A few weekends ago, two of the girls I work with and I decided to bike across the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge.

The Kurushima bridge is the world’s longest suspension bridge structure that spans a series of islands, and joins Shikoku Island (where I live) to Honshu Island, where one finds Hiroshima.

The bridge was completed in 1999, and is 4, 015 m in length.

The day could not be more perfect. The clear blue sky gave us a great visibility of all the surrounding islands, and while it was hot it was not as humid as it had been a few days before. We rode from Imabari which is the city on the border of Shikoku Island to Oshima Island. Then we went down to Oshima and had a well deserved ice cream, walked a bit around the marina and made our way back.

The bikes we rented were so nice too.They were pretty sleek, and most importantly they were speed bikes! Our bikes in Saijo and Niihama do not have speeds, and they are also not the most ergonomically correct bikes, so your behind feels every bump while riding on the sidewalk.

Going up to the bridge was hard work! I tried to act cool and composed, but to be quite honest I was feeling pretty out of breath, which is scary because that means that I’m pretty out of shape! So I have decided to go back until I can go up to the bridge without puffing my way up the path.

Crossing the bridge was on my to do list while living in Japan, so I was psyched that I got to do it in such a perfect day with great companions. The view is also quite spectacular so I thought I’d share some of the pictures with you.

Keeping you posted!