Day 72 —Omishima Island to Shimo-Kamagari Island

November 13, 2025

Marilee here.

Our second night of camping under the bridges was not as restful as the first. There was a strong gusty wind through the night which had us both awake worrying about the possibility of headwinds the next day, as well as frequent truck traffic booming across the bridge high overhead. But we had to get up and get moving early as our plan for the day depended on catching a ferry departing from a port on the other end of the island, and we weren’t sure how many hills might lie in between us and our date with the boat.

So we were on the road shortly after 7:30, and, as always on the infrequent occasions when we’re out that early, it was so lovely and quiet, making me think we should make the effort to do early starts more often. But of course, it’s also nice to have extra cups of coffee and laze around— and that usually wins.

This morning we had a 16km ride to the port town of Munakata to catch our ferry. There were a few climbs along the way, including one that we did by mistake and only realized once we’d got to the top, so we then had to swoop back down and re-route. But even so we arrived at the tiny ferry terminal in plenty of time — especially since we were the only customers.

The cheerful lady running the ticket office didn’t speak any English, but she’d clearly dealt with confused foreign cyclists before and helped us navigate the Japanese instructions on the automated ticket machine. We’ve had friendly staff people help us out with automated ticket systems many times — getting admission tickets at onsens, ordering food in restaurants — they’re always very patient and understanding as we struggle. In this case however, we really seemed to be making this lady’s day, she was so bubbly and jolly.

No need to hug the shoulder this morning.

The ferry lineup. Looks like we should make it on.

The woman running the ticket office locked up and left shortly before the ferry arrived.

At the last minute one car showed up, (and the jovial lady running the terminal office returned to sell the driver a ticket) so we didn’t get a personal ferry ride, but it was certainly the emptiest ferry we’ve been on. Forty minutes of chugging through the maze of islands and we arrived at Okamura, the port town on Okamura Island, and the starting point for the Tobashima Kaido — another cycling route across a series of islands linked by bridges. “Kaido” means “ocean road”, by the way.

The Tobashima Kaido is less famous than the Shinamani, but it looked like an interesting route towards Hiroshima, so we’d decided to invest a couple more days in meandering among islands.

The islands are busy with tiny ferries going to and fro.

Almost every island seems to be inhabited, but not this one.

Okamura island turned out to be so tiny that we were across it and onto the first in the series of bridges within less than hour. There is less cycling infrastructure on the Tobashima Kaido — instead of a looping cycle path up to the bridges at an easy grade, we had to share the roadway, which was much steeper, and we didn’t have a cycle-specific lane on the bridges. But the traffic was so light on these off-the-beaten-track islands that it didn’t really matter. We ended up having several of the bridges to ourselves, and the roads were deserted for long stretches as well.

The Seto Inland Sea is crowded with islands

The bridge from Okamura took us over to Osaki-Shimozima island, where we detoured from our route to visit the town of Mitara, which has a preserved old town centre, with narrow alleyways of heritage buildings. We had hopes of finding a nice spot for lunch, but a weekday morning in mid-November is apparently not high tourist season and there was nothing open. While we were eating crackers and oranges from our food bag in the sunshine, a busload of Japanese tourists pulled up and a dozen or so people laden with big bags got off. We wondered where they were planning to stay in this very quiet little town, but it turned out that this was a day-trip for an art club— everyone pulled folding stools and easels out of their bags, found good vantage spots, and settled down for an afternoon of sketching the atmospheric old streetscapes.

Having no such talents, we took some photos instead.

There were a few western style buildings. This one seems to have been a barbershop at one point.

A local shrine had this memorial to a man who travelled the world by bike in the years before WW1. Full bikepacking setup too, including frame bag

Mitara was an interesting little town that gave us a real sense of what these Japanese island villages must have been like in the past — little warrens of narrow alleyways hugging the coast and up the hillsides. We headed out after an hour or so of exploring, resigned to being hungry until we got to a town with a grocery store — when, taa daa — I spotted a place near the ferry terminal with lights on inside. It was a cafe, it was open, and it was serving lunch!

Broiled mackerel in miso sauce, salad, rice, soup, pickled veg. Lunchtime!

And for Tom, pork cutlet in curry sauce.

We left full and happy, and carried on with our circuit of the island, which again included a couple of big climbs along with some lovely cruising along the coast on near-empty roads.

The view over town as we climb up and up.

Beaches and fall colors on the hillsides.

Late in the afternoon we happened across a Michi No Eki and stopped in for a browse. This Michi focused mostly on lemon products (we bought little lemon cakes for an afternoon snack) but also included an unusual offering we hadn’t seen before: stag beetles in little plastic tubs with perforated lids. You know, for pets! Who wouldn’t want a stag beetle for a pet?

Uh, well me, for one.

The display included instructions on mating season and how long it takes stag beetles to reproduce — in case you want to go into the business of raising them, apparently.

Having passed up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we carried on to the next town, found a grocery store, stocked up on food and then got ourselves to our campsite destination for the evening — another free spot we had almost to outselves, with just enough time left in the day to enjoy dinner on the seaside promenade while watching the sun go down.

We had a good chat with our fellow campers at this mostly empty campground— a couple from a town near Nagano who had come south for a week or two to extend the mountain biking season (winter is already starting in Nagano I guess). Their exploits left me speechless! They strap their bikes to their backs and then climb 400m or more up a mountain, before jumping on and riding down. I’ll stay on the roads, thanks!

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 3,724 km (2,313 miles)

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Julie HughesWell - that sunset shot is suitable for framing. As to current news about Japan: apparently a volcano has decided it is time to erupt, and the Canadian Government travel advisory now lists Japan as dangerous for tourists because of huge numbers of bears.
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