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# Shikoku by Rail: Markets, Sea Platforms, Mirror Sand
- URL: https://rk.seilent.net/shikoku-by-rail/
- Published: 2026-09-23T02:13:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-23T03:56:06.000Z
- Description: Three days on Shikoku: a 300-year Sunday market, a seaside train platform at sunset, and the Chichibugahama mirror.
- Author: seilent
- Tags: trip-plan, shikoku

Three days, Saturday to Monday in early December. You ride green cars, chase two west-facing sunsets, and eat breakfast off a market that has run since 1690\. Sunset lands around 17:00, so every outdoor stop is timed to that clock. This is the trip, hour by hour, with the clock traced through each day.

## The Ticket

It all runs on the JR Shikoku 3-day pass, green version, ¥15,000\. It covers green cars on the Shiokaze toward Matsuyama and the Nanpu toward Kochi, seat assignments taken at a counter before boarding, no cap on how many you take. No assignment means you ride non-reserved. It also covers all JR Shikoku lines, the Tosa Kuroshio Railway on ordinary reserved, and local JR buses. The Iyonada Monogatari sightseeing trains dropped off the pass in April 2025 and need their own ticket. The Sunrise Seto you cannot board at all. The Takamatsu to Tokushima Uzushio has no green car, so the best green mileage is the Shiokaze and Nanpu corridors, which is where this plan spends its seats.

## Day 1, Saturday: Okayama to Kochi

### Nanpu 1, Okayama 07:08

You board the Nanpu 1 at Okayama at 07:08 and settle in for the run south. Zentsuji arrives at about 08:00\. From here the midday splits two ways, and you pick your pace before you step off the platform. Either route lands you at Chichibugahama for the same sunset and the same evening Nanpu to Kochi.

Easy paceClimb Konpira

### Zentsu-ji, temple 75, from \~08:15

You walk the ten minutes from Zentsuji station to the gate in the cold, at the gate by about 08:15, the air still sharp from the night. This is Kukai's birthplace, one of the big three Kobo Daishi sites, and at this hour it is nearly empty. A five-storey pagoda, camphor trees older than the buildings around them, the Tanjo-in hall, all free to wander. You give it a slow ninety minutes and are back at the platform by about 09:45\. It is a working pilgrimage temple, not a show. Konpira-san up the line is where the winter crowds go. Here it is just you and the cold and the smell of incense.

![Great camphor tree in the Zentsu-ji temple grounds](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/zentsuji-1.jpg)

Great camphor tree in the Zentsu-ji temple grounds (photo: with photograph)

![Gosha Myojin great camphor tree at Zentsu-ji](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/zentsuji-2.jpg)

Gosha Myojin great camphor tree at Zentsu-ji (photo: with photograph)

![Five-story pagoda at Zentsu-ji](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/zentsuji-3.jpg)

Five-story pagoda at Zentsu-ji (photo: Rakudoraboon)

### Udon near Kotohira, then the omotesando at street level

A short Dosan local drops you at Kotohira, roughly five minutes down the line, departures about hourly so you catch the \~09:50 or the one after. You take a sanuki udon lunch near the station, then walk the omotesando approach at street level, the shopfronts and the sweet-smell of the shops, no steps. This is the easy trade: you keep the long temple morning and the slow lunch, and skip the 785-step haul above you.

### Early local to Takuma, unhurried Chichibugahama

You take an early westbound local, Kotohira to Tadotsu to Takuma, about thirty-five to forty-five minutes with the change at Tadotsu. Because you left Kotohira early you reach Takuma with time to spare, and Takuma to the beach is about twenty minutes by the Nio Line community bus, which runs on a Saturday, or by taxi as the day-any fallback. You get to the 父母ヶ浜 port with cafe time in hand before golden hour, a coffee while the tide draws back, on the wet sand by about 15:30 with the \~16:55 sunset still ahead.

### Konpira-san, the 785 steps

You ride one Dosan local past Zentsuji to Kotohira, in by about 10:15, and point yourself at the stone stairs of Konpira-san. This block replaces the long Zentsu-ji morning and the port-cafe slack: the climb with an udon lunch worked in eats two and a half to three hours, so you are back down and leaving Kotohira by about 13:30, and you reach Chichibugahama closer to the sunset with no coffee time to spare.

It is 785 steps to the main shrine, 1,368 if you push on to the inner shrine. The honest warning is that this is a real stamina hit in the cold, and the upper flights are steep and uneven. What you get for it is the view back over the Sanuki plain and, at the top, the shrine that has drawn winter pilgrims for centuries. If your legs or the weather say no, the easy-pace route above costs you nothing and keeps the beach cafe time.

![Stone steps toward the inner shrine of Konpira-san](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/konpira-3.jpg)

The stone steps toward the inner shrine (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

![Konpira-san in November color](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/konpira-1.jpg)

Konpira-san in November color (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

![Shrine buildings on the mountainside at Konpira-san](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/konpira-2.jpg)

Shrine buildings on the mountainside (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

### Chichibugahama, sunset

You arrive to what looks, at first, like an ordinary wide swimming beach. A 4travel reviewer from 2024 says exactly that, and then what happened:

> At first I honestly wondered where the "Uyuni" was, it's just a wide flat ordinary swimming beach. As dusk fell the tide pools started reflecting the clouds and it turned magical, but that day some wind came up and the sky's reflection was poor.

That is the gamble in one paragraph. The mirror shows up roughly thirty minutes either side of the moment low tide meets sunset, and it needs a windless calm to hold. If the wind is up, the mirror is off. You stand on the wet sand around 16:30, the sky doubling under your feet if the Seto evening cooperates, and you take the shot you came for. It made Japan's Top 100 Sunsets. There are foot-wash taps on site for the mud.

![Sunset reflection over the tidal flats at Chichibugahama](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/chichibugahama-2.jpg)

Sunset reflection over the tidal flats at Chichibugahama (photo: note.com)

![Person jumping with the figure doubled in the wet-sand reflection](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/chichibugahama-3.jpg)

Person jumping with the figure doubled in the wet-sand reflection (photo: Rakudoraboon)

### Nanpu, green car to Kochi

After sunset, about 17:10, you head back to Takuma by taxi and take a local to Tadotsu, roughly fifteen minutes. The seat you booked the pass for is the Nanpu south out of Tadotsu at 18:51, and it reaches Kochi at about 20:50\. That leaves a comfortable buffer after the sunset: taxi, one local, and a short wait, with slack to spare. The Nanpu waits in its Anpanman livery, and you take the counter slip into the half-room green cabin at the front of the lead car: deep red seats, two and one across, room to recline. You settle in as the train climbs onto the Dosan line mountain section. Somewhere below, the Koboke gorge scrolls past the window, the river a paler line in the last light before the tunnels swallow it.

![2700 series Nanpu in Anpanman livery at the platform](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/train-nanpu-ext-1.jpg)

2700 series Nanpu in Anpanman livery at the platform before departure for Kochi (photo: ameblo.jp/isigaki1121)

![Green car interior of the 2700 series Nanpu with deep red seats](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/train-nanpu-green-1.jpg)

Green car of the 2700 series Nanpu, deep red seats in a 2 plus 1 layout in the front half of the lead car (photo: ameblo.jp/isigaki1121)

![Entrance deck to the half-room green cabin of the Nanpu](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/train-nanpu-green-2.jpg)

Entrance to the half-room green cabin of the 2700 series Nanpu (photo: ameblo.jp/isigaki1121)

![Koboke gorge seen from the Nanpu train window](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/train-dosan-kobore-1.jpg)

Koboke gorge seen from the Nanpu window on the Dosan line mountain section (photo: ameblo.jp/isigaki1121)

### Kochi, yokocho night

You get off in Kochi around 20:50 and walk into the Obiyamachi and Otesuji yokocho stalls, which the town guide frames as the calmer local alternative to Hirome Market, the indoor food hall by the castle that has turned into a tourist crush. If the stalls are full, Hirome is the backup. Bed is Katsuo Guest House, a futon dorm at about ¥3,000 to ¥3,500, twelve minutes on foot from the JR Kochi north exit, shared bath.

## Day 2, Sunday: Kochi to Matsuyama

### Kochi Sunday Market, morning

This is why the trip has to straddle a Sunday. The market has run on Otesuji since 1690, about a kilometre of roughly 300 stalls east of the castle: yuzu, tosa knives, local produce, imo-ten still warm from the fryer. You walk the stalls from about 07:00, eating breakfast off them the way it has been done for three centuries, and give it two hours before the train. Otesuji is ten to fifteen minutes from JR Kochi by tram or on foot.

![Stalls lining Otesuji street at the Kochi Sunday Market](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/kochi-market-1.jpg)

Stalls lining Otesuji street at the Kochi Sunday Market (photo: Kochike)

![Produce stalls at the Kochi Sunday Market](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/kochi-market-2.jpg)

Produce stalls at the Kochi Sunday Market (photo: Kochike)

### Kochi \~10:00, the transfer at Utazu

You take a Nanpu north out of Kochi around 10:00 and change onto the Shiokaze toward Matsuyama at Utazu, a small station where you cross the platform with your bag and find the next green car. The whole run is about three hours forty, most of it in the reclined seat with the Seto light coming and going at the windows. This is the leg you lounge through on purpose, into Matsuyama around 14:30.

![Utazu station building, the transfer point onto the Nanpu](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/train-utazu-station-1.jpg)

Utazu station, the transfer point onto the Nanpu (photo: ameblo.jp/isigaki1121)

### Matsuyama \~14:30, the train you cannot miss

You reach Matsuyama about 14:30 with the whole afternoon pinned to one departure: the coastal local to Shimonada leaves Matsuyama at 15:46, and you build backward from it. The tram runs Dogo way in about twenty-five minutes, so you drop your bag at the Dogo hostel, then swing through the Okaido arcade for a coffee. The buffer here is thin, about seventy minutes of which the tram eats most, so keep the bag drop quick and be back on the Matsuyama platform by 15:40\. If the arrival slips, skip the Dogo run and hold the bag. The 15:46 is the one train the day cannot afford to lose.

### Iyonada coast local, Matsuyama 15:46

You drop off the express onto a single-car kiha local, and here the routing matters. You take the old coastal Ai-naru Iyonada line via Nagahama, not the Uchiko shinsen. The Uwakai runs the inland Uchiko line and never reaches the coast. Matsuyama 15:46, change at Iyoshi, 16:05 in and 16:12 out, Shimonada at 16:38\. There is no ticket machine and no IC reader at Shimonada, so you buy the round trip at Matsuyama from a paper machine before you leave, ¥630 one way. The track winds down to the shore and the Iyonada sea opens up at the window, close enough to feel.

![Coastal Yosan line local train running along the Iyonada shore](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/train-iyonada-1.jpg)

KiHa 185 series 3000 running the coastal Yosan line, the track winding along the Iyonada shore near Kushi (photo: ameblo.jp/ycrailwaygold)

### Shimonada, sunset at 16:38 arrival

You step down at Shimonada at 16:38, an unmanned station where the platform sits at the very edge of the Iyonada sea, the one off years of Seishun-18 kippu posters. Sunset lands about 17:01, so you have some twenty minutes on the platform before the sky goes. An Ehime-native blogger who has been many times, writing for cal-traveler in 2026, puts it plainly:

> The platform and the sea are extremely close. Especially at sunset the view is dreamlike. It's an unmanned station but on weekends it's packed. I've been many times and never get tired of it.

Packed is the honest part. Instagram fame means you will not have it to yourself on a clear weekend, the locals ask visitors not to park on the road, and there is no convenience store, only a vending machine and a toilet. It faces west and December works, but it is cold with nowhere indoor to wait. You watch the sun drop into the sea, then catch the return: Shimonada 17:49, no transfer, Matsuyama at 18:30\. The wait after sunset is under an hour, and this is the linchpin of the day, so confirm both trains before you go.

![Shimonada Station platform facing the Iyo-nada sea](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/shimonada-1.jpg)

Shimonada Station platform facing the Iyo-nada sea (photo: ava-intel travel)

![Sunset over the Iyo-nada sea near Shimonada](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/shimonada-2.jpg)

Sunset over the Iyo-nada sea near Shimonada (photo: ava-intel travel)

![Coastal rail line along the sea at dusk near Shimonada](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/shimonada-3.jpg)

Coastal rail line along the sea at dusk near Shimonada (photo: ava-intel travel)

### Dogo Onsen, from \~18:55

Matsuyama 18:30, then the tram to Dogo puts you at the bath around 18:55\. You finish the day at Dogo Onsen Honkan, reopened July 2024 after a five and a half year conservation, the Kami-no-yu bath about ¥700\. The reviews split on what the work did to it. One bather at the reopening, quoted by mainichi.jp:

> The Honkan felt great with its high ceilings and sense of openness.

And a note.com onsen blogger in 2026, less sold:

> The 2024 renovation made it look too clean, the old-school charm has faded a bit, a slight feeling of an Arabian shopping street built for DisneySea.

Weekend evenings queue, so a weekday night is easier, or you walk five minutes to Tsubaki-no-Yu, the locals' bath at about ¥450\. Your bag is already at Cinnamon Guesthouse Dogo, a clean dorm at about ¥3,000 to ¥4,000, four minutes from the Dogo tram, or Fujiya Guest House for the cheapest bed closest to the Honkan.

![Exterior of Dogo Onsen Honkan](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/dogo-1.jpg)

Exterior of Dogo Onsen Honkan (photo: Dogo Onsen official)

![Dogo Onsen Honkan lit up at night](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/dogo-2.jpg)

Dogo Onsen Honkan lit up at night (photo: useless-landscape nightview)

## Day 3, Monday: the last day west or east

The last day splits again. The main route is the quiet wax-merchant town of Uchiko, southwest of Matsuyama. The alternative trades it whole for the Unpenji ropeway on the ride home, since the two do not fit the same day.

UchikoUnpenji ropeway

### Uchiko old town, morning

You take the limited express Uwakai from Matsuyama around 09:00, about twenty-five minutes to Uchiko, then a fifteen minute walk to the old street. This is a preserved Edo-to-Meiji merchant town built on the wax trade, the compact and least-trafficked of Ehime's retro townscapes. You walk the Yokaichi-Gokoku street past the wax-merchant houses like the Kami-Haga residence, low eaves and plastered walls in the morning quiet, two to three hours here. One thing to plan around: the Uchiko-za theatre is closed for preservation from September 2024 for about four years, so the interior is out until roughly 2028, only the backstage exhibits open. The street, the wax houses, and the museums are unaffected.

![Yokaichi old street of preserved merchant houses in Uchiko](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/uchiko-1.jpg)

Yokaichi old street of preserved merchant houses in Uchiko (photo: Jeepe)

![Preserved townscape in the Yokaichi-Gokoku district of Uchiko](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/uchiko-2.webp)

Preserved townscape in the Yokaichi-Gokoku district of Uchiko (photo: Jeepe)

### Green car east

You take the Uwakai the twenty-five minutes back to Matsuyama, then the Shiokaze green car east toward home, about two hours forty to Okayama. The seat carries you out on the same corridor you rode in on, the Seto light on the water one more time.

### Unpenji ropeway, temple 66

This block replaces Uchiko entirely, because backtracking to Uchiko and then out to Unpenji does not fit one day. You ride the Shiokaze east from Matsuyama and break the ride near Kan'onji. From JR Kan'onji you take a taxi to the ropeway base, then seven minutes up to the 920 m summit and temple 66, with a sky swing and photo frames over the Sanuki plain and the Seto Inland Sea, called a hit on SNS by Kan'onji tourism staff. December is cold and snow is possible up there, which only adds to it. Winter hours run roughly 8:00 to 17:20, last car down at 17:20.

The catch is access and cost. There is no convenient bus to the base, so the taxi from Kan'onji station is the only practical link, and its fare is unconfirmed, so budget it loosely and check before you rely on it. Half a day with the transfer, then the Shiokaze green seat carries you the rest of the way to Okayama, about two hours forty.

![Unpenji temple grounds in November](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/unpenji-1.jpg)

Unpenji temple grounds in November (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

![The 500 rakan statues at Unpenji in late-autumn frost](https://rk.seilent.net/content/images/2026/09/unpenji-2.jpg)

The 500 rakan statues in late-autumn frost (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

## Rough Budget

All figures approximate, solo traveler, per the plan above.

| Item                         | Approximate cost        |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------- |
| JR Shikoku 3-day pass, green | ¥15,000                 |
| 2 nights lodging (dorms)     | \~¥6,500                |
| Food                         | \~¥6,500                |
| Local buses and taxi         | \~¥3,000                |
| Baths and entries            | \~¥2,000                |
| Total                        | ≈ ¥33,000 (approximate) |

## Honest Caveats

- The Chichibugahama mirror is a lottery. It needs low tide, a windless calm, and a clear sky to line up at sunset. If the wind is up, the mirror is off, that is the gamble.
- Shimonada runs only about nine trains each way per day. Verify the 15:46 outbound and the 17:49 return closer to the date, and buy the round trip at Matsuyama since there are no IC cards or machines at the station.
- A December timetable revision is expected, so treat all times here as the current pattern and reconfirm the exact minutes before travel.
- Items marked with \~ are approximate and not yet confirmed for a Saturday or a December date: the Kotohira locals, the Takuma community bus afternoon minutes, the Kochi Sunday market opening, the Sunday Kochi Nanpu departure and Utazu transfer, and the Monday Uwakai and Shiokaze minutes. Check the timetable closer to the date.
- The Unpenji taxi fare from Kan'onji is unconfirmed. Budget it loosely and confirm before relying on it.
- The Kochi Sunday Market runs Sundays only, which is why day 2 has to land on a Sunday and the whole trip is built Saturday to Monday.
- The Oku-Iya double vine bridges are winter-closed December 1 to March 31, and the deep-Iya buses are too sparse for a car-free December, so they are not in this plan.
- Sunset is around 17:00, so stand at any sunset spot by about 16:30\. The days are short and the outdoor stops are cold with little shelter.