When e-bike tech saved our fragile legs, we plunged headfirst into the mountain-and-sea mist of Shikoku under a torrential downpour. From the modern industrial miracle of the Ohashi Bridge to the historical white noise beneath a two-thousand-year-old tree, we oscillated between the pursuit of speed and the search for the divine. This episode, we battled the Pacific’s crosswinds on two wheels, completing a spiritual baptism amidst the rain, closed doors, and the smoke-and-fire of hot springs. Finally, at an ancient temple in Kochi and a local restaurant, we found the ultimate redemption for body and soul.

Onomichi ➔ Shimanami Kaido ➔ Imabari ➔ Matsuyama ➔ Kochi ➔ Yamanashi: A hardcore island-hopping trek defined by pouring rain and spiritual transcendence.

• Tech Crutches and Modern Nihilism: The sunk cost of watching the rain from a capsule hotel before departing Onomichi. We spent an extra 1,000 yen to upgrade to an e-bike, only to regain the dignity of our legs on the steep slopes of the strait causeway, powered by the battery.
• Divine Closed Doors and Millennium Trees: We deviated 10 kilometers to visit the Ooyama Jinja Shrine deep in history. Soaked through by the downpour beneath a 2,000-year-old camphor tree, we watched ancient cold-weapon armor left for long military luck, swallowing convenience store carbs with the rain. That moment of silence was more reassuring than any other.
• Spiritual Baptism in Ancient Hot Springs: Arriving at the Dogo Onsen Main Building, with a history of 3,000 years. We washed away our disheveled state in the Divine Bath, where Prince Shotoku and Natsume Soseki once soaked.
• Redemption by Tosa Bonito: Amidst the bumpy ride through the Shikoku Mountains, we plunged into a local market in Kochi. A plate of thick-cut grilled bonito, with the charred aroma of straw, garlic slices, and salt, was a delicacy that forcibly reassembled our bodies back into the real world.
• Waterloo at the Ancient Temple and Hermitage Fantasies: We washed our souls at the millennium-old temple in Chikurin-ji, only to take a hard fall on the moss-covered stone steps. Sitting at a deserted station with no streetlights, watching the warm light of a Lawson convenience store in the wilderness, we suddenly saw the internal conflict of modern people: wanting to escape society yet unable to leave modern convenience.

The real world has no optimal solution. Occasional derailments are just random patches to life.

Background music from YouTube Audio Library.