Fukuyama
This writeup is from a series of writeups I did about our March 2026 trip to Japan. If you haven’t read the preceding posts, links are below:
Having wrapped up a lovely three days in Takayama, we were now travelling to Fukuyama to spend the night there ahead of our cycling trip. We would have preferred to stay in Onomichi — our starting location for the cycling portion — had there been good lodging available, but I suspect I was looking too late and all the good spots were gone. Fukuyama is less than 20 minutes from Onomichi by train, so it’s not a problem!
The day’s journey looked like this:
The first stretch is 2h34 on a regional train (depicted in orange) to connect up with the Shinkansen, and then 1h51 on the Shinkansen to get to Fukuyama. This really put the speed of bullet trains into perspective for me. I didn’t feel like we were going slow on the regional train, but then 25 minutes into the second leg we’d already travelled from Nagoya to Kyoto — which looks like the same distance as the entire first leg on this map.
I zoomed out to really understand the scale of the distance we were travelling, and it seems that in 1h51 we travelled the entire width (or height) of South Korea.
All of these thoughts were enjoyed over some ekiben, of course.
Upon arrival in Fukuyama, the first thing we saw when we exited the train station was this beautiful castle. The train tracks pass just several metres outside of the castle wall! If you’re worried about vibration, as I was, the castle was entirely rebuilt in 1966 and I do believe the Japanese know a thing or two about the ground rumbling.
We wanted to drop our bags off before exploring, so we headed to the hotel. On our way the way there, we encountered a few of these parking monstrosities. Tired-Julia took a few seconds to process how one might get their car from the top bunk.
This is basically a vending machine for cars. If you’re not familiar, Japan has hundreds of thousands of vending machines across the entire country — serving everything from drinks to ice cream, alcohol, and trinkets. It’s rare you’ll go more than a few hundred metres in an urban area without seeing one. So it seemed very fitting that they’d have a similar mechanism for cars.
Our hotel was a little disappointing — the room was the width of the bed with the bed oriented sideways, meaning one person (me) would have to climb over the other to use the restroom during the night. It’s already been made clear to me that basically all Japanese people — young and old — are more flexible and have better balance than I, but I didn’t need it to be rubbed in like this.
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After a short rest we explored the castle grounds, which honestly didn’t have much to offer, and then entered the castle.
Every floor was a museum, offering historical artifacts, stories, videos, and even interactive horse-riding and gun-shooting exhibits.
The view from the top was spectacular and I stood up there enjoying feeling the wind in my hair while Paul wrapped up his thorough walk through the exhibits.
While it’s not a city I would have visited as more than a stop-over, I was happy to have seen a ‘regular’, non-touristy Japanese city.
Our next mission was to find an early dinner, for we wanted an early night. One ramen restaurant popped up with good reviews, and we made our way there for it’s opening.
Once again (I’m starting to see the trend!) we were met with an automatic ramen ordering machine. Being experienced Google-translate-users and button-pushers, we ordered a chicken karaage appetizer, two different kinds of ramens, and ginger ale — something I was surprised to discover restaurants across Japan consistently stocked.
On a busy day, after placing your order you would sit down on one of these chairs to wait for a seat to open up. Since we were practically the only ones there, we sat down at the counter.
The food was delicious, and despite ordering far too much we managed to find space in our bellies. It was a chilly night and the warm broth and overall heartiness of the meal was really enjoyable!
After dinner, Paul took a few night-time photos of the castle and headed to bed. I wandered around the city for a short while.
As I was walking through a park, I recognized that I was thirsty. I spun my head around looking for a vending machine and had this micro-dread feeling when I didn’t see one. Just 30 seconds of walking later, one popped into view, but this is when I realised that I’ve gotten quite used to certain Japanese conveniences and I might be a little grumpy upon my return to America.
After an hour of wandering, I felt ready to dip into a bath. Our hotel shared a public bath with the next hotel over, so I grabbed a towel and headed up to the female side. There were two women leaving as I entered the changeroom, so I had the entire space to myself.
After thoroughly showering off, as is expected of everyone, I soaked in one of the round tubs for a total of five minutes before realising I had no idea what to do next — there was no cold air to pop-out into or snow to roll-in. As a Canadian, the entire appeal of a hot tub is that it’s a warm contrast the cold outdoors. This room was steaming hot from the constantly running water. Perplexed, I showered off, dressed myself, and called it a night.
The next morning we were to pack our bags, catch the train, and be at the bike rental store when they opened to try to snag the nicest bikes they have available. Excited to share that story with you next!
