In at Narita, then family time — and the right shape for the week: 19–23 Sep is Silver Week, five days off with three public holidays inside it, so domestic travel and every headline sight is at its busiest. Staying put through it is the correct call rather than a compromise.

Leave on the 25th, once the country has gone back to work.

Temples, neighbourhoods, evening walks. Four nights is the right number — enough to stop treating it as a checklist.

Spend the out-of-centre day on Nara: 45 minutes out, Tōdai-ji at the end of it. Arashiyama is a morning, not a day, and doesn't deserve the same slot.

Kyoto → Hiroshima 1h40, plus 25 minutes to Miyajimaguchi and a 10-minute ferry. ≈3h door to door, arriving early afternoon. Lockers at the ferry terminal cover the gap before 16:00 — carry ¥100 coins.

Itsukushima Shrine and Daishō-in in the daylight, dinner on the island, then the illuminated torii once the day-trippers have gone. That last hour is the entire reason to sleep here.

Peace Memorial Park, the museum, okonomiyaki. Back to the island for the evening — you keep the good half of the day either side of the crowds.

Optional Mt Misen by ropeway, then roughly 30 minutes on foot to the summit.

≈40 km to Imabari. Ōmishima and Ōyamazumi Shrine, the long approach to the Tatara Bridge, and at the end the Kurushima Kaikyō crossing — whose approach spirals are longer than they look on the map.

The route ends at Sunrise Itoyama, at the foot of the last bridge, but that's still 8 km of flat city road short of the station. Ride them and return the bikes at the Imabari Station terminal, so you finish next to the train rather than a bus stop.

Limited express to Matsuyama ~35 min, then the Iyotetsu line out to Mitsu, the old port on the west side. Dōgo is 25–30 minutes back across town by tram — worth it in the evening, which is exactly what two days of riding earns.

A walkable slice of the 88-temple pilgrimage, ending about a kilometre from where you're sleeping. Outskirts and rice fields rather than mountains — this is a long walk, not a hike.

Tram to Matsuyama-shi, then Iyotetsu bus to Jōruriji, roughly 40 minutes.

Buy a nōkyōchō at the first temple and have it inscribed at each one — ¥300–500 each, cash, offices close at 17:00. The calligraphy is the souvenir.

Matsuyama → Ōboke ≈4h, changing at Tadotsu — Shiokaze as far as there, then the Nanpū down the Dosan line. Routing via Okayama backtracks over the Seto bridge and costs the better part of an hour.

The house is self-catering, so food comes with you: stop at Awa-Ikeda, one stop before Ōboke, where there are supermarkets by the station. Iya's few soba places close mid-afternoon.

5th — arrive, settle in. 6th — vine bridge in the morning, Ōboke gorge boat in the afternoon.

Green mountains at this date, not autumn colour. Oku-Iya and Mt Tsurugi are awkward without a car — skip unless a taxi tour is arranged in advance.

Airport bus from Kōchi Station, ≈30 min. In the city by 14:00, so this is a full afternoon and evening rather than a write-off travel day.