It takes at least an hour to stroll through the village (and there are lots of stairs). I heartily recommend a visit if you haven't had the opportunity to see similar villages in Takayama, Shirakawago, or Kawasaki, since they convey better than anything else rural life in Japan in centuries past. Also in Shikoku Mura is the Shikoku Mura Gallery, designed by famed Japanese architect Tadao Ando, displaying mostly 19th- and 20th-century French paintings (works by Renoir and Bonnard are especially significant); calligraphy; Chinese Buddhist images; and ancient glassware, earthenware, and bronze mirrors.