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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Jaguar-Popular on 2025-06-22 04:16:41+00:00.

So on my trip to japan in early June, one of my bucket list is cycling in shimanami kaido and here is my report.

It took me around 6-6.5 hours going from onomichi to imabari with total distance of 78.3 km (took a little break sometimes and forgetting to turn on the smart watch). For the sake of giving you all the information so you can plan thetripi with your pace I’m gonna divulge some personal information : I am a 7-5 office worker who regularly jog once a week 5 km in 50 minutes, weigh about 95 kg(obese for someone my height)

I did it with e bike rented with reservation from https://www.shimanami-bike-rental.com/booking?lang=en , you can also go directly to the onomichi pick up point but I don’t know whether you can get the e-bike that way though, so the e-bike have 4 mode eco, normal, road-trip and sport(though I can’t remember the name exactly. basically e-bike motor help you so it’s easier to pedal, from the bare assistance in eco mode, to easy pedal all the way on sports mode, the display monitor shows how much km left you can travel before the battery run out when you change between each mode(I spent half of the trip being stingy on eco and normal mode so I could use sport mode all the way on the last half of the trip)

Did it in 1 day because : 1. For me it’s out of budget to stay in hotel between the island and 2. My main itinerary for this trip is just finishing the whole cycle from point to point so I don’t really feel the need to stop and do some sightseeing(but it could be done, remember with me as a base line you could plan your trip accordingly, i’m sure many of you all in much better shape than me 😁😁😁)

So for the trip I’m staying at livemax hotel in Fukuyama, one for budget reason and one more reason i’ll tell you on the end of this post.

IF any of you want to make sure your plan is feasible and want to look for more info you can go to the tourist information center inside of onomichi station, the lady who works there speake and understand English, maybe try to make it shorter sentence. For example I was worried that I’d be so tired halfway that I can’t finish the trip, I want to ask how to return the bike then(since when you book you need to specify point of return) I just said “if I’m tired here (pointing at map), how return bike”. She explained that I can return the bike on several point on the route and which point is better to give up (LOL) because some return place is near the local bus stop to ride back to onomichi. You can ask her anything basically, where to go to use the luggage forwarding service, to recommended restaurant in onomichi. 😁

I began my trip from Fukuyama at around 6 a.m going to onomichi by train. (No coffee shop open till i arrive to onomichi around 7 a.m ,sot bought onigiri at konbini, in Fukuyama nakau(Japanese chain restaurants) already opened, but was afraid will be too full to cycle. Picked up my bike, then going to the pier to ride the ferry between onomichi and the first island, the fare is 110 yen cash only, you pay it to the man on board. On the first island, you’ll start to see the blue line which indicate the road to take, but keep an eye for the sign around the road, because sometimes the line get cut off (like on cross road) so getting lost is still a possibility.

As an amateur cyclist and an over thinker I brought plastic raincoat set(with pant) from home, but the konbini at onomichi and on the way along the island sell them too, only the coat though (yes, there are konbini located along the shimanami-kaido route, be at ease if you forgot to buy sunscreen, food,or cash). Tip: be sure to check the weather forecast in onomichi and imabari,those two city are located in different prefecture, so the weather can be different in the middle of your trip like it happened to me(sudden rain after the 2nd island).

Maybe it just me but the last 5km to imabari isn’t eventful, it’s just long road to to city without any view, kinda bumming out the atmosphere after that long and tiring trip.

Anyway I’ve reached imabari station around 2.10 p.m and waiting for the bus to Fukuyama (one of the reason why I’m staying there, cause there is a bus that goes directly from imabari to Fukuyama) you can take the bus 3 ways, 1. Buying the ticket directly at the bus kiosk beside the bus stop, 2. Take the paper ticket inside the bus, and pay cash (just search how to ride bus in Japan) and 3. Pay with IC card(icoca, Suica, etc) , tap when you go in the bus and before you got off the bus, the shimanami liner bus route is operated by few different company and not all of them accept IC though, here is the time table for the bus, green one is from Fukuyama to imabari and the brown on bottom is from imabari to Fukuyama just use Google lens to translate it, the “O” And “X” At the left column indicate which bus accept IC card as payment. https://www.chugokubus.jp/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/965fc31a1b03721058266e8b50536880.pdf

As you can see from the time table you can go from Fukuyama to imabari as early as 7 a.m and and as late as 8.55 pm, then back from imabari as late as 7.22 p.m . So it is possible to plan going along the shimanami-kaido either from onomichi to imabari or vice versa in 1 day. 👍👍👍