Culture
Near the port in Imabari (今治市, Imabari-shi) is a huge, beautifully made ship’s propeller displayed as sculpture. It looks ...
Ozu (大洲, Ōzu) is sometimes referred to as Ehime’s ‘Little Kyoto’. I have no idea why, because they’re as unalike as any two...
To most Japanese people, Tobe (砥部) calls to mind Tobe-yaki, a type of ceramic known throughout Japan. People tend to imagin...
Uwajima is the southernmost city in Ehime. It’s a compact city, centered around a small castle on a hill. Above the city towe...
Matsuyama is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture and the largest city in Shikoku. Its name means “pine mountain”. Matsuyama ...
In Japan, the names for municipalities bear scant resemblance to entities of the same name in the west. So in Japan, a ‘villa...
Matsuno is a pretty little settlement in Ehime near the border with Kochi. Once a very quiet backwater of the celebrated Shim...
The city of Saijo sits on a plain facing the Seto Inland Sea, with the imposing Mt. Ishizuchi behind it. Saijo is sandwiched ...
Yawatahama is a sleepy port town in the armpit of Japan’s longest peninsula, the Sadamisaki Peninsula that juts out of the we...
In Japan, the names for municipalities bear scant resemblance to entities of the same name in the west. So a place that is no...
Niihama City in Ehime Prefecture is a bustling industrial city of 124,000 people on the north coast of Shikoku. Although the ...
Kuma Highland—Kuma Kōgen in Japanese—is a large inhabited area at a high elevation in central Ehime bordering Kochi Prefectur...
Uchiko is small town that lies to the southwest of Matsuyama. It stands at the bottom of a river valley with rice fields spre...
Toon City, pronounced Tō-on, is a city in name only. There’s no built-up center to it at all, which may seem strange to peopl...
Hojo is the northernmost part of Matsuyama. Once a separate municipality with the rank of ‘city’, it merged with Matsuyama in...
Each year from around late January through to early March, Ehime's Nanrakuen Garden is home to a plum festival which showcase...
On May 5th every year, teams fight it out on the banks of the Oda River in Ikazaki--with traditional Japanese paper kites.
Shirokawa's Doronko Mud Festival in early summer has it all – bulls, devils, wrestling, pulsing drums and dancing virgins in ...
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Fabulous ramen in Matsuyama with a soy sauce base and wonderful atmosphere.
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A pleasant torishio base ramen shop in Matsuyama which really shows off the flavours Shikoku has to offer. Worth visiting for...
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A tiny, no-nonsense okonomiyaki shop just a minute's walk from Mitsu station in Matsuyama. Featured in local news and as pat...
Classy comfort can be found at the Imabari Kokusai Hotel in northern Ehime Prefecture.
Seapa Makoto, an onsen in Hojo, Matsuyama, also offers reasonably priced rooms for two.
The Hotel Patio Dogo is a modern, comfortable hotel overlooking Dogo Onsen Honkan.
Matsuyama has a lot of impressive and memorable attractions, but what prevails is really its air of unpretentious simplicity.
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Shimanami Kaido is a cycling route leading from Onomichi City in the Hiroshima prefecture to Imabari city in Ehime prefecture...
Being Japan's smallest island, Shikoku isn't the first place most first-time or even second-time travellers would consider fo...