GW2025 D3 Setouchi Art Triennial around the Seto-Ohashi bridge

Route: Okayama - Seto Ohashi - Takamatsu
Bicycle: 66 km
Train: 53 km
Total ascent: 565 m
Average speed: 13,4 km/h
Riding time: 4:54 h
Weather: sunny a few clouds but not THAT warm, 18C

Today was another perfect day, that didn’t go to plan. I got up relatively early and took a train from Okayama over to Shikoku. It passes over a long bridge going through the Setonaikai dotted with islands. I got off at the first stop on Shikoku, assembled the bicycle, and then set out to the art exhibits around the bridge.

The first piece of art I saw was this small hill, which wasn’t a tomb, like the slightly bigger hill I saw a few days ago in Kibi plain.

From there, I followed the signs for some other pieces of art around it, none of which really impressed me.

In the small village of Seicho, they were three abandoned schools. The kindergarten, elementary school and junior high school.well now closed and used as temporary exhibition sites for this art festival. However, the artists didn’t seem to have a lot of ideas, so most of the exhibits in all three schools were kind of just stuff that was already in those school buildings abandoned, put together and reclaimed as art.

There was really only one piece of art that I thought was interesting. It was a still life photographed over several weeks in a style similar to Caravaggio. It started with a very abundant display of fruit and vegetables, very colorful and apparently full of life in front of a dark background. Initially, you didn’t notice anything, but looking at it for some time, one could appreciate the change from this fresh, full of vitality, display of fruits and vegetables, to the decay.on the wall behind, there was still a clock from the school, which every minute was the change of the hand gave a loud noise. So you could hear the passing of time, while seeing it reflected in the unstoppable decay of rotting fruits, and vegetables.

With all this art time flew by. At one of the schools, there was even a service for some lunchboxes, and freshly fried fish, so I had lunch there, and it was clearly too late to ride to Kotohira shrine and make it up there.It’s already the second time I’m here in this area of Shikoku and do not manage to get to this famous shrine. So a good reason to come back sometime in the future.

Instead, I saw that there was one piece of art that still belongs to this area, which was between the area around the bridge and Takamatsu. So I replant the ride to get to also this piece of art. Which essentially was a small village park with a bench and a place to light a bonfire.

It was however, early enough to make it to Takamatsu and still have more than sufficient time to see again the superb Ritsurin garden.this is definitely the best Japanese garden that I have seen. Although it didn’t make it on the official list of the three best gardens. What I really like about it how it incorporates the nature around it into the garden. It offers so many different view points that you could easily spend an entire day in this garden discovering new views.

GW2025 D2 Ashimori and Takahashi

Route: Okayama - Ashimori -Takahashi

Bicycle: 70 km
Train: 0 m
Car: 51 km
Total ascent: 987 m
Average speed: 15,4 km/h
Riding time: 4:35 h
Weather: sunny and again not too warm, 20 C

Today was a wonderful day with new discoveries and very relaxing. Now I just need to hope that I’ll be able to make it back to Okayama as I am sitting in a train at Bitchu Takahashi station that isn’t moving because somewhere down the line rocks did fall on the track. I am pondering if I should put the bicycle together back again and ride down to the plain of Okayama. However even Soja is 30 km away, it’s already 18:00 and it seems that trains from Soja are also not moving. Probably because the trains from Takahashi don’t arrive. The other passengers are sitting relaxed, and I have still the blog post of yesterday to write, so I am sitting here as well … However, after an announcement saying that the responsible JR person would be at the site of the rock at 19:00 to check it out, instead I decided to take the bike and just when I had it all assembled again a man who was going to take the train as well approached me and offered to take me by car. So here we go. By car to Okayama.  

The car ride itself was also a great experience. Obviously I was a bit conscious of the fact that I am boarding a car of a totally unknown man. But , well, most people in the world are good people. And he was definitely one of them. Surprisingly I had a really good conversation with him. He seemed very well informed about global affairs , the war in Ukraine and just generally an interesting person to talk to about more than just the weather. 

Now back in my hotel , and back to today’s blog post.

Getting out of Okayama wasn’t the best route, but once outside I was on one of cycle paths in the Kibi plain but somewhere took different turns from yesterday and this came to a new place: Ashimori 

I had never heard about this place and even yesterday when I searched for interesting spots around Okayama it did not come up. So I was really lucky to stumble up on it. On my way. A nice small village, largely maintaining its old character of, what I would call, post town. There is an old samurai residence, which I did not visit and a garden that uses the mountains as part of its landscape design. The old lord of the area could sit in his tea house above the small lake and enjoy the breeze and the views.

Before entering into the mountains, I had udon at a local small restaurant, where the owner‘s wife was very eager to speak English and gave me a small cake from the area. From there, it was uphill on a very nice and quiet country road through the lush green vegetation. I’m really surprised how green everything is. Which really I shouldn’t. Japan is a very green country. But somehow this year I didn’t notice the change from winter landscape to the lush green landscape. I’m simply too busy with my house building, that I didn’t have enough time to cycle in the countryside and mountains around Tokyo. So this trip here feels like the first time to really see this abundance of green.

Somewhere in these mountains, there are small hamlets, probably all but destined to disappear in the next 50 years.

And with that I made it to the viewpoint above the castle of Takahashi. 

I didn’t have enough time to visit the castle and the mountain it is on top of looks really steep. I actually visited it eight years ago on my tour through Japan. Back then I took the train from Okayama and then a taxi up to the entrance of the castle. Today instead, I visited a temple, down in the valley, which back then the taxi driver recommended to me, but somehow I hadn’t considered visiting it. The temple itself is probably a pretty normal temple, but the draw of it is it’s Japanese garden.

The Rododendron wasn’t in full bloom yet, but even though this garden was very relaxing and calm.

People always complain or fear how full everything will be in golden week, but it’s so much depends on where you go. Yes the train yesterday was crazy full but today both in Ashimori, and in Takahashi, there were very few people around.It simply isn’t on any major, or even minor routes through Japan, not even for the Japanese.

GW2025 - D1 Kibi plain repeat

Route Okayama - Kibi plain round trip
Bicycle: 61 km
Train: 650 km
Total ascent: 243 m
Average speed: 15,7 km/h
Riding Time: 3:47 h
Weather: very sunny but not THAT warm, 20C

I organized this Golden Week trip maybe about two months ago, right after I found out that this year is again the art triennial in the Setouchi region. And although it is right in the middle of Golden Week, I did have no problems in finding reasonably priced accommodations in the area.

For the first two days, I’m in Okayama, where I have been eight years ago on my big trip through Japan. Today was actually a repeat of a ride that I did back then.

In order to come here, I needed to pass through the craziness of getting on a Shinkansen out of Tokyo on the first official day of Golden Week. The situation at Tokyo station was a well organized chaos. I made it pretty easily to the actual platform, but on the platform there were hoards of people, kept in organized queues by special railway employees.During Golden Week for the Nozomi Shinkansen, all seats are reserved, which means that people who did not get a reservation are all desperate to board a Hikari or Kodama train. So there were long queues on the platform, and the people who were actually there to take their reserved seat in the Nozomi needed to kind of squeeze between everyone else. Even the vending machine was nearly empty, and that at 9 AM in the morning. Luckily, I had bought something for breakfast and lunch at a conbini on the way to Tokyo station, so I didn’t need to get anything from the platform shop. However, once I was in my Nozomi on my reserved seat, I had the space behind the seat for the bicycle and could sit comfortably all the way to Okayama. As there was so much traffic and, probably especially the Hikari and Kodama trains, took more time at the platform to load and unload people, the entire system was in delay. And by the time I reached Okayama, my train already had racked up more than 20 minutes of delay. Even Okayama station was very crowded and we needed to form a line to get out of the turn-still. 

On my way, I had planned the ride for today and tomorrow. Today, a short ride into Kibi plain with its temples, shrines and old tombs. 

The first two stops were too big shrine complexes at the foothill of a small hill. As in the next few days is the children’s day, they were kois flying above in the air. Normally, they should be flying over a river, but here they were flying over the parking lot.

The second shrine per the description had a very special roof, I think if I wouldn’t have read it, I would not consider this roof as anything special, but just a normal shrine roof. But I’m clearly no expert.

As I continued on the cycle path, I continued through the plain with small fields and small hamlets. I had planned a little bit longer ride, but at some point it was getting surprisingly chilly and also a little bit late, that I decided to take a shortcut cut back to Okayama. but while being on my shortcut, I remembered a picture of the main temple of this area with a flower field in front of it. So I checked how far it would be from where I was on my shortcut, and it was within less than 4 km, so I decided to give it a detour. I had been to this temple 8 years ago, but to my surprise I had a new experience today. They were arranging the big drums for a concert in the evening in front of the pagoda in the yard of the temple, and already had some test runs of their performance.

And no, this hill is not a hill, it is actually an ancient tomb. 

Part 9 (Day 44 - 47 ) - Okayama and around 岡山を周り - Summary

Bicycle touring Japan - Okayama and around - Part 9

In this post I review the cycle touring but also the excursions I did by train, bus and ferry from Okayama in days 44 to 47. 

Bicycle: 59.5 km

Other transport: 363 km

Region: Okayama area, including Kurashiki, Takahashi and Inujima island

Total riding time: 4:30 h

Total ascent: 319 m + half a mountain up to Matsumoto castle

Close to Okayama is the Kibi plain a spot relatively well known for cycling among tourists, plus there are many other touristic places close to Okayama, so a 3 night stay was perfect in this region. I didn't do a lot of cycling, partially because I didn't manage to find an accommodation on Inujima and partially because riding to Bichu-Takahashi would have taken an entire day and I also wanted to visit the Korakuen in Okayama on the same day, so the decision for the train was easy. However specially the Kibi plain is great for cycling with a cycle path that is different from many others in Japan, by using small country roads / paths that existed anyway linking them up to one 20 some kilometer long trail that does wind through the landscape and drop by a number of important shrines and temples in the area all proof of the long history of Kibi plain. In general this part of my trip through Japan was quite varied. 

Here an approximate map of the ride as Google shows it, the actual rides are, as always in the day-to-day descriptions:

The actual routes I took are in the Strava or Garmin feed of each day:

Day 44 - Osaka to Okayama

Day 45 - Kibi Plain and Kurashiki

Day 46 - Okayama's Korakuen and Matsuyama castle in Bichu-Takahashi

Day 47 - Inujima and on to Onomichi

And here an overview of the costs.

In general this part of my trip through Japan was quite varied, with some nice bicycle riding, an old city (Kurashiki), an old castle (Matsuyama), a modern art island (Inujima), a traditional Japanese garden (Korakuen) and the typical temples and shrines. Within only 3 days a lot of different (!) experiences. So that was nice after the more uniform experience in Shiga and Nara prefecture, which I also utterly enjoyed. 

In my original plan, I had planned the ride through Kibi Plain and Kurashiki, i.e. Day 45. I had completely neglected Bichu-Takahashi somehow assuming that riding there would be too hard/far/high (well, I did go there by train, but I think bicycle would have been possible if I had had the entire day, but as I wanted to see Korakuen in the morning, I had only half a day, so opted for the train). I had also planned to ride out to Hoden port, from where one takes the ferry to Inujima. But being a 25 km ride, doing this in a day and back PLUS having sufficient time to explore Inujima island would have been a too long, exhausting day. My original idea was to stay one night on the island. However the three accommodation possibilities on the island, were either occupied or not in operation. Looking back, I could have probably tried to find an accommodation in Hoden or close by and just come back with the last ferry from the island, sleep on the mainland and then back by bicycle to Okayama the next day. But a bus ride was perfectly fine as well. 

I did not have extremely high expectations for this region, so was positively impressed by the variation of nice touristic spots. Probably the one place that surprised me most was Kurashiki. I have seen on this trip (and before) other "old towns" in Japan, and often it is hardly one street, full of souvenir shops and tourists, like for example in Takayama. In Kurashiki it was much more than just one street, it is really like a small portion of the city that is well preserved. The channel in the middle also adds to the attractiveness. And last but not least this old town is remarkably different from others, such as Imaicho or Sawara in having a distinctive Meiji/Taisho era flair. There are tourists around, but nothing compared to Takayama.

The next part I really enjoyed, and that wasn't on my original plan at all, was Matsuyama castle in Bichu-Takahashi. It is one of the 12 remaining original castles in Japan, but also among those it is unique in its position high above the city on a mountain of about 400 m, overlooking the narrow valley and the other hills around. Being remote does also mean much less tourists. And it was probably the first spot in Japan where I had good koyo! Not excellent, but good enough. Hasedera in Nara was an other spot, but there is felt still slightly to early. 

Then the day on Inujima was also unique in being a modern art project, I don't want to call it museum, as the only museum building really has only 1 piece of art which I totally not enjoyed. Probably the nicest piece of art was the "flower house". I am sure it has a less poetical name invented by the artist, but in connection with the surrounding small village houses and the adjacent "lense house" it was very nice. And anyway, small islands in the Seto Inland Sea are simply nice and extremly relaxing by themselves. 

I have been talking a lot about the none-bicycle related excursions I have done, but actually the one and only ride I did, through Kibi plain, was also very nice. It has its fair share of temples and shrines. Probably nothing that can impress you after having visited Nara, but the cycle lane through that landscape is particularly nice, as it does NOT follow one river, but goes to each of the temples / shrines and uses small rural ways that gently wind through the generally flat landscape, surrounded by some hills. The cycle road is also extremely well signposted, so once you have found its starting point, you cannot get lost anymore. In that it is very similar to the Shimanami Kaido. Even the blue arrows painted on the road are similar to the big brother over the Seto Inland Sea. 

After the one day of rain since I restarted my ride on Day 38 in Maibara, that I used for work related issues in Osaka, again weather was perfectly fine for Okayama. But it is getting slightly colder and on Inujima the wind was strong and cold. But I guess that's only fair for early November. 

At this point of my cycle touring experience, my gear is all still appropriate, which is really good if you think that I started 2 months ago, in early September in Hokkaido and have changed practically nothing in my gear since then. Nothing has broken so far nor did I loose anything. So all fine!

Day 47 - Inujima art project 犬島「家プロジェクト」

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 47

In this blog post I describe my visit to Inujima art project, a very small island in the Seto Inland sea.

Bicycle: 20 m
Train: 90 km
Bus: 50 km
Ferry: 5 km

Route: Okayama to Inujima and back and then on to Onomichi. All by public transportation.

Weather: Sunny, some clouds and quite windy, 15 C


Today an other day without riding, but a lot of sightseeing. On weekends there is special direct bus from Okayama to Hoden port from where there is a very small ferry to sail to Inujima. Inujima is a very small island, only 4 km circumference and about 50 very elderly inhabitants, but it is part of the Seto Inland Islands art project, together with the slightly bigger islands of Naoshima and Teshima. I had been to Naoshima and Teshima in the past and enjoyed them thoroughly, so today I made my way to Inujima. Originally I had planned to go by bicycle and stay a night. It's about 25 km riding from Okayama, so the idea was to ride out there e.g. in the afternoon, take a ferry over, sleep on the island, visit it the next day and then come back and ride back to Okayama. However there are only 3 accommodation possibilities on the small island. One was already fully booked, one not operating and one never answered to the phone. So I decided to make it instead a day trip, but then by bus, as 50 km riding PLUS a day on the island visiting the art projects seemed a bit too hard. 

Islands, specially small ones, are for me immediately relaxing. And the ones in the Seto inland sea somehow remind me of small islands in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Inujima in addition to being a small, enjoyable island, also has a museum and a number of art houses with installations. The art museum is in an old abandoned copper refinery, which only was operative for 10 years. The bricks it is constructed off are made of copper slag. Also many other islands in the inland sea where quite industrial some 100 years ago.

Out of the abandoned refiner, an architect carved a new museum, specific to only one work of art.

I have to admit that I enjoyed only one work of art in here, and I am not even sure if that was "art" or "architecture". The entrance to this museum is below ground, i.e. the above picture is from the roof of the museum. One comes in to a very dark, straight passage way that sounds of wind. At the end of the passage way is a mirror and one needs to turn left. The mirror however is at 45 degrees and one sees all the time a very distant lighted exit. But one needs to turn. If you look back, in the same mirror, you will see an image of the sun. And then again, an other mirror at 45 degrees, and you need to turn. Again the same, distant light in front, the sun behind. Until the very end of this labyrinthic experience. Then finally you are in front of yet an other mirror, but this time facing up and showing the sky above the museum, but if you look into it, it still looks like in front of you. Very intriguing. And all this with the wind sounding.

Then the passage ends in a room with some art, dedicated to Yukio Mishima. I did neither like that art nor do I like this person... So that was quite a low point after this great entry into the museum space.

Outside of the museum the view over the inland sea somehow reminded me of ancient Greek ruins:

Or maybe medieval castle ruins?

Across the island there are a number of "art houses". Small buildings with some contemporary art. I liked this one with the different lenses, as part of a street, through which you can see the house behind it, but upside down, in thousand variations:

Right next to it, yet an other transparent building, made by the same artist with destructured, artificial flowers. It is an entirely round structure, where you can stand in the center and see through the art (flowers) the village.

Walking further on there was also this curious project. It is not part of the "official" art of Inujima, but it is still curious. On opening days (but not today) one can even go inside the dog (犬　"inu" in Japanese) and look through his eye.

Walking on an other official art piece, this time symbolizing the sun rays. (although seeing it from far, I thought initially that it would be hammock... but touching was prohibited...

It was still nice to see it swing in the quite strong wind. Today I had brought only a cardigan and not my warmer jacket, as sun was forecast. And the sun did shine... but it was also quite windy, so it became sometimes rather cold. Thus I was happy to find the one and apparently only restaurant right next to yet an other art house project and had spaghetti with spinach pesto, as surprisingly on this small island, this place was specialized in 2 pasta dishes.

Then back to the ferry, back to Okayama, back to my bicycle and luggage which I had left in my hotel and on with the next train to Onomichi.

In Onomichi the ride over the Shimanami Kaido starts, a famous cycling experience in Japan. And this is immediately noticeable. When I arrived at the station, I was not alone in dragging a bicycle out of the train (but the quickest in getting it back to roll). My hotel does surprisingly not have a bicycle parking lot, but instead invites its guests to sleep with the bicycle:

So here we are... enjoying a nice night view over the harbor that is already on the first island of tomorrow.

Day 46 - Okayama and Takahashi 岡山と備中高梁

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 46

In this blog post I review my visit to Korakuen garden in Okayama and to Matsuyama castle in Takahashi, surrounded by the first really nice koyo of this trip

Bicycle: 8.5 km
Train: 100 km
Taxi: 6 km
Riding time: 40 min
Total ascent: 39  m + half the hill of Matsuyama castle

Route: Okayama Korakuen and then by train to Bichu-Takahashi and back

Weather: Sunny, not a single cloud, 17 C


I didn't spend a lot of time today on the bicycle (nor will I tomorrow), but I saw my first real koyo:

I started late and really only had on my program today to see the Korakuen garden in Okayama and then to relax in the city. But the weather was so nice and I discovered that there is an other of the 12 remaining original castles not too far, so I made my way there... but by train & taxi.

The day started in Korakuen, a typical Japanese pleasure garden. 

There was already some koyo ...

... and even the koi dressed for the occasion:

In the garden there were at least 3 couples taking wedding pictures...

... and one guy from Google Street view taking pictures... So probably in a few months time I will still be in Korakuen.

After the visit to the park, I went to my new hotel in Okayama. I had only reserved 2 nights in the one on the hill, and as it was quite inconvenient (nothing around for dinner), I decided to stay the last night down in town, which will also be much closer to the bus station from where I will go to Inojima tomorrow.

In Okayama town, there are some bicycle lanes, some are a bright blue line on the street, others are properly built cycle lanes, well separated from cars and pedestrians and yet others are the typical Japanese co-habitation of cyclists and pedestrians on the walkway. Having cycle lanes however doesn't mean that they are being used by cyclists only. Cars do park on them, pedestrians invade them, and yes, cyclists also drive on the walkway, when there is a cycle lane right next to it. That's Japanese cycling! Surprising for a country where there would seem to be a rule for everything, but not for cycling. (Well, there are rules... but cycling rules are widely ignored).
There is also a bicycle sharing program. I have seen a number of stations, but no one using these bikes.

I left my bag and bike at the hotel and went to the nearby station to take the express train to Bichu-Takahashi. From there on with a taxi half way up this high hill (over 400 m) to the highest castle in Japan, and one of only 12 surviving old castles in the entire country. This number of 12 old castles is always being stressed in each of them, and they also all have pictures of the other 11 hanging in one exhibition room. This castle today, Matsuyama, was definitely one of the nicest of these 12. High up on a hill, overlooking the other hills around and the river below and with koyo that is near to its peak.

That small, white point on top of the mountain is the castle, as seen from the station

This roof kind of reminded me of the Great Wall of China. I can't really explain it why, but it is the combination of the mountains in the distance and the dragon-like shape on the roof.

A very nice castle, and as it is quite hard to access (car + shuttle bus + 15 min walk or taxi + 15 min walk, the walk being steep uphill), there were not a lot of tourists, no foreigners, and also not that many Japanese on this wonderful autumn day. So I could enjoy the castle quietly in the sinking sun. 

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Okayama, checkout the below maps: