Trip to Shimanami Kaido

A photo album for this trip is in this album.

The long awaited journey
Before arriving in Japan, I already had my blog, and had expected that I would write about life over here frequently. That didn't happen somehow. But finally, I am getting to write about a trip I undertook. This trip itself came about after lot of procrastination.

Anyway, this weekend(14-15 May 2016) I had a chance to visit a cycling stretch in Japan, known as 'Shimanami Kaido'. This stretch extends from Onomichi in Hiroshima prefecture in Eastern Japan, to Imabari in the Ehime prefecture towards south. The total stretch is 71 km long, which passes through 6 different islands namely Mukaishima, Inoshima, Ikuchi, Omishima, Hakata and Oshima, after which there is Imabari. This route lies in the Seto inland sea, and is famous for its scenic beauty. I had came to know about it from a visitor to Japan, and had thought about going there for long time. Somehow, mostly due to laziness, it was always put on a back-burner.

As fate would have it, I lazily mentioned about visiting Shimanai Kaido to a friend, and the plan was set up, but it was scheduled after an intensely busy week for me when I had no time to plan or check any details of the trip by myself. Generally I try to plan and cross check the important parts of a trip, but left everything 'Ram bharose' this time :p Also, I generally travel in night in a bus to minimize staying anywhere in night. But I was told that Airbnb in Imabari is showing about a host who has attracted very good reviews. I reluctantly agreed about that, and didn't think much over it. The plan was to start cycling on Saturday from afternoon about 1 pm, go as far as our stamina allowed, then take a bus or ferry to Imabari and staying with the host family. Next day was scheduled to visit Okunoshima, an Island famous for large number of inhabiting rabbits and then return back. 

Setting things in motion

Come Saturday, and I was bound towards Onomichi. We had a good buffet lunch in the Salvatore, where they prepared special vegetarian pasta on special request. That uplifted the mood, and energized the mind before a seemingly tiring cycling session. Soon, we proceeded towards the bike rental area, hoping to select from a large range of options, as this route is well known and popular. But to our surprise, we found that almost all bikes were already borrowed, leaving a very small pool for us. Those bikes were with small tyre, but we had no other options. Further we came to know that the rental shops closes at 5:00 pm, and rented bikes must be returned before that, else it can only be returned next day. If we had that information earlier, the trip schedule would have been different. But many times, not micromanaging things too teach you lot of new things :)

Finally, engines roaring, winds streaming, sun glazing, our cycles roared ahead at 2:30 pm in the afternoon, from Mukaishima towards Imabari. The weather was almost perfect with deep blue sky. I was eager to get near the open sea, and the cycles didn't disappoint. The scenery laying in front of me was a revelation. Small mountains littered across, bluish water connecting them, majestic bridges to jump across islands, and the unblemished road full of smiling cycling enthusiasts.  

Climbing the mountain to cross the bridge seemed taxing, but was immediately well rewarded with a smooth trajectory downwards. The cycling was smooth, and with numerous breaks in between, we traversed three islands, which was about 30 kms. Along the way, the islands were full of lemon and orange trees. The lemon trees were full of its flowers and its strong smell permeated the island, but we didn't see any lemon fruit actually. We were getting the a strong lemon smell mixed with the smell of fresh and open sea. The whole scenery was as beautiful as I could have expected from a long awaited trip. 

But as we had started late, the sun started to get dim, and sunset was in sight. It was given that we cannot return the bike by designated time. Also, though there was a ferry from Hakata(4th Island) to Imabari at 7:20, it became clear we are not gonna make it. It was about 7:30 pm when we reached the third island Omishima, and the sun was almost set by that time. Though tiredness had not crept in, careful to avoid any risk, we decided to call it a day for cycling, and take a bus to Imabari. At the Omoshima bike rental, we had no option(with due apologizes to the rental system) but to carefully return our bikes after locking them and hiding the keys inside the bike rental papers. The bus stand was nearby only. But when we reached there, we found that the last bus had already departed for Imabari, and we had no way to use public transport! These islands are small places, with few residents, so we didn't have many people around. Luckily, an old lady at the bus station offered us some help and gave her contact number in case we need it. Thanking her, the question remained now how to reach Imabari, which was about 40 kms away.

Hitchhiking

I had never hitchhiked in Japan before, neither in India. While one option was definitely to stay back in Omishima instead of going to Imabari, the curiosity to meet our hosts, replete with nice reviews convinced us to move onward. We decided to take hitchhike, keeping in mind the helpfulness of the Japanese people. And lo and behold, no sooner than we asked for help, it arrived! We waited at a signal for a car to help us reach Iamabari, and a young man stopped his car, and cheerfully agreed to ferry us over there. He was friendly guy, in his late twenties I guess, and the discussion with him veered around life in Japan. The roads in Japan are excelled, and the car journey seemed like a breeze, bringing us to Imabari very quickly. Profoundly thanking him, who dropped us at the station, we proceeded to the house of our host: Mr Tsuneto.

Staying as the guest of Mr Tsuneto, at his extremely well kept house was a revelation in many senses. So much so that it deserves an entire post in itself, which I will actually honored to write. A through and through gentleman, at the age of 77, he is an embodiment of cheerfulness and everything best that the Japanese civilization, or maybe humanity has to offer. We stayed there about 12 hours, but every moment of it was precious. 

Dr Tsuneto, or Joyato san was so gracious that next day, despite our loving protests, drove us back in the morning to Omishima island from where the plan was to go to Okunoshima, the rabbit island which has a perimeter of not more than 5 km. The ferry to it is a 15 mins ride, which brings people to this small island.

Usagi shima, or the Rabbit Island

I had been to Okunoshima once before, and had enjoyed the place. Being there once again was equally fascinating. The island is surrounded by very clear water, numerous rabbits, many families and children who bring nicely cut carrot, cabbage and other rabbit food to feed these cute bunnies. The rabbits seemed to have adapted to this environment of pampering and gluttoning, and won't move even if you try to scare them. They are sleeping everywhere, yawning, or otherwise running away after snatching a piece of carrot from you. Entire island is full of such views.

But this cute island hides a rather dark history behind itself. Due to its small size and thus hiding, it was used as a secret location for developing poison gas before the world war 2. The remnants of poison gas building can be seen even today. The island is surrounded by check posts which was used to keep an eye on any potential attackers on this place. The rabbits were also used initially to check the effect of poison. But now the place has a museum dedicated to show case the ills of such horrific projects, and is trying to redeem itself.

Epilogue

After staying in Okunoshima for about 3 hours, we took the ferry towards Onomichi, where the return bus was from Fukuyama at 6:30 pm. Luckily, before boarding the bus, we had sufficient time and came to know that a Rose festival was being held nearby in Fukuyama. It was a small garden, full of thousands of roses of many different vibrant color. It was beautiful scene.

But all good things come to an end. So did this trip too. But maybe, all endings lead to new beginnings too. There are many other trips which I have kept delaying due to my laziness. Hope I will get to travel to few other places as well in Japan.