riding the Shimanami Kaido route solo

sore shoulders city

so you want to ride the Shimanami Kaido? here’s my story. hopefully it’s useful to you.

why did i decide to do it?

well. i read a manga. it’s called Shimanami Tasogare or Our Dreams at Dusk.

it’s an excellent piece of queer writing by a queer person. i highly recommend.

it’s set in Onomichi, Hiroshima in Japan.

the art is fantastic and painted the city in such an intriguing light that i felt the need to experience the atmosphere for myself. especially since the summer was coming up.

a relaxing time walking amongst the quaint alleys on the side of a hill, meandering through shrine grounds and looking out to the sea.

“eh??? you’re going to ONOMICHI???? you HAVE to cycle the Shimanami Kaido” my friend shrieks. well. as much shrieking as you can do through messenger messages.

what.

i gotta exercise? on HOLIDAY?

any normal person would have said “no, i don’t want to”. but you see, what i heard in their words was nothing other than provocation. i heard “what, you can’t even cycle the Shimanami Kaido? why would you even think you deserve to visit Onomichi?”.

so. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!*

planning my trip

what did i want to do

i wanted to cycle the whole thing, the full 70km. i wanted. no. i needed the glory.
i was only interested in doing it one way.
i know it is a scenic route and there are many sightseeing spots, but i know me. there is no way i would be able to focus on 70km AND worry about hitting observation points. therefore. i would do NO sightseeing on my ride. i planned that for later in my holiday. this would be a pure ride.
since it was just a pure ride. i was going to one shot it and get it out of the way.

what was i going to do

i needed to decide where to base myself at the start of the ride. ultimately this was an onomichi trip, so i want to spend time there. so i had a few options:

base myself in onomichi (hiroshima), ride the route and then get the bus back
- ✅ already in onomichi and don’t have to carry my stuff
- ❌ i would have to make sure i had enough time to get the bus back. i also didn’t like the idea of “doubling up” on the route especially since i was going to visit it again later in the week
base myself in imabari (ehime), send my stuff via sagawa ahead of myself to onomichi, and collect it when i arrived in onomichi
- ✅ would only cross the route once in a day and wouldn’t have to carry my stuff
- ❌ expensive?
base myself in imabari (ehime), carry all my stuff on my back and ride to onomichi
- ✅ would only cross the route once in a day
- ❌ carrying my stuff would be PAINFUL

i read in another blog that doing the route from Ehime to Hiroshima is mildly better because the biggest inclines are in ehime. that gave me the confidence to strike 1 from the list.

then it was just between carrying my stuff or not. and. for glory. you know there was only one answer. bye bye 2.

so the route was set. i was going to get to the start point in imabari and cycle to onomichi. this worked out because i wanted to do this ride at the very start of my trip. i did not want my meandering through the quaint port town to be shrouded in “I AM GOING TO CYCLE HOW MANY KILOMETRES ALONE?”.

what did i have to book?

accommodation

in ehime the closest bike rental spot to the first bridge is a hotel called Sunrise Itoyama.
the plan was to stay there the night before the ride. wake up early and hit the road.
the english webpage does a decent job at explaining the basics of the facilities.
if you want to book quickly, phone is your best bet. they do not speak english, so try to find someone who has even a rudimentary understanding of japanese. they probably expect a decent amount of non-japanese speakers, so you can muddle your way through throwing the date of your stay, number of people, name, address and telephone number at them. well. that’s what i did anyway.
you pay at the hotel. so you don’t have to worry about payments over the phone.
in hiroshima, i cared about onomichi, so i just stayed in an airbnb near the base of the ropeway. the city is not that large. it’s easy to walk across. staying anywhere in central is fine.

bike rental

Sunrise Itoyama is a bike rental terminal. there are many scattered along the route. the final bike terminal is in onomichi, right by the main port.
you can drop your bike off at any of these terminals. this gave me a sense of security in case i was unable to complete the ride.
if you return your bike to a different bike terminal you will not get your deposit back.
be careful with electric bikes, they have different rules for rental period and drop-off locations.
i went with a “cross bike”. i am not sure what it is. but this blog (thanks again!) said to get it. so i did.
i booked the bike along with the room. you might want to do this if it’s peak season because the bikes go quickly.

transport

this was a very last minute trip. i mean. like. i was booking on sunday for my ride on tuesday. so it was not done with saving money in mind. a cheaper route for me would have been to fly into matsuyama airport and get to imabari from there. but the flight times were annoying. and i was lazy. so shinkansen it was.

if you have a japan railpass because you do not live in japan. feel free to laugh at me here. else. yes. i spent like ¥20,000 on trains one way. it involved changing at Okayama and then taking a limited express to Imabari and then a local train to Hashihama, which is walking distance to the hotel. well. it’s not the closest walk. but it is walkable.

i bought my tickets from the machines at each of the stations. you can pop the machines into english. so that was simple enough.

car rental

i wanted to explore the islands later in my trip, so i rented a car. it cost me around ¥7150 for the day. i actually did this while i was in onomichi, but for a busy season you might want to consider doing this in advance. i rented from Toyota. specifically their shop in Shin-Onomichi, which is like a 30 minute walk from Central Onomichi.

getting to the ride

travel went as planned. i even had time to stop off in Okayama to visit Korakuen Garden and eat some Vietnamese food.
the walk to Sunrise Itoyama was slightly longer than i thought it would be. and it rained on me. but i had an umbrella so it was cool.
the hotel was actually pretty decent. the room had a toilet and sink but no shower/bath. there are communal baths. but this is pretty common so no big deal.
there is a restaurant. while i did not have the dinner. i did have the breakfast. it was japanese style. they only had japanese style. but you know. it was good and it fuelled me for the whole ride.
in the morning, picking up the bike was super simple. signed some stuff. they handed me a bike and a helmet. and i was off.

the ride

the bike rental place opens at 8am. and i was there at 8am.
by 8:11am. i was already on the first bridge.
the route is extremely simple to follow. follow the blue line. BUT. also follow the blue lines specifically for “onomichi”. on some of the islands there are “island explorer” routes. i was not about that business. i wanted onomichi. so i just looked for wherever it said Onomichi or 尾道. learning the kanji is a good idea just in case.
i actually have nothing much to say about the ride. it is a good ride.
if you are scared of riding on the road, you can pretty much ride the pavements all of the way, they are wide enough. but. they are not as well kept as the road. so i often chose the road. i was scared of damaging the thin cross bike tires. watching part of the trash taste pod special before i rode made me super paranoid about this.
otherwise i just kept riding. up to a bridge. down off a bridge. across an island. up to a bridge. down off a bridge. and repeat…
there were no tolls on the bridges because when i rode (june 2021) fares had been suspended to promote tourism. this might not be the case when you go. so watch out.
it is indeed true that the toughest hill is on the first island. but slow and steady and you can do it. just don’t stop even if it feels like you are crawling. you will get to the top eventually. it was nice to get it out of the way because then all the other inclines felt very short.
my butt did not hurt that much throughout and at the end. what was sore was the bone between my cheeks. after the ride i just had to be careful to not sit at the edge of seats! however. disclaimer. i am by no means an expert. i do not remember the last time i rode this many kilometres. but. my childhood was filled with bike riding as my dad is crazy about cycling. so i am somewhat used to this pain. i can imagine novices would struggle quite a bit.
i will tell you what did hurt for me. my shoulders. carrying my bag was tough. it wasn’t a sports bag, just a regular school style backpack. so no chest strap. ouch.
the last bridge is a boat! there is no bike access for the last bridge to onomichi. you have to take a short ferry. there are three of them. but i recommend this one. it’s the Onomichi Ekimae or 尾道（駅前）one. you can see the routes here. scroll right to the bottom. the one i recommend takes you directly in front of the station. the bike terminal is in the carpark to the left of where you disembark. it is well sign posted. to get on the ferry, just get on. an attendant will collect your fare during the ride. for me it was ¥100 (adult) + ¥10 (bike).
i got off. handed my bike in. they signed off the papers i got at the start. and gave me a stamp saying i had completed the journey! yay.
i was in onomichi at 1pm. so it took me 5 hours.
i was very sweaty and very early for my airbnb, so i showered in the coin showers at the giant bikes shop and then got some ramen.

(pics or it didn’t happen, right?)

conclusion

i think everything worked out pretty well for me. i am sure adrenaline is what made the pain not seem too bad. by the halfway point i could tell my recovery on the declines was decreasing. so i was finding it harder and harder to pedal consistently. but i was a bit crazy. i barely stopped. i took one 10 minute break at the halfway point. otherwise i just stopped a few times for water and for a toilet break.

my advice is simply: know your pain tolerance. i don’t think the journey is that physically demanding. yes the inclines can be tiring, but they are not that steep. a rest at the top should be enough to get you going again. especially since most of the time, an incline is equally matched with a decline. what i think beginners will struggle with is working through the butt pain and shoulder pain (if you are carrying your stuff). if you think this is you. consider sending your luggage ahead of you.

also. you don’t have to do it in 5 hours. you can take longer breaks and get a decent meal in you. they recommend the journey takes 6 to 8 hours. but. if you start at 8am, you have until 7pm before the bike terminal at the port in onomichi closes. that should be enough.

and that’s about it. if you want to read about the rest of my trip click here.

this was my experience. good luck with yours!

*my friend is lovely, i promise

i was going to write a line under this passage saying “this is unhealthy behaviour, don’t be me”. but. i don’t actually think that. i think if you struggle with self-confidence, overvalue what other people think of you, and feel a need to always pressure yourself to show your worth, even when it pushes you to do things you really don’t want to do. then this is unhealthy behaviour. but i have the opposite problem. i am a person who always follows the path of least resistance. sometimes i need to hype myself up to do things that otherwise i just let pass me by. additionally. this physical challenge was well within my physical capacity. my dad is a cycling fanatic. i am a solid intermediate on a bike. so. as always. everyone is different. through experimenting with yourself, you get better and better at distinguishing when you need to push yourself and when you need to protect yourself.

HAYITSNAY

PERSONAL MUSINGS AND OTHER NONSENSE