Open Air Takamatsu

What?
Takamatsu (高松) is the capital and biggest city of Kagawa Prefecture (香川県), famous for the Ritsurin Garden (栗林公園) and udon noodles. It also has about 5 temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage on its property, while the open air museum Shikokumura (四国村) showcases old buildings and tools on the side of Mount Yashima (292m), which in itself has some impressive views over the Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海), it’s many islands and central Takamatsu itself.
Where?
Being the capital of Kagawa Prefecture, the city is fairly easy to reach despite its remoteness. Trains from Okayama (岡山) ride regularly, buses connect with Osaka (大阪) and Kyoto (京都), an airport links with Tokyo (東京) and Sapporo (札幌), or you can do as I did and take the Jumbo Ferry from Kobe (神戸). Options are plentiful.
URL
Japan Guide (Outline) Experience Takamatsu

Many years ago I hadn’t visited the island of Shikoku yet. To fix this hiatus I made use of the cheap Seishun 18 ticket. It’s flexible as you can hop on and off trains for a fixed amount, but you are limited to the slow ones. And as such my first journey to Shikoku consisted of half a day Takamatsu and a few hours Tokushima. It’s hard to tell anything about a city in such a short time, but Takamatsu had left a cosmopolitan impression on me despite its small size.

Now I am here again and could be a little bit more thorough in my assessment.
Last time I skipped the most famous attraction of the city - the Ritsurin Garden - in favor of the castle ruins in Tamamo Park (玉藻公園) close to the station. I remember they were being reconstructed or repaired, and that while not spectacular, it was a nice stroll.
This time I did visit the garden though. I was shown around by a local guide who pointed out to me the various sorts of pines, hungry-hungry-hippo-style tortoises and a rock that looks like Lion, but only after a handful of drinks. Just as Tamamo Park it seemed nice but not spectacular. Two spots though were worth the visit. The small viewing platform at the perimeter of the garden gave a beautiful panorama, and the teahouse at the center really had a “feudal lord feeling”, as my guide described it.

After leaving the Ritsurin Garden I headed for the Shikokumura Open Air Museum, a place where old buildings of all around Shikoku are concentrated. I seem to be a sucker for such parks, as just like the Historic Village of Hokkaido and Meiji-Mura I was pleasantly surprised. One reason for this was the layout on the hillside of Mount Yashima. The path swirls around some lush greenery and a manmade stream gives all an extra dimension. The buildings and most notably the theater, the Iya vinebridge replica (which is scarier than the real one because probably less maintained) and the lighthouse keeper buildings were the highlights, while the indoor museum should be avoided at all costs. Why they wouldn’t show works from local Shikoku artists here is as big of a mystery as the exhibition of Persian artifacts and obscure French drawings. I suggest you enter through the exit, enjoy the view over Takamatsu from the terrace and then continue the route of the park.

Feeling like a true lord.

Ritsurin Garden dressed in green.

A theater that was transported from one of the many smaller islands.

The layout of Shikoku-mura is an attraction all in itself.

After that I decided to take the bus to the top of the Yashima plateau. It’s perfectly possible to walk this, but my foot needed a little more time to heal. There’s a bunch to see at the top.

• There’s an aquarium (on top of a mountain??) that I didn’t visit;
• there’s a temple that’s part of the Shikoku pilgrimage that I didn’t visit (I’ll come back and walk, but for the time being I had seen enough temples the past three days);
• there’s possibly the most accessible urbex location ever (a former hotel that seemed to be doubling as tourism center is in a very pitiful state, but unchained and unlocked for anybody to enter) that I didn’t enter;
• There’s another urbex location that’s ridiculously accessible that I didn’t enter (the top station of a cable car. I did go and see the bottom station though).

But I did tour the summit which is full of observation decks, each with more commanding views than the other. It makes for a great one hour stroll, including the partly excavated ruins of the former Yashima castle which was located at a truly impressive spot on the mountain. My eyes spotted various pilgrimage trails that made me want to walk again, even though the experience of the past few days wasn’t 100% positive. There must be some inexplicable charm to it.

The summit was better than expected and I can recommend it to everyone visiting Takamatsu. Just make sure you don’t miss the last bus going down. A taxi ride will cost you 1300 yen instead of the usual 100 yen… I speak from experience.