Takamatsu is the gateway to Shikoku — the island most visitors reach by rail across the Seto-ohashi Bridge from Okayama. It is the largest city in Kagawa Prefecture and a modern, comfortable base for exploring the island's more remote corners. Largely rebuilt after being flattened by wartime bombing, it lacks old-city atmosphere, but compensates with Japan's finest strolling garden, an abundance of excellent udon, and easy ferry connections to the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
The city's crown jewel is Ritsurin-koen, a 17th-century garden that spans 75 hectares at the foot of Shiun-zan hill. It is widely considered one of the finest gardens in Japan — better, many argue, than the official "big three" — and its design makes masterful use of borrowed scenery, framing the hill as a backdrop to every composition. Allow at least two hours; more if you visit the attached folk craft museum.
Near the main train station, Tamamo-koen holds what little survives of Takamatsu Castle, once one of Japan's rare seaside fortresses. The castle was bombed out of existence, but the moats remain filled with seawater, and the park is a pleasant place to watch herons stalk the shallows. The adjacent Kagawa History Museum traces the prefecture's past from prehistoric times through the feudal era.
To the east of the city, the flat-topped plateau of Yashima rises out of the Inland Sea, with the temple of Yashima-ji at its summit and the open-air architectural museum of Shikoku Mura at its foot — easily a half-day on their own.
Takamatsu is the home of sanuki udon — thick, firm, hand-pulled wheat noodles served in a light dashi broth. The city has hundreds of udon shops ranging from no-frills canteen to refined kaiseki-adjacent. Locals eat it for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner, and the noodles taste noticeably better here than anywhere else in Japan.