used and reapplied sunscreen but still got burnt. We should have been reapplying every other hour. One area I didn’t put sunscreen was the back of my hands. They are so burnt right now. The weather was perfect for end of March and early April. We packed windbreakers instead of sweatshirts because it can be windy going down the hills and when you bike by the sea.

We spent the night in Imabari and our shipped luggage was waiting for us. We also did laundry the next morning before our train to Kyoto. Very cute 24 hour coin laundry. コインランドリー right next to the Uniqlo. Nice that it’s 24 hours so we put our early morning to good use.

We would definitely do the Shimanami Kaido again. Maybe with more stops or staying on a different island so we can explore off the blue line path.

Happy to answer questions if needed.