Setouchi Tours

01/01/2025

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The Murakami Kaizoku was a maritime clan based on the islands of the Seto Inland Sea where the Shimanami Kaido cycle route now passes. Originally pirates, the Murakami developed into a kind of coastguard and navy. On Innoshima island, there’s a museum dedicated to them.

22/12/2024

Spend a day exploring the sake brewing history of Saijō, the storied brewing region of Hiroshima, visiting many of the breweries along the main street of the town. You learn about the emergence of premium ginjō sake with an exclusive introduction from a master brewer at Kamotsuru. Lunch is a hotpot flavoured with sake. In nearby Akitsu, you visit a shrine celebrating the region’s sake which features a statue of Miura Senzaburō, who revolutionised sake brewing.

19/12/2024

Have you ever wanted to learn some of the secrets behind delicious Japanese food? There are many! On our Cooking with a Chef tour, you get to cook with an accomplished chef in a converted sake brewery in rural Hiroshima. You'll learn about seasonal ingredients, textures, hidden seasonings, and presentation. The sake and wine of the region is second to none, and you'll visit some producers. This is the perfect tour if you're looking for a deeper exploration of Japanese gastronomy.

12/12/2024

Check out our latest blog post for the best options for enjoying the Seto Inland Sea from the wet side.

The Seto Inland Sea is studded with beautiful islands, leading to comparisons with the Mediterranean and Aegean. Naturally, people are keen to board a vessel and venture out on its glittering waters.

07/12/2024

Onomichi, a town in Hiroshima Prefecture at the northern end of the Shimanami Kaido, is a unique and fascinating place. It was never bombed in WWII and consequently, it remains a town that developed organically over twelve or more centuries. There are shrines dating from the Heian period in the 820s rubbing shoulders with clinics from the Showa period in the 1920s, all piled together on a steep hillside threaded with narrow alleyways. With cats and cafés. It's like being in a living Ghibli animation. Setouchi Tours can show you the hidden architectural wonders of Onomichi that aren't open to the public, and your visit will contribute to the preservation of this historical gem.

03/12/2024

Spend a day cruising the Seto Inland Sea gathering the ingredients for a luxurious oyster BBQ with delicious local sake. On your boat trip you visit oyster farms, a soy sauce brewery, and a lemon farm.

Spend a day cruising the Seto Inland Sea gathering the ingredients for a luxurious oyster BBQ with delicious local sake. On your boat trip you visit oyster f...

03/12/2024

Spend a day fishing on the Seto Inland Sea with a professional fisherman, then enjoy your catch at a cosy local restaurant with delicious local sake. This is an authentic regional leisure experience which many Japanese people would love to try at least once.

Spend a day fishing on the Seto Inland Sea with a professional fisherman, then enjoy your catch at a cosy local restaurant with delicious local sake. This is...

23/11/2024

Akiyoshidai is one of Japan’s three great karsts. Underneath this limestone plateau is another world created by centuries of rain seeping through the limestone, carving out great caverns and creating weird scenes of stalactites and terraced pools. This underground world takes at least an hour to explore.

22/11/2024

Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture has a beautiful bridge and mountaintop castle. A cable car whisks you up the mountain, or you can hike up. The view over the Seto Inland Sea is amazing.

21/11/2024

Scenes on the Hiroshima side of the Shimanami Kaido.

01/11/2024

Yuda Onsen is a little hot spring resort in Yamaguchi city. The spa is associated with a legend of a white fox, and consequently white foxes in various guises are to be found all around the district. It’s rather charming. There are all sorts of hotels and ryokan here, and one of the oldest was used by the revolutionaries who plotted the overthrow of the feudal government, leading to the Meiji Restoration.

28/10/2024

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Today we guided a group of textile experts from California on an exploration of Iyo Kasuri, one of Japan’s three major ikat fabrics. We visited a workshop where the techniques are sustained through the efforts of a local company and enthusiasts. Shikoku Tours is glad to enable these exchanges between overseas specialists and local craft practitioners.

26/10/2024

Castles! The Setouchi area has got 'em. Shown here, Matsuyama, Ozu, Imabari, Bitchu Matsuyama, Okayama, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Himeji, Matsue, and Himeji again. Some of them have original keeps dating from the Edo period, while some of have been rebuilt. All of them are different and equally worth visiting. Let us know which are on your list and we'll incorporate them in your tour. You can even stay at some of them!

25/10/2024

Prosaic though it may sound, the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum in Kobe is the key to Japanese architecture for most of its long history. Does this sound like an exaggeration? It's not. Until very recently, all of Japan's celebrated buildings were made of wood, cut very precisely with precision tools made by craftsmen to precise designs drafted by craftsmen. A visit to this museum will open your eyes to the amazing complexity behind the buildings you'll see on your Setouchi tour.

25/10/2024

Our popular Art Islands tour takes you to Naoshima and Teshima where the installations include works by celebrated artists and architects Yayoi Kusama, Andō Tadao, and Lee Ufan. The islands of the Seto Inland Sea are themselves places of beauty.

24/10/2024

Yanai in Yamaguchi is known for its cute goldfish lanterns that adorn the streets of traditional buildings in summer. But its sake and soy sauce breweries and its indigo dyeing ateliers are also a major draw.

24/10/2024

Lots of crazy monsters at the Mononoke Museum in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. This little town located by a river in the mountains is often wreathed in mist, which prompted the febrile imagination of the townspeople to produce a menagerie of ghouls to haunt them.

23/10/2024

How would you like to take a fishing boat out into the Seto Inland Sea from a small local fishing port and fish for some of the tastiest fish in Japan? Our experienced captain will find the best fishing spots for different kinds of fish. As you cast your line, you can hear stories of the pirate samurai who patrolled these waters, and the Korean diplomats who visited for hundreds of years. When you've got a good haul, we'll take you to a cosy, stylish restaurant to enjoy your catch prepared in myriad ways, accompanied by the excellent sake of Hiroshima.