Shikoku Tours — Local services in Matsuyama

I contacted Shikoku tours enquiring about an experience with Geisha after having searched multiple websites and being unsuccessful or having little to no human interaction. Finally we found Shikoku Tours and with the help of their team who displayed fantastic communication skills we got the ball rolling and were able to organise an experience that was catered to our needs of experiencing a traditional cultural arts night at Hanahimerou, Matsuyamas prestigious Geisha house.

From the onset Shikoku Tours was fantastic as they even organised for us to be in formal Kimono for my partner and I at our request. And this is what I mean when I say they catered to our request. They helped organise a meeting with a talented team. Organising the Kimono dresser and hair stylist to attend our hotel in the afternoon, this add on was reasonably priced and the service was exceptional. I would love to thank the ladies who attended the hotel to help us get ready! We then went for a short walk through Matsuyama while the sun was setting to have a small shopping session in our kimono. My partners was a beautiful Navy Colour. I was very happy with the beautiful Kimono provided. The hair stylist was also exceptional and provided a beautiful hair do with some florals and braids. Very lovely. Once our walk was completed we headed towards Hanahimerou. Once we arrived we met the famous Akebono Seki, the proprietress of the establishment. We had told staff at the hotel that we were attending Hanahimerou and they said we would have a fantastic time. Her reputation in town is renowned, a beautiful lady with a fantastic sense of humour and very graceful proprietress. Accompanied by the beautiful Geisha Sakichi! She is a talented dancer and an amazing teacher, with her patience we were able to have a go at learning the Shamisen. And thank you to Shikoku tours for ensuring we had a very lovely English speaking guide Ms Tomikubo present. The evening was really lovely. It was fantastic to hear that Sakichi had attended University in Australia, she is a commodity with her language skills and an educated woman. We enjoyed a fantastic multi course dinner and laughed over Sake and Kirin beers. We played games and I managed to lose so I had to drink up. Sakichi’s traditional dancing skills took us back to more traditional times, her Kimono was simply marvellous. She was in fact a walking piece of art showing us cultural traditional dances and Japanese hospitality. My husband said it was the best night of our entire month long trip to Japan and it was exceptionally memorable. I am glad that we came to Shikoku for this experience. We will come back again as Shikoku has so much beauty to offer. Thank you to all that were involved at Shikoku tours for organising this amazing evening! I highly recommend this business as a means to experience Shikoku! Shikoku is a fantastic destination and I am glad this business helped us to experience its beauty, culture and flavours! Grab a Mikan juice and come and sit in the sun and beautiful weather!

Thank you to Rob and Ayakasan for organising...

We asked Aiko and Rod at Shikoku Tours to customize a hiking tour of some of Shikoku’s most beautiful temples and shrines. Our demands were very specific and complicated. We wanted challenging hikes with beautiful views, we wanted to stay in Onsen (traditional Japanese hotels), and we wanted to limit our time driving in a van while we were there. Aiko developed an amazing itinerary the met all of our requirements. When we found the hikes to be too difficult because we had overestimated our abilities, Shikoku Tours seamlessly adjusted our hikes and activities. Aiko was able to book us into a variety of accommodations: a small local hotel, a stay at a rooming house (traditional Japanese home with home cooked meals and tatami mats and futons) and a larger hotel at the end of our tour. Our hiking/cultural guide, Tomo, was beyond amazing. She was the most competent hiker I have ever seen—easily climbing the hikes while carrying supplies of whatever we needed—water, electrolytes, etc. She was encouraging and reassuring. Tomo had a complete knowledge of Shikoku history and the cultural and religious significance of all the temples and shrines. Tomo’s English is impeccable and she researched and answered all of our questions. On our mountain hike, Shikoku Tours provided us which a mountain hike specialist in addition to Tomo. Amazing!! Our driver, Toshi, was an incredible driver. He negotiated the van on tiny roads with precision and confidence. He could not have been better. I cannot recommend Shikoku Tours more highly. It is scary coming so far and trusting a company to provide you with top quality service. Shikoku Tours more than fulfilled our expectations at a very reasonable price. To further illustrate Shikoku Tours devotion to Shikoku Island, Rod (Shikoku Tour’s President/Owner) has spent 30 years writing up summaries of the Temples and Shrines in Shikoku. You can find these summaries on the Shikoku Tours website or...

Last July, we decided that we wanted to hike a portion of the 88 Temple walk in Shikoku, Japan, in the Fall. After researching available tours on the internet, we contacted Shikoku Tours and discovered that we could customize a tour with a guide and a van with a driver. We worked directly with Rod at Shikoku Tours by email and agreed on a tour to include over 20 temples in all prefectures of Shikoku over an 8 day period in October at a price that was acceptable for all of us. We booked our own flights over on Japan Airlines to Tokyo Haneda with a 2 hour layover and connecting JAL flight to Matsuyama. The connections were flawless and the hotel in Matsuyama which was booked by Shikoku Tours was an excellent choice. We enjoyed a free day there and then met our guide and driver the next morning. Tomo was our guide and Toshi was our driver for the next 8 days. Tomo was the best individual guide we had ever worked with in many years of travel all over the world. She was very knowledgeable, organized, friendly, caring, and helpful. Toshi was an excellent driver and the new van was always spotless. We hiked every day between temples and visited on average 4 temples a day with our extensive hiking and rides in the van. It was all an incredible and flawless adventure and so amazing to visit remote temples hundreds of years old and with hardly any visitors. In fact, with Tomo’s help, we exceeded our goal and visited 28 temples and really were introduced to so much more in Shikoku, including a stay in a 200 year old house in a small fishing village on the coast. . Shikoku Tours did an excellent job in arranging everything for us, in supplying a truly excellent guide and in making us really want to return to Shikoku to visit more of the 88 temples with Shikoku Tours. Highly...