We have spent two lovely nights on Omishima Island, at the home of Atsuko who lives in the village of Furudo. She has lived there for 9 years, moving down from Tokyo.

Her English is excellent, and she did live in Oregon, USA for six years, where she operated an art gallery selling lovely paintings by her uncle.

Our bikes were well looked after.

This was out sitting area, Japanese style.

We had a 14 km ride to the port to get the ferry. It was quite hilly with pinches over 9%.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, learning how to operate the ferry ticket machine.

Great views from the ferry that took only 24 minutes to reach Okamura Island.

Looking back at the ferry as it departed to Imabari and we continued cycling.

The plan today was to ride the Tobishima Kaido, a cycling route across five islands. We did it twice, as rode around each island. 89 km and around 560m climbing.

The weather was brilliant. The views, just awful. We could not believe how brilliant our trip has been with outstanding scenery continuing.

There were citrus stalls on the road edge.

There were decorative tunnel entrances, keeping the citrus theme.

There were decorative bridge panels.

Many places had a rail system in place to transport goods up the slopes.

Tony found a nice viewing seat.

We had noted this on fruit trees the last few days. Paper bags tied on we think to protect fruit.

Informative signs were plentiful.

Shimo-Kamagari Island was the southern most island we reached, and it was there we decided to have lunch in the historic town of Sannose, which was an old port town famous as a stopover for Korean emissaries and their entourage when they travelled to Japan during the Edo period (1603-1867).

We found a small cafe open, and the entire menu was in hiragana. One of the ladies was able to use her phone to provide a very clear translation. I chose ‘fish bowl’. What I received was plentiful fresh sashimi over rice, plus the ubiquitous miso soup. It was very tasty.

Heading back we predominantly were on the Honshu side, which whilst nice, was not as stunning as the inland sea side.

The final island heading to our accomodation was sea side.

Tonight we are in Mitarai, another historic village. The narrow lanes and alleys are still lined with buildings that date back to an earlier age. it is a designated Historic Preservation District of Traditional architecture and more recently a Japan heritage site.

Our accomodation is an old hospital, but from the outside we were left a bit gobsmacked! Wondering what I’d booked. Inside it’s ok. It’s a mixed accomodation hostel, but we have our own room.

Accomodation was difficult to find in the area. Food was even harder tonight! We were told of one place that would be open between 5-8 pm. We found it but it looked closed. No signs, nothing to even indicate it was a business. I noticed the door open just a tad.

An older man appeared and ushered us in. We were told ‘noodles’, so we just nodded and sat down. Noodles appeared, very spicy but figured that was all on offer in town tonight!

Wandering around town after our meal, we searched for a vending machine to grab a drink and took a few snaps along our way.

Tomorrow we head back to Okamura Island to ferry to Imabari, and possibly navigate around the first island on the Shimanami kaido. The weather forecast for tomorrow is rain. We are watching the radar and hoping the band slides a higher above Shikoku ❣️

Tomorrow was a bit of a flex day, nearest thing that resembles a so called rest day, so we possibly could minimise our weather exposure if necessary.

We will see what tomorrow brings….tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. Smile on 😊❣️