Onomichi Hondori Shopping Street

About 230 m, or a 4-minute walk, from JR Onomichi Station, you reach the west entrance with its "Onomichi Hondori" sign.

Onomichi Hondori Shopping Street is made up of five connected shopping streets, Fumiko-dori, Tsuchido Naka, Honmachi Center-gai, E-no-machi-dori and Onomichi-dori, and at about 1.2 km in total it is one of the longest in Japan. Around 210 shops line it, and more than 10 shops founded over 100 years ago remain. Historic buildings also survive along the street, which has grown up alongside Onomichi's history as a thriving port town.

Restaurants, bakeries, cafes, souvenir shops, local stores and dried-goods shops mix together, and events and festivals are held through the seasons.

Among its roughly 210 shops, the street still has historic buildings in use that tell of its past prosperity.

Onomichi Chamber of Commerce Memorial Hall (City Important Cultural Property)

In 1892, Onomichi became the 30th city in Japan to set up a chamber of commerce. The current building, built in 1923, has been restored and is designated an Important Cultural Property of Onomichi City. The first floor has exhibits and tourist information, and the second and third floors form an open atrium with a tiered assembly hall that was unusual for its time.

Entry is free; there is a fee to use the second-floor hall.

Yamatoyu (YAMATOU): a former bathhouse turned Chinese restaurant

This restaurant uses a building that was once a public bathhouse. It keeps the "Yamatoyu" sign and bathhouse facade, making it one of the most eye-catching photo spots in the arcade. Today it is a Chinese restaurant serving freshly steamed xiaolongbao, with the wrappers rolled and filled after you order.

Several lanes branch north and south from the arcade, each with its own character. At the end of the lanes to the north you can glimpse Senkoji, and stone steps lead up to Senkoji, Jodoji and other hillside temples. Lanes to the south come out on the waterfront road along the Onomichi Channel, with the ferry piers within walking distance. Even the narrow lanes, 2–3 m wide, are lined with distinctive buildings and shops. Rather than only walking the length of the arcade, turning into a lane that catches your eye is one of the pleasures of the street.

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The lanes and historic buildings of Onomichi Hondori are a fun area to walk with a camera. The Sony α7C II has a full-frame sensor yet is compact, and it renders well even in the dim arcade.

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The Onomichi Betcha Festival is an unusual festival designated a folk cultural property of Onomichi City, held every November 1, 2 and 3. Parishioners wearing the masks of "Beta," "Shoki" and "Soba," along with lion dancers, parade through the town center, including the shopping street, with a portable shrine.

The festival is known for its demon figures chasing children, tapping their heads with a sasara (bamboo whisk) and poking them with an iwai-bo (celebration stick). Being tapped with the sasara is said to make you smarter, and being poked with the iwai-bo to bring children and a year of good health. Large crowds come every year, and the area around the shopping street is lively during the festival.

This chuka soba shop is about 15 minutes on foot east of the shopping street (about 5 minutes by bike) and 5 minutes on foot from the lower station of the Mt. Senkoji Ropeway. It serves the old-fashioned style that could be called the original Onomichi ramen: flat, medium-thin straight noodles in soy broth with back fat floating on top.

When you enter, buy a ticket from the machine first. It takes only 1,000-yen notes and coins; no e-money or credit cards. If you only have 10,000-yen notes, ask the staff to break one. Once seated, press the bell in front of you and a blind opens as staff come to take your order, a booth-style setup with partitions.

It is very well made, and from a local point of view it ranks alongside the famous shops. Come early and you may get in without queuing.

There are several other shops serving Onomichi ramen on and around the shopping street. We would like to try others on future visits and plan to update this page as we do.

With around 210 shops, the street has far more restaurants and cafes than we can cover here. They range from old coffee houses to crepe and soft-serve stands and seafood delis, and the way to enjoy the street is to stop at whatever catches your eye as you stroll.

Wander the street and you will notice guesthouses in restored empty houses and shops plastered with cat photos. These distinctive places blend naturally in among old delis and hardware stores, which is what makes the street interesting.

The Onomichi Empty House Revival Project, run by a nonprofit, is well established in Onomichi's old town, and Anago no Nedoko appears to be part of it. By turning empty houses, which keep increasing as the population ages and shrinks, into guesthouses, workshops and galleries, the project draws people from outside while protecting Onomichi's townscape.

Head north from the shopping street into the hills and you will find Cat Alley, a stone-paved lane where cats live. For an overview of Onomichi's sights, see the Onomichi guide.

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On Onomichi Hondori, lanes, historic buildings and signs make one photo subject after another just by walking. A single compact mirrorless camera that is easy to carry changes how you record your walk. The Sony α7C II has a full-frame sensor yet is small and light, and it renders well in lanes and dim interiors.

This section contains affiliate links (Amazon Associates).

See the Sony α7C II on Amazon →