Imabari City: Imabari Castle, local gourmet and Bary-san

[Introduction]

I traveled to Ehime and Kagawa Prefecture for 4 days and 3 nights. In this article, I will write about Shimonada Station, which is famous as movie location. I had a long-held desire to visit there and indeed I enjoyed it very much.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Ozu City part 1: Old town (Related article)
* Ozu City part 2: Garyu Sanso and Ozu Castle (Related article)
* Shimonada: Shimonada station (Related article)
* Imabari City: Imabari Castle etc. (This article)
* Shimanami Kaido: Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge (Related article)
* Shodoshima Island part 1: Nijushi no Hitomi Movie Village (Related article)
* Shodoshima Island part 2: Shodoshima Olive Park (Related article)
* Shodoshima Island part 3: Angel Road (Related article)
* Shodoshima Island part 4: Meiro no machi (Maze Town) etc. (Related article)
* Matsuyama City: Tram, Botchan train and Mikyan (Related article)

[Travel Dates]
2015.07.25 – 28

[Main Part]

Following Ozu City and Shimonada station I wrote in the past articles, I strayed overnight at Matsuyama City and moved to Imabari City the next day. Talking of Imabari CIty, Bary-san is a famous local mascot character (Yuru-chara in Japanese terms) in Imabari. In 2012, he won the Yuru-chara Grand Prix, an annual event where the most popular mascot is determined by public voting, so he is well known to Japanese people. My main purpose to vist Imabari is because I would like to go to Shimanami Kaido, about which I will write in the next article, but I also visited the central part of Imabari CIty.

Imabari Castle

Imabari Castle was built in the early 1600’s by Takatora Hyodo. Although it was  destroyed in 1873, it was rebuilt in 1980. This castle is well known as one of the three Mizujiro, or “Castles on the sea”, in Japan, along with Takamatsu Castle and Nakatsu Castle.

Around the moat.

When I entered into the premises, I just found a statue of Takatora Hyodo.

I climbed up the castle tower.

View from the castle tower.

Fukiage Shrine and Jako Shrine

There were Fukiage Shrine and Jako Shrine on Imabari Castle property, so I visited them as well. Photos below were taken at Fuakige Shrine.

These are the photos taken at Jako Shrine.

Huge propeller

After leaving Imabari Castle, I just happened to see a huge propeller in front of the Imabari City hall. From what I heard, a local company donated it to the prefecture in 2013.

Local gourmet

As the final section of this article, I will mention local gourmet in Imabari. First, “char siu egg rice”, rice with Chinese-style barbecued pork and sunny-side up egg.

I also had shaved ice twice.

[Closing]

So, that’s it for the article about Imabari CIty. Imabari is also famous for its high quality towel (“Imabari Towel”). In the next article, I will write about Shimanami Kaido, to which I extended my visit from Imabari.