Tatsukushi Coast

Tatsukushi is a shore of eroded sandstone laid down in the Paleogene and worked by the sea into shapes that have all acquired names — folding screens, honeycomb, dragons. Round concretions weather out of the rock and fossil ripple marks, preserved wave patterns from an ancient seabed, are exposed as a national natural monument. It was the first area in Japan designated a marine park, in 1970.

The further half is called Minokoshi, meaning the part left unseen — a headland reachable only by boat, with a sixty-minute walking circuit round the formations at the end of it. Glass-bottomed boats run from Tatsukushi to Minokoshi roughly every forty minutes, taking thirty minutes for the round trip and passing over coral on the way. It is the far south-west of Shikoku and it sees very little traffic.