Some background: I lived in Japan in the past and speak okay Japanese. It used to be better 🙁 I go to Japan every year and the July timeframe is pretty set because I’m there to attend the Fuji Rock Festival.
So far, I’ve been to almost all of Japan, missing only Hokkaido/Aomori/Akita, southeast Kyushu, and Shikoku. This time around is my trip to knock Shikoku off the list. Here’s some of what I’ve thought about going into the planning:
There are some items things that I basically need to work into my itinerary. One of the goals I have is to visit all the original castles in Japan (these are the ones that are not reconstructions; there are twelve) [https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2296.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2296.html) . In addition, I have a friend in Niihama whom I will visit, hence the Niihama day. Although it’s possible to visit Shikoku via public transportation, I decided to just rent a car for the majority of my time there. I know some portions I could do without but especially with the cheap yen right now, I decided to just rent a car continuously to spare myself the hassle of repeatedly picking up and dropping off cars. My dates are fairly set; I could in theory extend the trip one more day but no more. I could shorten it as I like but the departure date is also fairly set.
I do enjoy nature and hiking but my knees have not been good to me so I haven’t included any of that in my trip; I’ll be doing plenty of that anyway without any special hikes planned. I’m not religious or spiritual at all so my interest in any of the temples (and shrines) are mostly from a history/architect/culture perspective rather than anything religious. Hence, I didn’t make any effort to include any of the 88 temples. Not to say I deliberately excluded them, but I simply did not seek them out, per se. I’m also excluding the shimanami kaido due to my knee issues, and also the art islands because they’re quite inconvenient and I am not into modern/contemporary art at all. I spoke with a friend who is much more of an art person and their opinion was also that it probably wouldn’t be for me. Finally, I don’t really have any reason to visit Honshu from Shikoku (Osaka, Okayama, etc).
I’m hoping to have most of my evenings free so I can go to an izakaya or some place to hopefully meet some locals and chat. I don’t plan to have any extraordinarily early mornings, I think departure around 7-9 is what I’ll be aiming for. I’ll be staying in hostels/guest houses as I’ve had great experiences with them, they’re incredibly cheap, and I don’t plan to spend that much time there anyway. It’s also another great way to meet people, especially if you speak Japanese (as most of the people staying there in these out of the way places will be Japanese, though not always).
Because there’s a lot of driving, it both helps and hurts. It means that I’m much more free to do things on the way somewhere but it’s also less desirable to have a spoke-and-wheel sort of trip (i.e. lots of side trips). Not to say none but driving simply is not the same as sitting on trains. So I started with a list of ANY place that looked interesting. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/GWZM9nS9qUeCn2Z98](https://maps.app.goo.gl/GWZM9nS9qUeCn2Z98)
Usually if there was some place a bit out of the way that looked interesting, I would look extra hard around that area to see if I could make a day of it. If not then I usually ended up cutting them out of the plan. But, having those options means if I decide I do have the time, I can easily change my plan on the fly.
In addition to [Japan-guide.com](http://Japan-guide.com), I also relied a lot on the official tourism websites as they tended to be quite detailed, unsurprisingly. They usually include almost ANYthing that ANYone might find REMOTELY interesting. A lot of them also end up being quite specialized (e.g. salt making) and thus more aimed at domestic tourists as they’re experience-based.
I’m fairly confident in my schedule but things on Shikoku tend to be quite spread out and traveling between places aren’t terribly convenient so I’m happy to get any feedback, as well as suggestions for things I may have missed. The morning/afternoon is pretty loose and vague.
|Date|Car?|Morning|Afternoon|Overnight|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|July 7 Sun|No|Tokyo|[Ferry ](https://www.otf.jp/english-page/)5 PM dept|Ferry ([other ferries here](http://www.jlc-ferry.jp/en/))|
|July 8 Mon|No|Ferry|1 PM arrival / City / Free|Tokushima|
|July 9 Tue|No|Whirlpools|Art Museum|[Tokushima 1](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7850.html)|
|July 10 Wed|Yes|-> [Vine bridges](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7825.html)|/ [Nagoro doll village](https://shikoku-tourism.com/en/see-and-do/10043) ->|Kochi|
|July 11 Thu|Yes|[Castle](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5601.html) / City|Castle / [City](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5600.html)|Kochi|
|July 12 Fri|Yes|[Ryugado (limestone cave)](https://visitkochijapan.com/en/see-and-do/10018) / |Heike Falls if time allows / [Nikobuchi](https://visitkochijapan.com/en/see-and-do/10016)|Kochi|
|July 13 Sat|Yes|[Nakatsu Gorge](https://visitkochijapan.com/en/see-and-do/10014)|-> Uwajima / free|Uwajima|
|July 14 Sun|Yes|[Castle ](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5577.html)/ Tenshaen|Tenshaen/Date Museum|[Uwajima](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5575.html)|
|July 15 Mon|Yes|-> [Ozu ](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5525.html)/ [Castle](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5527.html)|Castle / Free|Ozu or Uchiko|
|July 16 Tue|Yes|[Uchiko City](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5550.html)|Uchiko City -> Matsuyama|Matsuyama|
|July 17 Wed|Yes|[Castle ](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5501.html)/ [Ishiteji](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5503.html)|Ishiteji / [Dogo onsen](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5502.html) |Matsuyama|
|July 18 Thu|Yes|-> Niihama|Niihama|Niihama|
|July 19 Fri|Yes|-> Marugame / [castle](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5469.html)|castle / [Kotohira](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5450.html)|Marugame|
|July 20 Sat|Yes|-> [Takamatsu ](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5400.html)/ ritsurin|[Ritsurin](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5401.html)/ [Yashima](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5405.html)|Takamatsu|
|July 21 Sun|No|Free|-> Tokushima|Tokushima|
|July 22 Mon|No|1120 dept|-> Tokyo|Ferry / 530 Arrival Tuesday|
Of note – I haven’t looked for accommodations so that might make the decision for me but I’m undecided on where to stay for Ozu/Uchiko night and also if I should combine Marugame and Takamatsu into the same overnight location. I feel like they’re just far enough apart and the activities are just localized enough that having them separate overnights makes sense but I’m open to hear thoughts.
by totalnewbie