Last weekend was a long weekend; we always jump on the opportunity to head out and explore this country. Thanks to the bullet train our range around the country is quite extensive. After work on Friday these weekends always start out with a 20 km ride across the city to the Tokyo station where we catch the bullet train. There, using a series of planters as a screen from the thousands of passengers Flowing by, we disassemble the front wheel of our bikes and squeeze them into bike bags, a requirement to keep from smudging anyone else's clothes in these crowded, massive stations. We sling our bike bags over one shoulder, our panniers over e other shoulder then dive into the crowds and crowds of Tokyo station:
A bullet train zipped us to Fukuyama where we spent the night at a "love hotel" on for a very good price (Google Japanese love hotels if you really want the intimate details :-) ). The next morning a quick train trip to Onomichi where we re-assembled our bikes...
Had a great buffet breakfast at a cycling hotels with bar stools that you could pedal... To get warmed up for your trip.
A short Japanese themed ferry took us across to Mukaishima Island for the start of the amazing Setouchi Shimanami Kaido bike route.
This route is over 100 km. Of bike trails that snake across 10 different inland islands.
The first thing that amazed us was THE BRIDGES! 10 of them of all different designs, lengths and sizes:
Each one had a bike path built as part of the bridge...
Sometimes below the bridge...
The designs were stunning...
With most bridges built very widely with an extra lane (though empty but just in case for the future!) and bike paths on each side of the bridge...
The bridges would pop up from around the corners of e winding seaside roads. Each bridge had its own bike bridge access road never more than a two percent climb, complete with washroom stations (with hot and cold water and vending machines), street lamps and rest zones with benches and picnic tables overlooking the ocean.
The bridges provided wonderful vistas of the shipping in the area
The fishing industry...
Each bridge had individual art pieces at the beginning and end the bridge:
During our three days of exploration went biked over, and under and through bridges at all times of day and well into the evening and delight at the ever changing light playing on the bridges, the islands and the water.
On our second night.... When it was not pouring, Shelley
And Dan...
Enjoying the sunset over Sunset beach:
The longest bridge (6.4 km) was particularly impressive with the bike bath engineering which was built with the same precision and effort as the car bridge:
Here you can see the upper layer for cars, the lower path for bikes:
The main bridge for cars, the side bridge for bikes:
The left hand ramp for cars, the right hand ramp for bikes; looked and felt like a bike freeway to us!
Adding to the enjoyment of our trip was to stay in a warm and friendly Air BnB right on the shore of a white sandy beach (tucked behind the tsunami wall of course!) with our very friendly host.
Our hosts Akira and Rie helped us navigate the uni-lingual ferry system that took us out to some of the more remote islands.
We had the privilege there of seeing a variety of community celebrations of Matsuri, where community members parade their "mikoshi" around the village/neighbourhood as a kind of fall Thanksgiving.
We ended up at one where the population of men-folk had shrunk to the point that they had trouble managing the heavy mikoshi...
So they asked us to help!
And how would any trip in Japan be possible without at least one magnificent temple? This temple,Kosanji on Ikuchi island was built in the 30s by a rich industrialist who wanted to honour his mother. He became so passionate about the temple that he became a monk and lived there for the rest of his life. The dramatic gates and recreations of temple buildings from throughout Japan were very interesting.
But it was the little, unobtrusive tunnel entrance that drew us into the depths of the hill...
Past some guardian Arhats as the stairs snaked down into the earth....
Only to be confronted clearly by the fact that we had arrived in Hell...
With demons doing all kinds of evil things to humans...
This encouraged us to quickly seek out the upper chambers with their 1000 carved Buddhas to protect us...
Until we finally emerged at the foot of the Mother/Goddess who would save our souls.
For some unknown reason, the top of the temple hill was given over to a famous Japanese artist who imported tons and tons of white marble from Italy to create a....??
dramatic pile of white marble!
We returned to our Tokyo home replete with sounds, sights and smells of the remote islands and the joy of spending three long days on our bikes.
Your photos and commentary give a real feel for the beauty, the vastness, and the varied scenery you encountered on the trip. It looks as though you were the only cyclists ... is that a correct impression?
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