Some of my most remarkable experiences in Japan came from cycling around. I was so shocked by the pu

Some of my most remarkable experiences in Japan came from cycling around. I was so shocked by the public transportation costs from my dormitory to Kyôto University (around 900 Yen a day) that I bought a mamachari ママチャリ, one of those cheap gearless city-bikes with a basket in front, just two days after arriving at Japan. It did wonders for my health, but apart from that, cycling enables you to experience your neighbourhood from a different perspective. On a sunny day, I sometimes took big detours through the suburbs of Kyôto, sometimes passing by Uji 宇治市 on my way home from Kyôto University back to Yamashina 山科区. It was the same mamachari that took me approx. 200km around lake Biwa 琵琶湖 in a crazy “just do it” mood in less then one day. I am thus confident expressing the following: Japan surely is no place for cyclists. The infrastructure mostly does not exist and where it does, it is poorly maintained or just ignored by the Japanese. Bycicles in Kyôto are everywhere, but it is generally a huge mess. And don’t mention the feeble attempts at gojô 五条 or higashi-ôji 大路 streets, it just does not work. However, there is one big exception: the Shimanami Kaidô しまなみ海道, basically a toll road for cars connecting the main islands of Honshû 本州 and Shikoku 四国. It covers a distance of approx. 70km over 6 small islands connected through 6 huge bridges and one ferry-ride. Except for the bridges the bycicle lane is often far away from the toll road, sometimes leading through rather rural and extremely scenic places. There is a generous bycicle lane on every street along the way and the bridges offer seperate lanes for cyclist, making it safe and enjoyable to ride along. We rented our bycicles at Onomichi 尾道市 and returned them at the city hall of Imabari 今治市役所. They were essentially mamachari like the one I rode in Kyôto, but they all offered a gear switch for climbing up the sometimes challenging inclines leading to the bridges. For just 800 Yen a day and a deposit of 1000 Yen (that you won’t get back if you return it at a different station then you lent the bike from) it was extremely cheap. It took us 8 hours to get from Onomichi to Imabari, but we made a lot of stops along the way, including around 2 hours at a pictoresque temple called Kôsan-ji 耕三寺, a temple founded for exclusively personal reason by a businessman to honor his mother shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Today it features smaller duplicates of Nikko’s famous entry gate  Yômeimon 陽明門, the Phoenix Hall from the Byôdô-in 平等院 of Uji, a cave with depictions of the buddhist hell, a very interesting mix of Japanese and Western architecture in the old living quarter of the owner’s mother and a rather obscure hill called Miraishin no Oka 未来心の丘, a monument for the future in shiny white marble. Anyway: the Shimanami Kaidô is an extremely nice place to go cycling in Japan, and the easy renting system makes it a good opportunity for foreign tourists, too. The nice infrastructure also means that you never cycle alone. At countless stops at Convenience Stores along the way we always met the same people and sometimes local people joined the conversation to recommend the fantastic soba noodles of the neighbouring island. -- source link
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