Onomichi

Onomichi (尾道; [1]) is a small port city in Hiroshima prefecture, between the cities of Hiroshima and Okayama.

Culture and History

Under the radar of most tourists, Onomichi is best known for its dozens of ancient temples, as well as the home of a number of Japan's more famous authors including Shiga Naoya and Takahashi Gen'ichirō. Better preserved than most towns of its kind, in recent times Onomichi has also been used to shoot a number of movies and TV dramas.

Travel to Onomichi - Visa Requirements

By train

Onomichi is on the San'yo Shinkansen line, which connects the town to Hiroshima and Fukuoka (Kyushu) in the west and Okayama and the Kansai region in the east.

Note that the Shinkansen's Shin-Onomichi station (新尾道駅) is about 15-20 minutes by bus from the more central Onomichi station (尾道駅), which is where the ordinary San'yo Main Line stops. Also, only the slow Kodama trains stop at Shin-Onomichi. Therefore, if you are coming in on the San'yo Shinkansen, you should transfer to the San'yo Main Line at Fukuyama station (all Kodama and Hikari Rail Star trains stop at Fukuyama, as does one Nozomi per hour). From here, Onomichi is 20 minutes away by regular train, and a handful of departures are timed to meet bullet train arrivals.

By ferry

Ferries shuttle out to various nearby islands in the Seto Inland Sea.

Buses to Onomichi

Two daytime buses run from Osaka to Onomichi (approx. 4 3/4 hours, ¥3870 one way, ¥7020 round trip).

Tours and Getting around Onomichi

Built on the side of a hill, a convenient bus shuttles up and down the town lengthside. The temples themselves

Onomichi tourist attractions and sightseeing

• Senkōji Park (千光寺公園 Senkōji-kōen) is famous for its cherry blossoms (in season) and the starting point for the Path of Literature (see next item). Outside season, you can also gaze up the Seto Inland Sea and Onomichi's massive shipyards. Located atop a small hill, the park is best reached on the Senkoji Ropeway, 15 minutes on foot (or 5 minutes by bus to Nagaeguchi) east from Onomichi station. The three-minute journey to the top will set you back ¥280/440 one-way/return.

• The Path of Literature (文学のこみち Bungaku no komichi) winds its way down from Senkoji Park back to the city, It features 24 stones, carved with memorable quotes from Japanese authors somehow linked to Onomichi; alas, they're all in Japanese, but it's a pleasant stroll through woods, temples and shrines just the same.

• Senkō-ji Temple (千光寺), halfway down the Path of Literature, is the largest temple on the hill. Its speciality is the grinning Niko Niko Jizō doll, the (quote) "always smiling protector of children" that most Buddhist sages would have a fairly hard time recognizing as the boddhisattva Ksitigarbha.

• At the bottom of the hill the path merges with the well-signposted Old Temple Loop (古寺めぐり Kodera-meguri), which connects 25 of Onomichi's better-known temples in a 2-kilometer east-west walk. Senkoji is #7, heading west will take you almost back to the train station while at the eastern end (#23) is Jōdō-ji (浄土寺), which despite the name is actually a Shingon (not Jodo) sect temple.

• Ichibangai Shotengari A classic Japanese covered shopping arcade runs from just east of the Onomichi JR station for about a kilometre parallel to the shoreline. It is theoretically pedestrianised but cyclists, scooters and cars use it as a short-cut so take care when walking there. The shops it contains are an eclectic mixture, from the ever-useful 100yen store to a shop that sells all kinds of edged instruments (scissors, saws, knives).

Onomichi city tours

Onomichi souvenirs and shopping

Onomichi Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

The local speciality is Onomichi rāmen, a variation of the ubiquitous noodle soup that would look suspiciously like the ordinary soy-flavored kind if not for the hint of fish paste in the stock and the gobs of melted lard floating on top.

Onomichi nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

Onomichi cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels and lodging

Unless you have a keen interest in Pure Land Buddhism or Japanese literature, it's probably not worth your while to spend the night. Most people opt to daytrip from Hiroshima or Okayama.

Get out

This page was last edited by Wikitravel user Texugo. Based on work by Jani Patokallio, Jose Ramos and Colin Jensen, Wikitravel user(s) Episteme and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license