It had been just over half a year since I moved to Onomichi, but I hadn't yet had the chance to visit the lovely neighboring city of Mihara.

Recently, A campaign by payment services is running in Mihara, so I try taking advantage of the opportunity to visit the city.

Mihara City is only 13 km(≒8 miles) from the center of Onomichi City. Along the way, you can see the beautiful view of the Seto Inland Sea. So I chose going by bike.

It’s expected. The the view was absolutely beautiful.

Lunch

When I got to the city, the clock hands had already passed 12. I did a quick search for restaurants in the area.... I chose a ramen shop, and started to ride my bicycle.

The ramen restaurant had a Japanese miso theme, and I really enjoyed the full-bodied ramen soup. The ramen I had was made with miso from Kyushu, so it had nothing to do with Hiroshima Mihara, but it was delicious, so I was satisfied.

If you want to try one of Mihara's specialties, I suggest you try dishes with octopus. Mihara is famous for octopus. Takoyaki ,Tempura , Sashimi and so on!!

After that, I went shopping. But I'm not going to go into the purchases I made here because they're not that interesting.

The ruins of the castle

Next, we went to the ruins of the castle. This castle is interesting because of the strange way it is entered. Where do you think it can be come in from?

The station!!

And from Mihara Station, a big station where the Shinkansen bullet train also stops.

Ａ sightseeing spot that is only a 0-minute walk from the station! Interesting!!

From there, the view of the city of Mihara can be seen, making it a scenic spot.

I was admiring the view and found something of interest from it.

Lots of red torii gates.

The torii is the boundary and gate that separates the world of the deity and the world of human beings. Especially, many torii gates are generally called Senbon-torii(thousand torii).

The Senbon-torii were built because it was said that dedicating a torii to shrine would bring blessings from the deity in that shrine and make wishes come true, and so many people dedicated them, I heard.

In other words, a shrine with a senbon-torii can be said to be a place where faith is deeply rooted in the area, I think.

In case you are wondering, the Senbon-torii here is called Renritsu-torii.

Ohshima Shrine (Ohshima jinja)

I chose to go there because I wanted to experience the local culture and because it would look good in photographs.

After passing through the Renritsu-torii, there was a nice view. With a view even better than the castle, it's no wonder it's the center of the community.

This shrine seems to have been built as shrine with the guardian(Chinju-sha) of Mihara Castle, and it is likely that the samurai who ruled the area also worshipped at the shrine.

By the way, the guardian enshrined in the shrine is Ukanomitama, Ohtoshi-no-kami and Toyouke-hime. These deities are associated with food and agriculture and are the deities of rice.

It's also not that common for Japanese people to think about these things, but it could be a lovely idea to visit a shrine that has a deity associated with you.

If you do so, be sure to observe the manners for visiting the shrine. There is not much to do, however. First, purify your hands at Chozu-sha. Then, put in an offering money, bow and clap your hands. Bowing and clapping are often two rounds of bowing followed by two rounds of clapping and then another round of a bowing.

Still, It was a wonderful spot with a sense of history and a great view.

If you ever go to Mihara, go there.

The way home

Afterwards, we went to a roadside station, bought some vegetables and headed home.

By then the sun was setting and I rode my bicycle against the setting sun reflected in the Seto Inland Sea.