How can I choose one Setouchi island day instead of trying to hop across the whole Inland Sea?

Let the gateway choose the island, then give that island the whole day. From Uno, Shikoku Kisen's ferry reaches Miyanoura on Naoshima in about 20 minutes for 370 yen one way, with 13 sailings each way between 06:00 and 20:25; from Takamatsu the same port is about 50 minutes for 680 yen, with five ferry sailings each way. Hop between islands only when the boat ride itself is the thing you came for.

Frequency, not distance, decides the day

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The first three rows come from Shikoku Kisen's Takamatsu route page and its Uno route page; the last from Jumbo Ferry's Takamatsu to Shodoshima page. Read the last column first. Thirteen sailings means a missed boat costs half an hour. Five means it costs most of an afternoon, and three means it can cost the night.

The 13-sailing island and the 5-sailing island

Naoshima is the same island from both gateways, but it is not the same day. From Uno, the 20-minute crossing at 370 yen makes the ferry a bus: you can leave late, return early, come back after dinner and lose nothing. From Takamatsu, the 50-minute ferry with five departures turns every plan into a timetable, and the 30-minute high-speed boat that fixes the duration costs 1,590 yen and runs only three times each way. Choose the gateway by how much slack you want, not by which city has the better hotels. If you are already sleeping in Takamatsu, accept the five sailings and build one anchor into the middle of the day rather than three.

Protect the return, then spend what is left

Pick the return sailing before anything else and treat it as fixed. On the Takamatsu ferry that means naming one of five departures and working backwards; on the Uno ferry it means naming a sailing and knowing that the next one is close behind. Everything after that is discretionary: one museum or one walk as the anchor, a meal, and unassigned time that absorbs a slow lunch or a longer look. A day built this way survives a late start. A day built around four sites and two islands does not, and the second island usually turns into a terminal and a wait.

Shikoku Kisen sells foot-passenger tickets at the terminal rather than online for general sailings, so the queue is part of the plan on a busy weekend. Vehicles and bicycles ride only on the car ferries, not the high-speed boats, which removes the 30-minute option for anyone bringing a bike. Ticket sales open at the terminal roughly half an hour before each departure, so a 20-minute walk to the port is a 50-minute walk to the port.

Example: one Naoshima day from Uno

Example. Two travelers sleep near Uno and take the 09:00-ish ferry, crossing in about 20 minutes for 370 yen each. They have one anchor booked for the middle of the day and nothing else fixed. Lunch runs long, so they drop the second idea instead of rushing it. They return on an early-evening sailing rather than the 20:25, which leaves two later boats in hand if anything slips. Total ferry spend for the pair is 1,480 yen and total ferry time is 80 minutes. The same pair based in Takamatsu would spend 2,720 yen and 200 minutes for a shorter day on the island.

If Shodoshima is the island you want, the Jumbo Ferry's 1 hour 15 minutes and three weekday sailings out against two back make it an overnight rather than a day trip. Run the chain through the ferry and seasonal-service check before booking, and if this is the only full day you have, the one-full-day method sets the anchor. The same discipline applied to walking rather than boats is the Kumano Kodo section choice.

Put the place in perspective

Setouchi islands, Japan

Explore the surrounding area and check your route before you set off.

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Sources

• Uno Port - Miyanoura Port (Naoshima) route guide· checked 2026-09-17
• Takamatsu Port - Miyanoura Port (Naoshima) route guide· checked 2026-09-17
• Takamatsu - Shodoshima | Jumbo Ferry· checked 2026-09-17