Hopping on the train to Onomichi from Fukayama this morning I set out to take a bike ride. It is one thing that is recommended for the area and the major reason why I'm here in Fukayama. Something where I'm not on my feet and a wee bit more relaxing. It's a short ride, maybe 24 minutes by train? Not much at all. Onomichi itself is small but easy to get to the bike rental shop. And like most places you go in Japan. Ask the nice people at the information desk to get directions right where you need to go. Bike rentals, in my case!
The ride itself follows routes across islands that would eventually end with you on the Shikoku side. There's suggested routes that are marked in blue so long as you follow them and I assume they'll get you from one side to the other. I didn't start going till probably around 12-12:30PM.
Like most of Japan the geography and landscape is rugged. Islands here, mountains there. No lack of something new to see every time you round a bend or top a hill. One highlight that I made it to is the Innoshima bridge. Pictured below from various points.
The man above who was fishing would throw out chum in the water after casting. Not entirely sure what he was trying to hook as he had no luck for the bit of time I watched him. He was a pro at it though. All the chum landed within feet of his lure.
This next bridge is Ikuchijima bridge if I remember right. Connecting you to the Ikuchijima island. I didn't cross this one as I felt like I was running short on time. I was all too correct.
My initial plan had been to go to the Habu port and then take a ferry back to Onomichi. This being what I thought I could do based on the map I was reading. Noooot the case. So around 4:20-4:30 I started heading back on the streets again. Mind you I haven't ridden a bike in at least 10 years. Thankfully having been to the gym my muscles weren't really tired but I'm sure not used to sitting on a bike seat for that long! They're not exactly fun.
Oh, another catch to the story. I had to be back by 6 to return the bike. Bit of a time crunch and considering the time it took me to get to that point... welllll yeah. Anyways, here is the route I took!
http://goo.gl/maps/A701c By car the same route is a little over 30 minutes. That's by car though. And as you might have noticed from the images... there's a lot of hills. Super fun awesome fun wonderfully fun hills. I should have asked a Taxi if they'd take the bike and I. I ended up getting to the ferry to cross over to Onomichi around 6 and returned the bike at 6:07. I wouldn't have cared if I didn't get my deposit back so long as I didn't have to figure out where to leave the bike if the fellow had gone home!
My fault in the end and it wasn't so bad now that I'm back. But he sure was tiring. I should really quit pushing myself so hard. There's no way to blame but me here! So I'll live with some soreness and a bit of a sun burn for a while.
I also thought to try some local Japanese treats. I'd make a horrible Japanese person. I'm sorry to say I didn't like them at all (aside from the strawberry themselves). I have a weird thing with breads that aren't normal to me. These were kind of a doughy shaped things. The starwberry ones also have a bean paste in them. It's not quite sweet but not quite savory, somewhere in between and it just doesn't suit my palette! But at least I can say I've tried them now as I've seen tons and tons of pictures of them for a long time.
Also found this as I was looking at the map on my phone. Say whaaa? I'm somewhat curious if it was just a April fools joke from Google. They're silly like that and I wouldn't put it past them. If not... well I guess I'll have to catch em all.
Breakfast
Non cherry blossom flowers!
And dinner
