[Western Honshu Spring Trip] Onomichi & Shimanami Kaido Bike Trail

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The last full day of my vacation, I traveled out to Onomichi, which took 90 minutes by the local train, which was one of the most beautiful train rides I've had here. It was definitely taking us through the countryside, dotted with houses and farms and temples nestled against the backdrop of the hills and trees. Completely amazing, and I really enjoyed it.

The purpose of going to Onomichi was to hit up Shimanami Kaido, which is a 70km bike trail that goes across six islands. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it the whole way, because I hadn't been on a bike in about fifteen years, but I wanted to see how far I could go, and to take in the oceanside views the route offered. When I arrived at Onomichi, I grabbed a map so I could figure out where the bike rental was, and then tracked it down. It was a little difficult to maneuver through the Japanese, but the man who rented me the bicycle had a whole conversation afterwards about how he'd spent three months in Chicago. It was very nice. I choose a bicycle (without really knowing what I was doing) and followed a group of four Japanese girls to the ferry, since I wasn't entirely sure where I was supposed to go in order to get across to the beginning of the route itself.

Upon exiting the ferry, I also loitered around for the girls to get going (they asked a taxi driver where it started, and I hung around to make sure I knew) but then I realized that all I had to do was follow the blue line next to the road and it showed me the kilometers I'd completed towards the end. How very nice! After that, it was pretty smooth sailing. I loved being on a bike again, and was doing pretty well once I figured out how to shift gears (the things I'd forgotten since I had ridden one last). It wasn't difficult at all until I got to the first bridge to cross, which required a pretty steep uphill ride for 1.3km to get to the bridge crossing between the first and second islands.

I stopped at a Lawson's to grab some food and more water shortly after getting onto the second island, and sat outside with a couple also doing the trail who asked me where I was from. I had a short conversation with the woman in Japanese, and then her husband started talking to me in English and explained that they'd lived in California for five years. It was pretty neat! They were really nice, and we laughed about how we were already tired only 14km in, and before they left we wished each other good luck. A nice, surprise lunch that wasn't spent entirely alone.

There were a few things to see on the trail, like a park with a giant dinosaur statue and a flower center lit up with color. It was really nice and the temperature was cool, but acceptable for most of the ride. It wasn't until after I crossed the second bridge that a) my butt started to really hurt, because I have no idea how people do it, and b) it started to rain and get significantly windy and cool. That was when I decided that I would finish at the place the rental guy had originally told me about (his guess about how far I would get was right on), so I went to the bike return, and the woman there told me that I would get my deposit back if I just took my bike on the ferry back to Onomichi port. I was pretty adamant about NOT sitting on that bike anymore (the paaaaaaain, haha) so I walked it down to the port and waited the hour for the ferry. It got pretty cool during this time, and I was flat-out exhausted from the 30km I managed to do. Pretty good for an amateur!

I dropped my bike back off in Onomichi, got myself some pastries from the bread shop, and then mistakenly got on the wrong train because I didn't expect that two different lines used the exact same tracks. It took about 30 minutes before I started wondering why we were still so close to the water, and why none of the station names looked familiar. I got off and figured that I would just get on the train going the other direction back to restart, but quickly realized that the next train back wasn't for 45 minutes (WTF COUNTRYSIDE) and then that was another 30 minutes back PLUS the original 90 to get to Hiroshima once more. I was so tired, that was just too long, so when I walked out of the station, I came across a taxi driver and asked him how much it would cost to get back to the original station I started from. He said around 4000 yen ($40) and I was like fine, whatever, I'm not wasting this much more time when all I want to do is collapse.

He was nice, and kept trying to talk to me, and we talked a bit about Tokyo's food and my visit to the Hiroshima area. He was right on with his estimation of the price, too. By the time I got back, I was pretty annoyed with myself because it was a chunk of change I hadn't anticipated spending, but I got a melon soda from the vending machine and dozed during the 90 minutes back, so I suppose in the end, it worked out alright (if a bit expensive).

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