Secrets of Shikoku

Day 1-3

Kyoto

It’s fitting that you begin your adventure in Kyoto, as in a way, this is where it all began. Kyoto is where Japanese culture as we know it was born, back in the days of the imperial court, and the modern city is still crammed with remnants of that illustrious past. With a local guide to help you negotiate the crowds, you’ll soon discover that the vast majority of tourists stick to just 20 or so of the city’s 1,600 historic sites, leaving hundreds of beautiful, atmospheric temples and shrines blissfully quiet. If you do tire of temple-hopping, Kyoto is also a great base for day trips — perhaps to nearby Nara with its friendly deer, or Hikone to see one of Japan’s original samurai castles.

Highlights

Explore Kyoto’s iconic sites and lesser-known gems on a private guided tour of the city

Take a break from temples and have us include a boat ride on the Hozugawa River to the Arashiyama bamboo groves (not included in the basic trip price)

Sample Japan’s haute cuisine in the home of kaiseki — or keep it casual with a sushi breakfast at Nishiki Market (let us know if you want us to make you any restaurant reservations)

Wooden temple in wood illuminated at night

Day 4-5

Miyajima

Zipping west on the bullet train, your next destination is Hiroshima: Japan’s own phoenix city. You’ll be staying on the sacred island of Miyajima, where you’ll spend the next two nights at a traditional inn. Most visitors come for the day, but you’ll get to see this beautiful World Heritage island when the crowds have gone home, with its “floating” torii gate illuminated against the night sky. If you’re up for a challenge, the hike up Mount Misen is gruelling but spectacular — but we won’t blame you if you prefer to chill out with the local deer instead. An onsen bath followed by some local oysters and a glass of Chablis overlooking the bay is a pretty unbeatable way to spend your time.

Highlights

Learn about the impact of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima’s excellent Peace Park and Museum

Try okonomiyaki: Hiroshima’s signature, sauce-slathered, noodle-based pancake

Sleep on tatami mats and eat delicious local food at a traditional Japanese inn

Front entrance of Itsukushima shrine in Miyajima

Day 6-7

Matsuyama

Your intro to Shikoku Island, Matsuyama is a city with some serious historical credo — including Japan’s oldest bathhouse (the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away) and one of its 12 remaining original castles. Japanese tourists also know it as the setting for one of Japan’s most famous novels, Botchan, and many of its attractions (the Botchan steam train, Botchan mechanical clock and Botchan dango sweet rice balls, to name a few) have their roots in that coming-of-age tale. We recommend donning your yukata robe and join the locals to wander the laid-back streets around the bathhouse, with its cherry tree parks, traditional shrines, and arcades lined with trinket and snack shops.

Highlights

Enter the creaking labyrinth of corridors in Japan’s oldest bathhouse

Ride the ropeway to Matsuyama Castle, arguably the best-preserved original samurai castle in Japan

Go for a ride on the Botchan train, a diesel-powered replica of the city’s Meiji-era steam train

Day 8

Kotohira

For the next few days, you’ll be swapping public transport for a rental car and getting properly off the beaten track. Kotohira is your last big town (well, big for Shikoku) before you head deep in the backwoods, and it’s famous throughout Japan as the location of Konpira-san, one of Shikoku’s most important shrines. Dedicated to sailors and seafaring, Konpira-san sits at the top of a punishing 1,368-step ascent — probably the toughest shrine approach in Japan — but there are plenty of trinket shops, udon joints, museums and outer shrine buildings at which to stop on the way. The view from the top, over a flat valley patchworked with fields and villages, is worth it.

Highlights

Take part in an udon noodle-making class and slurp down the fruits of your labour for lunch

Take a tour of Japan’s oldest surviving kabuki playhouse, Kanamaruza, with its ingenious trap doors and human-powered rotating stage (not included in the basic trip price)

Test your mettle on the gruelling ascent to Konpira-san Shrine

Day 9-10

Iya Valley

Though it’s now accessible via dramatic, twisting roads, the Iya Valley was once so isolated it was used as a hidden retreat by warring clans and political dissidents. Among the few surviving relics of this fascinating past are the region’s vine bridges, which (legend has it) were designed to quickly cut off access to the valley if attacked. The twisted vines are now supported by steel cables, but it’s still a heart-in-mouth experience to look down between the slats at the water 14 metres below. Today, the Iya Valley is more about walks in the forest and luxurious ryokan retreats than bandits and exiled samurai — but the steep, forested hills and plunging valleys are as dramatic as ever.

Highlights

Stay in a beautiful traditional farmhouse in the most idyllic village in Japan

Drive on winding roads through the magnificent scenery of remote Shikoku

Stand on a kazurabashi vine bridge and imagine the Shingon monks and Heike refugees who are said to have built these centuries ago

Day 11

Takamatsu

While many foreign tourists have heard of Naoshima Island, few have heard of nearby Takamatsu. A chilled-out seaside city with an almost Mediterranean vibe (perhaps thanks to all the outdoor dining), Takamatsu is a delight. Trams rattle through the city centre, shuttling passengers from little suburban bathhouses to swanky waterfront promenades, and its hole-in-the-wall “self-service” udon shops just might change the way you think of noodles forever. Grab a beer on one of its miles-long covered arcades lined with cafés and bars and you might feel more like you’re in Milan than Japan. And did we mention it’s home to one of Japan’s most beautiful gardens?

Highlights

Check out some of Takamatsu’s museums, including the Sanuki Folkcraft Museum and a sculpture garden designed by Isamu Noguchi

Visit the castle ruins and go for a gondola ride around the moat

Sip green tea in the teahouse at stunning Ritsurin Gardens

Wooden building in Ritsurin Garden, Takamatsu

Day 12

Naoshima

Naoshima was just one of thousands of islands in the Seto Inland Sea when it was chosen as the setting for Benesse House’s art-gallery-cum-luxury-hotel in the 1990s. Now, the island draws art-lovers from all over the world with its Tadao Ando-designed galleries, its works by greats like Kusama, Warhol and Hockney, and its installations integrated into the natural landscape. Ferry over from Takamatsu in the morning, then hop on a bike to start exploring its scattered Art House projects — or spend an afternoon marvelling at the sun-dappled Monets in the ethereal Chichu Museum. However you choose to approach it, Naoshima is something special.

Highlights

See Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dot pumpkins on the beaches and cliffs of Naoshima

Visit the “I Love Yuu” bathhouse: a riot of kitsch designed by artist Otake Shinro

Explore abandoned houses, workshops, temples and shrines transformed into art installations as part of the Art House Project

Kitsch front facade of I Love Yuu bathhouse in Naoshima

Day 13-14

Osaka

Osaka: if there’s anywhere more different from the lushly forested interior of Shikoku, we’ve yet to find it. Big, bold, brash and bursting with things to see and do, this is Japan at its most in-your-face — and it's glorious. Whether you want to take a trip to Harry Potter World, design your own instant ramen at the Cup Noodle Museum, spend your last few yen in the thrift stores of America Mura or tick off another (albeit reconstructed) samurai castle, what you absolutely mustn’t miss is the food. It’s not for nothing Osaka’s unofficial motto is kuidaore, or “eat ‘til you drop” — and there’s no better way to see out your trip than doing just that.