Shimanami Kaido cycling: Ikuchi to Imabari

I cycled from Ikuchi to Imabari on the final part of my cycle ride. A beautiful ride until I had a nasty fall! At the end was a trip to a hospital in Matsuyama! This is part of my Shimanami Kaido bicycle trail trip. It’s a 70-80 km cycle path crossing six islands linking Onomichi to Imabari i. It’s very well known and is covered on a million blogs and YouTube channels! I stayed in Japan for five and a half days. Day one was exploring Onomichi, days two to four were on the trail, and the last day was spent in Matsuyama.

Click for photo page of whole 5-day trip to scroll through.

Day 4 of 5-and-a-half days in Japan

Day 4

Bagel Breakfast

I got up around 8 am and had a bagel, small carrot salad and a coffee near the harbour at a place called Lemon Tree (Lemon no ki) at the back of Nest Guesthouse (which looks like a nice place to stay). Very good.

Cyclist Sanctuary

Back on the road, past Sunset Beach then up the incline to Tatara bridge and Omishima Island. The inclines were easy to go up and had lovely views at a few observation decks. On the other side, I stopped at Cyclist Sanctuary, just milling around the rest area for a bit. There’s a bicycle drop-off point there and other cycling related stuff. I think I’ll explore this island the next time I do the ride as it seems there’s some good places to visit. For this trip though, I continued south along some nice coastline to Omishima Bridge.

Hakatajima Island and Fuu Okonomiyaki

On Hakatajima Island, I decided to ride north east to a cafe. I was going inland and through some lovely countryside. Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed on Google Maps that the cafe was closed that day…oh well!

I headed back to the main trail towards the coast and some potential lunch spots. At about 11:40 I found a teppanyaki place called Fuu. Each table had a teppanyaki grill and I ordered okonomiyaki and a beer. It was really good.

I continued on south to Hakata Beach and stopped to walk around and take some photos. A very nice beach. The Shimanami Kaido goes through Setonaikai National Park so I need to do a deep dive on that website and pick out some places to visit on my next trip.

Oshima and accident

Oshima is the final island on this route. I was beginning to feel a little sad that I wasn’t far from the end. Once on the island, I cycled south towards a cafe and passed by a place famous for having very strong currents which near two sets of castle ruins. The current was swirling quite a lot almost like a whirlpool. The photos don’t really show it. I saw a tourist boat out in the water and the pilot went straight into the rolling, spinning current at top speed and at an angle to compensate for the current and crossed to another island; I guess that’s the highlight of the boat trip, getting the passengers nervous! Looked quite cool. I got to the cafe but it was a poky little place that was part of a pirate museum, so I had one of my own snacks on a bench, then set off again.

I set off back to the main trail and went west, inland. Here the road wasn’t very scenic and mostly uphill. Once through a tunnel, I decided to visit a rose garden on the north side, but there weren’t any flowers. Then I went back south to the main road and continued west.

As I was going down a sight incline and contemplating the sheer awesomeness of this trip, I suddenly noticed a curb curving right into my path. I only had a split second and there was simply no avoiding it. I drove my front wheel into it and went flying forward over the handlebars. I landed full on my right side and head, and at the moment of impact my brain sort of glitched! I was very dazed but was able to get up and drag myself and bike back onto the sidewalk. In a confused slow, weird panic, I slowly started to assess. There was a lot of blood in my eyes streaming from my forehead, my glasses were on the road in two pieces, the front wheel of the bike wasn’t moving. I got out some basic supplies of tissues and band aids, trying not to get blood everywhere, and mopped my face. I used the camera phone to look at the damage on my face; quite a deep gash above my right eye. I spent a while trying to stem the blood and put on a few plasters (which I knew were going to do much). I put on some sunglasses so I could wedge some tissue against the cut to catch the blood. I’d only recently invested in prescription sunglasses which was lucky, as I’d have had to cycle with poor vision too!

I put the stuff away then I checked the bike, thinking I’m going to have to call someone. However, it was just the front brakes jamming the wheel and I was able to free it and saw the bike was fine. The helmet was covered in scratches and the plastic had split and dented in a few places and the foam deformed. I should thank my lucky stars that I’d been wearing it or things could have turned out a lot worse. Also fortunately, I hadn’t had my phone in my hand (it’d have smashed on the road leaving me without navigation and translation!), there hadn’t been any cars, and as far as I could tell, there were no broken bones, though my left shoulder was starting to ache a lot.

Like a wounded animal, I cycled off carefully, reached the final bridge rest area and found a restroom. In the mirror I could see in more detail and it wasn’t pretty! My metal-framed glasses had dug into my skin and left a nasty gash below a straighter gash which must have been from the road. There were a few bits of skin loose, too. Fortunately the cuts were not super deep, so I cleaned up some more and added fresh band aids and tissues. The blood was also starting to slow. I was however, still feeling quite dazed and couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of my final destinations! I had to check my phone about three times to make it stick in my head!

Anyway, I set off again, got to the final, super long, amazing bridge (took some photos still!) then eventually into town and the bicycle drop-off point. I didn’t really want to alarm anyone with my appearance and I think my hat and sunglasses hid the worst of my injuries. I got the bike checked in no problem. That was about 16:30, so I’d made good time even having lost an hour to triage!

Matsutyama, hospital, KFC, bed

I got a train from Imabari JR Station next door to Matsuyama. On the train, the conductor said it was the wrong type for this express train but it was easy enough to pay extra (like I said, dazed and confused!). I was frantically searching for ER hospitals on my phone and research was showing me it wasn’t going to be straight forward as it seems the hospitals operate emergency services on a rota basis. At the hospital nearest the train station there were security guards closing up and after they conferred and checked something they gave me directions for an open clinic with an ER section. I walked (I know, dumb!) 20 minutes and, with the help of one English speaking doctor or nurse and Google Translate, managed to get seen, cleaned up with fresh bandages for my face, left knee and elbow (road rash), a CT scan (I was very worried about my head) and some antibiotics and pain killers. In the end, I was in and out within an hour and it cost a total of 25,000 yen.

I got a train to Hotel Crown Hills Matsuyama, checked in, dumped the bag and did another self assessment. I didn’t feel like doing much obviously but needed to eat so went across the road to get some KFC and sat there for a while, eating it and feeling sorry for myself! I was wearing my broken glasses and probably looked like I’d been in a fight. I felt better afterwards though, and also a lot calmer thinking that it could have been a lot worse. I was thankful the hospital staff were so helpful and that there wasn’t any super serious damage, and feeling relieved I’d got proper data roaming for my phone and proper travel health insurance. I wondered around the department store then called Romana (voice only!) and told her what had happened (minus some worrying parts!). Then I sent a picture! I walked around an arcade nearby then decided to call it a night.

I was worried about bleeding on the sheet so slept in a provided gown and put a towel down. I watched a bit of Star Trek on Netflix then put my earplugs in and went to sleep. I haven’t posted the bloodier photos because who wants to look at blood and messed up faces! What an adventure…