Matsuyama Castle

I have been to many many castles in Japan, and this one is my all time favorite. The grounds are immaculate. You get the best views of the city more than anywhere else. You don’t even need to enter the castle to get amazing pictures, just walk around the grounds. You can take a cablecar or chair lift, but I decided to just walk. It is a long walk uphill, but not too bad. You must take your shoes off in the castle. Be warned, the steps are very very narrow and steep. Going up the floors can be difficult.

A beautiful castle settled high on a hill in the center of Matusyama city with great vantage points for full 360 views of the city and surrounding ocean and mountains. For just about 10 dollars a person you can get a lift up and down the mountain and access to the castle. This presents a fantastic opportunity to learn about some of the recent history of the island, while also directly experiencing the feudal style of life.

If you visit Matsuyama you must visit the castle. It's one of 12 castles in Japan that is in its original form, not a replica. It's only 520円 to visit (in summer 2024) and worth it to see the woodwork alone. There are also many cool artifacts, weapons, documents, and armor. We decided to climb up to the castle from Ninomaru park. In the summer heat it was grueling but nice to see the old stone steps. As people who hike very often, it took us about 15 minutes. On the way down we took the chairlift, which was much easier and fun! You can also take a ropeway. Upon entering you must take off your shoes, and you can either walk around in socks or slippers. Everything is original so the stairs are often steep but there are railings. There is a path to follow to see most of the building and up to a high tower with an excellent view of the castle grounds and city below. There is a large park in front of the castle where you can buy food, souvenirs, and refreshments such as ice cream or fresh orange juice from the tap.

To go upstairs to enter the castle area you have very fun way to get to there which is “ lift “ . You can look around from the chair and enjoy the view from the hill. There are some stores around the castles and unfortunately when we got there the castle gate was closed ( it was little bit after hours ) but we could enjoy around this area very much. Local taxi drivers said there are less tourist people nowadays but I hope this place will not be destroyed by too many people. Foods in EHIME was always nice and it was the first time to visit to see my friends but I completely fell in love with this city.

Now I know why it was considered the best castle to come during the cherry blossoms. Since the castle is on top of the hill. There is unblock view with the trees grown along towards the castle. From the top of the castle it should be nice view of pink. But those with knee problems or elderly, I advise not to go to the castle inside, because the stairs are steep and narrow, and you need to change to a rubber slippers, so tendency of topple down is high chance. If want to go: please go with extra extra caution ⚠️ Even if you don’t enter the castle, seriously you would miss a lot. They have a garden, which I didn’t go, but I saw the flyer, in the autumn it looks really nice with the colours but since I went in summer and mozzie love me, I choose not to enter any garden in the summer! 🫣