Setouchi Tours

25/05/2025

Some snaps from a recent tour that dropped in on the birdlife of Ine, Kyoto prefecture on the Sea of Japan. Ine is known for its boathouses built on the shoreline, but the seagulls and kites that follow the pleasure boats in the bay rather steal the show.

24/04/2025

The Otsuka Museum of Art in Naruto is a creation of the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company. Art dating back to prehistory has been accurately reproduced on ceramic tiles of all things and arranged by age and theme in almost endless galleries. It sounds awful, but it isn’t. It’s actually far more enjoyable than Naoshima and the other ‘art islands’. If you like real art, you’re sure to encounter many old friends here.

20/04/2025

Check out our Shikoku Castles and Culture tour, visiting all four prefectures of the island.

01/04/2025

Spring in Japan is known for its cherry blossoms, but in the Setouchi region, the sakura is just one of a huge variety of flowers that bloom at this time of year.

24/03/2025

https://setouchitours.com/blog-posts/kimono-culture/

Imabari is one of the crossroads of the Setouchi region and home of our favourite kimono shops. Here you can dress in kimono, try your hand at the tea ceremony and flower arranging, and shop for reasonably priced antiques.

17/03/2025

Just a small selection of the delicious and varied foods of Setouchi we’ve been enjoying around the region in the late winter. A couple of dishes were entirely new to me — tomatoes cooked with rice and broth, and okonomiyaki topped with habanero. What an adventure!

10/03/2025

We've all seen a samurai flick or two. There's one called 'Sh**un' or something doing the rounds now. Have you never wanted to, you know, put on a kimono and wave a sword about? Well, at Setouchi Tours, we have just the program for that. You can spend the whole day 'in character', and there's a professional photographer to capture it. There's even a professional swordsman to show you how not to hold your sword. Even if cosplaying isn't in your DNA, you're sure to have fun and learn something from this experience.

20/02/2025

The Seto Inland Sea is the heart of the Setouchi region, and it’s crisscrossed by ferry routes linking Honshu to Shikoku and the many small islands in between. A ride on one of the high speed ferries or a slower car ferry is a great way to enjoy the scenery of the Inland Sea.

13/02/2025

Mt. Sōko is a 356 m high mountain accessed through Mitaki Temple on the northeastern outskirts of Hiroshima city. The temple is full of exquisite statuary, and the view from the mountaintop over Hiroshima and the Inland Sea is remarkable. On our guided tour, you can learn how temples protected the castle town of Hiroshima from bad luck, and the culture that flourished in the centuries before 1945.

11/02/2025

Taketsuru Masataka and his Scottish wife Rita Cowan, at Takehara in Hiroshima Prefecture. Raised in a sake brewing family, he travelled to Scotland in 1918 to learn the process of distilling Scotch whisky first hand, returning to found Nikka Whisky. Consequently, he’s known as the father of Japanese whisky.

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.