Onomichi Travelogue (1) – Onomichi Shoppint Streets

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I made a two-day trip to Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture with my family members in the middle of October. Just before this excursion, hot and humid days having a temperature near to 30 degrees Celsius in daytime continued, and so I, who is weak in the heat, was anxious about whether or not I can follow other members. On the first day of the excursion, it became cool after passing through a cold front in the area even though it was raining a little on that day. On the second day, the sky cleared up while keeping the temperature comfortable, and we had wonderful hiking weather.
I’d like to introduce Onomichi to you.

Onomichi is located right in the middle between Okayama City and Hiroshima City. Use Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka Station to Fukuyama Station and then a local train to get Onomichi (which is the fourth station from Fukuyama). It took about one hour and 40 minutes including the transfer time. Onomichi was an old town, appearing in Japanese history about 1,400 years ago, and prospered as an important place of physical distribution by marine transportation, and prospered more and more after a railroad was opened to traffic as a contact point of the railroad and the marine transportation. Now, the town is quieter than it was before, but it is still vibrant even now. Onomichi has a few flat areas because the mountains and the sea are very close to each other, and there are many residences and temple and shrine structures on the mountain surfaces. Roads going down from the mountain are all narrow and sharp, and I saw many stairways on the mountain surface. It is wonderfully picturesque, but it is uncertain whether I can live there or not.

This time, I’ll introduce the Onomichi shopping streets, called “Onomichi Hondori.” As described above, Onomichi has a long history, and so old buildings, built from the Edo Era to the early stage of the Showa Era, remain in the shopping streets. The historical buildings and tasteful shopping streets are attractive. Onomichi Hondori has a length of about 1.2 kilometers, including 5 streets described below, with the roofs continuing over the whole length of Onomichi Hondori. It has about 120 shops in which there are 10 or more old shops established 100 years ago or more, and some buildings are designated as a historical cultural asset. Onomichi Hondori is a few minutes on foot from the Onomichi Station. The station is a modern building and you can see the sea from the station. I think that the back entrance of the station is the entrance of the previous station building.

Onomichi Hondori is composed of 5 streets: Fumiko Street, Naka Shopping Street, Honmachi Center Street, Enomachi Street, and Onomichi Street. The road extends in the east-west direction parallel to the coast line, and so has no slops.

We first walked on Fumiko Street. Around the entrance of the street is Fumiko Hayashi Memorial Hall, where there was the residence of Fumiko Hayashi, who is a famous female novelist, living from 1903 to 1951. The shopping street was crowded with tourists and local people. Although old shops line both sides of the street with no Starbucks nor video arcades, I felt vigor from the street. The mountains and the sea that you can see clearly looking down and beyond some side road were shrouded with mist because of the rain and, combined with wet stone pavements, produced an indescribably serene atmosphere.

Although I didn’t know where Fumiko Street changed to Naka Shopping Street, it might change around a place where lighting fixtures on the celling of the roof were changed.
We saw a newly painted white building, which is Machinaka Bunka Koryu Kan (Machinaka Culture Exchange Center) whose nickname is Bank. This facility opened in 2023 as a place where the citizens of Onomichi present their cultural activities and from where tourists visiting Onomichi get the history and the culture of Onomichi. The facility is the renovated building of the Onomichi Branch of Former Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, and is designated as an important cultural asset of Onomichi City. On the day we visited, Sanyo Genten Exhibition (exhibition of works by the general public supported by the Contemporary Artists Association) was held.
Near to the facility, there is Memorial Hall of Onomichi Board of Trade (Former Onomichi Board of Trade), in which tourists can get information of city sightseeing or take a rest. The building, having a Taisho (1912-1925) romanticism atmosphere, was built in 1923. The building is made of reinforced concrete, which was the most advanced technique at that time and incorporates a Western architecture style into its appearance. This building is the oldest among the Bord of Trade buildings made of reinforced concrete in Japan, and was designated as an important cultural asset of Onomichi City in 2004.

Retro shops also line Center Street. You’ll see a Chinese restaurant whose appearance is that of a public bath house, which was the former shop, and a sake shop trades in a traditional system, which put me into a warm and comfortable mode. Even in a case in which the appearance of an old building is utilized as it is, it is usual that the new owner changed a former shop name or sign to a new one. In Onomichi, however, as seen in the pictures of the Chinese restaurant shown below, the new shop owner uses the shop curtain of the former shop, the public bath house. I saw this case in other shops in Onomichi Hondori. I saw such a case for the first time and was slightly surprised, but it is interesting.

A cute second-hand clothes shop, run by an American, Peter, and his wife, Momoko, is on the side street of Center Street. The shop is full of clothes that are close to their hearts. When you visit Onomichi, please stop by their shop!

A mikoshi (portable shrine) was exhibited in Otabisho (a place where the mikoshi is lodged during the festival) in Center Street, because Betcha Festival, started in the Edo Era, would be held from November 1st. We took a close look at the mikoshi while listening to the explanations of local people.

The next street is named Enomachi Street. Coffee shops, vegetable shops, clothes shops, which are particularly used for local people, line the street. As described above, I didn’t see tearooms or coffee shops that expand nationwide, such as Starbucks or McDonald’s, in Onomichi or at least Onomichi Hondori. The number of coffee shops or tearooms is not small, and I saw a lot of private shops which are old or new. Almost all of the shops exert their own personality, for example, some paintings, which may be the owner’s favorites, are hung on the walls or some music is played from a record, the atmosphere of the shop being extremely varied and wide-ranging.

Finally, this is Onomichi Street. We went over here, and we didn’t see an empty street nor have a suppressed mood. Onomichi Hondori doesn’t emit a sparkling atmosphere but we can feel the gentle vigor of the local people and land.

Next time, we went to the mountains!