Tokushima's Pacific Coast: Hiwasa, Sea Turtles & the Surf Towns — 2 Days

Yakuoji, rising on a hill above the port of Hiwasa, is the 23rd temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of the most famous in the country as a temple of yakuyoke — warding off misfortune in the unlucky years that Japanese tradition assigns to certain ages. Pilgrims climb the stone stairways placing a one-yen coin on each step, one for every year of the unlucky age, so the worn steps are scattered with coins. At the top a vermilion pagoda, the Yugito, looks out over the bay and the town, and the precinct, hung with lanterns and prayer plaques, has wide views of the Pacific. It is a lively, atmospheric and very local temple, busy with real pilgrims in white, and an excellent introduction to the southern coast and the great walking pilgrimage that threads it. A short climb with a fine reward.

Grounds free, roughly 7:00-17:00; pagoda small charge. In Hiwasa, above the port. Allow about 50 minutes.

On the shore of Ohama Beach stands Caretta, the world's first museum devoted entirely to sea turtles, renewed and reopened in 2025. Named for the loggerhead, Caretta caretta, that nests on the beach outside, it keeps live turtles of several kinds in pools and tanks — including long-lived loggerheads, some raised here for decades — and tells the whole story of their life cycle, their migrations across the Pacific, and the long local effort to protect the nesting beach. Children can watch the turtles swim at eye level and learn how the females return across thousands of miles of ocean to lay their eggs on the very sand where they hatched. It is a genuinely educational, well-made family stop, and it sets up the visit to the nesting beach next door.

Admission about ¥1,000 (approx., 2026; raised at the 2025 renewal); roughly 9:00-17:00, closed Mondays. On Ohama Beach, a few minutes from Yakuoji. Allow about 70 minutes.

Ohama Beach is a clean, gently curving arc of sand backed by green headlands just below the turtle museum, and it is one of the last beaches on mainland Japan where wild loggerhead sea turtles still come ashore to nest, designated a National Natural Monument for it. By day it is simply a beautiful, quiet beach, good for a walk, a paddle and a picnic with the Pacific rolling in, and the headlands at each end give it a sheltered, enclosed feel. On summer nights from around May to August the great females haul themselves up the sand to dig and lay, an event the town protects fiercely: the beach is closed at night in season and the only way to witness it is through the managed observation programme run with the museum, with strict rules and no lights. By day, for a family, it is an easy and lovely stop after the museum.

Free, open by day; the beach is closed at night in the nesting season (roughly May-August) and turtle viewing is only through the town's managed programme. Beside the museum. Allow about 30 minutes by day.

At the far southern end of the Tokushima coast, where the prefecture meets Kochi, the Hotel Riviera Shishikui is a relaxed seaside resort hotel and the most comfortable base for the surf coast. Set on a sweep of beach with its own hot-spring bath, it has plain, sea-facing rooms, an easy family feel and a roadside hot-spring station, the Michi-no-Eki Shishikui Onsen, on the same site. It is a mid-tier resort rather than a luxury hotel — Tokushima's southern coast has nothing grander — but its position right on the water, its onsen and its proximity to the beginner surf beaches make it the natural place to stay. Dinner leans on the day's catch from the Pacific. A comfortable, unpretentious end to the first day and the base for the surf morning to come.

Half-board roughly ¥8,000-13,000 per person (approx., 2026). At Shishikui, the southern end of the coast, about 50 minutes south of Hiwasa. The day's final stop and overnight.

The southern tip of Tokushima is one of Japan's best-loved surf zones, where the warm Kuroshio current and a run of reef and beach breaks draw surfers all year, and the gentle sand beaches around Shishikui are an ideal place for beginners and families to try the sport. Surf schools based at the beaches and the roadside station rent boards and wetsuits and run lessons for first-timers, starting on the sand and moving into the small, forgiving white water close in. The water is warm well into autumn, the setting is wide and unhurried, and an hour or two of catching the broken waves on a soft foam board is a genuinely fun, active morning for older children and adults alike. The local surf community is welcoming but etiquette-conscious, so a lesson is the right way in.

Lesson with board and wetsuit roughly ¥5,000-8,000 per person (approx., 2026); book a school in advance. At the Shishikui beaches, by the hotel and roadside station. Allow about 2 hours.

Right by the beach and the hotel, the Michi-no-Eki Shishikui Onsen is the southern coast's roadside station — a combination of hot-spring bath, restaurant, local-produce shop and rest stop that makes the natural midday anchor for the day. After the surf, the onsen is the obvious reward, a warm soak with a view toward the sea to ease salt and tired arms, and the restaurant serves the southern coast's seafood and local dishes for lunch. The shop sells citrus, seaweed and other produce of the Kaiyo coast to take home. It is an easy, comfortable place to regroup before the drive back north, and being on the same site as the hotel makes it effortless to combine with the surf morning. A relaxed, practical stop with a good bath.

Onsen about ¥600 (approx., 2026); roughly 10:00-21:00, restaurant lunchtime. On the same site as the hotel at Shishikui. Allow about 75 minutes with lunch.

On the way back north, the fishing town of Mugi is the gateway to Dejima, a tiny island a fifteen-minute ferry ride offshore that is one of the most perfectly preserved old fishing communities in Japan. No cars run on Dejima — the village of weathered wooden houses, many with the distinctive 'mise-dana' fold-down shop shutters of the Meiji and Taisho eras, is a designated Important Preservation District, and life moves at the pace of the boats and the tides. A path circles the small island past a clear cove, an old lighthouse and a rare marsh plant colony, and the whole place has the stilled, salt-washed quiet of a Japan that has almost vanished elsewhere. The ferry runs only a few times a day, so the visit is paced by the timetable, but stepping off onto the car-free quay is like stepping back a century. A memorable, gentle last stop before the drive home.

Ferry about ¥440 each way (approx., 2026), only a few sailings a day — check the timetable. From Mugi port, about 30 minutes north of Shishikui. Allow about 2 hours including the crossing and a walk on the island.