Traversing The Seven Islands of the Inland Sea

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Three leviathan bridges reach across the straight of the Inland Sea to connect the rural and often forgotten about island of Shikoku to its bigger counterpart, Honshu. The length of these series of bridges is almost unimaginable. They jump from island to island slowly spanning the gap between these two landmasses, taking around an hour to navigate by car and a small fortune to cross.

The cost of these bridges must have been so great for the government to bear that they seem to still be passing off the burden to its commuters. To drive from one side to the other one is confronted with a small stack of ever increasing tolls that runs up to a total of around 10,000 yen, or 100 dollars. It is a massive amount of money, however, the bridges have become somewhat of a necessity now and buses, trains, cars, and motorcycles bare the heavy tolls during all hours of the day to span the calm waters of the Japanese Inland Sea and reach the other side.

The island that I call home in Japan is about an hours ferry journey away from the island that forms the midway point of the Shimanami Kaido Bridge. The bridge has become a lifeline for me and allows me to escape from the extreme Japanese countryside on occasion for the rare city break with reasonable ease. I have traveled its breath many a time and oddly enough it has become an indispensable factor in my life here in Japan.

During the construction of the Shimanami Kaido the developers had the brilliant idea to make it more than just a bridge for transport. Instead, they also added separate pathways that run under the main road of the bridge and wide walkways that flank either side. These pathways have become very popular with tourists and have created somewhat of a legendary and very scenic bike journey across the Japanese Inland Sea. Small bike rental shops have also opened up that allow you to rent a bike at one end, cycle the 80 km or so trip to the other side and then conveniently drop it off at one of the shops counterparts on the other side, and all for a very reasonable price. I had wanted to do this trip since the first time I heard about it and then one fall weekend I got a call from my buddy Nick asking me if I wanted to give it a go. Obviously, the answer was yes.

We began the trip from Onomichi city, which lies on the banks of southern Honshu and is only a short bus ride away from the better-known city of Hiroshima. Here we stocked up on the cities famous fatty ramen and I rented out my trusty steed, the infamous Japanese mama cherry, for the trip ahead.

We took our time traversing the bridges and cycling around the seven main islands that support the bridges across the sea. It was fantastic to finally be able to bike around this area and get to see the islands that I usually zoom past on air-conditioned buses bound for the city. We passed huge expanses of tangerine and fig tree farms, snacking on the ripe fruit as we biked by, island children took a break from their normal games to watch and giggle at the two funny gaijin making their way by and we met a lot of exceptionally friendly locals that loaded up our already full bike baskets with fresh figs and tangerines, while inviting us into their traditional Japanese clay roofed and wooden houses for a cup of coffee to power us on our trip.
The generosity of the people in this area of Japan is something that I will never be able to forget. I have come to love this simple, laid back and generous style of life that people lead here. It makes me realize how paranoid and greedy we have grown in the cities and how the people in the countryside who are usually ridiculed as being backwards are in fact nothing of the sort. Instead, I now realize it is the other way around.

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Photos

Giggling Girls
taking a break from their usual games to watch the funny gaijin struggle up the hill

Oyamazumi Jinja
One of the oldest shrines in Japan and the neighboring museum houses the largest and most impressive collection of samurai swords and armor in all of Japan.

Sake Barrels
just in case the sudden thirst stricks

Sake, Sake, Sake
to bad there all empty, empty, empty

Overlooking the Home Stretch
heading into Imabari on the last leg of the trip

Wwwwaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
Nick adding to the temples serenity

Now That's a Tree
Nick and the giant 2500 year old camphor tree

Fall Skies
and a big bridge

The Coastal Route
once you get off of the bridges cars are few and far between

Struggling
the mama cherry wasn't exactly the smoothest ride

Lost in a Land of Cartoons
the Japanese like to pretend they live in an animated world

Camp Site #1
not a bad view to wake up to

A Cyclists Breakfast
Mikan for breakfast, lunch and dinner

And The Bus Unloads
Oyamazumi Jinja attracts its fair share of visitors despite its distant location.

Strike A Pose
frolicking about the temple grounds

Loving It
One of the finest shrines I have seen in Japan

Home Stretch
the final and longest bridge on the Shimanami Kaido

できた
setting foot in Imabari after a sweet trip

"Research"
You're not fooling anyone now. These whaling boats shack up in our backyard from time to time to get repairs before heading back out to sea.

Little Boat, Big Boat
The ship building industry is the name of the game in the Japanese Inland Sea

Island Cruising
sweet views all the way around

Conundrum
the girl or the beer