At the end of 2020, we decided to take a bike trip to the famous “Shimanami Kaido” before New Year!
+++ from Wikipedia +++
The Nishiseto Expressway, often called the Shimanami Kaidō is an expressway in Japan that connects Onomichi, Hiroshima and Imabari, Ehime, going through nine of the Geiyo Islands, including Ōshima, Ōmishima, and Innoshima. The road and multiple bridges crossing across the Seto Inland Sea is one of the three main transportation links of the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project, constructed between the islands of Honshu and Shikoku.
The expressway contains fifty-five bridges, including the Kurushima Kaikyō Bridge, the world’s longest series of suspension bridges, and the Tatara Bridge, the world’s fourth longest cable-stayed bridge. The route is famed for its scenic views and can be crossed by bicycles, mopeds and pedestrians as well as cars. It was opened on May 1, 1999, and is 59.4 kilometres (36.9 miles) long, sporting four lanes with a separated path for pedestrians and cyclists.
Yeah!! This time is the 1st time we took a flight with our bike — from Tokyo to Hiroshima airport.
It was really early in the morning… We drove to the airport because we have bikes to carry! Again, this is winter, we don’t plan to camp, so our luggages were light (ANA does not charge extra for bikes!).
It just passed Christmas… holiday mood is everywhere. Unfortunately, there were nothing at the Hiroshima airport except a convenience store, so our breakfast we coffee & riceball from convenience store.
Again, we visited some old towns on the way.
They are preserved so well, but there were only tourists and gift shops there, nothing to eat. 
We went to downtown to look for the “Hiroshiba Okonomi-yaki”.
This is a very nice relaxed home-style restaurant, just the old lady cooking at the counter whenever she receives an order. 
This is the Hiroshima style Okonomi-yaki. The bottom layer is cabbage, middle is fried noodles, top is fried egg & special sauce. One is enough for lunch, but it takes time to cook…
Of course, dinner is Okonomi-yaki again, at drinking place (restaurant).
This hostel had many beds in one room. The room was decorated like Chinese.
Next day was our featured activity — ride across the Shimanami Kaido (across 5 islands & 5 bridges)!
Of course we had to ride from the early morning. Today we have a long day to go!
Although it’s December, it’s so warm & dry & sunny, actually the best season to ride a bike. Besides that, winter is off-season, it’s not crowded at all.
Actually, soon I had already lost count of which island and which bridge it was.
However, it’s funny that everytime before going on a bridge, we always had to ride some uphills around & around… then after the bridge, it would downhills around & around… So, it was kind of fun! 
We bought some lunch from local stores & sat in front of the sea to eat, so nice! The lunch was fried fish & other seafood…
See! This orange-looking dog is the image character of Shimanami Kaido. He is everywhere… and he rides a bike too!
This is the “bad” character, like a gangster!
Among these islands, you can see ORANGES and LEMONS fields everywhere. They are grown here, and you can find many different kinds of oranges & lemons in the stores here, some ugly ones are sold very cheap! 
I had the most fresh & tasty lemon soft ice-cream here too! But I forgot to take photo…
This is the line between HIROSHIMA and EHIME.
Actually, the most beautiful time is sunset time.
I had the best memory just before dark. It was so amazing view!
There are some small islands, some big islands. Small island takes 10min to pass, big island takes longer than an hour to pass. Some big island was really boring, nothing around.
However, this last bridge was the longest! We rode it from sunset time to totally dark…
We finally reached our guesthouse at Imabari at night. So hungry… Guess what? The host had 2 dogs & more cats… The big dog jumped into us to welcome us. He is so cute.
The host introduced us to a nearby bar. The bar had such romantic-looking garden.
I love fried shrimps! (Of course, I didn’t only eat fried shrimps…)
Next day, we continued to ride along the coast. We passed by this super cute cafe with the hot dog character! And their breakfast set is awesome too!
We visited the famous “Matsuyama Castle”. Seems that there was a TV drama about it too.
Haha… Matsuyama Castle has its own image character too!
The owner of the castle?
The castle is on top of a very steep hill, so we took the lift to go up…
The old castles always have very narrow and steep stairs inside.
The view from the castle is indeed magnificant!!!
We walked down the very steep slope.
Love the view from the castle!!!
I had visited many castles before, but this is one of my favourite. (Another one that I like is Kimeji castle, also very large area.)
I love this photo the most, again at sunset time.
Oh, actually we ate lunch, bought deserts and lots of towels (Imabari towels are famous for their softness!) too. But too busy, we had to take a flight back that evening!
ROUTES
Day 1 – take a flight from Haneda to Hiroshima airport, stayed at Mihara city
Day 2 – across the Shimanami Kaido, stayed at Imabari city
Day 3 – take flight from Matsuyama back to Haneda airport
TOTAL: about 160km
So grateful for the perfect weather and really joyful trip! Happy 2021!
