Many of the small humble shrines, temples and hermitages are more or less hard to reach. Some are on soaring cliffs or summits, others in caves, while other lie among treacherous canyons. However, many people do attempt this pilgrimage which allows them to appreciate truly the ascetic nature of Shima-Shikoku. The hardiest pilgrims waik walk a distance of 150 km, spending 7 days or so. But nowadays many people make a 4-day tour in a chartered bus, while not a few drive their cars.
Accommodations are fairly good, as are the roads.
On the beach they cook their breakfast on a stove built with the stones they have collected. The main dish is gu-meshi or boiled rice with chopped vegetables, flavoured with soy sauce, which they first put on 12 persimmon leaves and offer to the hungry ghosts or gaki in the World of Pretas or the Buddhist inferno of starvation. Then they enjoy their picnic breakfast in the cool breeze of early morning. One of the cultural assets remaining on this island is the Noson kabuki or Farmers' Kabuki , which is thought to have come into being late in the 17th century. Each village used to have its own stage or theatre built in the precincts of its shrine to its patron god, and the villagers enjoyed their own kabuki in the days when entertainment was extremely scarce.