Cycling on the Shimanami Kaido （しまなみ海道）| Part 3

/ Sightseeing and Highlights

The highlight of Shimanami Kaido is the spectacular scenery that greets you as you cycle from island to island. Each island has a different character, ranging from the rural countryside to the industrial port kind of scenery, inviting you to take a step back, slow down, dream a little. I had good encounters along the way, from folks who invited me to their little lunch camp by the beach to making friends with a fellow cyclist while at a rest stop. Like what I experienced in Shikoku itself, this kindness of strangers and the good memories I will carry in my heart always. May I learn to be someone like that too.

 

If you're doing a 2 day exploration along the 70km Shimanami Kaido, there is opportunity to meander, park your bike, relax by the beach or do sightseeing. Of note are the museums located in Omishima like the Omishima Museum of Art, Tokoro Museum Omishima, Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture and Ken Iwata Mother and Child Museum. To visit them, you have to take the "Intermediate" and "Advanced" Island Explorer trail through rolling hills. The perk though, is that for every painful ascend, there is the awesome downhill rush after, which was my favourite part of the ride. Suffice to say though, my least favourite part was the uphill climb again thereafter. No pain, no gain.

Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture

Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture | With great vistas and scenery, comes great cycling

/ Enjoying the Islands - Staying Overnight

Setoda Private Hostel

I enjoyed staying at Setoda Private Hostel located near Sunset Beach at Ikuchijima. The accomodation is decent and affordable, the owners hospitable and the best thing - they have their own amazing onsen facilities which the owner's father built on his own. I really respect that. It's also located along the Shimanami Kaido route, so you don't have to go an extra mile to get here.

Sunset View from my room

  
/ Cheat Sheet - Things to note when you want to give up or are faced with wet weather
By renting from the rent-a-cycle terminals, you can essentially give up halfway, drop your bicycle at any of the terminals on the islands and then take a bus back. I say a bus because from the few ferry terminals I saw, the rent-a-cycle terminals are not (or even close) to them. I have never tried it myself, but it seemed that the bus intervals and waiting times were few and far between. Where possible, I would recommend just cycling it.

What did intrigue me was the possibility of bringing your bicycle on the ferry, and then taking the sea route back to the mainland. It had started to rain, and having been assured that the ferry takes bicycles and armed with the schedule which I got from the museums, I meandered along the way, before finally cycling to Munakato-ko Port with the intention of taking the ferry back to Imabari. Munakato-ko is not on the typical ferry routes "D", "E", "F" (which I think allows non-foldable bicycles for some timings) which is published on the cycling map, but hey it was raining - and if there's a chance, why not grab the opportunity?

In true fashion to Murphy's Law, while it was true that this ferry does take bicycles, they only took foldable bicycles. So no possibility here. I was now faced with the situation of either ploughing through a harder but quicker hilly route (from the map) or going back where I came from and ploughing through the easier now-familiar hilly route but at a cost of an extra 17km route in the rain. The quick and harder route it was.

To other fellow casual cyclists, my word of advise is that it's not as bad as you think it is. The "Advanced Route" can be done.

Another lesson would be to verify knowledge received. I guess the person who advised me didn't realise that the ferry at Munakato-ko made a distinction between foldable and non-foldable bicycles, and only knew that bicycles had made its way on the ferry. What was told to me was entirely 100% accurate - just missing one piece of important information *wry grin*.

/ Final thoughts

Would I go back? Yes and yes.


Back to
Cycling on the Shimanami Kaido　（しまなみ海道）| Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 |

Cycling on the Shimanami Kaido （しまなみ海道）| Part 2

/ Gear
I was doing a 2 day bicycle ride from Imabari, with the intention of an overnight stay on one of the islands, and then back to Imabari. My gear included:

// helmet (free rental from Sunrise Itoyama)
// 2 x coupon book for bicycle Bridge Tolls. Each coupon book costs 250 Yen (50% savings as the coupon is worth 500 Yen), and is enough for your toll crossings one way from Imabari to Onomichi.
// bicycle lights
// rain poncho
// change of clothing
// emergency food
// water
// powerbank to give juice to the phone


There's a free Bike Touring Guide Map with some information about Shimanami Kaido which you can pick up at the rent-a-cycle terminals. This is very useful and I would sincerely recommend taking a copy before you start your journey. To help folks out, here's a scan of one side.

Cycling Map of Shimanami Kaido

/ Food and Drink
Food and drink are easily available from the combi stores and rest stops which are scattered along the ride, so I packed light in this regard. This will also keep your options open, like being able to lug mikans purchased from a farmer selling bags of them along the roadside in Ikuchijima.

While not necessarily the cheapest of options, you can easily stop at drink vending machines to buy that much needed Pocari Sweat. But hey, it's convenient.


/ Follow the Blue Painted Line

I love the way it's so easy to know where you're going - just follow the painted blue line along the road. It will lead you somewhere. The recommended route connecting Imabari to Onomichi is marked with a painted direction sign on the ground with the final destination city. Anything off-trail is labelled "Island explorer". In addition to all of this, there are maps and signages at major intersections, so you can always see where you are in the Shimanami Kaido.

The recommended route is doable with some effort and the right gears. Besides the ascend up to the bridges, there's a section which is a 90m-ish climb located in Ohshima Island.

Cycling on the Shimanami Kaido　（しまなみ海道）| Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 |

Cycling on the Shimanami Kaido （しまなみ海道）| Part 1

Shimanami Kaido | Kurushia - Kaikyo Bridges

I love cycling. 

I love the freedom the bicycle gives - faster than foot and more nimble than a car, one can explore nooks and crannies to one's heart's content. Having heard about the legendary Shimanami Kaido cycling trail through other web blogs and websites, I just had to check it out. 

/ Renting a bicycle

My rental Cross-bike

Coming from Imabari, there are a few options you can rent from:

// JR Imabari train station - Rent-a-cycle Terminal 
This is part of the Rent-a-cycle network where you can rent a bicycle and then drop it off at any of the other terminals along the Shimanami Kaido (for a fee). PROs: The rental fees are cheap and affordable (500 Yen / day) and there's no hardship in getting here if you're arriving at Imabari via train. GIANT CON: They only rent what they call "General Use" bicycles (mamacharis). Unless you have thighs of steel, you will have to work very very hard to climb the bridges and the various slopes. You're going to be going on a beautiful bike ride - why suffer needlessly?


// Near JR Imabari train station - Giant Store 
A bike store offering rental services where you can either return your bicycle at their Imabari store or at Onomichi. They also have on-site shower and locker facilities, as well as hotel accommodation. PROs: There's a large range of rental Giant bicycles to cater to the discerning cyclist and range from their high-end carbon bikes to normal cross bikes and kid bikes. CONs: With great bikes, there are great rental prices. A day rate for a Giant cross bike is about 4,000 Yen. 

// A distance away from JR Imabari train station at the foot of the first bridge - Sunrise Itoyama Rent-a-cycle Terminal
Similar to the Rent-a-cycle at JR Imabari train station, Sunrise Itoyama offers a larger range of bicycles (General Use, Road Bikes, Mountain Bikes, Cross Bikes, Electric Assist, Tandem), and has a hotel and restaurant attached to it. The hotel rooms have amazing views that look out to the Seto Inland Sea, and is useful as a starting point before you start your travels or as an end point where you can soak aching muscles after you finish your ride. Definitely bicycle friendly. PROs: cheap bicycle rental fees (500 Yen / day) and a hotel attached to it. CONs: Getting here is not very convenient. The bus service from Imabari is infrequent with odd timings. Take for example, the bus timings from Imabari Train Station to Sunrise Itoyama are 8.35am, 9.52am, 1.20pm, 3.52pm*, 5.55pm* (* = not operating on Sunday and public holidays). 

I chose the Sunrise Itoyama option, with a hotel stay at the end of my bike ride. I also rented a Cross-bike from here and it had enough gears for me to make it up the slopes. It was a great bike to use. Looking back on my journey, while I have no regrets staying at Sunrise Itoyama as it was very comfortable and perfect as a way to end the day, if I had to do this over again, depending on what time I return back to Sunrise Itoyama, I might choose to stay in Imabari itself so that I can explore the town in the evening as well as to avoid the rush the next day to catch the first bus back to Imabari with around 10mins to buy tickets and catch the express train to Matsuyama. Also, I would eat on one of the islands before returning the bike (rental closes at 8pm) and staying at Sunrise Itoyama overnight as only the hotel restaurant is open in the evening.

// Onward to
Cycling on the Shimanami Kaido　（しまなみ海道）| Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 |

Shikoku

Seto Inland Sea

Shikoku is a fascinating place. There are many places to see and things to do and I admit to have fallen in love with this island. To anyone considering to visit, here are some general info that might be useful -

/ keeping a pulse in the digital world
The b-mobile data visitor sim card is pretty useful travelling around countryside Japan, and the coverage (NTT docomo network) superb as I could get connection wherever i went - through cities, forests, valleys and mountains. Plugged into the digital world, and armed with GPS, and Google-sensei (including the almightly Google maps) - the possibilities are endless and you no longer have to worry about what to do, where to go, and how to do it.

The only annoying thing is that thanks to privacy laws (I reckon), after putting the data sim in, whenever I took photos from my Samsung Galaxy S4, one can hear a very audible camera shutter sound. There is no way to mute or even dim this. Not really helpful when you're trying to take a photograph of a deer grazing in the forest, but such is life I suppose.

/ travelling in shikoku
If you are an international traveller, do consider investing in a JR all Shikoku pass for travelling between cities. This will open the door to exploring the island over long distances cheaply and effectively via JR trains and railway lines. As the pass covers consecutive days of travel, it is important to do some travel planning if you are the sort to spend days at a place before moving on. The All Shikoku Pass can be purchased overseas or in Shikoku itself at JR Shikoku Travel Agency sales/exchange offices (note - I think there are only 4 of these in Shikoku) so if you need to buy another pass for your travels, you can do so.

In towns, there are local commuter trains, buses and also rental bicycles for hire.


/ staying in shikoku
Depending on what type of traveller you are, Shikoku has the typical range of accomodations which range from business hotels (typically located by the train station near the major JR train stops), onsens, minshukus and backpacker inns. As i travelled in June, during the low travel season, I found it no issue it all to look for accomodation either by emailing a few days before, or just searching once you reach the town.

/ Highlights of Shikoku 
   // Matsuyama
   // Shimanami Kaido | Cycling
   // Ohenro-san | Pilgrimage and the Giving Culture
   // Land and Water | Hiking, Cycling and White-water
   // Naoshima | Art Island

ok, lets start visiting!