2019 Nov 13-19 : Shikoku, Japan

Shikoku(四国, literally "four provinces")is one of the five main islands of Japan. Shikoku is the second smallest main island after Okinawa. It is 225 km or 139.8 mi long and between 50 and 150 km or 31.1 and 93.2 mi wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (as of 2015, 3.1%). It is located south of Honshu and north east of Kyushu.

The Shikoku Pilgrimage (四国遍路, Shikoku Henro) or Shikoku Junrei (四国巡礼) is a multi-site pilgrimage of 88 temples associated with the Buddhist monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) on the island of Shikoku. A popular and distinctive feature of the island's cultural landscape, and with a long history, large numbers of pilgrims, known as henro (遍路), still undertake the journey for a variety of ascetic, pious, and tourism-related purposes. FYI, we are definitely not going to visit all of them, the pilgrimage is traditionally completed on foot, but modern pilgrims use cars, taxis, buses, bicycles, or motorcycles. The standard walking course is approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) long and can take anywhere from 30 to 60 days to complete. In addition to the 88 "official" temples of the pilgrimage, there are over 20 bangai — temples not considered part of the official 88.

This will be the first trip to Japan with my parents. And I took almost 6 months to plan and arrange for a self-drive trip and instead of going to crowded and well-known venues in Japan, I decided to visit the historical-rich and less touristy Shikoku.

It was a self-drive trip from 13-19 July 2019 in Shikoku. This was the period of autumn leaves fall season in Shikoku and we planned to visit and enjoy viewing the red, orange foliages in this region. It was not easy to access into any of the airports as there has been no direct flight from Singapore. Since I was having a working trip in Seoul from 10-12 July, I decided that we could arrange a short flight directly from Seoul to Okayama via Korean Air KE747, and pick up a rental car from the airport. In the planning, I had to be mindful of the number of places to visit, the difficulty levels, the timing needed to explore them, and the driving distances between the places of visit.

13-July Seoul to Shikoku

We spent the two nights in Seoul and on 13-July, we took a morning flight to Okayama. The flight was about 2 hours and not 9 hours mentioned in Google Map.

Upon arrival at Okayama Airport, it was about 10.30am and we met up the representative from Nippon Car Rental. From there, we took a free shuttle bus to their nearby garage. We collected a Nissan Wingroad Estate car and commenced our 1 hour drive from Okayama of Honshu onto our first entry prefecture of Kagawa (香川県) in Shikoku.

The expressways between Honshu and Shikoku are connected via magnificent steel bridges as seen in the picture here.

We took a brief stop at the commemorative hall of the massive bridge constructions and the technologies behind them.

I planned the first day would be mainly travelling on the streets, doing more of sightseeing and a good way of acclimatising to this part of Japan. There was also a fair bit of driving as we need to reach the hotel at the North-western side of Shikoku in the afternoon.

We drove by the Marugame Castle (丸亀城) and stopped over for lunch before driving on westward the prefecture of Ehima (愛媛県).

After about 2.5 hours on the road after leaving Marugame, we arrived at Matsuyama (松山) city in the late afternoon.

Matsuyama is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture on Japan’s Shikoku Island. It’s known for its central Dōgo Onsen Honkan bathhouse, dating from the Meiji Period, with ornate, tiered wooden buildings. Nearby is Shiki Memorial Museum, dedicated to Masaoka Shiki’s haiku poetry. To the west is the restored, feudal-era Matsuyama Castle, with its hilltop gardens and seasonal cherry blossoms.

We parked the car a the hotel's automatic multi-level car park and checked in to our hotel room at Matsuyama Tokyu REI Hotel (松山東急REIホテル).

After taking a short rest at the hotel room, we strolled to the nearby "shopping street" as highlighted in a red line at the map below. We had our dinner there and strolled about after that. It was just across our hotel.

14-July Matsuyama (松山)

Rise and shine. We had our breakfast at 7am and checked out of the hotel thereafter.

There will be a fair amount of travelling and places of visit on this day. We will go south and will still stop for the night at Uwajima, within the Ehime prefecture.

Our first place of visit was the Matsuyama Castle (松山城) just behind the hotel.

Matsuyama Castle (松山城, Matsuyamajō) is one of Japan's twelve "original castles"which have survived the post-feudal era since 1868 intact. It is also one of the most complex and interesting castles in the country. It is located on Mount Katsuyama, a steep hill in the city center that provides visitors with a bird's eye view of Matsuyama and the Seto Inland Sea.

Matsuyama Castle was constructed between 1602 and 1628. In 1635, the castle got assigned to a branch of the Matsudaira family, relatives of the nation ruling Tokugawa, and it remained in their hands until the end of the feudal era. The current three storied castle tower was constructed in 1820 after the original five storied one had been destroyed by lightning.

Yokaichi Old Town

The Yokaichi Old Town features historic buildings among a 600 meter stretch filled with personal residences and warehouses of the wealthy merchants. The Kamihaga Residence is among the 90 buildings on this one way street which is opened to the public as a unique wax museum. Besides the information about the wax industry in Uchiko, the residence itself has been maintained perfectly and visitors can still get the perspective of the family’s wealth with rooms filled with tatami mats, painted screens, and varies decorative objects. While at the Honhaga Residence, visitors can view this property of the first wax producers in the area from the outside. At the Omura Residence, travelers can experience the architectural traits from one of the oldest buildings in Uchiko, also a location that can only be viewed from afar. Another famous venue at Uchiko, which also stands as a symbol of the wealth accumulated by the wax trade, is the Uchiko-za Theater. This multi-story historic building was constructed in 1916 and still stands as a fully functional venue for both the Kabuki and Bunraku traditional performances.

Buying big and juicy persimmons at a local fruit stall.

Resting at a preserved old rest house. This rest house was also available at Tripadvisor to book for stays.

Local artisan making an art piece out of bamboo.

Honesty was at best at this part of Japan. Sometimes, merchandise was placed at the door steps of the homes and there was this bamboo money collector container. There was no seller around. If one wanted to buy anything, just pick your items and drop your money into the container.

Lattice structure fencing and doors.

Ozu Castle

Ozu Castle (大洲城, Ōzujō) stands on a hill by Hijikawa River in the northwestern part of downtown Ozu. The castle has its origins in the 1300s, and it was rebuilt a few times over the years upon destruction by fire, as well as natural and human-caused disasters. The current castle has been reconstructed in phases since the 1950s, and in 2004 the reconstruction of the main keep was finally completed.

Unlike many other castles that were rebuilt in the last century using ferro concrete, the main keep of Ozu Castle was crafted mainly with wood and traditional construction techniques. As a result, it looks close to the original castle not only from the outside but also inside. The main keep is flanked by turrets on two sides, an interesting feature that is quite rare among Japanese castles, many of which have just solitary standing main keeps.

Inside the castle buildings, there are exhibits about the history of Ozu, maps about the local topography from past to present, models of the castle, and displays of armors and other items belonging to past feudal lords. Ascending to the top of the four story main keep rewards visitors with good views over the city and the river.

Taga Shrine (Fertility Museum) (多賀神社)

Taga Shrine (多賀神社, Taga Jinja) is situated north of Uwajima's city center. People pray at the shrine for longevity, good health and in particular, fertility. The shine's claim to fame among foreign tourists are its fertility related objects of worship, including an approximately two meter long wooden phallus displayed alongside the main shrine building. Such explicit fertility objects were more common at shrines across Japan in the past until puritanical values from the West led to their removal around the Meiji Period (1868-1912).

Tenshaen Garden

The Tenshaen Garden was built for the retirement of Munetada Date, the seventh feudal lord of the Uwajma domain. It was named after a Kanshi (Japanese poetry written in Chinese) by Masamune Date, describing the ideal way to live out a life of retirement. The garden delights visitors with seasonal flowers. A particular must-see is the arched bridge lined with white wisteria trellises known as the “ascending wisterias”. Another feature of the garden is the many varieties of bamboo surrounding a pond, associated with the “sparrow and bamboo” crest of the Date clan.

We arrived in Uwajima closed to late afternoon and checked in to Uwajima Oriental Hotel.

We went to a nearby supermarket and bought our dinner.

15-July Uwajima

Good morning.

This day, we even had to cover more distances and spent the night on the mountains. The journey would travel south and along the coast line east ward towards Kochi.

First stop was the Buddhist Temple No. 40 - Kanjizai-ji (四国霊場第40番札所 観自在寺)

Kanjizaiji (観自在寺) is a Shingan Buddhist temple in Ainan-cho (愛南町), Minamiuwa District, Ehime. It is number 40 of the 88 temples in the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Ji (寺) means temple in Japanese. Kanjizai (観自在) is the name of Avalokitesvara (観音, Kannon) which is used in the Heart Sutra (般若心経, Hannya-Shingyo).

The history of the temple is said to date to the year 807 when Kukai visited the town and made 3 venerable statues (尊像, sonzou) in honor of Emperor Heizei. At that time he made the honzon of Yakushi Nyorai (本尊薬師如来), Wakihutsu Amida-Nyorai (脇仏阿弥陀如来) and Jūichimen Kanzenon (十一面観世音). These statues were quite precious for all the people from the commonalty to the Emperors. Emperor Heizei and Emperor Saga visited this temple every year. That's why, the area around this temple became called Hirajo (平城) whose character means Heizei (平城).

There are some events in each month and sometimes there are so many booths on the street. The small festival is called O-daishi-sama (御大師様) and it is held once around two months to celebrate the tie with Kūkai.

Kanjizaiji has some special features. This temple has one of the Nanyo Saven Gods if Fortune (南予七福神,Nanyo-ShichiFukujin) in Houshūden-Hakkakudou (宝聚殿八角堂).Nanyo(南予) means the southern part of Ehime. The deity of this temple is called Benzaiten (弁財天). She is a deity of treasure and arts. She prevents the natural disasters for people, and brings the rich harvest in the town. And also she brings people good fortune of studying.

Kanjizaiji has also statues of the twelve zodiac signs (干支,Eto), and they're called Hattaihutsu-Jūnishi-Honzon (八体仏十二支本尊). The visitors water their own signs' statues and pray to it.

From the temple, we drove to a nearby hill and we a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and the nearby islands.

At the peak, there was also another small WW2 war relic museum.

In November 1978, a local diver discovered that it was still submerged in the original 40m seabed at Kura Bay, Johana-cho, Minamiuwa-gun, Ehime Prefecture.

The Shiden Kai (Kai fighter or Phantom fighter) was developed near the end of the war as a new aircraft to replace the zero war and is said to have been the Navy's most excellent fighter. It was the only surviving Kai plane in Japan.

Next, we drove on to the southernmost part of Shikoku and visited Kongōfukuji Temple (四国霊場第３８番札所 金剛福寺)

Next we proceeded to a nearby restaurant to have lunch.

Walking distance from the restaurant was Cape Ashizuri, the southern most point of Shikoku.

At the observatory we saw there was a statue of John Manjiro.

John Manjiro was the first Japanese person to visit America. Manjiro was a humble fisherman who made an incredible journey from Japan to America in the 1840s, while Japan was still closed to Western trade. He sailed around the world, learned English, and lived with an American family. When he finally returned to Japan, he convinced the shogun to open Japan and sign the treaty of Kanagawa with the United States in 1854, bringing about the Meiji Restoration and the fall of Japan's feudal system.

Cape Ashizuri Lighthouse

After the visit, we drove on to higher elevation of the Iva Valley (祖谷). It was a very tedious drive up the winding and narrow hill streets meandering the mountain range and we only manage to arrive at the guest house only after nightfall.

It was very cold (2 deg C in the mountains). We had early requested the guesthouse to prepare dinner for us.

16-July Iya Valley

On this day, we visited a couple of places of interest in the mountains before descending northwards towards the port of Takamatsu (rather near o where we entered Shikoku).

We checked out of the guesthouse, had our breakfast and set off.

While taking a wrong turn, we chanced upon this beautiful scenery - rising cloud forming among the valley.

Nagoro Village: Scarecrow Village

The little village of Nagoro, deep in the valleys of Tokushima Prefecture of Shikoku, is known around the world today as the Village of the Dolls. These dolls are called kakashi or scarecrows in Japanese, but their purpose is to combat loneliness rather than bird pests. As the population of Nagoro declined precipitately, an elderly resident, Tsukimi Ayano, started to replace the people who left or died with life-sized replicas made of straw and old clothes. These dolls are placed naturalistically around the hamlet, in realistic poses.

The village is located on Route 439 in the Iya Valley, a remote mountainous area. It formerly had about 300 inhabitants, but the decline in Japan's population has caused that to fall to 35 by January 2015, 30 as of August 2016, and 27 by September 2019.

In the early 2000s, Tsukimi Ayano, whose family left the area when she was a child, moved back to Nagoro to look after her father, and made a doll in his likeness that she placed in a field. She has since made more than 400, including replacements, and about 350 are in the village. Many are also likenesses of residents or former residents, while others are invented people.

Soon, others followed in Ayano's footsteps. The village school, which closed in 2012, includes a large number of dolls; in one classroom, two children are self-portraits by the last two students to study there, who dressed them in their own clothes. The village has become a tourist attraction and is now known as Nagoro Doll Village.

Oku-Iya Niju Kazura Bashi (Double Vine Bridges) 奥祖谷（おくいや）二重かずら橋

We descended the mountain ranges and headed northwards to Takamatsu.

We drove into Takamatsu nearing late afternoon and proceeded to visit Ritsurin Garden 栗林（りつりん）公園.

Ritsurin Koen (栗林公園) is a landscape garden in Takamatsu City, built by the local feudal lords during the early Edo Period. Considered one of the best gardens in Japan, it is often suggested that Ritsurin Koen deserves a spot on the list of the "three most beautiful gardens of Japan" alongside Kanazawa's Kenrokuen, Mito's Kairakuen, and Okayama's Korakuen.

The spacious park features many ponds, hills, historic trees and beautiful pavilions divided into a Japanese style garden in the south and western style garden in the north. The gardens are set in front of wooded Mt. Shiun which serves as a wonderful background and great example of borrowed scenery.

Before we went to check in hotel and go for dinner, we decided to visit one more place. It is on the northern coast of Takamatsu > Yashima Castle Ruins and Temple.

Yashima Castle was once one of the Korean-style mountain castles built by the Yamato dynasty in 667 in the area stretching from Tsushima and Kyushu to the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, to prepare for an invasion by the Chinese Tang and Korean Silla Kingdoms. It was an ancient mountain castle built on a mesa to take full advantage of the natural terrain. The castle walls span approx. 7-kilometers, with about 10% of the wall believed to have been built artificially. Since 2007, the city government of Takamatsu has been working to preserve and maintain the ruins of Yashima Castle’s gate. With major preservation work now completed, the Yashima Castle gate ruins were opened to the public on March 19, 2016.

17-July Takamtsu

This morning we intended to make an excursion trip to visit Shodoshima.

As the ferry schedule was still early, we decided to make a short visit to the Tamamo Park 玉藻公園, which was near the ferry port.

Tamamo Park is located on the former site of Takamatsu Castle within Tamamo-cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. The castle was originally built in the year 1588, but currently all that remains of the castle are the stone walls, the castle tower, and the moat. The castle’s most notable feature is that it was surrounded by the ocean; the northern backside of the castle faces toward the sea, and the remaining sides of the castle are surrounded by a moat that drew water from the ocean. Because of this, if you look into the moat you can see a variety of ocean fish swimming around.

Within the park you will not only find the Japanese-style castle tower and residences but also a Japanese-style garden. This park is also famous as a cherry blossom spot. Depending on the season you will find a variety of interesting events here, such as shrubbery markets and pinecone tossing competitions. If you have the chance you should check to see if you can visit one of these events.

Shodoshima (小豆島, Shōdoshima) is the second largest island in the Seto Inland Sea and one of the first islands born to the gods in the creation myth of Japan. The name literally means "small bean island", which technically refers to the azuki bean but today would more fittingly refer to the soy bean or olive as the island has traditionally been a producer of soy sauce and now is even better known for its olive plantations.

Shodoshima attracts visitors with its Mediterranean atmosphere, offering beaches, resorts, coastal sceneries and a mountainous interior with one of Japan's most celebrated gorges, the Kankakei Gorge.

Here at the peak of Mount Kankakei

Next we proceeded to visit the olive plantations.

Plenty of ripe olives.

18-July Osaka

We checked out of the hotel after breakfast and set off eastwards towards Osaka.

There were two more main sites which we would like to visit. There were many more marked sites but we decided to give priority to visit Kobe Chinatown and Osaka Castle instead.

Our first stop was the Temple No. 1 - Ryozen-ji 四国霊場第1番札所 霊山寺

Next, one last site before we left Shikoku.

Naruto Whirlpools 鳴門の渦潮, Naruto no Uzushio

The Naruto whirlpools (鳴門の渦潮, Naruto no Uzushio) occur along the Shikoku coast of the Naruto Strait, and are created by the large volumes of water moving between the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean between high and low tide, combined with the unique underwater geography of the narrow strait.

According to the change of tides, the whirlpools occur roughly every six hours and can typically be seen once in the morning and once in the afternoon for an hour or two. The whirlpools vary in size, depending on the intensity of the tides. They tend to be larger in summer than in winter, and are largest during spring tides, which occur every two weeks.

Under ideal conditions, whirlpools of up to 20 meters in diameters can be observed. On the other hand, there is not much to see on calm days or outside of the peak times.

We drove off shortly at 10am and arrived at Kobe by noon time.

And just in time to stop over at Chinatown for lunch.

Kobe Chinatown

After lunch, we drove into Osaka and visited the Osaka Castle.

Quite disappointed by the huge crowds, especially many unruly and loud ones from Asia.

And it started raining not long after.

Thus we ended our last visiting stop and drove to Kansai International Airport.

There we returned the rental car during dinner time and stayed overnight at the Nikko Hotel, which was at Kansai Airport. On 19-July, we took a late morning direct flight back to Singapore.