Onomichi and the Inland Sea

12th October

Hiroshima to Onomichi 82km

I'd discovered that there was a dedicated cycle path that linked Onomichi on the mainland via a series of bridges to Shikoku island. The total route was 70kms and the cycle path went through the countryside and over 4 bridges. Information in English was difficult to find so we stopped at Onomichi on our way to Himeji Castle to find out what we needed to do for our trip the following day. The tourist information only had a cycle map in Japanese and so we went to find the bike hire place to see if you could reserve bikes. Again, sign language and pigeon English was required. We couldn't reserve a bike but we should turn up at 9am to make sure we would get one. Then we went to see a Film Museum based around the director Ozu whose films we admired. Again, we were frustrated with the lack of English signs so didn't spend long at the museum. On our way back to the station, we passed a guy polishing his vintage sports car. I remarked that it was a nice car and he replied in English! He turned out to be an English Teacher and volunteered to help us find out more about the ferries to the island and the bike path.

So, next day, bullet train to Okayama, change to local train to Onomichi. Rented our bikes (mine was a sit up and beg style with basket) for 500 Yen and caught the little ferry over to the first island. Then we followed the route since there were lots of signs in English! There were lots of Japanese following the route and who also found the hills a bit tough! At Setoda Island we decided to have lunch and get the ferry back to Onomichi. The island is famous for Octopus so we tried the set lunch but I just couldn't face what looked like raw octopus innards and just ate the octopus fried rice.