A road where you can become one with the wind

The Shimanami Sea Route is a long road that runs for approximately 70 km and joins Imabari City in Ehime Prefecture with Onomichi City in Hiroshima Prefecture. It is possible to run or cycle along the road while enjoying the vista of the Seto Inland Sea’s islands, such as Oshima and Naoshima.
Imabari is Japan’s largest towel production area and is home to Imabari Castle. Around the outer perimeter of the castle there is a walking trail of about 1 km that is maintained as a park, where it is possible to enjoy jogging freely. The moat is filled with seawater, which means you can run along comfortably accompanied by the scent of the tide. Nearby to Imabari Castle is Chikami-yama, and if you jog up to its 250-m high summit as if you were taking a hike, the 360-degree panoramic view spreads out before you from the top, allowing you to look across the sweep of the Shimanami Sea Route.
The supreme spot is a dedicated biking and pedestrian lane that lets you traverse the strait of the Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge, a bridge with a rare design consisting of three consecutive suspension bridges. It allows you to become one with the wind while looking down on the islands directly below, which rise from the Seto Inland Sea. There is also a cycling road in place, and with a height of 65 m from the sea’s surface to the bridge’s girders the road genuinely makes you feel like you are running over the ocean.