Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Tour
- Tour of the Bridge
- Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Exhibition Center
- Walkway on the Bridge
- Accommodation in Akashi
- Access & Information
- Area Map
- Japan Museums
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Tour 明石海峡大橋
The stunning view from the top of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge looking towards Hyogo
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge near Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture is the longest suspension bridge in the world. Viewing this engineering marvel is easy from either side of the channel that it crosses, and on the Akashi side there is a seaside park that includes a museum about how the bridge was built.
There is also a walkway that extends out over the water to an observation deck 50 meters above the sea. Not so well known is a bridge tour that not only gives you a behind the scenes look at the bridge but also includes some of the most fantastic views available anywhere in Japan from atop one of the almost 300 meter high bridge towers.
Preparing to take the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Tour
A guided tour of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Exhibition Center for participants of the bridge tour
Tour
The tour begins at the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Exhibition Center in Maiko Park, where the Kobe side of the bridge over to begins. The tours are for a limited number of participants and must be booked in advance.
First up is a video about the making of the bridge. I must admit that I was not particularly looking forward to this as I expected it to be boring, but in fact it was fascinating.
You are given an audio guide that you keep with you throughout the tour. Audio in English, Chinese, or Korean is well translated and clear. Next you get fitted out with a hard hat, a vest, and your shoes are checked to make sure they are suitable. The non-Japanese members of the tour will be grouped together with a guide who speaks some English.
Heading out 1 kilometer under the Akashi Kaikyo Suspension Bridge
Exhibition Center
Next you head downstairs to the Exhibition Center and your human guide, plus the audio guide, will take you around the exhibits and displays. After having watched the video the exhibits make much more sense, and the guides will add more information and also answer questions.
Looking over Awaji Island from 289 meters above the sea on the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
A dizzying look down onto the traffic on the Akashi Kaikyo Suspension Bridge
Walkway
Now you leave the Exhibition Center and head to the bridge over to island of Awaji on the way to Shikoku, first going into the entrance to the Maiko Marine Promenade built into the huge monolithic anchor block of the bridge.
You go up an elevator and then along a 300 meter long glass-enclosed walkway below the roadway of the bridge, 50 meters above the water below. At the end of the walkway is an observation lounge that you visit on the return journey.
Then the most exciting part of the tour begins. You leave the enclosed walkway and start to walk out 700 meters along the bridge towards the first tower that holds the bridge up.
There are of course barriers, but you are no longer enclosed, and the guides keep you in the center of what is essentially a road below the bridge. What is perhaps most noticeable is that you are walking on an open grill or grating, pretty much like that which covers drains or some smaller bridges. It is mostly holes. If you drop a coin, or a pen for example, you are going to lose it. It's going to drop 50 to 60 meters into the sea below, or onto a boat. Some people find this unnerving.
After 15 minutes you reach the tower where an elevator will take you up to the top. Some groups will have to wait as the other groups are ferried up, and now the guide will point out some of the unusual features of the bridge and its remarkable engineering, like the mechanism that allows the bridge to expand and contract up to 2 meters due to temperature change, or the pumps that force dehumidified air into the main cables to retard their deterioration.
It takes two minutes to ascend to the top of the tower and the stupendous and panoramic views are breathtaking. You are at 289 meters above the sea below. By comparison, the observation deck of the tallest building in Japan, the Abeno Harukas in Osaka, is 288 meters tall, and the observation deck of Tokyo Tower, not the Skytree (the tallest structure in Japan), is 250 meters above sea level.
So you are getting an amazing viewpoint, but not over a sprawling city. Your views are up and down the coast towards Himeji in one direction and Osaka in the other.
You have a view over Awaji Island, but you also have a view down onto the traffic passing over the bridge below you and the ships passing underneath. This is literally the high point of the tour.
Before you head back down the elevator a group photo is taken and at the end of the tour you are given a free copy as well as a certificate documenting the tour. On the way back you stop in at the Maiko Marine Promenade observation lounge where you can grab a drink or purchase souvenirs. Part of the tour includes a 100 yen voucher redeemable against purchases at the shop.
Looking past Kobe towards Osaka from the top of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
Accommodation in Akashi
Accommodation in Akashi includes the two star Hotel Castle Plaza and the three star Green Hill Hotel Akashi, which is handy for Akashi Station and the Akashi Municipal Cultural Museum.
Also in the locality are the three star ryokan Hitomaru Kadan, the Seaside Hotel Maiko Villa Kobe and the Hotel Setre Kobe Maiko, both large four star hotels situated right on the waterfront near the bridge.
Dream Lens, by Japanese sculptor Keizo Ushio, is a popular photo spot with the bridge in the background in Maiko Park
Access & Information on the Tours
The tour is truly exciting experience made somewhat more special simply because so few people actually get to do it.
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Exhibition Center
4-114 Higashimaikocho, Tarumi-ku
Kobe-shi, Hyogo 655-0047
Tel: 078 784 3339
The tours take place twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and lasts for about 3 hours. The tours are held from Thursday through Sundays and on holidays, from April to November. A tour may be canceled due to inclement weather.
The cost is 3,000 yen, or 1,500 yen for children aged 13-15.
The tour can only be booked via the internet or by fax.
The tours are very limited in size and are popular so the more in advance you can try to book the more successful you will be. However, reservations do get canceled, so if you check the website frequently then dates that work for your schedule may open up.
The closest train stations to Maiko Park and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge are Maiko Station on the JR Sanyo Line and Maikokoen Station on the Sanyo Electric Railway, both just a few hundred meters from the Exhibition Center. The journey is 35 to 45 minutes from Himeji, or 25 minutes from Sannomiya Station in Kobe.
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is easily reached from nearby Kobe, Kyoto or Osaka.
Area Map
Nearby
Akashi Castle - built in 1619 to protect the approach to Osaka from the west.
Shimanami Kaido - 60 kilometer expressway that links the main island of Honshu with the island of Shikoku.
Awaji - read a guide to Awaji Island.
Book Hotel Accommodation in Kobe Japan
Books on Japan
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Tour: View this engineering marvel on a tour from the Akashi side of the bridge and get spectacular views and learn how the bridge was built.
