Naruto: The Great Whirlpools & the Otsuka Museum of Art — 2 Days

The Otsuka Museum of Art is one of the great oddities of Japanese culture and far more moving than its premise suggests. Funded by the Otsuka pharmaceutical fortune, it reproduces more than a thousand masterpieces of Western art — from Pompeii frescoes and Byzantine mosaics to the Mona Lisa, Vermeer, Monet and Picasso's Guernica — at full original size on fired ceramic panels, a medium that the makers say will hold its colour for two thousand years. The result fills the largest exhibition floor space in Japan, more than four kilometres of galleries burrowed into the hillside, including a complete recreation of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and a reconstruction of the destroyed Pompeii 'Villa of the Mysteries'. Because the works are copies you may photograph and even touch them, and you can stand inches from the brushwork of paintings scattered in reality across the museums of the world. It is exhausting and exhilarating, and three or four hours is the minimum.

Admission about ¥3,300 at the door, ¥3,160 advance (approx., 2026); roughly 9:30-17:00, last entry 16:00, closed Mondays (open daily in August). On the Naruto Park headland. Allow about 3.5 hours.

At the tip of the Naruto Park headland, the Senjojiki overlook is the classic free viewpoint over the strait. From the open terrace, lined with little shops selling Naruto's golden 'kintoki' sweet potato and grilled seafood, the Onaruto Bridge leaps across the channel to Awaji Island and the tide can be seen sliding through fast below, throwing up its lines of foam and, at the right hour, the whirlpools themselves. It is the place to get your bearings before going down to the walkway or out on a boat, and the view of the great white bridge against the blue of the Inland Sea is one of the set images of Tokushima. An easy, scenic stop after the long museum.

Free, always open. On the Naruto Park headland, a few minutes from the museum. Allow about 30 minutes.

The Uzunomichi is a 450-metre walkway built into the underside of the Onaruto Bridge, running out from the Naruto shore directly above the whirlpools. You walk the steel passage some forty-five metres above the sea with the traffic rumbling overhead, and at the far end glass panels are set into the floor so that you stand looking straight down through your feet at the vortices boiling below — an exhilarating, slightly vertiginous view that no boat can give. The whole strait spreads out around you, the bridge cables soaring above and Awaji Island close across the water. Timed to a strong tide it is unforgettable; even at a quiet tide the height and the sweep of the bridge are worth the walk. It pairs perfectly with the boat, giving you the whirlpools from above as well as from the water.

Admission about ¥510 (approx., 2026); roughly 9:00-18:00, occasional inspection closures (notably March). On the Naruto Park headland. Allow about 45 minutes.

To meet the whirlpools at sea level, take a sightseeing boat out from the Naruto shore into the strait. The small, fast boats of the local operators run close in among the vortices, pitching on the standing waves and the swirling water as the tide tears through the channel beneath the Onaruto Bridge; larger ships and an underwater-windowed cruiser also work the strait. At the spring tides around new and full moon the whirlpools reach their full size and the ride is genuinely thrilling, the water boiling and folding all around the hull; at the neap tides between, the spectacle is gentler. Every operator publishes a daily timetable matched to the predicted tide, so the single most important thing on this route is to choose a sailing close to the day's peak. About twenty to thirty minutes on the water, and the close-up climax of the day.

Fare about ¥1,550-2,500 depending on the boat (approx., 2026); sailings timed to the daily tide table — check before booking, the underwater-window cruiser needs reservation and sells out. From the Naruto shore. Allow about 60 minutes including waiting and boarding.

Ryozenji, in the Bando district of Naruto, is the first temple of the Shikoku Henro, the 1,200-kilometre pilgrimage to 88 temples founded on the trail of the monk Kukai. It is here, traditionally, that the journey begins, and the temple shop is busy with departing pilgrims kitting themselves out in the white vest, conical hat and walking staff before they set out clockwise around the island. The compact precinct has a tranquil main hall hung with hundreds of lanterns, a pond and a treasure pagoda, and a quiet, expectant atmosphere quite unlike a tourist temple — you are standing at the start line of one of the world's great walking pilgrimages. Even for visitors with no plan to walk the route, it is a moving and characterful place and a fine first stop of the day.

Grounds free, roughly 7:00-17:00; pilgrim outfitting shop on site. In Bando, about 20 minutes inland from the headland. Allow about 45 minutes.

A short way from Ryozenji, Oasahiko Shrine is the first-ranked shrine of old Awa province, approached through a great torii and an avenue of trees to a hall shaded by an enormous thousand-year-old camphor. Behind the main shrine, in the woods, is one of Tokushima's most touching small monuments: the German Bridge, a graceful arched stone bridge built around 1919 by German prisoners of war. Some 950 German soldiers captured at Tsingtao were held at the nearby Bando camp, run with unusual humanity by its commander, and it was here in 1918 that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time in Japan, by the prisoners — the origin of Japan's enduring New Year tradition of the 'Daiku'. The soldiers built the bridge as a parting gift to the local people, and it still stands among the trees. Shrine and bridge together make a quiet, unexpectedly poignant stop.

Free, always open (the German Bridge is in the woods behind the main hall, viewed not crossed). In Bando, a few minutes from Ryozenji. Allow about 45 minutes.

On the way back toward the bridge, Eska Hill Naruto is a quirky, dated and genuinely fun way to end the trip: a 68-metre covered escalator, said to be one of the longest in Japan, glides up through the hillside to an observation room at the top of Mt Myoken. From the panorama deck the whole sweep of the Naruto Strait, the Onaruto Bridge, Awaji Island and the Inland Sea opens out, and on a clear day the view runs for miles. After two days down at the water and out on the boat, the high, easy overview is a satisfying way to take in the geography of it all in one go. A short, undemanding stop before the drive home.

Admission about ¥400 (approx., 2026); roughly 9:00-17:00. Near the Naruto Park headland. Allow about 40 minutes.