Visiting the Great Seto Bridge

The last man made wonder in our book was the Seto-Ohashi Bridge, or the Great Seto Bridge as the Japanese call it.

The Seto-Ohashi Bridge is a collective term for the six bridges that connect Kojima in Okayama Prefecture on Honshu and Sakaide of Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku, spanning five islands, namely Hitsuishi-jima Island, Iwaguro-jima Island, Wasa-jima Island, Yo-shima Island, and Mitsugo-jima Island in the Seto Inland Sea.

It took over 40 years to build this bridge. It's really pretty, a real architectural marvel. No wonder it made the list of man made wonders!

God bless Maki's dad who did some research and found a bus tour that leaves Okayama and visits the Seto Bridge and town of Kurashiki (more on that later). He said Okayama was on the way back to Tokyo from Hiroshima so it was going to be convenient to see the bridge! I had no idea where this bridge was nor how difficult it was going to be to see it, but Alex and I were determined to check that bridge off our list!

So on Thursday morning, we met in the lobby of the Hotel Granvia at 7am. Alex took the boys to Cafe Danmark for coffee and pastries, while Maki and I had a Japanese breakfast at the train station. We had this yummy dish that had rice, ground chicken, seaweed sprinkles and a raw egg. Delicious!

At 8:00am, we took a shinkansen to Okayama, just over an hour away. We arrived around 9:15am, with plenty of time to make a bathroom stop, pick up some food (we were always eating on this trip) and board the bus. Turns out we were the only passengers on that bus tour so we had plenty of room to spread out. It took less than an hour to reach the Seto Bridge.

The Seto Bridge is quite impressive. Each section has a different design and riding across the bridge, you see lots of little islands, which reminds you that Japan is an archipelago and bridges are really important!

Check out the little islands off the bridge!

This photo gives you a nice shot of several spans of the bride. Notice how the style of the bridge changes as you keep going.

This photo was taken while standing at the front of the bus, next to the driver.

It took more than 10 minutes to cross the bridge, after which we turned around and came back. We stopped at a local rest stop for some yummy soba noodles and tempura and then were off to Kurashiki.

Here's my udon with shrimp and sweet potato tempura lunch.