We woke up early on day 2 of our Kagawa Summer Trip to catch the morning ferry heading to Shōdoshima 小豆島, the second largest island in the Seto Inland Sea. Shōdoshima may be unfamiliar to many of us outside of Japan but it is a popular domestic tourism destination within Japan itself. The island is well-known for it’s Olive Plantation and has traditionally been the producer of Soy Sauce. Apart from these, the island is also famous as the setting for the movie Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijushi no Hitomi) in 1954.
We took the Shodoshima ferry from Takamatsu port which was walking distance from the hotel we stayed. You can refer to this website on ways to travel between Takamatsu and Shōdoshima.
The ferry was large and the interior was clean and very spacious. The whole ride took about an hour and was so smooth sailing that seasick pills are totally unnecessary.
It was rather misty on the day but I somehow love the mystical feel of it.
Upon arrival at the island, we head direct to the Olive Park. This beautiful park offers more than just olives. There are various amazing photography spots, wonderful flower and herb garden, cafes and shops.
I’ve never seen a real olive plant. How cute is this green olive!
The lovely flower and herb garden blooming with colours and scents were magical.
A place for aromatic herbs…
A little shop within the flower garden
A wooden bench and two lamps, one leaning on the other. In the heart of the flower garden.
Shodoshima is a sister island to Milos, Greece. The Mediterranean atmosphere here made the island an ideal place to cultivate olives. There is a replica of the Greek windmill in the park where you might see a lot of “wizards and witches” trying their might to fly as high as possible so they could capture the best flying shot. You can borrow the wizardry brooms from the main building and head to the windmill area for your flying shot.
There’s a kiosk inside the main building where they serve drinks and ice cream. Do not miss their olive soft serve ice cream. I ordered an Olive cider with olive soft serve float. It was AMAZING!
We were told that there is a particular olive tree that grow leaves in the shape of a heart. We missed that though but they were nice enough to give us each a laminated heart shaped leaf from that special olive tree as a souvenir.
I’ll be sharing more about olives in the next post where we had a lecture about olive oil at Inoue Seikoen and had lunch at their farm-to-table restaurant. Stay tune!