In the valley itself, public transportation is limited to a few buses a day. Car rental or hitchhiking is probably the fastest way of getting around, but hitchhikers beware: even the main highway sees only around three 3 cars per hour on a weekday, and forget it if it's raining.
Yonkoh offers two tourist bus services (http://www.yonkoh.co.jp/p...), both starting from Awa Ikeda; the first tours Nishi-Iya, the other tours Higashi-Iya via Oboke, with commentary only in Japanese.
