An island of olive groves above a calm sea
Shodoshima is an island in the Seto Inland Sea, about an hour by ferry from Takamatsu, where in the early 1900s olive trees planted by the government on trial took root for the first time in Japan. Look down over the olive groves to the sea, eat dishes made with the island's olive oil, then visit a soy sauce brewery and a rocky gorge. Early summer, when the olive trees flower, is a lovely time to go.
A hillside park planted with about 2,000 olive trees, where a white Greek-style windmill looks out over the groves to the Seto Inland Sea. Small white flowers open on the trees in early summer. Entry to the park is free.
An old olive farm whose groves slope down toward the sea, where a tree said to be the oldest olive tree in Japan still grows. The shop sells olive oil and shinzuke, young olives pickled in brine, a seasonal island treat.
A restaurant run by an olive farm, serving pasta made with the farm's own olive oil on a terrace that looks out to the sea. It opens for lunch only and closes on irregular days, so check before you go.
The lower station of a ropeway that climbs about five minutes between the rock walls of a gorge to the summit. From the top you look out over the bay with the olive groves and the islands of the Seto Inland Sea. The gorge turns red and gold in autumn, the busiest season.
A soy sauce brewery where huge cedar barrels called kioke, taller than a person, stand in rows in a storehouse from the late 1800s. Soy sauce is the island's other food specialty alongside olives, and you can step inside the storehouse and smell the soy sauce slowly aging in the wood.