Route Two starts from the city of Takamatsu, a bit to the northwest from Tokushima. Here again, you can take an initial detour if you like, to see either or both of the city's two bona-fide attractions. The first is shown in the photo at left: Ritsurin Park, one of the finest traditional gardens in Japan. Since it's in the city proper, it's worth cycling there and spending an hour strolling through the park, if only to see how overrated some of the other famous parks in Japan are. The second is Kotohira, a magnificent hilltop shrine with a series of 1,000 stone steps that you must climb to get there. It's on the route, and you can overnight there if you have the time (or if you're tired out after the cycling and stair-climbing biathlon).

When you're ready to start the real cycling, you'll head due south, over a series of hills to the town of Ikeda (often called "Awa-Ikeda", "Awa" being the old name for this part of Shikoku). The bottom photo shows what Ikeda looks like when you're coasting down the hills into the valley. Those hills also give you great views of numerous terraced paddies below you on the mountainsides.