Shikoku in Winter

Dogo Onsen Honkan (道後温泉本館) is at its best from December through February when the temperature differential between the cold winter air outside the 1894 wooden bathhouse and the hot spring water inside is at its sharpest, the steam from the hot water condenses heavily in the cold air around the building, the wooden three storey Honkan is lit against the early winter evening sky from around 17:00, and the peak season queues at the bathhouse at the centre of what is considered Japan's oldest hot spring resort in Matsuyama in Ehime drop substantially. The Honkan, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1994, reopened in full on 11 July 2024 after five and a half years of preservation work carried out while part of it stayed open. The Dogo Haikara-dori shopping arcade leading from Dogo Onsen Station to the Honkan is busy through winter with visitors in yukata walking between the Honkan, the Asuka-no-Yu annex opened in 2017 next door, and the simpler Tsubaki-no-Yu opened in 1953, all three of which draw water from the same source. Honkan admission starts at ¥700 for the Kami-no-Yu bath, open 6:00 to 23:00 with last entry at 22:30, with dearer courses that add the Tama-no-Yu bath and the upstairs rest rooms. The Asuka-no-Yu starts at ¥610 for the basic bath, and the Tsubaki-no-Yu is the cheapest of the three. From Tokyo the most direct route is by flight to Matsuyama Airport and a 35 minute Limousine bus to Dogo Onsen.

Mount Ishizuchi (石鎚山) in Saijo City in Ehime, at 1,982 metres the highest mountain in western Japan and one of Japan's Seven Holy Mountains and 100 Famous Mountains, hosts Ishizuchi Ski Resort (石鎚スキー場) from late December to early March with the upper slopes operating as a ski and snowboarding resort and the surrounding forest covered in juhyo frost formations on the trees in the same period. The Ishizuchi Tozan Ropeway runs all year from Sanroku Shimodani Station at 455 metres to Sancho-Joju Station at 1,300 metres in an 8 minute ride for ¥1,200 one way or ¥2,200 return, providing access to the snow resort and views of the ice covered forest and the snow capped Tengudake summit ridge above. Joju Shrine, the middle shrine of the four in the Ishizuchi Shrine complex, sits around 20 to 25 minutes' walk above the upper ropeway station at 1,450 metres and remains open through winter, with the largest visitor numbers on New Year's Day for hatsumode. Mount Ishizuchi has been a centre of Shugendo mountain asceticism since the ascetic En no Gyoja opened it, and the walk to the summit passes four chain sections, the 74 metre Tameshi-no-Kusari and then the first, second and third chains below the top, each with a stairway detour for anyone who would rather not haul themselves up the links. The summit shrine and the lodge beside it are staffed from 1 May to 3 November, and the mountain's opening festival, the お山開き大祭 (Oyama-biraki Taisai), runs from 1 to 10 July. Snow lies on the upper mountain from December into late May, and both Saijo City and the summit lodge tell winter climbers that an ice axe and crampons are the minimum, that the stairway beside the third chain fills with snow until there is nothing left to hold, and that a climbing plan should be filed before setting out. The lodge shuts for the winter and leaves an unstaffed emergency shelter below the shrine, so the chain assisted summit routes are not a general winter outing. From Tokyo Station the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen to Okayama Station and the JR Shiokaze Limited Express to Iyo-Saijo Station take around 5 hours total, with a Setouchi Bus from Iyo-Saijo to the Ishizuchi Ropeway-mae stop taking around 1 hour at ¥970 with only four buses daily. Opposite the ropeway base station, the Kyoya inn opens its cloudy white bath to day visitors from 10:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, at ¥500 for adults and ¥300 for children, which is the obvious way to end a cold day on the mountain.

Kashiwajima (柏島) at the southwestern tip of Kochi in Otsuki Town is a small fishing island of around 4 kilometres' circumference connected to the mainland by two bridges and known for the emerald coloured water of exceptional clarity at the confluence of the Kuroshio Current and the Bungo Channel, with the surrounding waters home to more than 1,000 species of fish or around a third of all species recorded in Japanese waters. The summer peak season for diving and snorkelling drops away through winter when the strong northwesterly winds across the Bungo Channel regularly cancel boat dives and put some of the outer sites out of use for the season, although the dive shops themselves stay open through the year and the water is at its clearest from autumn into winter, giving the small island village a notably quieter and more local character with the working fishing community of Kashiwajima Port at its most actively visible. The sea holds at around 18 to 20°C through the winter months, mild for a Japanese dive in February, and local guides report nudibranchs becoming easier to find from autumn onward and shoals of kibinago driven up by bonito. Maehama on the southern side is the site that stays workable when the northwesterly blows hard enough to close the others. The clear water of the Kashiwajima Bridge area produces the "floating boats" effect in the winter sunlight, with the village walk past old houses, temples and the small Inari Shrine taking around 30 minutes for a full circuit. The Odoyama Observatory on the mainland gives the panoramic view of the island and surrounding Pacific Ocean. From Kochi Station the JR Dosan Line to Kubokawa Station and the Tosa Kuroshio Railway to Sukumo Station total around 2 hours 20 minutes, with Kochi Seinan Kotsu buses from Sukumo to Kashiwajima taking around 1 hour in two legs and a change at the Michi-no-Eki Otsuki stop, on only a few services a day, for a total of about 3 hours 30 minutes of travelling before any waiting at the connections.

あん餅雑煮 (An Mochi Zoni) is Kagawa's New Year soup and it exists essentially nowhere else. The rest of Japan eats 雑煮 (zoni) with plain mochi in a clear or miso broth. Kagawa puts a mochi filled with sweet red bean paste into a white miso soup with daikon and carrot, so the first mouthful is savoury and the second is dessert. The usual local explanation is economic. Sugar was a controlled Sanuki domain export in the Edo period, too valuable for farmers to keep, so putting bean paste in the New Year soup was the one day a year a household used its own sugar. It is eaten on New Year's Day and through the first days of January, mostly at home, though a handful of udon shops and hotels in Takamatsu serve it through the period. Reactions from outside the prefecture are reliably divided, which Kagawa appears to enjoy.

伊予柑 (Iyokan) is Ehime's own citrus and the prefecture grows the great majority of the national crop. It is larger than a mikan with a thicker, looser skin that peels by hand, and the flesh is juicy and aromatic with more acidity behind the sweetness than a mandarin has. Peak season is January and February. The name comes from 伊予, the old name for Ehime, although the variety was actually found in Yamaguchi in the 1880s and moved here, which the prefecture is relaxed about. Ehime grows more citrus overall than any other prefecture and runs a long harvest calendar through the winter, so iyokan sits alongside 紅まどんな (Beni Madonna), a jelly fleshed variety eaten with a spoon, and 甘平 (Kanpei). Roadside stands and the 道の駅 along the Uwa coast sell them by the box, and the juice stands at Matsuyama airport pour them straight.

鍋焼きラーメン (Nabeyaki Ramen) is the local ramen of 須崎 (Susaki) on the Kochi coast and the vessel is what defines it. Susaki City describes it as a chicken bone and soy broth with thin firm straight noodles, spring onion, chikuwa and a raw egg cracked in, served in an earthenware donabe with pickles alongside. The pot solved a practical problem at Taniguchi Shokudo, the post war shop the dish is traced to, where deliveries in ordinary bowls arrived cold, so the owner switched first to enamel and then to clay to keep the heat in. It is eaten all year, but the format belongs to winter. The soup is still boiling when it is put down in front of you and stays that way to the last mouthful, which is the entire argument for it on a cold day. Susaki sits west of Kochi City on the JR Dosan Line and the shops are clustered around the town centre.