There is a long tradition in Japan of travelling alone on purpose. The henro — the walking pilgrim in white who completes the Shikoku 88-temple circuit — is perhaps the most recognised form of this tradition, but the underlying impulse appears in many forms across Japanese culture: the solo hike, the midnight bridge visit, the single traveller eating at a counter watching the cook work. Tokushima, as the starting prefecture of the 88-temple circuit, has been welcoming solitary travellers for over a thousand years. The infrastructure for solo travel here — the pilgrimage guesthouses, the quiet ryokan that accommodate one person without surcharges, the cycling routes, the mountain paths — is quietly excellent. This guide covers the best solo travel experiences the prefecture offers.
The Shikoku 88-Temple Pilgrimage — Starting in Tokushima
The Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage was formalised around the wandering path of the Buddhist monk Kukai (posthumously known as Kobo Daishi), who was born on Shikoku in 774 CE. The complete circuit visits 88 temples associated with Kukai’s spiritual journey and covers roughly 1,200 kilometres around the perimeter of the island. Walking the entire route takes between 30 and 45 days for fit walkers. But the pilgrimage is also designed to be walked in segments, and Tokushima holds the first 23 temples — the “Awakening” section (Hosshin no Dojo) — which can be walked as a meaningful standalone journey of approximately seven to ten days.
Temple 1, Ryozen-ji, is in Bando, approximately 15 minutes from Tokushima Station by the JR Naruto Line. This is where every pilgrim begins. The temple sells the white pilgrim’s jacket (hakui, ¥1,500 to ¥2,000), the wooden walking staff (kongotsue, approximately ¥1,500), the pilgrim’s book (nokyocho, ¥1,200 to ¥2,500), and all the other equipment of the walk. The staff is said to embody Kobo Daishi himself — a comforting presence for solo walkers navigating unfamiliar terrain in all weathers.
The First Five Temples
The first five temples are grouped within the Naruto area and are easily walkable in a single day of moderate effort. Ryozen-ji (Temple 1) to Jizo-ji (Temple 5) covers approximately 12 kilometres and passes through suburban farmland and quiet residential streets. The walking route is marked with small red and white arrows on road signs and telephone poles — less dramatic than the famous henro markings on mountain paths, but reliable.
At each temple, the standard sequence is: wash hands at the purification fountain, ring the bell (one ring on arrival), light a candle and incense stick, place your offering, chant the Heart Sutra, and receive the temple stamp in your pilgrim book. The stamp (¥300 per temple) is applied while you wait by the temple’s stamp keeper. The ritual is identical at every temple, and the repetition across dozens of visits becomes meditative rather than monotonous.
Shukubo — Pilgrimage Guesthouses
The solo traveller’s accommodation of choice on the pilgrimage is the shukubo — temple lodgings operated by many of the 88 temples themselves, or purpose-built pilgrim guesthouses (zenkonyado or simple minshuku) along the route. Prices for a basic shukubo room with dinner and breakfast typically range from ¥5,000 to ¥8,000 per person. Some zenkonyado (volunteer guesthouses) are provided entirely free of charge as an act of osettai — the Shikoku tradition of giving unsolicited gifts or aid to pilgrims.
The social aspect of pilgrimage guesthouses suits solo travellers particularly well. Dinner is often served at a communal table where walkers of different ages, nationalities, and motivations find themselves talking across the usual social barriers. Conversations that begin over miso soup and pickled vegetables often continue for days along the route, as walkers naturally pace together.
Cycling the Yoshino River Valley
For solo travellers who prefer a more secular form of slow movement, the Yoshino River valley offers a cycling route that runs roughly 80 kilometres from the river mouth at Tokushima City westward through the valley to Awa-Ikeda. The riverside levee roads are paved, largely traffic-free, and flat enough for riders of ordinary fitness to cover 30 to 40 kilometres per day comfortably.
The old merchant town of Wakimachi, approximately 50 kilometres upstream, rewards the journey with a preserved street of traditional udatsu merchant houses — the high fireproof walls between buildings that signified a merchant’s wealth are still intact here, giving the main street a visual character found nowhere else in Tokushima. A morning stop for coffee at one of the town’s small cafés, and time wandering the back lanes between the old warehouses, is one of the pleasures of moving at cycling pace rather than train speed.
Bicycle Rental
Bicycle rental is available in Tokushima City at several shops near Tokushima Station, with daily rates typically starting at ¥1,000 to ¥2,000 for a standard or electric-assist bicycle. Several guesthouses and business hotels in the valley towns also offer bicycles for guest use or can arrange rentals. The electric-assist option is worth the slightly higher daily rate for solo travellers carrying a bag, particularly on windier days when the river valley creates headwinds from the west.
Tatsuedaji and Kakurinji — Mountain Temple Solitude
Two of Tokushima’s 88-temple circuit temples offer experiences well beyond their pilgrimage function. Tatsuedaji (Temple 19), located in the agricultural plain between Tokushima City and Awa-Ikeda, is celebrated for its unusual approach: a long, flat causeway lined with stone lanterns and pilgrim Jizo figures leads to the main gate, and at certain times of morning — particularly in the mist of early October — the effect is one of the most atmospheric temple approaches in Shikoku.
Kakurinji (Temple 20), 12 kilometres east of Tatsuedaji, is a completely different experience. It sits at 450 metres elevation in dense forest on the slopes of Tsurugisan, and its popular name — Kakurin-ji, the “Hidden Forest Temple” — describes the experience of arriving there accurately. The approach path climbs through old cedar and cypress that grow close together, the sound of the valley disappears, and the temple buildings that eventually emerge from the trees feel genuinely discovered rather than arrived at. For solo travellers who respond to the atmosphere of isolated sacred sites, Kakurinji is one of Tokushima’s most rewarding destinations.
The temple is accessible by car from the Tokushima Line (Anabuki Station, followed by a 30-minute drive or a two-hour walk on the pilgrimage path). If walking the pilgrimage route on foot, the mountain approach trail from Tatsuedaji to Kakurinji is one of the more demanding half-days in the early stages of the circuit.
Iya Valley for the Solo Traveller
The Iya Valley, in the mountain interior of Tokushima, rewards solo travel more than almost any other kind. The landscape is not interactive in the tourist-experience sense — there are no activity parks or guided experiences built around it. It simply exists, at a scale and with a quality of silence that the solo traveller has direct access to and a group visit dilutes.
Walking the secondary paths between Iya villages — many of them old agricultural paths that predate the motor roads — takes the solo walker through chestnut groves, past stone water channels cut into the hillside, and occasionally to viewpoints where the full depth of the gorge below is visible. The main Kazurabashi vine bridge (¥550 entry) is worth the visit even for those who have seen photographs; the sensation of the bridge moving underfoot, with the Iya River far below, is something photographs do not convey.
Accommodation in Iya ranges from simple guesthouses at around ¥5,000 per person with meals to the luxury ryokan at ¥30,000 to ¥50,000 per person. Solo travellers on a budget will find the mid-range option of a traditional farmhouse guesthouse at ¥8,000 to ¥15,000 per person the best balance of authenticity and value.
Practical Information
Getting to Tokushima from Osaka takes 1.5 hours by the JR Uzushio limited express (change at Okayama for the Seto Ohashi Bridge crossing). Highway buses from Osaka and Kobe cost roughly ¥2,000 to ¥3,000 one-way and take about two hours. From Tokyo, the Shinkansen to Okayama followed by the Uzushio limited express takes four to five hours total. The JR Shikoku Pass (5-day version, approximately ¥10,800) covers unlimited travel on JR lines across Shikoku and is good value for solo travellers covering multiple areas.
Within Tokushima, buses serve the pilgrimage route between major temple clusters. For Iya Valley, a rental car from Tokushima Station (from ¥5,000/day) gives the independence that makes the mountain interior fully accessible.