KagaWow! Japan’s Smallest Prefecture Kagawa and All Its Glory

Kagawa might not be the first prefecture you think of when you think of Japan. Sure, there’s Tokyo and Kyoto, but we all know them! If I told you that despite being Japan’s smallest prefecture, little Kagawa has an amazing garden, great food, a thriving art scene, an original Japanese castle, and an official Pokémon mascot, would that pique your interest at all? Let’s get acquainted with Kagawa Prefecture and its capital city Takamatsu (高松), its art islands, its castle, and more!

The Slowpoke Prefecture… and Udon!

You may have seen Japanese Pokémon manholes or dancing Pikachu parades online, but do you know why Pokémon has these official things around Japan? Some cities and prefectures have official Pokémon mascots! Usually it’s a place that tourists don’t normally go to, so the Pokémon mascot acts as a tourism boost, which I really appreciate. Kagawa Prefecture happens to be one of them, and its official Pokémon mascot is Slowpoke. The reason? Any Pokémon fan will not be surprised to hear it’s because of a pun!

A bit of backstory, Kagawa is famous for udon noodles. So famous, in fact, that Kagawa’s nickname or slogan is Udon Prefecture (うどん県, “Udon-Ken”). If you go to Kagawa, you absolutely cannot leave without eating udon. If you have celiac disease I’ll let you off the hook, but otherwise it’s basically mandatory!

Back to Pokémon, Slowpoke’s name in Japanese is Yadon (ヤドン)… Yadon, udon… Do you get the joke? They both end with -don! Ba-dum-tss. While it might not be the funniest pun you’ve ever heard, it is kinda cute, and just roll with it because you’ll find Slowpoke stuff all around Kagawa: tons of official Slowpoke manholes, souvenirs everywhere, photo spots, taxis, trains, a special postbox in Takamatsu, and even a newly-opened Pokémon Center!

Ritsurin Garden

Perhaps the most beautiful spot in Kagawa is the stunning Ritsurin Garden (栗林公園) in Takamatsu. In fact, Ritsurin is my favorite garden in all of Japan! It’s really huge, and its expansive grounds have various sections with different features. There are several cool bridges around, lakes and a waterfall, historical buildings and a tea house, and you can go on traditional boat rides. If you’re lucky you might be there at the same time as a wedding photoshoot and you’ll get to see Japanese wedding kimono! Looking at the website, it seems that they sometimes have nighttime illumination light-up events, too, so be sure to check the website or social media. The gift shop is also quite large.

I’ve been to Ritsurin twice and enjoyed it both times. There are 2 suggested routes, a short and a long route, as well as a barrier free route, all marked on the map you’ll get at the entrance. You can also rent a wheelchair, walker, and baby stroller on site. Hours vary monthly, likely due to sunlight, so be sure to check the website for the hours as well. The best way to get to Ritsurin is by bus from Takamatsu Station or the airport, as the bus stops just outside the garden entrance.

Seto Inland Sea: Naoshima and the Art Islands

Naoshima (直島) is a world famous island… in the art community! Naoshima and several other islands are in the Seto Inland Sea (or Setouchi Kai 瀬戸内海), a region that’s famous in Japan for its beautiful scenery, and is the venue for the Setouchi Triennale art festival. Whether you’re a hardcore art fan or a casual art viewer, you can absolutely enjoy Naoshima, the main island. You can go for just a day trip from Takamatsu or stay overnight. I went for 1 day, and while I felt satisfied, I also felt like if I’d had 2 days I would have had enough to see, so it’s really up to you and your schedule. I wrote a separate blog post about renting a moped in Naoshima (it’s easier than you think, but a bicycle would be fine too), which you can read here.

In addition to Naoshima, there are other islands in the area such as Shodoshima, famous for its olive groves and Kiki’s Delivery Service-like photo spot, and many more.

Marugame Castle

Marugame Castle might not be a castle you’ve ever heard of, but it’s one of the only 12 remaining “original” Japanese castles. While the castle itself is a bit small, it’s set at the top of a huge hill in a nice park. This park is wonderful for picnicking, as there’s a lot of open space, great hilltop views, and many cherry blossom trees. I went during spring break, peak cherry blossom view, and it was great! There was a matsuri festival at the bottom of the park’s hill with the classic Japanese festival foods, and many spots for a picnic along the hill up to the castle. Even if you go outside of cherry blossom season, the views at the top of this hill next to the castle are superb, as you can see the surrounding city and beautiful bay. Sadly I arrived just as the castle was closing for the day, so I didn’t get to go in. I would’ve really liked to go inside, but seeing the views of this cool small castle set atop this wonderful hill was enough. I’d highly recommend this castle over other more famous ones if you want a castle-cherry blossom view, as it wasn’t crowded and had a nice local feeling.

The Great Setouchi Bridge

Not far from Marugame is the Seto Ōhashi Bridge, a.k.a. The Great Seto Bridge (瀬戸大橋), a very long series of double-decker bridges connecting Shikoku and Honshu Islands. Spanning a whopping 13.1 km (8.1 mi), it’s really huge, and you can cross by car or by train. Even if you don’t get to cross the bridge, just looking at it is truly awesome. You can see it, albeit at a distance, from the hilltop park at Marugame Castle, or from parks on either side of the bridge.

The Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage

One can’t talk about Shikoku Island without mentioning the famous Shikoku 88 pilgrimage. Known in English as the Shikoku 88, the Shikoku Pilgrimage, or Shikoku Henro (directly from the Japanese 四国遍路), this pilgrimage is a seemingly grueling pilgrimage that goes all around Shikoku Island with temples in all 4 of its prefectures, making for 88 temples total. Kagawa holds the last batch of temples, with temples 67 through 88 in the prefecture. I went to the first (in neighboring Tokushima Prefecture) and last temple (in Kagawa)… totally on foot, not by car, and I didn’t skip almost the entire middle at all! Alright, I confess, I’ve only been to three temples on the route, but they were very beautiful. Obviously the most traditional way to undertake the pilgrimage is on foot, but these days people do it by bus or by car, which isn’t as quick as you’d think since you have to make 88 stops along the way. Whether you’re interested in Buddhism or not, and if you want to do the whole pilgrimage or not, I’d recommend visiting at least 1 of the temples if you can for a truly authentic, traditional Japanese experience.

Zenigata Coin and Chichibugahama Beach

In western Kagawa, a bit south of Marugame, are two pretty neat landmarks. First, let’s talk about the giant sand coin that is resculpted by local residents twice yearly. Listed on Google Maps as “Zenigata Sunae (Coin-Shape Sand Art)” (銭形砂絵「寛永通宝」in Japanese), this huge sand sculpture looks amazing from atop the lookout. I didn’t go down to see it closely, but you can also do that. It’s even lit up at night until 10pm according to the city website.

Next is Chichibugahama Beach (秩父ヶ浜). This beach went a bit viral on social media some time ago for its amazing sunset photos. The reflection of the sunset on the water is stunning. However, the weather conditions have to be just right for photos to come out like the pictures you’ll see online. I went here on the way between stops during the middle of the day so I wasn’t expecting those photos, and it was a nice beach! I personally wouldn’t recommend making a huge trip for it, especially if you aren’t trying to get that perfect photo, but it was a nice stop not too far from the Zenigata Coin.

New York Pizza in Takamatsu?!

Believe it or not, I found one of the best New York style pizzas in Takamatsu at BB’s New York Slice. Any pizza fan living in Japan will know that Japanese pizza can be unique, to say the least; and that while authentic Italian style pizza is easy to find, New York style pizza isn’t really very common (other than Domino’s or Pizza Hut). Seth is here to change that! He moved from New York to Kagawa in 2014, and he opened this amazing pizzeria in February 2025 . He is a purist when it comes to making and serving New York pizza authentically and it tastes all the better for it! From classic New York pizza toppings to red pepper flakes rather than the Japanese standard Tabasco sauce, you’ll feel like you’re in New York when you take your first bite. Sometimes his young son is working the counter too, so you might be in for a cute visit when you go (sadly, I wasn’t).

Secret Spot

If you’ve read this far, I really want to thank you by sharing a secret spot in Kagawa! It’s not so secret that I’m the only one that knows about it or anything like that, but there aren’t many posts on social media about it. It’s not viral… probably because it’s super far up in the mountains! Behold, the mysterious Game Boy mailbox!

There’s a Reddit post about it, according to which this big fella used to be some sort of console in game stores or something along those lines. This definitely might be the case, because there is a power cord still attached! It’s interesting because there is a house nearby, but most houses in Japan don’t get a whole big postbox. There are some old remnants of post office markings that could denote that it was a community post box, but they could have been put there by anyone. There are papers stuffed in that look like they’ve been there for a while. I’d guess that if it were an official mailbox and was later decommissioned, the post office would have taken it down. So my theory is that maybe the owner of the house nearby or someone else put it up for fun.

Anyway, this mailbox is really hard to get to. It’s halfway up a random mountain, not really close to anything else. You absolutely need a car to get here. You can find the Google Maps pin by searching “Gameboy Mailbox” while your map is showing Kagawa Prefecture. Also, if you Google “Gameboy Mailbox,” the Reddit thread should also come up.

Getting to Kagawa

Turns out I’ve been to Kagawa three times, and each time I got there a different way! Located on the smallest of Japan’s 4 major islands, Shikoku Island, Kagawa isn’t close to Tokyo, but that doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible. In fact, it’s pretty easy to get to! The easiest way to get there from Tokyo is by flying to Takamatsu Airport. Not only is it a short (cheap) flight, but the airport has a bunch of Slowpoke stuff! Plus the airport limousine bus sometimes has a Slowpoke theme. In addition to flying, you can get a highway bus from Tokyo or Osaka; it is considerably closer to Osaka, but if you take the Tokyo night bus, you’ll sleep through the ride and be ready to go. Finally, you can get there by train, but not via shinkansen. Shikoku is known throughout Japan for not having a shinkansen, so if you like local trains, you can get there from other prefectures by train.

KagaWow!

Well, after reading all this, are you ready to go to a prefecture less traveled? Kagawa might not be at the top of the social media algorithms, but that is even more reason to go.

Links

Pokémon’s Kagawa+Slowpoke official website https://local.pokemon.jp/en/municipality/kagawa/

Pokémon Center KAGAWA https://www.pokemon.co.jp/shop/en/pokecen/kagawa/

Ritsurin Garden https://www.my-kagawa.jp/static/en/ritsurin/

Naoshima day trip blog https://aikagi-jpn.com/blog-renting-moped-japan/

Marugame Castle https://www.city.marugame.lg.jp/site/castle/

Shikoku 88 pilgrimage https://shikoku-tourism.com/en/shikoku-henro/shikoku-henro

Zenigata Coin Sand Art https://www.city.kanonji.kagawa.jp/soshiki/21/333.html

BB’s New York Slice https://www.instagram.com/bbsnyslice/