Unomachi Day Trip in Ehime: A Walk Through the Old Townscape, the Kaimei School and the Uwa Rice Museum

The Kaimei School is an eight-minute walk from JR Unomachi Station. This article follows the route on foot in the order you would walk it: the townscape, the Kaimei School, the Uwa Rice Museum, the old houses and the Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture, and then covers getting there, eating and staying.

The Unomachi Townscape

It is about a ten-minute walk from JR Unomachi Station to the Unomachi townscape. The Chikyu no Arukikata Shikoku guidebook notes that the district grew in the Edo period as a market town and post town of the Uwajima domain, and that its rows of sake breweries, machiya and earthen storehouses form a national preservation district for historic buildings.

Among the Edo-period details to look for along the street, the Shikoku guidebook lists white plaster walls, udatsu firewalls and projecting lattice windows. They are easiest to spot by walking the full length of the street at an unhurried pace and looking at the upper parts of the facades as well as the doorways.

The Kaimei School

From the townscape, the route continues to the Kaimei School, an eight-minute walk from JR Unomachi Station. The school dates from eighteen eighty-two, the Shikoku guidebook states, and pairs Japanese carpentry with arched Western-style windows, with the interior now a museum of education materials. Go inside rather than stopping at the facade.

It is an eight-minute walk from JR Unomachi Station to the Uwa Folk Museum. The Kaimei School admission covers the Uwa Folk Museum as well, so one ticket serves both buildings. Keep the folk museum for after the school, so that the ticket is already in hand.

• The Kaimei School admission, which also covers the Uwa Folk Museum: adults 700 yen, university and high school students 420 yen, junior high school students and younger free
• The Kaimei School opening hours: 9:00 to 17:00, with admission until 16:30

The Uwa Rice Museum

From the Kaimei School, the next stop is the Uwa Rice Museum. Guidebooks describe the museum as a conversion of the former Uwa elementary school, with displays of old farm tools and a wooden corridor where visitors can try wiping the boards with a cloth. The Shikoku guidebook describes a cloth-wiping race along that same corridor once a year.

• The Uwa Rice Museum wooden corridor length: 109 m, a figure the Shikoku guidebook lists

A Memorial Hall and Old Houses

From the Uwa Rice Museum, the route continues to the Uwa Sentetsu Memorial Hall, a nine-minute walk from JR Unomachi Station. The Suemitsu House and Kyu-Musashi are the other stops in this part of the walk, and the table below gives the practical details for each of them. Allow a short stop at each rather than a long one, since the museum is still to come.

Item	Detail
Uwa Sentetsu Memorial Hall, walk from JR Unomachi Station	9 minutes
Uwa Sentetsu Memorial Hall, opening hours	9:00 to 17:00, with admission until 16:30
Uwa Sentetsu Memorial Hall, closed days	Mondays (the following day if Monday is a public holiday) and the year-end and New Year period
Uwa Sentetsu Memorial Hall, Japanese-style room	160 yen per hour
The Suemitsu House, walk from JR Unomachi Station	8 minutes
The Suemitsu House, opening hours	9:00 to 16:00
The Suemitsu House, admission	adults 300 yen, university and high school students 180 yen, junior high school students and younger free
Kyu-Musashi, walk from JR Unomachi Station	9 minutes
Kyu-Musashi, interior public days	Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays only
Kyu-Musashi, opening hours	10:00 to 16:00
Kyu-Musashi, rice cooking on a kamado	1,000 yen per person
Kyu-Musashi, washboard laundry experience	300 yen per person
The Unomachi Machinami Exchange Center, walk from JR Unomachi Station	9 minutes

Kyu-Musashi is the one to check against the calendar, since its interior is open only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It also offers a rice-cooking session on a kamado, charged per person. Time the walk accordingly if that interior matters to you.

The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture

From the old houses, the next stop is the Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture. The Chikyu no Arukikata Shikoku guidebook puts the museum on high ground above Unomachi, with history, folk and hands-on areas and a zone that recreates a Showa-era streetscape. Its calendar has several exceptions, so check the points below against your date.

• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture opening hours: 9:00 to 17:30, with entry until 17:00
• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture opening hours are extended to 9:00 to 18:30 from August 10 to 16, with admission until 18:00
• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture is closed on Mondays (on Tuesday instead when Monday is a holiday)
• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture is open on the first Monday of each month and closed the following Tuesday
• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture is closed from December 29 to January 1
• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture adult admission: 580 yen, with a group rate of 480 yen for 20 or more people
• The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture senior admission (65 and over): 300 yen, with a group rate of 250 yen

Getting to Unomachi and Planning the Day

A round-trip ticket is sold for travel between Dogo or Matsuyama and Unomachi. Drivers come off at the Matsuyama Expressway Seiyo-Uwa IC, from which the Kaimei School is only minutes away. Whichever way you arrive, every stop in this article is then reached on foot.

• A round-trip ticket between Dogo or Matsuyama and Unomachi is listed at 3,050 yen and is valid for 5 days
• By car, the Kaimei School is about 5 minutes from the Matsuyama Expressway Seiyo-Uwa IC
• The townscape is about a 10-minute walk from JR Unomachi Station

Guidebooks describe the main sights of Unomachi as clustered within walking distance of one another, close enough to cover in half a day. Taking them in the order above keeps the route simple. Starting early leaves time to add a meal at the end without rushing the museum.

Eating and Staying Nearby

Michi-no-Eki Donburi-kan restaurant Ippuku is a one-minute drive from the Matsuyama Expressway Seiyo-Uwa IC. It suits drivers finishing the day, and its menu and times are in the table. Nofuku runs a lunch period and an evening period, each with its own last-order time. The evening period suits anyone staying the night.

Item	Detail
Michi-no-Eki Donburi-kan restaurant Ippuku, opening hours	8:00 to 18:00
Michi-no-Eki Donburi-kan restaurant Ippuku, closed days	January 1 and 2
Michi-no-Eki Donburi-kan restaurant Ippuku, Yokubari seafood and kamaage donburi	1,100 yen
Michi-no-Eki Donburi-kan restaurant Ippuku, takeout Mega ebi katsu set	1,280 yen
Michi-no-Eki Donburi-kan restaurant Ippuku, by car from the Matsuyama Expressway Seiyo-Uwa IC	about 1 minute
Nofuku, opening hours	11:00 to 15:00 (last order 14:30) and 17:00 to 22:00 (last order 21:00)

Unomachi also works as an overnight base rather than a day's visit, which leaves room for the museum and a longer meal without watching the time. Elsewhere in Ehime, Uwajima and Matsuyama each have their own walk on this site. For more time in the area than a day allows, browse places to stay in Seiyo.