Japan
Onomichi
A hillside temple walk above a strait where cats watch you from every stone step.
The cats own the hillside. Narrow lanes twist upward between twenty-five temples on the slopes above Onomichi, and at every turn a cat sits on a wall or a doorstep or a gravestone, watching you negotiate stone steps that predate the modern town. Onomichi is an Inland Sea port where the vertical distance between harbour and hilltop holds more character per metre than most cities manage across their whole sprawl.
Onomichi's Temple Walk links twenty-five Buddhist temples by stone stairs and lanes cut through the residential slopes, climbing to Senkōji, said to date from the early ninth century, and its park above the port; a ropeway does the climb for those who prefer it. The steep ground discouraged modern building, which is why old wooden houses survive, and filmmakers have used the town for decades — Ozu's Tokyo Story among them. The lanes are famous for their cats, and photographers hunt the classic shot of one in an alley with a temple behind. Onomichi is also the mainland end of the Shimanami Kaidō cycle route, and its climate grows the lemons that flavour half the town's menus.
Solo
The temple walk is best done alone, at whatever pace the cats and the stone steps dictate. Onomichi does not reward hurrying.
Couple
Hilltop temple views of the Inland Sea, ramen at a harbour counter, and lanes too narrow for anyone but pedestrians.
- A hillside temple walk links twenty-five temples by narrow lanes, stone steps and cat-filled alleys.
- Old wooden houses on the slopes survive because the hill was too steep to redevelop, and newcomers are turning them into cafés and guesthouses.
- Onomichi ramen — a soy broth with a slick of pork back-fat — is served at counters across the town.
- The view from Senkōji spans the Shimanami bridge chain disappearing island by island into the Inland Sea.
Onomichi ramen — pork back-fat floating in a soy broth — the cyclist's essential refuel at the harbour.
Setoda lemons from the islands opposite, in lemon cake, lemon soda and salt-pickled peel at every second shop.
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