By David Yamaguchi The North American Post
When we travel the world, whether in person or by armchair, we should strive to visit “world-class” sites. Two such local examples that we should include are hiking above Paradise, at Mount Rainier, and Mount St. Helens. The former is because there are few places in the world where one can drive to such high altitudes — and gain such vistas — before lacing up one’s hiking boots. The volcano that erupted in 1980, in turn, is worthwhile because there are similarly few recently active volcanic sites which are accessible by car.
In the Japan Inland Sea region we have been discussing (Oct. 14 & 28), the Shimanami Kaido similarly stands out as “a world-class bike trip.” There, one can rent and ride bicycles across a 40-mile chain of sea islands, courtesy of the bridge project of this name, completed in 1999. Many YouTube videos describe the ride.
