Setouchi Tours

08/02/2025

Visiting Sagi Island in Mihara, Hiroshima on a freezing,sunny winter day. The sea and sky were beautiful, and the local people welcomed us warmly wherever we went.

05/02/2025

Winter is a good time to visit Hiroshima’s war-related heritage—you can avoid the crowds, and the winter weather somehow suits the mood. But don’t forget, Hiroshima had a long and illustrious history for centuries before the A-bomb, and it’s worth your while to explore that too, starting at Hiroshima Castle.

29/01/2025

One of Kobe’s many attractions is its sake breweries and brewery museums. You can learn about sake making and enjoy tastings. The sake brewed with the hard water of Kobe makes an interesting contrast with Hiroshima’s soft water sake.

28/01/2025

We often get requests from customers who have enjoyed our tours in Shikoku and Setouchi for tours in other regions of Japan. Recently we made a tour of northern Kyushu which is proving very popular for its combination of dynamic volcanic landscapes and historic towns and cities.

18/01/2025

Okayama Castle is known as the ‘crow castle’ thanks to its black finish. It stands across the river from Korakuen Garden where the feudal lord took his leisure, and the castle is part of the garden’s scenery.

15/01/2025

Faces of Kobe. At the beginning of the last century, foreign visitors of many nations made their homes in Kitano. Their houses reflected the best of Japanese and western architecture of the time. Today, they’re museums with fascinating exhibits of early and late 20th century art.

12/01/2025

A wooden box of promotional materials for Miyajima in Hiroshima dating from the Showa period. The box includes an ornament of auspicious red and white paper. Miyajima is still one of Japan’s most well-known tourist spots. This remarkable heritage can be found among various other treasures in the kominka home of one of our partners.

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.