September 10, 2025

HIROSHIMA: Day Trip to Onomichi

Onomichi 尾道

Onomichi 尾道 is a quaint hilly port town with many slopes and temples, located along Seto Inland Sea in eastern Hiroshima Prefecture. This place is well known for its Temple Walk that connects 25 historic temples around the town, famous to be known as the starting point or endpoint for the Shimanami Kaido Bike Path (the cycling mecca), and also appeared as story spots in many movies and novels.

Using the JR Okayama-Hiroshima-Yamaguchi Area Pass, we boarded the bullet train from Okayama Station to Fukuyama Station (about 15minutes ride), made a transfer here on the local line that took us to Onomichi Station. The whole journey was about 40 minutes from Okayama Station to our destination Onomichi Station.

The journey is short and not too tiring for the elderly, which was why I picked up this place to explore with my family members. Moreover, Onomichi is a great place to discover. Plus point, there wasn’t too much crowd at time of my visit.

For full itinerary, check out JAPAN TRIP 2023: 10D9N in Okayama, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kashima and Yufuin

Now, let’s check out what we did in Onomichi.
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1. Enjoy the panoramic view of Onomichi Strait

Our first stop to go would be this Senkoji Park Observatory that is located at the top of Senkoji Temple. It is easily assessible by the ropeway (if you do not wish to climb up the slope). Senkoji Temple Mountain Ropeway base station is about 15 minutes’ walk from Onomichi Station. The Ropeway is about 3 minutes ride, taking you up to the summit; at the price of ¥500 one way, round trip ¥700.

We bought the one way ticket as we planned to walk down from the hilly slopes. Please be reminded to wear the most comfortable shoes you have if you are planning to come here. There is a lot of walking to do in Onomichi.

This 63-meter-long observation deck allows visitors slow down their path and enjoy the panoramic view of Onomichi Strait.

Words can’t really describe how beautiful it was, how my feeling was when I first saw the view up here. It was extremely scenic; the sunlight twinkled on the surface of the water, feeling calm and peaceful as the cold autumn breeze caressed the face.

2. Temple Walk in Onomichi

Onomichi is famous for Temple Walk; the slopes up and down here will take you to 25 temples along the way. We opt to walk down from the Senkoji Park Observatory, passed by some of the temples and the Path of Literature.

Senkoji Temple, a majestic looking temple located on the mountain, at 144 meters above the sea level.

3. Find the hidden cats at Cat’s Alley

As you walk down from Senkoji Temple (or walk up from the the town), do check out this little alley Cat’s Alley “Neko no hosomichi” 猫の細道. This alley is known to have many cats around.

That morning, I tried my luck to search for cats here but I found none. However, I got all the very cute neko decorative around, painting on the wall, the windows and on the ground. Extremely cute! If I could see cats around the corner, that would be perfect.

4. Slurp up ramen in Onomichi

Ramen broth with pork fats is the special characteristic of Onomichi Ramen. Here in Onomichi, there are ramen house every corner. We wanted to try out the famous Onomichi Ramen Ichibankan that is claimed to be the originator of Onomichi Ramen; but the queue was extremely long, too long!

We ended up at a ramen shop with the shortest queue – Onomichi Ramen Hajime but we still queued for quite a while too because this ramen shop is very small, housed only 8 to 10 seats.

Onomichi Ramen Hajime uses high quality of dried sardines from Seto Inland Sea, dried flakes from fish and kombu from Hokkaido to cook the broth. Although there are pork fats in their ramen, the soup base was lighter than I thought. Light yet umami. It was a comforting bowl of ramen that worked wonders after a “hiking” trip and cats “hunting” in the morning.

Okay, I found a neko here. LOL

尾道ラーメンイチハジメ
2 Chome-9-33 Tsuchido, Onomichi, Hiroshima 722-0035, Japan
Opens from 11am to 6pm
Closed on Mondays
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5. Eat ice cream at the jetty

This ice cream treat is a must after a bowl of ramen in Onomichi. Karasawa offers homemade ice cream with nostalgic flavours; you can opt to have it in cone or monaka wafer!

Nothing fancy but a very basic nostalgia kind of ice cream. Most flavours were sold out, but we managed to grab the vanilla and goma. At least I managed to grab the black sesame flavours because that’s what I was into at time I did my homework for the trip.

You may choose to dine in or enjoy it outdoor at the pier. The elderly chose to sit in while my cousin and I played some patterns; we chose to sit down at the bench area, overlooking the mini jetty. The sun was high at mid-day if you plan to picnic here. Sunblock application is very necessary.

Karasawa
1-15-19 Tsuchido, Onomichi City, Hiroshima
Opens from 10am to 7pm (6pm between October to March)
Closed on Tuesdays
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6. Shopping at Onomichi Hondori Shopping Street

Onomichi Hondori Shopping Street is a 1.6km long street lined with restaurants, café, souvenir shops and you may find some shops selling their artisan craft pieces such as pottery, hand woven bags.

As you stroll along the street, you will find it to be very old-fashioned, retro atmosphere at this place. Some of the shops are in retro looking too. One of the special places should be this Café Yu Yu, a café built inside an old public bath that is filled with the bathhouse charm. If I were given extra time to be here, I would definitely check out this cute place.

7. Eat Kinmando Honpo’s Lemon Cake

Kinmando Honpo offers the Japanese and Western sweets and souvenirs with star products such as Hiroshima Island Lemon Butter Cake, Setoda Lemon Cake, Senbei and Onomichi Dengaku. I was interested on their Lemon Cake so I bought 1 to try. Made of lemons from Setoda which is well known for mild acidity, they use the whole fruit which including peel and pulp into their lemon cake.