This is our last full day in Shikoku and we’re keen to see the interior of the island. Without a car however, it’s not that easy to make our way to the Iya Valley, tucked away in the forested mountains south of Takamatsu, famous for beautiful landscapes, eerie deserted villages and legends of woodland spirits. I’ve only been able to work out an itinerary that gets us to Oboke Gorge, right at the entrance of the valley, where I’m hoping we will find enough within walking distance of the station to entertain us for a few hours.
The train journey there is busy and we just get a seat on the second leg in a tiny three-carriages service going through the mountains. We make it to Oboke with minimal hassle however and into the smallest station we will see in Japan. As we step out (over the rails) with just a handful of other passengers, we start to understand Shikoku’s reputation as a bit of a human desert. A few dozen houses cluster around the station, but the settlement stops quickly and soon there’s just the river and the forested slopes, with only the train tracks and an incongruously large, empty road belying human presence.
It’s a lovely sunny day and from the get-go the landscape is stunning: we’re right in the middle of spring and the steep slopes around us are covered in a multi-coloured patchwork of leaves and blossoms, forming a jewelled backdrop to the bright blue and white ribbon of the river weaving through deep in the gorge. We pick a small road climbing up the slope at random, strolling along in search of viewpoints. We do find a couple, but turn back after a few kilometres with no more signs of life - it’s feeling a bit risky to go too far.
Back to the village, we cross the river on a high, windy bridge - I enjoy the new perpectives over the gorge while Ollie, uncomfortable, waits for me on the other side after crossing at pace. Before leaving the inhabited area, we stop to get a few lunch snacks from a grocery store - including dried whitebait for Ollie, who wanted to try the iconic Top Gear snack but soon gives up after bravely powering through a few mouthfuls. We’re now heading for Lapis Oboke - supposedly the touristic hub of the area, where I have read we can expect hiking trails, a museum, and various water-rafting activities. It’s a good twenty minute’s walk on narrow pavements along the deserted road, the occasional car speeding past. We’re hemmed in by dense green forest on our left, and a steep fall into the river on our right - although views of the gorge are mostly obscured. Eventually we get to a tiny rest stop in the middle of a windswept parking lot: this must be Lapis Oboke.
It’s not quite what I expected - there is a souvenir shop, but in this very remote area there’s no hope of any information in English and so my dreams of getting a trail leaflet are quickly quashed. I was looking forward to the museum as well as this area is known for its many lively legends of woodland spirits and monsters (“yokai”) which the exhibition covers, but there isn’t much point if we can’t read any of it - and to be fair, it looks tiny anyway. We still have a couple of hours before our train back and after some frantic googling it appears there may be a trail nearby to a sculpture park: we’ll try to find that!
We set off from the rest stop and after another ten minutes along the main road, find a promising left fork. After just a few dozen meters we’re rewarded with the first yokai statue, just here by the road - and after that an increasing number of spirits appear by the wayside, from well-wishing cats to creepy monsters. We branch off on a forest path for a few hundred meters and find more mischievous statues tucked away in the woods before reuniting with the main road. We’re still unsure where this path leads though, and we don’t want to miss our afternoon train so rather than find ourselves spirited away, we turn back towards civilisation.
We don’t think we ever quite made it to the park we were aiming for but we did find a wealth of mysterious little sculptures - goal achieved! It has been a slightly eerie day out though and while the spring colours and the landscapes were gorgeous we’re quite happy to get back to the comfortingly mundane station.
Back in Takamatsu, it’s time for a drink and snacks to close out the day. Izakayas offer exactly that: beer and spirits, with an accompaniment of assorted hot snacks. It’s high time we try a restaurant again after a few days of supermarket meals and despite not finding any particularly high-rated places, we’re quite excited! Tucked away in one of the shopping arcades, our chosen izakaya is a rather boring chain establishment, but the drinks are nice, including chu-hai, an interesting mix of liquor, soda water, and pickled ginger. Right up my alley! The food is a bit more disappointing, with most of the snacks being deep-fried which is not our favourite. All in all though, it is a nice experience and we’re glad to have tried a different aspect of Japanese dining culture.
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