Hiketa is the old port quarter of Higashikagawa, a small grid of merchant houses, shrines, and narrow streets near the Seto Inland Sea. It once handled boats moving between Shikoku, Kansai, and the wider Inland Sea, and enough of the townscape survives to make a slow walk worthwhile.
The best route runs around the Hiketa Honmachi area, where white-walled storehouses and older wooden facades sit close to the road. It is quiet, but that is the point: this is a real old trading town, not a stage set.