Shikoku grand tour (Okayama → Kagawa → Tokushima → Kochi → Ehime) — 7 days, car
A full loop of Shikoku through Okayama, Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi and Ehime: Kōraku-en and Kurashiki, Ritsurin Garden and Kotohira-gū, the Iya Valley, Kochi’s castle and market, the Shimanto River, Matsuyama Castle and Dogo Onsen, and the Shimanami Kaido.
Don't miss
an authentic jikamori Sanuki udon lunch near Kotohira.
- Day 1 — Osaka → Okayama: Kōraku-en garden + Okayama Castle (Crow Castle; reconstructed keep — cut if tight) → Kurashiki (Bikan canal, afternoon) (drive ~3h). Stay Kurashiki (evening canal). — Route map
- Day 2 — Okayama → Seto Ohashi Bridge → Kagawa: Ritsurin Garden → Kotohira-gū (Konpira-san, 785 steps) + Sanuki udon lunch (drive ~2h). Stay Kagawa. — Route map
- Day 3 — Kagawa → Tokushima: Oboke Gorge → Iya Valley (vine bridges) (drive ~3h). Stay Iya. — Route map
- Day 4 — Iya → Kochi: Katsurahama (Sakamoto Ryoma statue) + Kochi Castle + Hirome Market (katsuo tataki, yuzu) (drive ~3h). Stay Kochi. — Route map
- Day 5 — Kochi → Shimanto River (Japan’s last clear stream, chinrinkyo bridges) → Matsuyama: Matsuyama Castle + Dogo Onsen (drive ~3.5h). Stay Matsuyama (tattoos: ✅ friendly (city baths)). — Route map
- Day 6 — Matsuyama → Mt. Ishizuchi / Omogo-kei Gorge (foliage) full day → Imabari (drive ~2.5h). Stay Imabari. — Route map
- Day 7 — Imabari Castle (one of Japan’s 12 original) → drive the Shimanami Kaido (toll road ~1h crossing; Setoda stop for the lemon gelato) → Onomichi (temple walk) → evening shinkansen from Fukuyama (drive ~2h). — Route map
Note: Kankakei Gorge (Kagawa) requires a ferry to Shodoshima — swapped for Kotohira-gū (main island). Don’t chain Shimanto → Mt. Ishizuchi in one day (breaks 4h).
Highlights
Local food & drink
- Sanuki udon — Kagawa’s chewy hand-kneaded udon, eaten self-serve (jikamori)
- Katsuo no tataki — Kochi’s straw-seared skipjack at Hirome Market
- Tai meshi — Ehime’s sea-bream rice pot
- Okayama barazushi — scattered seasonal-fish sushi
- Kibi dango — Momotaro’s millet rice-cakes
- Kochi dry sake — crisp breweries for red-fleshed fish
- Ehime mikan juice — #1 mandarin region, fresh-pressed
- Setouchi lemon chuhai — the Inland Sea citrus highball Don’t miss: an authentic jikamori Sanuki udon lunch near Kotohira.
Local culture
- Kotohira-gū (Konpira-san) — climbing the 785 stone steps to the sea-gods’ shrine is a pilgrimage in itself, rewarded with a view over the Seto Inland Sea
- Kurashiki Bikan canal — the white-walled Edo storehouses along the willow canal are a preserved merchant town, and the Ohara Museum inside it was Japan’s first Western-art museum
- Kochi Castle — one of the 12 original keeps, where you climb the original wooden interior and see how a daimyo lived
- Sakamoto Ryoma — Kochi’s Meiji Restoration hero, whose statue faces the sea at Katsurahama and still defines the city’s spirit
- Shimanto chinrinkyo — the river’s low submerged bridges flood over by design, a quiet emblem of life along Japan’s last clear stream
- Dogo Onsen — Japan’s oldest bathhouse, where the ritual soak in the Kami-no-Yu bath inspired Spirited Away
- Mt. Ishizuchi — Shikoku’s highest peak and one of Japan’s seven sacred mountains, climbed for over a millennium on iron chains as a Shugendō ascetic practice
- Imabari Castle — one of the 12 original keeps, a rare castle built to face the sea