Shimanami Kaido by bike
- Distance
- about 70 km (43 miles)
- Country
- Japan
- Difficulty
- Easy to moderate
- Type of trip
- Cycling route
The Shimanami Kaido is a 70 km cycle route between Onomichi on Honshu and Imabari on Shikoku. It crosses six islands in the Seto Inland Sea: Mukaishima, Innoshima, Ikuchijima, Omishima, Hakatajima and Oshima. The first bridge, the Shin-Onomichi Bridge, has no cycle path, so riders take a five-minute ferry from Onomichi to Mukaishima instead. After that, six bridges carry the route, each with its own cycle path. On the roads between them, a blue line marks the way, with distances to Onomichi and Imabari painted on it, so it’s hard to get lost.
You can ride it in a day, but two days gives you time to stop. The public rental scheme has about 10 terminals along the route, and you can hire a bike at one end and drop it at the other at no extra cost. Tandems are the exception and have to go back where they came from. Cyclists don’t pay bridge tolls at the moment: the waiver runs until 31 March 2028.
Highlights along the way
- Onomichi: the Honshu end of the route, where the ferries leave for Mukaishima.
- Ikuchijima: known in Japan as "lemon island" for its citrus groves. Kosanji, a temple founded in 1936, has copies of famous temple buildings and a hill landscaped with Carrara marble.
- Omishima: home to Oyamazumi Shrine, which holds a large collection of old armour and weapons, many of them National Treasures, and camphor trees said to be more than 2,600 years old.
- Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge: three suspension bridges in a row, 4,105 m in all, from Oshima to Shikoku. It was the world’s first triple suspension bridge.
- Imabari: the castle, built by Todo Takatora between 1602 and 1608, has a moat filled with seawater. The keep is a concrete reconstruction from 1980.
Distance
About 70 km (43 miles) from Onomichi to Imabari on the signed cycle route, including the bridge approach ramps. Detours round the islands add more.
Best time to go
March to May and October to November, when temperatures are milder.
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