Samurai TourCycle Mount Fuji and the Islands of Honshu & Shikoku

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Wherever we travel in Japan we are never far from another great meal. Each region, sometimes even each restaurant specialise in a particular dish having spent generations perfecting it. Many of our meals are as much a cultural experience as they are a culinary one, with multiple courses, each carefully created into a piece of edible art.

On both islands, we don’t have to travel far to discover that Japanese cuisine is deeply varied. The hearty hotpots and grilled freshwater fish of the alps and the mountains of Shikoku dramatically differ from the varied and abundant seafood with its fresh delicate sushi of the Noto Peninsula. It’s also intensely seasonal, meaning you can visit in spring and again in fall and experience totally new tastes.

The name “Shikoku” means “four provinces”, which refers to the island’s four prefectures—Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, and Ehime. The mountains created natural barriers that separated the four provinces, keeping them fairly isolated from each other. This allowed each area to develop its own unique food culture.

The Kagawa province, in the North East of the Island, is famous for its Udon noodles, made from the locally-produced flour, and recognisable from its square shape and flat edges. You’ll see these on menus as Sanuki Udon, because the Kagawa prefecture was previously called Sanuki Province.

Tokushima ramen, comes in different shades of dark brown, yellow and white, depending on whether pork, chicken or vegetable broth is used, and whether dark or light soy sauce is used. It is topped with slices of pork ribs, spring onions, and a raw egg that cooks in the hot soup.

Katsuo Tataki is a very popular dish. Fresh Skipjack/Bonito tuna is seared on the outside on a straw fire, then thinly sliced, garnished with ginger, and eaten like sashimi. This is a Shikoku method, and folklore has it that the technique was developed by Sakamoto Ryoma, a 19th century Samurai.

In the Ehime region red snapper (‘Tai’) is caught in the Seto Inland Sea, and incorporated into the popular local dish Tai Meshi, where cooked rice is topped with red snapper sashimi that has been dipped in raw egg yolk mixed with a sweetened sauce.

Because of the warm climate on Shikoku citrus fruits are able to thrive, with mandarins being one of the most successful local crops. They are mainly grown in rows on terraced slopes. Yuzu (with a flavour between grapefruit and lime) is also particularly abundant, and we will see all kinds of yuzu products from fresh yuzu juice to yuzu flavoured nuts.

While there has been increased interest in reviving wine-making in Japan, we will discover other more traditional options on our trip that shouldn’t be ignored. There are over ninety sake breweries across the four provinces, each with their own style, and with many small family-run breweries thriving. Each region of Shikoku has both a mountainous interior and a coastal area, so there are breweries producing richer sake to match the mountain-style food such as game and root vegetable, and others creating a lighter sake to complement the seafood available along the coast.

Beer has been produced in Japan since the 19th century, and there are breweries on Shikoku itself. Aside from the large Asahi brewery, there are also smaller producers, which are often an off-shoot of a sake brewery. As you can imagine many of these beers are a perfect complement to the local food!

Our tour explores many of Japan’s historically important regions.

The Mt Fuji Tour includes Japan’s oldest castle, the Crow Castle, a historical gem built in the late 16th century. Today this striking fortress stands as a symbol of resilience and architectural brilliance and offers a captivating glimpse into Japan’s past. Spared from destruction during World War II it remains one of the best-preserved castle towns and one of the only cities
in Japan to still have a samurai district.

The Kyoto rest day for those joining the Honshu Tour with the Shikoku Tour allows us to discover the 1200-year-old imperial city. Shikoku Island was known as a refuge for defeated samurai, with its wild mountainous centre and steep rivers enough to slow
any large pursuing army. Masterless on such a remote island, with only small gains to be found in banditry, many swapped their swords for ploughs and lived as farmers. Their descendants still work the rice paddies in the remote valleys we ride through today.

Japan has a long and fascinating history. The Yamato dynasty (Japanese Imperial Family) is the longest unbroken monarchy in the world, dating back to 660AD. Their linear family history belies the complexity of the county’s history which began to bear similarities with Japanese culture around 400AD when people began practising wet rice cultivation and using metal tools
which promoted a sense of territoriality.

Buddhism and the Chinese writing system arrived a century later. The now literate elite used religion as a unifying tool and the writing system to consolidate power through taxes, regulate land distribution, create official ranks and document family lineages to justify their right to rule.

The first strong central government developed in the 8th century and the imperial capital of Kyoto was founded in 794AD. Over the next few centuries courtly life reached a pinnacle of refined artistic pursuits and etiquette, turning out enduring art, poetry, and prose – most famously perhaps the world’s oldest novel,
The Tale of Genji, written by a lady of the court in around 1004AD. The samurai (literally ‘retainer’) warrior class developed during this time as a means for the nobility to control, defend and tax their distant provinces.

Servant became dictator, when after many decades of war between the two largest rival clans, the Minamoto and the Taira who were aligned with the emperor came to an end. Yoritomo, the leader of the victorious Minamoto clan, did not make himself emperor but had the emperor give him legitimacy by conferring him the title of Shogun (commander of all combined military
forces) in 1192AD. So began the almost 700 years of Shogunate rule, a feudal system centred on a loyaltybased lord-vassal system.

Throughout these tours we explore why the emperor was needed to give legitimacy to the samurai’s rule, what was the code of conduct that came to be known as bushidō (Way of the Warrior) and how did they become the world’s finest swordsmen. We also learn how Buddhism influenced their culture, how seppuku (ritual suicide), also known as hara-kiri became normalised and seen as honourable, and how the belief that life is impermanent served as a handy reason to face death with serenity. The samurai may be gone but their literature, arts, aesthetics and values still influence
much of Japanese culture today.