Cycling the Shimanami Kaido in Two Days

Two-day cycling trip in the Setouchi region – planning tips.

Good afternoon,

I hope you are having a lovely June. The rainy season has already arrived in parts of Japan, starting in Okinawa and Kyushu, and will soon reach Tokyo, giving many of us a legitimate excuse to take it easy and not leave the house on weekends (guilt-freely).

Following the monthly letter discussing the April trip to the southern coast of Shikoku and the Shimanami Kaido, I am writing to you this time to deliver the more logistics-heavy Shimanami Kaido Cycling Route post for monthly and annual subscribers. Unlike the impression-focused monthly letter, this post is intended to serve more as a mini-guide, richer in planning details. While my original intention was to complete this post within May, the schedule had to shift slightly, extending into June. As a very small token of apology, I’ve granted one extra month of free subscription to all monthly and annual subscribers. As always, I’m immensely grateful for your support and interest in this newsletter. The opportunity to share these journeys with you adds a whole new layer of meaning and purpose to every trip I take.

So, without further ado, here is this month’s paid subscriber-only post, covering what the Shimanami Kaido Cycling Route is, whether it’s worth doing, how many days it takes, where to stay along the route, and a little more. As always, if you have questions or need clarification, or would like to discuss trip ideas, feel free to email me, use the Substack chat, or leave a comment below.

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The Shimanami Kaido is a roughly 70-kilometer cycling route that connects Japan’s main island, Honshu, to Shikoku via a series of seven bridges¹ and six islands across the Setouchi Inland Sea (a region poetically depicted in Donald Richie`s The Inland Sea).

The cycling trail for the majority of the route follows the car road, with lanes dedicated to cyclists in most sections (which are wider than the terrifyingly narrow bike lanes of Tokyo).

The trail offers a relatively unique way to experience the Setouchi region, bordered by seven prefectures (Hyogo, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kagawa, Tokushima, and Ehime) and home to more than 700 islands.

While I would not count the Shimanami Kaido among the most scenic outdoor experiences in Japan, there are a few things that make it stand out to me, turning it into a rewarding trip each time.

First, there's the thrill of riding across six different bridges, each with its own level of appeal. The pièce de résistance is undoubtedly the 4-kilometer-long Kurushima-Kaikyō Bridge, once the world’s longest suspension bridge, which is either the first or the last you’ll cross, depending on your starting point.

The second point is the excellent visitor infrastructure and ease of trip planning (more on that below)—something not to be taken lightly in Japan, where planning travel can often be an excruciatingly confusing process (e.g., Japan Trip Planning Q&A: Transportation).

Additionally, there are numerous side trip options along the route that take you to art museums, quirky temples, and viewpoints, enriching the overall journey beyond a mere biking trip. While you can complete the trip as a bullet ride in one day, as I once did, you can also easily stretch it to two or three days and still not run out of sights to see along the route (more on side trips below).