About

Shikoku is the fourth-largest of Japan’s main islands, and the one most visitors never reach. That’s what this site is about.

I go by Mr. T. I grew up in Takamatsu, in Kagawa Prefecture, and I’ve lived in Kochi, Japan for fifteen years. I’ve spent time in all four of Shikoku’s prefectures — Kagawa, Tokushima, Ehime, and Kochi — not as a tourist passing through, but as someone who does the grocery shopping here.

Most English-language information about Shikoku is thin, out of date, or copied from somewhere else. The details that actually matter — which market stalls open on which mornings, whether you really need a car, what to do when the last bus has gone — exist only in Japanese, if they’re written down at all. Closing that gap is the point of this site.

I also write about the history behind these places, because Shikoku’s past explains a lot about how it feels today.

Everything here is based on places I’ve been to myself, and the photographs are my own. Where I haven’t been somewhere, I say so.

Kochi will get its first Marriott hotel in 2028 — the first in Shikoku. More people will come. I’d like them to arrive knowing where they are.

Questions and corrections are welcome: info@insideshikoku.com