Kurashiki/Art islands/Hiroshima

A coastal route along the Seto Inland Sea on Japan’s Pacific ocean side offers lovely scenery of green volcanic islands, delicious seafood, and unique cultural attractions. Many of our guests stay at a luxury ryokan in Kurashiki, a former merchant town where art galleries, craft museums, and preserved warehouses line a canal encircling the city. Kurashiki is convenient for day trips (by train) to Hiroshima, site of solemn history as well as the enchanting floating shrine Miyajima, and (by ferry) to the art islands of Naoshima and Teshima, where artists have installed their works among the natural landscape and architecture. Jeans fans will also enjoy the nearby denim mecca Kojima.