Day 2 in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture ～Matsuyama Castle and Ninomaru Historical Garden～

So I had Taimeshia at “Gansui” on my 1st day of the trip. Since I do not want to miss out my opportunity, I decided to try out another famous resutaurant in town.

Kadoya Okaido store
A well-known restaurant with locations in the Matsuyama Airport as well as Toranomon, Tokyo.

Uwajima Zukushi Taimeshi-Zen 1,980 JPY (with tax)
Comes with Taimeshi and 3 small dishes such as Jyakoten (fried minced fish)

I usually try not to eat too much carbohydrate, but the rule does not apply during a trip!

After lunch, I visited Matsuyama Castle Ninomaru Historical Garden.
To get to the garden, you need to go up the slope near the Ehime Prefectural Government building.
It could be a little confusing, so please refer to the pictures below.

The entrance to the garden.
Pay 200 JPY for admission, and go inside.
Back in 2013, this garden was designated as one of “sacred spots for lovers” by Area Activation Support Center; a non-profit organization in Japan. Some of the reasons for the nomination were the traditional Japanese scenic views that the garden offers and also the fact that as many as 500 couples choose the garden for their wedding photo shoots.

From the exhibition room, I was able to see the site of “Yuru-chara Gran Prix 2016”, which was going to be held the next day.

The #1 must-visit spot, Ryusui-en.
With water, sand and grass, the room layouts of the old castle are reproduced.

I got to enjoy some fall foliage too.
In the garden, there are various kinds of citrus fruits raised. When ripen, they are offered to visitors.

It takes about 15 minutes to go around.

Matsuyama Castle stands on top of Mt. Katsu of 132m height.
To get to the castle, I decided to take a detour of about 20 minutes’ walk from the Ninomaru Historical to find the ropeway.

“Toun-guchi”, the ropeway station at the bottom.
In front of the entrance, there are picture panels of “Bocchan” as well as “Yoshiaki-kun”, the Matsuyama Castle character.

Akiyama brothers from the novel “Sakano Ueno Kumo” by Ryotaro Shiba.

Furthermore, I found more panels of 3 famous people from the area. These are with the main character from the novel, “Sakano Ueno Kumo”; Shiki Masaoka.

Take the ropeway to the 8th station of the mountain.
The ticket is 510 JPY for both ways and it takes about 3 minutes.

Using the same ticket, you can also take a chair lift.
This one takes about 6 minutes,

From the rope way station to the center area where the castle tower is, it is about 10 minutes’ walk.

Honmaru Hiroba

As to taking pictures of the castle tower, many visitors like to sit between “Yoshiaki-kun”, the castle’s mascot character and the sign of “Important Cultural Property; Matsuyama Castle”.

Pay 510 JPY for admission and go visit the castle tower.

The original Matsuyama Castle was built in 1602.
The current castle tower was rebuilt in 1854. The castle is one of 12 surviving castle towers in Japan.

Inside the tower.

The displays in the tower were interesting too.

Swords

Armors

The official symbol of Matsuyama Castle

A scene taken on the way to the castle tower.

Arrived the top floor of the tower!

The view of the Honmaru Hiroba from the tower.

Overlooking the direction of Seto Inland Sea.

So that’s it for Matsuyama Castle and Ninomaru Historical Garden from the day 2 of my Matsuyama trip.
The weather was also cooperating and I was extremely happy with everything! Matsuyama Castle is famous for cherry blossoms too, so I hope to go back again in the spring.