Onomichi

Leaving Naoshima, we decided to visit Kurashiki canal district on the way to our next stop, Onomichi. Kurashiki has a well-preserved historic district around its canal, full of wooden buildings and cobbled streets. Most historic buildings in Japan were either destroyed by American bombing in the Second World War, or redeveloped through Japanese urbanisation. But Kurashiki is lovely and without too many tourists—a hidden gem. We took a few photos of ourselves in our new Japanese garbs against this backdrop while we had the chance, and chilled in a cafe for a few hours.

Next, Onomichi. We stayed at a guesthouse that Dan knew from his 2019 trip, which is perched on a hillside and only accessible on foot up winding steps and narrow paths (read on: this will become important later in the update). We'd been hoping to stay in a Ryokan (traditional inn) at some point in Japan, but they're often prohibitively expensive. Yoko's place was a good substitute, with tatami mat beds and sliding paper doors.

The main reason we were in Onomichi was to cycle on the Shimanami Kaido, a bicycle expressway running 80km across the islands of the Seto Inland Sea. On Tuesday morning we picked up rental bikes and got started early-ish to beat the heat. It was baking even at 9am though, so we were very glad to use the battery assist on the uphill sections!

The cycleway is great! Since we're here in the summer, it's not very busy. So we glided at a heat-appropriate pace across enormous bridges, down long swooping hills, along coastal vistas, on our way to the halfway point. Our plan was to go halfway and then turn back, rather than cycling all the way across the 80km to Imabari.

After 32km though, disaster struck! Chelsea tried to speed up on an incline by standing in her pedals, but the weight balance is totally different on a battery-assist, so lost control of the bike and slalomed into someone's garden wall. Dan turned around just in time to see her chin hit the brickwork 😬 luckily she got away with grazes and badly bruised knees. Phew. We had an alcohol disinfectant spray (agony) and our trusted Sudocrem with us. So we could do some roadside medical care, and roll slowly to the next bike drop point.

Chelsea caught a bus back to near Onomichi and limped the last 2km to the ferry and uphill to our accom while Dan cycled back. The steep walk up to Yoko’s was much less fun when one of you has been on a bike for 7 hours, and the other lost a headbutting (chin-butting?) challenge with a breezeblock. But we got a very good night's sleep, and are feeling (relatively) good, albeit a bit slow on the stairs.

We survived all those notoriously dodgy scooters in Southeast Asia, only for Chelsea to come off a battery-assist push bike in Japan. How embarrassing. This has happened at the exact midpoint of the year for us. Bad omen? Good omen? Who knows. Either way, July is off to a great start 👍Read more