Kagawa Prefecture occupies the northeastern tip of Shikoku island, separated from the Chugoku region by the tranquil Seto Inland Sea. Japan's smallest prefecture by area is famous far beyond its modest geography: Sanuki udon noodles are practically a regional religion, the 785-step climb to Kotohira-gu Shrine is a pilgrimage milestone, Ritsurin Garden ranks among Japan's most beautiful stroll-style parks, and the art islands of Naoshima and Teshima have made this quiet sea route an international contemporary-art destination.
Top day trips
Handpicked excursions within easy reach.
Naoshima Art Island
Naoshima is the anchor island of the Benesse Art Site Setouchi project, where contemporary art museums and installations are set directly into the island's hills and coastline rather than in a conventional gallery district. The draw is walking or cycling between Tadao Ando's concrete museum buildings, Yayoi Kusama's outdoor pumpkin sculptures, and the converted houses of the Art House Project in Honmura, with the Seto Inland Sea as a constant backdrop. A full day lets you cover the Miyanoura port area, the museum cluster, and Honmura without rushing between ferries.
Highlights: Chichu Art Museum - built mostly underground by Tadao Ando, with a room permanently housing Monet water lily paintings lit only by daylight · Benesse House Museum - the original art-hotel-museum hybrid that started the island's transformation, mixing guest rooms with a permanent collection · Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin sculptures - the yellow polka-dot pumpkin on the pier is the island's most photographed landmark · Art House Project, Honmura - a cluster of old houses and a former dentist's home converted into individual art installations you walk between · Lee Ufan Museum - a quiet, minimalist Ando building dedicated to the Korean minimalist's stone-and-steel works
Shodoshima Island (Olive, Gorge & Soy Sauce)
Shodoshima is Japan's largest olive-growing area, a legacy of an early 20th-century agricultural experiment, and it pairs that Mediterranean-feeling landscape with a working soy sauce brewing district and one of Japan's three largest gorges. It's a spread-out island best covered by rental car or the limited bus network rather than on foot, so a day trip here is more about a scenic drive with several distinct stops than a single concentrated sight. The soy sauce breweries around Hishio-no-Sato still ferment in wooden barrels and the smell of the district is part of the experience.
Highlights: Shodoshima Olive Park - terraced olive groves overlooking the sea, the source of the island's olive-oil-based products · Kankakei Gorge - reachable by ropeway, one of Japan's largest gorges with a lookout over the strait toward Okayama · Hishio-no-Sato soy sauce district - a cluster of wooden brewery buildings in Tonosho where soy sauce has been fermented for generations · Angel Road - a sandbar that appears at low tide connecting small islets, walkable only during the tidal window · Nakayama terraced rice fields - stepped paddies on the hillside above the coast, a working agricultural landscape rather than a preserved display
Teshima Art Museum Island
Teshima is a small, quiet island whose main draw is a single architectural work, the Teshima Art Museum, a smooth concrete dome with no interior columns built over a natural water spring where droplets are guided across the floor by Rei Naito's installation. Beyond that museum, the island has a handful of other art sites and open farmland that make it a slower, less crowded contrast to Naoshima. A day trip here works best as a bicycle loop from Ieura Port.
Highlights: Teshima Art Museum - a windowless concrete shell shaped like a water droplet, built around Rei Naito's floor installation where water beads and moves across the surface · Teshima Yokoo House - a traditional house converted into an installation using Tadanori Yokoo's bold graphic and photographic work · Les Archives du Coeur - Christian Boltanski's installation storing recorded heartbeats, on the island's quieter eastern side · Karato and Ieura rice terraces - farmland restored as part of the island's art-and-agriculture revitalization
Okayama City (Korakuen Garden & Castle)
Okayama City sits just across the Seto Ohashi Bridge from Kagawa and pairs two contrasting landmarks: Korakuen, ranked among Japan's three great gardens, and Okayama Castle, nicknamed the Crow Castle for its black-lacquered exterior, directly across the river from it. It's a straightforward city day trip by train rather than an island crossing, with the garden and castle within easy walking distance of each other. This makes it a good change of pace after several ferry-based art islands.
Highlights: Korakuen Garden - a large Edo-period strolling garden with open lawns, ponds, and tea fields, built for the local feudal lord · Okayama Castle - a black-exteriored reconstructed castle keep on the river opposite Korakuen, giving the garden its borrowed-scenery backdrop · Asahi River - the river separating the garden from the castle, crossed by a footbridge that frames both landmarks together
Kotohira (Konpira-san Shrine & Kanamaru-za)
Kotohira is a pilgrimage town built around Konpira-san, formally Kotohira-gu, a shrine reached by a long stone staircase up a forested hillside that has drawn sailors and travellers for centuries as protector of seafarers. The town below also holds Kanamaru-za, the oldest still-operating kabuki theatre building in Japan, with its original wooden stage machinery. The day here is defined by the climb itself as much as the shrine at the top.
Highlights: Kotohira-gu (Konpira-san) main shrine - reached via a stone stairway of several hundred steps, historically associated with protection for sailors and fishermen · Okusha inner shrine - a further climb beyond the main shrine for those who continue past the main worship hall · Kanamaru-za - Japan's oldest surviving kabuki playhouse, with a hand-turned revolving stage and trap doors still intact from its original construction · Sanuki udon shops along the approach - Kagawa is Japan's udon prefecture, and the streets leading up to the shrine are lined with noodle shops
Inujima Island (Art Refinery)
Inujima is the smallest and least-visited of the Benesse Art Site Setouchi islands, built around the Seirensho Art Museum, a contemporary art space constructed inside the ruins of an early 20th-century copper refinery. The industrial brick chimneys and slag walls left standing on the island give it a starkly different character from Naoshima or Teshima, with a small permanent population and almost no commercial development beyond the art site. It suits visitors who have already seen the more developed islands and want something quieter and more raw.
Highlights: Seirensho Art Museum - built into the ruined structures of a copper refinery that operated for only about a decade in the early 1900s, using passive solar and geothermal design · Inujima Art House Project - a handful of small house-based installations scattered through the island's tiny residential village · Refinery ruins and chimneys - the brick smokestacks and slag-block walls left standing across the island since the refinery's closure
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Multi-day tours from Kagawa
If you have longer than a day, these are organised multi-day trips that start here.
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Day trip tips
Make the most of your excursions.
Buy a Benesse Art Site multi-museum ticket (¥4,200/~$28 USD) covering Chichu, Lee Ufan Museum, Benesse House Museum, and Art House Project — valid on day of purchase; buy at Miyanoura Port ticket office
Arrive at Naoshima on the first morning ferry (7:50 am from Takamatsu) to secure timed-entry tickets for Chichu before they sell out
Shodoshima requires a full day to cover Kankakei Gorge, Olive Park, and Angel Road — staying one night is recommended over rushing a day trip
Kotohira can be combined with Zentsuji Temple for a full-day pilgrimage route (total ¥1,200 transport by Kotoden; both towns within 15 min of each other)