Matsuyama

Matsuyama is where almost every Ehime trip starts. About half a million people live here, yet the centre feels compact: Matsuyama Castle crowns a wooded hill in the very middle, the Okaido and Gintengai arcades run from its foot, and orange Iyotetsu trams loop around it all the way out to Dogo Onsen, fifteen minutes to the east.

It is also a literary town. The haiku poet Masaoka Shiki was born here, Natsume Soseki set his comic novel Botchan here, and you will find haiku post boxes on street corners inviting you to drop in a verse. With the airport twenty minutes from the centre, fast trains along the coast and ferries to Hiroshima, Matsuyama is the natural base for the whole prefecture.

Matsuyama highlights

• Ride the ropeway or the open chairlift up to Matsuyama Castle, one of only twelve castle keeps in Japan that survive from the feudal era.
• Soak at Dogo Onsen, then stroll back through the Haikara-dori arcade in a yukata.
• Walk through the gate of Ishite-ji, Temple 51 of the Shikoku pilgrimage, among white-robed pilgrims.
• Hop on the Botchan train, a replica of the little steam locomotive in Soseki’s novel.
• Eat your way through the two styles of tai-meshi (sea bream rice), sweet nabeyaki udon and every kind of mikan juice.
• Use the city as a base for day trips to Uchiko, Shimonada, Tobe and the Shimanami Kaido.