Onomichi – Senkoji Ropeway and Senkoji Park｜A Side Trip from Hiroshima

Hello. Today I’m sharing my visit to Onomichi, a small town near Hiroshima, Japan, famous as one of Japan’s charming small towns, where I rode the ropeway and looked around Senkoji Park and the other main sights.

Destination	Onomichi
Location	Eastern Hiroshima Prefecture, on the Seto Inland Sea
Distance & Route	About 35 km from Hiroshima Airport by rental car, about 40 min to 1 hour
Time Needed	Half a day

Onomichi is a small city on the coast of the Seto Inland Sea in eastern Hiroshima Prefecture, on Japan’s main island of Honshu. The Seto Inland Sea is the sea that spreads out between Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, and Onomichi sits on the Honshu side of its coast.

In Korea, Onomichi is generally known as a town with that distinctly Japanese, so-called “small-town vibe.” Retro alleyways, scenery where the sea and temples blend together, a quiet and peaceful harbor, and so on… Honestly, Japan is full of small towns, but Onomichi has quite a reputation for having an especially strong dose of that vibe… so why is that?

Here’s roughly what I found when I looked into Onomichi’s history myself. From 1169, Onomichi was designated as the port for shipping out rice from the local estate (shōen), and from then on it gradually grew into a maritime trading hub. (Apparently the townscape full of Japanese charm that we usually expect when we visit Onomichi started developing from this period.) If you look at the terrain on Google Maps, Onomichi faces an island (Mukaishima) barely 200 m or so to the south, and this gap could be used as a kind of waterway. The town used this to build a harbor where ships could anchor, and gradually grew from there.

However, Onomichi, which had thrived as a shipping hub up through the Edo period, saw a dramatic change in fortune after modernization. First, in the 20th century, during the Meiji era, railways began to be introduced into Japan’s inland logistics system, and the sailing-ship relay trade that had been Onomichi’s bread and butter gradually declined. And if they tried to strengthen the port instead, the narrow waterway that had made anchoring easy back in medieval times couldn’t handle the much bigger ships of the industrial age… In the end, Onomichi’s role as a trading town slowly faded away. (Shipping itself is still a major industry in the Hiroshima Prefecture area. It just isn’t done in Onomichi.)

In the modern era, the town was lucky enough to escape the destruction of World War II and stay intact, which was great, but because of Onomichi’s terrain, large-scale redevelopment wasn’t really possible either. As you can tell just by looking at a map, Onomichi has a ton of hills and only a tiny bit of flat land… So until the late 2000s, Onomichi apparently kept its scenery while empty houses just kept increasing. But the town turned this around: from 2007 it started urban regeneration, including projects to restore vacant houses, and combined with the well-preserved scenery, this apparently had a dramatic effect. And so Onomichi has grown into a kind of historic tourist town that makes use of its unique scenery and natural surroundings, and that’s why it’s getting so much buzz these days, now that “small-town Japan” has become a selling point.

In Korea, it’s one of the small towns near Hiroshima that usually get mentioned together with Tomonoura (鞆の浦) and Takehara (竹原市) as part of a Hiroshima itinerary, and I think it’s the one that gets the most buzz of the three. In fact, as of October 2026, Korean-language Google search results show 492,000 results for Onomichi, which is incomparable to Tomonoura’s 3,770 and Takehara’s 437.

So is it worth going? The scenery is more cute, compact and tidy than grand, so opinions may be split, but it at least guarantees that small-town vibe, so if that’s your taste, it’s definitely worth a visit. The alleys, the skyline and everything else are clearly retro and neat, and you strongly feel that distinctly Japanese, miniature-like charm. No wonder people in Japan reportedly call it a “hakoniwa (箱庭, miniature garden)–style town.”

To be blunt, Matsuyama and Takamatsu, which are famous in Korea as small Japanese towns, are attractive mainly because there are direct flights, and if you ask whether they’re attractive as tourist destinations, it makes me tilt my head a bit. Having been to Onomichi this time, I’m sure that when it comes to small-town appeal, Onomichi wins on “vibe points”(?) by being compact and pretty. And if you pair it with Hiroshima, you won’t be short of facilities either…

On top of that, there’s one point where it’s clearly better than other small towns: there are hardly any Koreans. The small-town Japan vibe is a delicate thing, and the feeling of being abroad shouldn’t be broken. Matsuyama and Takamatsu are places that only Koreans, who have 2-hour direct flights, go to all the time, while other foreign tourists are too busy with Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto to have any reason to go. So when you visit those two cities, you hear Korean more often than you’d think, and people who care about this may find it bothersome. But Onomichi? For one thing, I didn’t hear Korean even once while I was walking around. In Korea, Hiroshima itself isn’t that popular as a destination overall, and on top of that Onomichi is far from the city center, so few Koreans make it out here. If anything, since Hiroshima is well known in the West, I heard quite a bit of English.

And if you happen to like cycling trips, there’s one more thing worth noting. Onomichi is the starting point of the road ‘Shimanami Kaido (しまなみ海道)‘, which is famous as a cycling route and connects to the island of Shikoku. It’s said to be beautiful enough to have been picked by CNN as one of the world’s 7 best cycling routes, and although I don’t know when it’ll happen, I secretly have a plan to travel it by bike myself. Of course, that’ll be a story for the distant future, after I’ve more or less finished Korea’s cross-country cycling routes.

It’s surrounded by mountains and sea, and it sits at a fairly southern latitude, so the climate is generally mild and humid. The climate classification is Cfa (humid subtropical), and the average temperature in January is 5.7°C, so even in winter it should feel cool but quite comfortable. In my case I traveled in early October, and even though it rained, the average was 18°C–19°C according to my weather app, and I was totally fine walking around in short sleeves, even at night. Even if you get cold easily, one light jacket should be plenty.

If your Hiroshima itinerary includes side trips, I’d strongly recommend considering getting around by rental car. Hiroshima Prefecture has good rail lines and there are passes too, so the train is an option, but the main destinations are all places where you have to walk—islands, the city, parks, temples—so your legs will hurt from all the walking. Even with a rental car, my legs were killing me from day two. Also, apart from Miyajima, the candidate side-trip destinations are all scattered away from the city, so a rental car has the advantage of making your route planning much more flexible.

There are several ways to book a rental car. Searching “Hiroshima rent a car” on Google brings up lots of companies, but if you have conditions for the car type or pick-up location, comparing them one by one can be a hassle. On Trip.com you can compare car types and rental conditions from multiple companies at once, so take a look.

Onomichi is even closer to Hiroshima Airport than Hiroshima City is, so if you’re planning a rental car route, it’s worth considering visiting Onomichi first. Especially if you’re planning to go as far as Okunoshima (Rabbit Island), it’s best to plan the two together—they’re pretty close to each other. If you check the route on Google Maps, you’ll see that Onomichi is about 35 km from Hiroshima Airport, while Hiroshima City is about 55 km. Hiroshima Airport that isn’t in Hiroshima (sigh)… Plus, as I’ll explain in my Hiroshima post, Hiroshima city center has its own character but there isn’t that much to see, so there’s no reason to rush there.

Anyway, in our case, our flight was scheduled to arrive at around 9 a.m. So to make good use of the morning, we decided to go to Onomichi first rather than Hiroshima city center. On Google Maps, if you choose “avoid tolls,” it guides you via Mihara City, and there’s a coastal road along the way that was nice for a drive.

If you’d like to come to Onomichi from Hiroshima city center by public transportation, you can take the JR Sanyo Line from Hiroshima Station to Itozaki Station (transfer) and on to Onomichi Station, or take the Flower Liner bus departing from Hiroshima Bus Center. The train requires a transfer but has the advantage that you can use the Gururin Pass, one of Hiroshima’s main passes, while the bus can’t be used with the pass but gets you there in one go, so choose whichever suits you. With the train you can also include the shinkansen partway, which is a bit faster, but usually people who take the train are using the Gururin Pass anyway, and it’s close enough without the shinkansen, so it seems most people don’t go that far.

The first place to stop in Onomichi is Mt. Senkoji (千光寺山). It’s essentially Onomichi’s signature landmark mountain, with Senkoji Park, the temple, an observation deck, the city art museum and other spots where you can take in all of Onomichi, and on the way there’s also a famous alley commonly called ‘Cat Alley (猫の細道, Neko no Hosomichi)’, so it’s easy to see them all together.

Mt. Senkoji has a ropeway, so you can get up and down easily. There are round-trip and one-way tickets, and personally I recommend taking it one way to the top, then stopping by Senkoji Temple and Cat Alley on the way down. You can book the ropeway in advance on Klook, so if you’re not using a pass, I recommend going that route. I bought my ticket on site, and it felt like there’s more demand from tour groups than you’d expect, so it can get crowded, and there seem to be only two ropeway cars. If you want to waste as little time as possible, booking in advance is much better.

For the ropeway, you buy your ticket at the desk, take the elevator up to the platform and board the ropeway. I went the wrong way and just lined up for the elevator, but it turned out the ticket counter was separately located at the back…

Once you get off at the top, the whole area is Senkoji Park. It’s nice to stroll around leisurely while taking in the view of all of Onomichi. Very unluckily, it just had to rain at that exact time, so I couldn’t really enjoy it (sigh)

Once you’ve enjoyed the view of Onomichi from the observation deck for a while, follow the course down to Senkoji Temple and Cat Alley. This temple is practically the symbol of Onomichi: of the two photos you usually see when you search for Onomichi, one is the ropeway and the other is the view over all of Onomichi from Senkoji. It’s an old temple with about 1,200 years of history, and its key feature is that it’s built as if jutting out of the cliff, blending beautifully with the whole Onomichi landscape.

Coming down from the temple, the next thing you reach is Cat Alley. It was created as a kind of urban regeneration project: in 1998, the artist Haruji Sonoyama (園山春二) began placing his “fuku-ishi neko” (lucky stone cats) in this declining narrow alley, and it apparently started developing into an alley themed around art and cats. Like in Korea, you can feel how big a role artists play in urban regeneration. Because of that, though, Korea has had the side effect of more forced policies in the name of urban regeneration, where the government just throws artists into run-down areas(?) and expects regeneration to happen on its own… Seeing Japan’s example too, I feel that urban regeneration only really works when residents and artists themselves recognize the problem and take action.

Hmm… honestly, Cat Alley was a bit different from the feeling I wanted, so I didn’t take many photos. The rain may have had something to do with it, but overall it honestly has a somewhat gloomy feel. There are cat murals painted all over, and seeing them at night would probably scare the life out of you…

They say there are real cats in the alley too, but when I went, maybe because of the rain, there were no cats in Cat Alley, though I saw three of them gathered together on the way down into town. If you’re lucky, you might see more cats.

Once you’ve looked around the Mt. Senkoji area, it’s time to come down into town. Onomichi’s shopping street is called the Hondori Shopping Street, a typical Japanese covered arcade. It’s a short street of about 1.2 km, so you can take your time browsing as you like.

In my case, I took a wrong turn with the navigation while driving the rental car in the morning and got lost, which delayed us a bit, so I didn’t have time to go down to the shopping street and decided to just eat ramen and head to Okunoshima. Honestly, covered shopping arcades really are everywhere in Japan, and by their nature they don’t look very different from region to region, so I didn’t feel much need to go anyway… Still, if you’re thinking “I’m here anyway, so I’m going to recharge my Japan vibe to the max,” it’s probably worth a visit.

I plan to write a separate post reviewing Onomichi ramen later.

In the morning I spent about half a day looking around Onomichi, and in the afternoon I visited Okunoshima and then went to the hotel I’d booked. I had originally planned to visit Okunoshima first, but because of the rain, I pushed back the part of the trip that required a boat. Luckily the weather cleared up in the afternoon, and I made it to Okunoshima without any trouble. I plan to write about that trip separately later.

From what I could tell, hotel prices in Onomichi are generally similar to Hiroshima or a bit cheaper. However, since I traveled with a friend, we had the added conditions of rental car parking + two beds, so in the end we had to book a hotel at around a little over ₩100,000, similar to Hiroshima.

Overall it’s a clean Japanese-style business hotel. Some cheap business hotels say parking is available but actually have very few spaces, but I had no such trouble at Onomichi Kokusai Hotel when I stayed. There’s also a Lawson convenience store in front, which is handy when you need to pick something up… However, it’s a bit far from the shopping street, so if you plan to wander around town late at night, I’d recommend comparing other places to stay too.

Location	Time	Google Maps
Parking lot	11:00	https://maps.app.goo.gl/UrTAoPeataCgZGzT9
Ropeway – depart from Sanroku (base) Station	11:10	https://maps.app.goo.gl/SsmBVc65qKqb4jm59
Ropeway – arrive at the top station	11:30	https://maps.app.goo.gl/6snT7zbC8diHxzHUA
Senkoji Park (look around)	11:30-12:00	https://maps.app.goo.gl/LfFFpBHctXstET3S8
Path of Literature – Senkoji Temple	12:00-12:30	https://maps.app.goo.gl/YmYegnovDERMAjUJ8
Senkoji Temple – Cat Alley – Ichibankan Main Store	12:30-13:00	Cat Alley:https://maps.app.goo.gl/vKwkpELtzSGa66Fr9 Ichibankan:https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ky2XdB2fy7Zb8e8PA

Onomichi is a place full of unique charm where a distinctly Japanese atmosphere is alive and well. If you’re traveling to Hiroshima, I recommend stopping by at least once. I do regret not being able to fully enjoy its charm because of the rain, but to put it the other way around, I could still feel that atmosphere even in the rain, so when it comes to small-town vibes, I’d say it’s pretty much number one. If you want pretty, cute little streets, be sure to come at least once.

How much time do you need in Onomichi?

If you just do a quick loop of the main sights—the ropeway and Senkoji Temple—you can easily see them within half a day (2–3 hours). In my case, I left the airport at 9 and arrived around 10, came back down around 1, had a meal and was able to head to Okunoshima. If you want to also visit a museum or the Hondori Shopping Street, you could add about an hour each, but since the sights are generally connected along a course, I don’t think it’ll take that much time. Of course, if you’re the type who likes to soak in the scenery and atmosphere, it’s fine to spend more time.

How long does it take from Hiroshima?

Onomichi is in the same prefecture, but it’s almost at the eastern edge, so it takes a bit longer than you’d think. From the airport it’s much closer: by rental car it’s 35 km from the airport, about 40 minutes, an hour at most. But from the city center it takes about 1 hour 30 minutes, and you should allow a generous 2 hours. Also, note that if you’re driving a rental car from Hiroshima city center during the morning commute, the main roads are likely to be congested. I left the city at around 6 a.m. to return the rental car at the airport, and the traffic was pretty heavy. It can take an extra 20–30 minutes.

Can you get there by public transportation?

If you’d like to come to Onomichi from Hiroshima city center by public transportation, you can take the JR Sanyo Line from Hiroshima Station to Itozaki Station (transfer) and on to Onomichi Station, or take the Flower Liner bus departing from Hiroshima Bus Center. If you’re coming from Hiroshima Airport, take the bus bound for Mihara Station from bus stop No. 3, then come to Onomichi from Mihara Station.