Bike rides and back pain

Today is our last full day in Onomichi, and we packed it with some pretty ambitious plans: breakfast, a bike ride, a tram ride up to do some sightseeing, finding souvenirs, dinner and also packing up so that we can head out tomorrow.

As always, we started the day with coffee. Meghal found a spot called Liminal Coffee, it’s inside the lobby of a charming hotel near where we’re staying. I got a pour-over, and Meghal tried their special black sugar latte. Both were delicious!

We met the owners, Leslie and Masaki, and found out that Leslie used to live in New York for a while. We ended up chatting about specialty coffee — turns out, they roast their own beans! I mentioned that I’ve been meaning to take roasting classes and get my SCA certification back in the city. We exchanged LINE contacts to keep in touch and geek out more about coffee while we travel.

For lunch, we stopped by 岡村春子商店-魚春 (Uoharu Haruko). I got a sashimi set, and Meghal ordered the local fish set — it was so fresh and yummy. I think the fish was whatever seasonal catch was available in Onomichi, but I can’t remember exactly what it was.

Onomichi is known for its pudding, so we headed to Oyatsu-to-Yamaneko and grabbed some to-go. We took it with us as we strolled along the boardwalk on our way to the bike rental shop.

We rented three e-bikes for one of the scenic Onomichi bike routes. The weather couldn’t have been better — sunny, mild, and not too windy. Riding along the water with the breeze in our faces felt peaceful.

While biking, we spotted a huge bird soaring overhead — we later learned it was a Black Kite.

After about an hour, we decided to head back. We were getting hungry again, and we still wanted to take the cable car up for some sightseeing. Plus, Meg and Angela were starting to feel the pain of biking — their butts were not having it.

Back in town, we stopped by a shop for snacks, which also turned out to be a cute little gift store. We picked up some omiyage for friends we’re meeting back in Tokyo.

At around 4:50 PM, Meghal noticed that the last cable car was at 5:15 — good thing she checked, because we had no idea!

We made it just in time to catch the last one and got to watch the sunset from the observatory.

Angela accidentally took a selfie in panorama mode, which turned out… interesting.

Meghal found a path down the hill so we could grab some ramen before calling it a night. The path she found was very sketchy — narrow, no railings, and honestly felt more like an accidental hiking trail than a real route. It was a little scary but we luckily we weren’t injured.

Eventually, we made it to Betcha Ramen, where we had traditional Onomichi-style ramen. It was delicious — though Angela started getting a little antsy because the shop had its theme song on a constant loop.

We stopped by a 7-Eleven to grab some cash and fiber drinks (because… we need them), and then headed back to our stay. We put on a movie called Carry On while we packed — mostly as background noise, but it turned out to be kind of a weird one. Some of the dialogue was just… odd.

Cheers!