Setonaikai 瀬戸内海

Seto Inland Sea / Seto Inlandsee

Inland Sea National Park

A large part of the Seto Inland Sea, which comprises nearly 1,000 small islands and stretches between the main islands of Honshû, Shikoku and Kyûshû and from northern Kyûshû to Ôsaka Bay in the east, was declared a national park as early as 1934. The “Inland Sea National Park” is home to the shrine island of Miyajima and the island of Naoshima, best known for its contemporary art installations and museums. The temperate climate gave the area around the Inland sea the nickname hare-no-kuni, the “land of fine weather”. The Shimanami Kaidô, a combination of motorway and bridge system, was built wide enough to allow cyclists to cross the inland sea on a cycle path.