Cycling across islands while enjoying the beautiful sea and the flesh sea breeze
On your bike seat, get ready to encounter amaizing scenery you will never experience in a car seat.
We came across an old Japanese-style house that is actually a shop called Shiomachitei. Since it looks like there's cafe seating inside, We're going to check it out. Jitensha Cafe no Shiomachitei (Bicycle Cafe Shiomachitei) - a cafe housed in a building constructed at the beginning of the Meiji Era. The interior is fantastic! You can even bring your bicycles inside. Since you can also get your bike tuned up or repaired here, it's a really great place for cyclists. Even though it's just before lunch, I had some of their homemade warabi mochi, a jelly-like Japanese sweet. Kumi-chan chose the gateau au chocolat. They were both really tasty! The relaxed, comfortable space made us want to stay for a long time. But we still have a lot to do today, so off we go!
After leaving Shiomachitei we wandered around the shotengai for a little bit. At the entrance to Shiomachi Shotengai is a big lantern - it seems that this shopping street leads up to Kosan-ji Temple ahead. The buildings have a lot of character, and the street is brimming with nostalgia that calls to mind the good old shotengai of times past.
After coming out at the other side of the shotengai about 50 meters ahead, a gaily painted temple comes into view. You can get overwhelmed by the brilliant colors even from outside the gate! With its clustered temple buildings that borrow aspects from traditional architecture styles from all over Japan, Kosan-ji is nicknamed "Nikko of the West." (This is a nod to Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture, which boasts the famous Tosho-gu Shrine.) The industrialist Kozo Kosanji built the temple in dedication to his late mother. What an outrageously dutiful son he was! I thought the temple would be pretty old, but construction actually only started in 1936, so it's comparatively new.
About 5 minutes' walk from Kosan-ji is the Ikuo Hirayama Museum of Art. A distinguished painter in the Japanese Nihonga-style, Ikuo Hirayama was born right here on Ikuchijima Island. His works and documents are on display in this museum. There were also some paintings that he did as a child. I was so impressed at his skill even at a young age! I guess Ikuo Hirayama was a step above even as a child.
We were determined to have anago, or conger eel, for lunch at a shop called Kaneyoshi. Actually, we had stopped at this place once just before lunchtime, but all the seats were full, so we came back after a little while. (That's why we stopped for sweets at Shiomachitei!) The eel at Kaneyoshi is light and flaky. It's really delicious! This is also our photographer's favorite restaurant. Feeling extremely satisfied, we set out again from Kaneyoshi.
I have to admit that today, we ended up having quite the dessert tour! We heard from someone about a place called Patisserie Okumoto that is famous for its lemon cake. It's a few hundred meters from Kaneyoshi. Guess it's time for post-lunch dessert! Except… We also just ate dessert right before lunch. Nonetheless, off we go! Okumoto is a charming cake shop with a giant lemon in the entryway. We decided to get the famous lemon cake. There's seating for eat-in guests here and even free coffee! What a generous shop! I was a little shy to take the coffee at first, but one of the staff told us, "Please help yourself!" So I drank it gratefully. Since there's an outside terrace, we chose to eat out there. The cake had a pleasant lemon flavor. It was light and fluffy - so tasty!
And now on to dessert number two! This time we're having gelato at a shop called Dolce. I thought we couldn't eat any more, but while cycling here our throats got a little dry and we decided we wanted some after all. We got a double scoop with the most popular flavor, “Hakata no shio,” or Hakata salt, and the deko-mikan (also known as deko-pon) citrus flavor. The place was packed with people as it is super popular. I heard that there are tons of customers especially on weekends and holidays in the summer. To commemorate our visit, we took a picture with the factory manager.
After leaving Dolce, we rode on without too much more excitement. From here on out, there aren't really many points of interest to stop off at. We cycled around most of the other half of the island before finding ourselves back near Tatara Ohashi Bridge. Maybe it's the perfect cycling course to burn off all those calories! On the way back, we passed right under Ikuchibashi Bridge. We don't often get to see bridges from directly beneath, so we were really awed. It definitely has that wow factor!
There are tons of places to eat on Ikuchijima Island. I was really happy that the things to see and the places to eat were all gathered together in one place! Since we ate a ton, we worked hard to burn off calories during the second half of our route. Most of the points of interest are concentrated on the northern side of Ikuchijima Island. If you're planning to cycle around it, starting from either direction is good, but this time we decided that we would do the serious cycling after seeing the sights, so we took the route starting from the northern side first. The road around the island is mainly flat and easy to cycle. I recommend it since even beginners can easily make it around the whole island.
