Udon noodles, silky and smooth, are one of Japan’s best-loved snacks. And in the minds of many an aficionados Kagawa Prefecture’s Sanuki udon is the best of the lot.
Udon is a simple food, just wheat flour, salt and water, but somehow the noodlemakers of Kagawa manage to turn out a dense, wonderf...
Udon noodles, silky and smooth, are one of Japan’s best-loved snacks. And in the minds of many an aficionados Kagawa Prefecture’s Sanuki udon is the best of the lot.
Udon is a simple food, just wheat flour, salt and water, but somehow the noodlemakers of Kagawa manage to turn out a dense, wonder...
At the easternmost point of Shikoku’s Kagawa prefecture, the little town of Hiketa retains much of the atmosphere of an old-fashioned fishing port. Although Hiketa merged with two other towns in 2003 to form the city of Higashikagawa, it remains a distinctive community with a wealth of material his...
Ritsurin Koen, Takamatsu’s main attraction, is just a twenty minute walk from the city’s waterfront.
At 75 hectares, Ritsurin Koen is Japan’s largest garden enclosing thirteen hills, six ponds and hundreds of beautifully cultivated pines, maples, flowering beds and more. Construction began in 16...
Ryozenji, or the Temple of the Vulture Peak, is traditionally the first stop on Shikoku’s famed 88 Temple Pilgrimage, established by disciples of Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism and the great temple complex at Koyasan.
Actually, many pilgrims begin in Koyasan, announcing their intent...
About a kilometer on from Ryozenji, the pilgrim comes to the second of the 88 temples on Shikoku’s pilgrimage route. This is Gokurakuji, the Temple of the Pure Land. The temple has an old connection with a local sect focusing on mountains as places of power and worship, similar to the slightly bet...
During the great Bon Festival, held across Japan in August to honor the spirits of the dead, O-Bon dancing is performed throughout the country. There are many local variants on the dance, but perhaps the best known is Tokushima’s Awa Odori, the “Great Dance of Awa.”
The most widely told story of...
The beautiful town of Uchiko, its nostalgic lanes set in a stunning landscape of green hills and valleys, is located in the southwest of Shikoku, Ehime Prefecture. From the picturesque rice terraces and waterways to the excellent local cuisine and carefully preserved historic houses, Uchiko showca...
