Onomichi

We may have had a beautiful view across the Onomichi channel but the rising sun shone directly in our window, so despite the closed curtains we were awake by 7am. Even with a leisurely start, we were too early to visit our barista so decided to explore some of the old temples of Onomichi. The port town is built on the steep hillside of Mt Senkoji  and the Temple Walk led us through a maze of narrow laneways and steep stairways, passing houses and many closed cafes. 

After visiting a few small temples, we passed a three-tiered pagoda and climbed the many steps to the most famous temple, Senko-ji, painted bright red and nestled in amongst massive rocks. It may have been more clearly visible via the cable car (or ropeway) which passed directly overhead.  There were masses of Japanese visitors coming down from the ropeway and the temple area was very crowded.  We didn’t linger and followed the signs to the  “literature path” which was a trail meandering past large boulders inscribed with poems.

The path led us up to the Senkoji Observation Platform which offered views across the town and the islands of the Shimanami Kaido. We were sure we could spot Setoda Sunset Beach, where we had stopped for our morning coffee yesterday. We could also see the coastline we would follow tomorrow as we head east to Takehara.  We offered to take a photo of a group of Japanese and they kindly took one of us in return. 

It was definitely time for a coffee and we headed downhill, following a couple walking their ferret.  Cat Alley proved an interesting detour, with its painted cat rocks and other cat paraphernalia.  The coffee was as good as we hoped, it had been so long since we had enjoyed a cappuccino.  We also purchased some ground coffee to take with us to use in our aero press. 

In search of Onomichi Ramen for lunch we made our way through the covered shopping arcade which was 1.2 kilometres long. There were a few interesting shops though many were closed.  Simon was particularly interested in the knife shop and decided a Japanese knife would make a good souvenir

We found a little ramen restaurant which looked full and we purchased our tickets from the vending machine. We waited for a large family group to leave and the chef cleaned the tables before ushering us in.  The ramen was made from chicken stock finished with small fish to sweeten it and included barbecued pork, bamboo shoots and green onions.  It was a really tasty combination and rated number two behind our soba noodle ramen en route to Matsuyama. 

We returned to the knife shop where Simon pondered the various options before selecting a chef’s knife made with Damascus stainless steel.  We celebrated with a wafer icecream sandwich from Karasawa, a famous Omonich ice cream shop before returning to our room for a cup of tea.

In the interest of trying local beer, we headed out to Beer Bar a Clue, which indicated it had Onomichi beer on tap.  A couple of westerners were leaving as we arrived, then we were the only customers.  There were three beers on tap, I chose the Yuzu beer from Umenishiki brewery whilst Simon had a pale ale Wiezen wheat beer from Matsue described as “banana fruity full body German wheat beer” and had won a world beer award as Japan champion.   We chatted to the barman for a while about the beers and our travels.  My second beer was a Suzuki Pilsner from Omonichi - just so that I could say I tried a local beer, but it wasn’t as good as the Yuzu beer.  Simon’s second beer was an IPA style beer on tap which he declared was good, but preferred the Matsue banana beer.

We had noticed a lot of Italian restaurants in Omonichi and had passed a wood fired pizza restaurant on our morning wanderings. As pizza goes well with beer so we stopped for a dinner of seafood pizza and pasta with meat and eggplant (baked in the wood fired oven).  It was a nice meal - and as we walked back to the hotel, we didn’t pass another open restaurant, so it was a good choice.

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