Mt. Hono stands on the Seto Inland Sea coast of Akitsu Town,neighboring Takehara City, about 40km southeast from Hiroshima City. Akitsu is well-known for producing potatoes and loquats. Oysters are also popular along with other Hiroshima Bay areas. Local residents are especially proud of the Akitsu native Sumo wrestler, Akinoshima.

On the second Sunday of January, Akitsu Oyster Festival is held at Akitsu Kaiyo Center. You can sample some oysters which are roasted in their shells on an charcoal grate. You can also taste for free a bowl of rice porridge with oysters and vegetables.

On the last Sunday night of October, a fire festival is held on the south slope of Hono mountain. Torches are lit in the shape of a 108-meter long and 58-meter wide Kanji character of "万"(ten thousand) in "Manyoshu(万葉集)" which is the nation's oldest collection of poems made in the 8th century.

On the way to the mountain, you can drop by at a shrine, named Noritoyama Hachimanjinja where a monument of the Manyoshu poems is erected. It is said that in 736 when Nara was the capital of Japan an government envoy to Shiragi,now Korea, stop by at the bay of Kazahaya in Akitsu, and one of the delegates made two poems about his loving wife who had been left behind.

From the top of the mountain, a view of the Inland Sea is breathtaking.

◆Location

Akitsu Town, Toyota-gun

◆Getting there

From Akitsu Station, walk left to Route 186, and go west to Kanamaru for about 1.5 kilometers passing through Akitsu Kaiyo Center, then turn right at the traffic rights and walk to Noritoyama Hachiman Shrine for about a kilometer. From there take the "Chugoku Natural Footpath" to Mt Hono for about two kilometers.

◆Suggested schedule

Hiroshima Sta.(8:08)===(Kure Line)===Kure===Akitsu Sta.(9:45)---

---Akitsu Kaiyo Center(Oyster Festival site,10:00-10:45)---

---Noritoyama Hachiman Shrine(11:15〜11:30)---Mt.Hono(12:15-13:30)---

---Kazahaya Sta.(14:47)===(Kure Line)===Hiroshima(16:19)