Mount Washu

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

Mount WashuSeto OhashiInland SeasunsetKurashiki

Photo: MosheA / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

Okayama has plenty of scenery; Mount Washu is the kind that's worth planning a whole day around.

Mount Washu is 133 metres high and stands at the southern tip of Honshu's Okayama coast, looking straight down the Seto Ohashi bridge as it steps across more than fifty islands to Shikoku. It was one of the first areas designated in Setonaikai National Park, and it is the view Japanese guidebooks reach for when they need one image of the Inland Sea.

There are three viewpoints at different heights. The second observation deck is a few steps from the car park; the first requires a short walk; the summit, called Shoshuho, is a proper if brief climb and is where the multi-island composition works best. Sunset is the reason most people come — the bridge lights come on as the sun goes down behind the islands, and the site is on the national list of a hundred best sunsets.

Visiting essentials

Best season

Year-round | Autumn and winter for the clearest air | Sunset in any season, when the bridge lighting comes on

How long to allow

1–1.5 hours including the summit walk

Hours

Open at all hours

Closed: Open year-round

Entry fee

Free | Free parking

Getting there

Access notes

Shimotsui Tanoura, Kurashiki City. By car from Kojima Station on the JR Seto Ohashi Line; buses run from Kojima. Free and open at all hours, with free parking. The second observation deck is beside the car park, the first is a short walk, and the summit at 133 m is a brief climb on a stepped path. Toilets at the main car park.

Local knowledge

**Three viewpoints, and only one of them needs effort.** The second deck is at the car park. The summit is ten minutes up and is where the fifty-odd islands separate out properly. **Sunset, and stay for the bridge lights.** The Seto Ohashi is lit after dark and the gap between the sun going and the lights coming up is the best fifteen minutes. **The bridge is a road and railway together.** Trains run on the lower deck, which is visible from up here and is the detail most photographs miss. **Shimotsui below is a working port.** The old town at the foot of the hill was the crossing point to Shikoku before the bridge and still has its wooden shipping agents' houses and a tako-meshi octopus rice trade. **Kojima is denim.** The jeans street is nearby and is where most of Japan's denim is made, which pairs oddly and well with an afternoon on the headland.

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