Shimanami Kaido and riding to Saijo.
We had spent a bit of time the night before planning the route for the next couple of days. The plan was to finish the Shimanami Kaido that day and sleep in Saijo. Staying in Saijo would set us up to cycle as close to the start of the UFO line as possible, which we would be cycling the following day. For the night after that we had booked a spot at a mountain hut on the UFO line. Booking it had been a bit of an ordeal since you had to call to reserve and neither of us spoke Japanese. Luckily my friend Ayu back in Tokyo was able to call for us to make the reservation. That was about as far ahead as we ever planned on this trip.
Okay, back to the day at hand. We grabbed a quick breakfast at FamilyMart before heading on our way. I stocked up on more bottled teas to fuel the day of riding, along with some pastries and an egg sandwich. It was a bit of a slow morning and we eventually got on the road around 10:30 a.m.
The rest of the Shimanami Kaido was gorgeous. I was surprised how tropical it felt as we cycled past lots of orange trees, mixed in with small factories and shipping yards along the way. It was pretty easy riding. We did make a few “shortcuts” that ended up with some steep gravel pitches that I almost had to walk my bike up.
The biking infrastructure was great on the Shimanami Kaido. All the bridges had gradual curved inclines up to them just for bikes, with some of them even spiraled at least twenty feet in the air. The views between the islands were so pretty it was almost too much to take in while trying to ride my bike straight over the bridge. The descents down were really fun too, winding through a sort of trench with the autumn canopy of leaves overhead. Once we reached Imabari, the end of the Shimanami Kaido, the bike infrastructure quickly disappeared. The drivers were super respectful of bikers though, and I never felt like I was going to get hit. After that we were on a mix of regular and small country roads. The smaller side roads were much nicer but usually reconnected with the main road every few kilometres. We popped down the side streets of the small towns and took our time enjoying the traditional Japanese houses.
We stopped at Imabari Castle for a late lunch where we found another FamilyMart (a common theme of the trip). I grabbed some sushi and a pork bun. While eating I noticed a second spoke had broken off the back wheel of my bike. I had spotted the first one earlier in the day but figured it was fine. With two gone I was a bit worried about the wheel being overloaded with all the weight in the panniers. As a bandaid fix I taped the broken ones to their adjacent spokes but knew I needed to find a shop before our big ride the next day.
We arrived in Saijo around 4 p.m. and went to a local bike shop, B-shop OCHI. The owner was awesome and was able to fix the bike. We ended up chatting with him for a while after and showed him our plans for tomorrow. He was a bit surprised we were going all the way up to the UFO with panniers on our bikes. He was super helpful and confirmed the route was still open and would be for a few more days before it closed for snow. Looking at the map tougether he pointed at the first section, “hard”, then the middle section “hard hard”, followed by the final climb as “hard hard hard”. Tom must have been thinking, what have I got myself into.
With the bike fixed, we rode the rest of the way to the hotel, Itomachi Hotel 0, just before dark, only about a fifteen-minute ride. After cleaning up, we went out to look for a place for dinner. The owner of the bike shop had recommended a few places in town. Unfortunately the first option, a local seafood place, was closed on Tuesdays. We ended up going to Bon, which was also great. I had an omelet on top of a hamburger. A hearty meal to end the day, and of course I had to have a cold Asahi. The temperature had definitely dropped since we started dinner and the walk back was quite cold. I was really glad I had brought my puffy jacket.
We headed back to the hotel and got ready for bed. The next day was going to be a big one and we needed all the sleep we could get.
Photos
