Kagawa is not the obvious choice for a honeymoon in Japan. Kyoto gets the pavilion and the kaiseki; Hakone gets the mountain backdrop and the ryokan tradition. But Kagawa offers something rarer: a combination of world-class contemporary art, genuine island seclusion, traditional hot spring inns with mountain views, and one of the most beautiful bodies of water in Asia right outside the window. For couples who want a honeymoon with genuine character rather than a checklist of famous names, the prefecture rewards exactly this kind of attention.
Naoshima — Art, Sea and Seclusion
Naoshima has been described as a place where art and nature are in conversation, and after spending a night on the island it becomes clear what that phrase actually means. The galleries are set into the landscape. The sculptures are positioned where the sea and the sky frame them. The accommodation at Benesse House is not adjacent to the museums — it is the same building, so that the artworks you see at dinner are different from those you pass on the way to breakfast.
Benesse House
Benesse House is the only hotel on the island operated at a level appropriate for a honeymoon. Rooms are in one of four wings — Museum, Oval, Park, and Beach — each designed by Tadao Ando with different relationships to the water, the hillside, and the collections of art displayed throughout the building. The Museum wing is the original structure and the most architecturally considered; the Oval sits at the highest point of the property and is reached by a funicular from the main building. Rates range from around ¥50,000 to ¥80,000 or more per night for two people depending on the room type and season.
Guests have access to the Benesse House Museum outside normal public opening hours, which means the artworks can be experienced in near-silence in the early morning and late evening — a very different encounter from daytime museum visiting. The permanent collection includes works by Jasper Johns, David Hockney, Richard Long, and Bruce Nauman alongside site-specific commissions created for the building.
The hotel restaurant serves meals incorporating local Kagawa ingredients — seafood from the Seto Inland Sea, Sanuki wheat products, seasonal vegetables from nearby farms. Dinner at Benesse House should be reserved when booking accommodation.
The Chichu Art Museum and Outdoor Installations
The Chichu Art Museum, a short walk from Benesse House, is one of the finest small museums in Japan. Its five Walter De Maria spheres, three Monet Water Lilies in a purpose-built room, and James Turrell’s Open Sky piece — a room where the ceiling is open to the sky framed by a perfect square of white concrete — are worth a significant detour from anywhere in Japan. The Monet room in particular, where natural light through a skylight illuminates the paintings according to the time of day and weather, changes substantially between morning and afternoon.
Evening light on Naoshima is exceptional. The hillside paths to the southern shore give views over the Seto Inland Sea that transition from gold to deep orange as the sun sets behind the western islands. The Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin on its jetty catches the last light before darkness comes. The lack of light pollution on the island makes the night sky, seen from the Oval wing’s elevated position, a legitimate spectacle on clear nights.
Kotohira Ryokan — Mountain Hot Springs
The town of Kotohira, roughly 60 kilometres southwest of Takamatsu along the JR Dosan Line, is best known for the 785-step pilgrimage staircase to Kotohira-gu shrine. But the town also supports a cluster of traditional ryokan inns built around mountain-view hot spring bathing, several of which occupy elevated positions with direct views toward the Sanuki plain and the distant shimmer of the Seto Inland Sea. For the onsen component of a Kagawa honeymoon, Kotohira’s ryokan are among the most atmospheric options available in the prefecture.
The Ryokan Experience
A night at a Kotohira ryokan follows the traditional format: arrival in the afternoon, a private or shared onsen bath before dinner, a multi-course kaiseki meal served in the room or a private dining space, and a tatami floor sleeping arrangement with futon laid out by staff while guests are at dinner. Prices range from around ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 per person including dinner and breakfast — high by absolute standards, but comparable to what the equivalent level of food, accommodation, and service would cost in any city.
The hot spring water at Kotohira ryokan is generally a sodium-bicarbonate type, smooth on the skin and well suited to the long soaking that Japanese bath culture recommends. Many of the better inns have private in-room baths (kashikiri-buro) bookable by the hour for couples who prefer privacy over communal bathing.
The Shrine at Dawn
The practical advantage of staying in Kotohira rather than visiting as a day trip is access to the shrine approach in the early morning, before the tourist crowds arrive by train from Takamatsu. The lower sections of the staircase in the hour after dawn — when the souvenir stalls are closed, the stone path is empty, and morning mist sometimes hangs in the cedars above the first gate — carry a completely different atmosphere from the same route at midday. The shrine precinct at the top, with its views across the plain, is a quiet and private experience at this hour in a way it cannot be later in the day.
Ritsurin Garden at Dusk
Ritsurin Garden’s admission price includes the option to visit at dusk, when the crowds have largely departed and the light through the pine canopies turns amber. The south garden pond reflects the sky with particular clarity in the hour before closing. The Kikugetsu-tei teahouse serves the last orders of the day — matcha and wagashi for ¥900 per person — with tables on the veranda looking directly onto the water.
For couples who want a gentle afternoon in Takamatsu before or after the island excursions, Ritsurin Garden at its least crowded and most beautiful is one of the city’s most romantic experiences. The rental rowboats on the south pond (¥600 for 30 minutes) allow a private half-hour on the water surrounded by pine-covered islands and borrowed mountain scenery. The garden is a two-minute walk from Ritsurin-Koen Station on the Kotoden Nagao Line.
Seto Inland Sea Sunset Views
The Seto Inland Sea between Kagawa and Okayama Prefectures is at its most spectacular in the hour before sunset, when the light turns the water copper and the silhouettes of the smaller uninhabited islands stand out against a sky that ranges from pale gold near the horizon to deep blue overhead. Several vantage points in the region are worth seeking out specifically for sunset viewing.
Washuzan Hill
Washuzan Hill on the Okayama side of the Seto-Ohashi bridge crossing — reachable by bus from Kojima Station (30 minutes, ¥300 from Kojima Station on the JR Seto-Ohashi Line) — is the most celebrated sunset viewpoint in the region and technically in a neighbouring prefecture, but it is easily included in a Kagawa itinerary as a day-trip extension. The view from the hill summit takes in the full span of the Seto-Ohashi bridges against an expanse of island-dotted water. In clear weather, the scene is exceptionally beautiful.
From the Ferry
Both the Naoshima ferry from Takamatsu and the Shodo Island ferry pass through some of the most scenic sections of the inner sea, and an afternoon crossing timed to coincide with the last hour of light offers a moving, ever-changing frame for the landscape. The regular ferry to Naoshima departs Takamatsu Port in the late afternoon and arrives as the island’s western shore is receiving the last direct light of the day.
Practical Honeymoon Itinerary
A four-night Kagawa honeymoon works naturally as two nights on Naoshima (at Benesse House) and two nights in Kotohira (at a ryokan), with Takamatsu’s Ritsurin Garden and restaurants as a connector point. Day one should be an afternoon arrival at Benesse House with museum access before dinner. Day two is for the Chichu Art Museum in the morning and the island’s outdoor installations in the afternoon. Day three transfers to Kotohira — the shrine climb in the afternoon, ryokan dinner and onsen in the evening. Day four is a morning walk to the shrine before the crowds arrive, followed by late checkout and a late-afternoon return through Takamatsu.
Access: From Tokyo, the fastest approach is Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen Nozomi to Okayama (approximately 3 hours 20 minutes from Shin-Osaka, or 4 hours 15 minutes from Tokyo), then JR Marine Liner to Takamatsu (55 minutes, ¥1,490). Takamatsu is the natural base for logistics before distributing to the island and shrine accommodations.