Vaucluse Dreamer

We have been excited about visiting Shikoku, since we first started planning this trip, almost 12 months ago. It’s the smallest of Japan’s main islands, and is incredibly mountainous, but has so much beauty to explore. It’s also well and truly off the well-beaten path.

It’s taken us almost 3 weeks, to wingle our way across Japan’s main island,

You can see the route we have taken here but last night we stayed at a park-up just by the middle one of the 3 bridges that cross to the island, and today woke to an incredible view.

but last night we stayed at a park-up just by the middle one of the 3 bridges that cross to the island, and today woke to an incredible view.

We took our coffee up to the viewpoint, overlooking the Inland Seto Sea, and watched the sun rise higher in the sky, with the magnificent bridges stretched out in front of us, and the boats dapping across the sparkling blue sea.

It couldn’t have looked any better.

The Great Seto Bridge leapfrogs across 5 small islands on the way across the stretch of water, and each section of bridge has a different design. It’s an incredibly beautiful piece of civil engineering,  and a well-designed one too, with spiral access roads dropping onto the individual islands and the train tracks running below the road level as well.

We walked up to the orientation table, above the bridges and got a real sense of the size and scale of them. In total they stretch for 13.1 kilometres linking Shikoku to Honshu, and we just enjoyed the view.

But, we had a plan for today, so needed to get going and by 9am, we were on our way to cross to the island that we’ve had in our sights for the last 3 weeks.

The drive across the bridges was quite amazing, and it wasn’t until we were on them that we really were able to appreciate their size.

We pottered across, being passed by a stream of vehicles, as we just enjoyed the experience and the views across the bay.

We could already see that the landscape on Shikoku was different to anything we’ve travelled through, so far. Stretching into the distance were layers of volcanic mountains, that looked almost unreal. It was beautiful.

Unfortunately, the first stop of the day was doing the laundry, another constant chore of vanlife, but we’re getting rather adept now at finding a laundrette and managing to get other things done, whilst we’re there. So after sorting that out, we carried on to our planned stop for the day, and a hike to the Takaya Shrine from Muromotocho.

The Shrine is set high on a hill above the coast, with a vast Tori Gate at its entrance, and is accessed by a steep and gnarly hiking trail from a smaller shrine, many hundreds of metres below.

We had seen photos of it, and had added it to our list of places to visit, after watching one of the videos made by a young Canadian lad called Ryan Bednar, who is travelling around the quieter parts of Japan. It looked spectacular.

At first, we started to make our way to the parking spot at the lower Shrine, but the road we were following turned into a track, little more than a footpath, so we decided to take the easier option, and park on the coast & walk up from there. We have come to accept that the campervan gives us great freedom, but also restricts some of the places we can get to safely. But there is always another option.

We managed to get out of the narrow lane, and headed for a spot we’d noticed, just behind the beach. We pulled on our walking shoes, popped drinks and snacks in a rucksack and set off, making our way along the road to the start of the track.

From the moment we left the campervan, we started to climb, and as we started to head up towards the first Tori Gate, the lane was already quite steep.

As we came through that first gate, we could see our destination, on top of the hill, high above us, and suddenly got a sense of how steep the climb would be.

As we walked towards the first Shrine, we passed groves of Citrus Trees, filled with fruit that looked almost ready for harvest. We hadn’t seen this since our last day on the Izu Peninsula, and we commented that it felt like being in Menton, or even Sorrento, and wasn’t something we had expected to see on Shikoku.

Once we passed the Shrine, at the start of the climb, there were signs indicating that it was 1500m to the upper Shrine, which didn’t sound too far (on the face of it), but once we saw how the path kicked upwards, we realised that we would feel every centimetre of the 1500m.

At the bottom of the climb is a grand Tori Gate, and leant against it was a bamboo cane, as if it had been left by someone who had walked down, to be used by someone else on the way up.

But it was only 1500m, so we would be fine. I soon wondered whether I should have brought it with me.

Immediately the track kicks up again, and as it was an incredibly humid, and very sunny 30 degrees, we welcomed the constant shade from the woodland that we were climbing through.

Even at the top of the first short rise, we were dripping with sweat and our T-shirts were sticking to us.

The track continues upwards, there is only one route, so it’s very easy to follow, and at first is a concrete road, which makes the walking relatively easy. It passes little shrines on the way, before the concrete ended and we found ourselves on a very well-walked rough stone path, which started to zig-zag up the hillside, in a series of steep hairpins.

It shifted from being a walk, to a hike and in places a bit of a clamber up the uneven rocky path, which continued steeply upwards. We passed a sign indicating that we had 1000m to reach our goal, wondering how it was possible that we had only done 500m, but carried on.

It was a challenging walk, but beautiful too, We were accompanied by birdsong & insect chatter, nodded a friendly ‘Kon’nichiwa’ to the few people that we crossed, heading down the trail, and chatted about our experiences so far.

Then, after climbing through the trees, a view opened up to one side, and we stood, catching our breath and wiping the sweat from our eyes, caught by the sight in front of us. Far below, the sea stretched across the gap in the trees, with little wooded islands, with golden sandy beaches dotted amongst the blue. It was breathtaking (or would have been if we had any more breath left to take).

Then, a short distance further on, we caught sight of the final flight of stone steps to the Gate at the top. It is a series of 270 steps to reach the top

And about halfway up is a large stone, where people had left coins, but I understand that it is called Yurugi-ishi and can be moved with the simple touch of a finger, but it never falls over. We didn’t try today.

By the time we took the last step, to pass under the Tori Gate, we were hot, sweaty and tired messes, but so happy to have taken this route up. As with the castles we have visited, we get so much more of a sense of being somewhere and appreciating it through following in the footsteps of those who built it, and who have visited it since its construction.

Originally, it was built on the summit, but in 1600 was moved lower down the mountain, and then to the base of the mountain in 1760. But the local villagers were afraid of evil spirits, so in 1831 the Shrine was rebuilt on the summit and has been there since. So there have been many people, spirits and souls passing along the path that we trod today.

As we reached the top and sank onto a bench in the shade, we were able to really start to take in the view that lay at our feet.

Below us the town sprawled across the coastal plain and the coastline is clear to see for miles before us. The Gate helps both frame the view and give it some perspective too, with the mountainous heart of Shikoku visible, as smudged layers of greys in the distance

It is a jaw-dropping sight and it’s hard to take it all in.

You can watch a video of the walk here

As we sat, we saw other people come up the steps, looking happy to have reached the top, and it was nice to see the sense of achievement in their faces,

It was in stark contrast to others, who were immaculately dressed taking selfies, with one couple even having a personal photographer with them, all having the perfect photo taken, after having driven up to the car park, a short distance from the rear of the Shrine.

I’m not precious, but somehow it didn’t sit comfortably with me. This was an incredible place that I just wanted to sit and absorb, yet there just seemed to be a stream of others walking in, posing and walking out again. I suppose that’s the world we live in now, but in this environment, it just didn’t feel quite right. However, that said, the vending machine of souvenirs (from T-Shirts to badges) was doing a roaring trade, so perhaps it’s me who has it all wrong.

We sat and watched the comings and goings for nearly an hour, eating our snacks and topping ourselves up with water.But we still had to get down, and so eventually dragged ourselves away, and started the trek back down the steps and trail.

Needless to say, the way down felt a lot easier than the way up, and before long we had the lower Shrine in sight, stopping for a quick cold drink, before walking back to the van.

As we passed the orange grove, 2 men were just picking some of the fruit, and just after we had passed, one called to us, came over and handed us 2 little green mandarins, freshly picked and wonderfully warm from the sun.

We thanked his kindness, and peeled the green skins away, tasting the wonderfully sweet and incredibly juicy fruit within.

They were delicious, and it was just so kind of him to have given them to us,

Once back at the van, we headed straight for an Onsen, which proved to be the best we’ve visited so far, and for the first time, i could have luxuriated in the warm water baths for much longer than normal.

Once clean, and our soggy clothes were packed into a bag ready for another visit to a laundrette, we drove on to the spot Andy had found us for the night’s park-up.

I must admit that when I saw the hairpins on the road up to it, I was more than a bit nervous after our earlier experience, trying to find the Shrine car park. But Andy reassured me that he’d looked at the road on Google Street View and that it would be fine.

He was right, and we pulled into a mountain-top carpark, with incredible views out across the bay, dotted with islands. It was a spectacular sight, made even better by the fact that we have it all to ourselves, with just the wildlife for company.

What an incredibly special first day on Shikoku. It exceeded even our wildest dreams.