Moopon

1. Once visitors exit immigration and customs at Kansai Airport, visitors will be on the 1st floor. Follow the signs for “Railways”, taking one of the 4 escalators or 3 elevators to arrive at the 2nd floor.

2. Once on the 2nd floor, follow the signs to one of several walkways and walk across the road to Kansai-airport Station. Visitors need to exit the air terminal building to arrive at the JR Station (two separate buildings connected by a walkway). Two train companies use Kansai-airport Station: JR (blue/green) and Nankai (orange). Only JR can take visitor to the platform Haruka departing from. DO NOT use Nankai.

3. Before entering tickets gate, find JR Ticket Office where visitors can purchase ticket or reserved ticket for JR train.(there is a huge sign in English above their head).JR ticket office staff may or may not speak English, but they can read place names and train types written in the Roman alphabet. 

4. With one’s tickets, go through JR ticket gate and take an escalator to get to Platform 4.

The Kamihaga Residence (上芳我家, Kagihagatei) is the former home and workshop of the Kamihaga family, a branch family of Uchiko's most influential family, the Honhaga. Located in the Yokaichi Old Town, the large building complex consists of a spacious Meiji Period residence and a museum about Uchiko's wax industry. Besides the Wax Museum, the family residence itself is a beautifully maintained example of a prosperous family's living quarters during the early 1900s.  

There is an impressive garden and Elegant tatami rooms with painted screens and decorative pottery are combined with Western elements that became more popular as the 20th century progressed.  The Kamihaga Residence includes a well documented and informative wax museum with displays in both English and Japanese. 

About Uchiko Wax and Haga family
Uchiko wax was well regarded in Japan at the beginning of the Meiji Period, bringing modest prosperity to the town. This was particularly true of the Honhaga household, Uchiko's main wax producers. The Honhaga and Kamihaga produced the distinctive "Crane in the Sunrise" label, for which Uchiko became internationally known.
In 1900, when the Honhaga family visited the Paris World Expo to showcase their goods, Uchiko's reputation for high quality wax spread to Europe and America. A new level of success was achieved with average yearly profits totaling over one billion yen in today's currency.

Hours: 9:00 to 16:30 
Admission: 500 yen

The Kamihaga Residence is located in the Yokaichi Old Town, about a 20-30 minute walk from JR Uchiko Station. It can also be reached in a short ride on the Chagamaru Retro Bus.

Uchiko-za (内子座) is a fully operational kabuki theater in the center of town, and a distinguishing feature and point of pride of Uchiko The beautiful, multi-story building was built to celebrate Taisho Emperor’s enthronement in 1916 by art lovers.

Ｉｔ continues to occasionally host various events, including kabuki and bunraku performances.

Visitors can enter Uchiko-za and explore the many trap doors and hidden passageways around the stage. Kabuki stages are known for their elaborate design, allowing for sudden dissapearances, dramatic entrances and the like.

At Uchiko-za, visitors have the opportunity to examine the mechanics of such stage choreography.

What is Kabuki?
It is a composite art which fused together traditional Japanese music, dance and theatrical performance.

The origin date backthe early Edo Period (1603-1867).
 

Access info. 
Uchiko-za is located a 5-10 minute walk from JR Uchiko Station.
Hours: 9:00-16:30
Admission: Adult 400yen  Child 200yen

The Uchiko History Museum (内子町歴史民俗資料館, Uchikocho Rekishi Minzoku Shiryōkan), also known as the Museum of Commercial and Domestic Life, is located along the main street, outside of the Yokaichi Old Town district. The museum is compact, but enjoyable, with life-sized, automated figures arranged to show how residents of the town lived in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The displays are visually informative, making up for the lack of English translations in the written material.

The museum reproduced the state of the business and livelihood of around 1921 using old tools (1921).

 On the second floor, beautiful tatami rooms with sliding doors and painted screens show how the more stylish town houses of local merchant families looked like.
 

Hours: 9:00 to 16:30
Closed: December 29 to January 2
Admission: 200 yen 

Access info.
The Uchiko History Museum a ten minute walk from JR Uchiko Station. It can also be reached in a short ride on the Chagamaru Retro Bus.

Rare in Japan, Matsuyama Castle （松山城） located in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku, is one of Japan’s “original castles”.  
Remaining undamaged from war, there are only 12 castles in Japan which are intact since the post-feudal era. 

Being located on Mount Katsuyama, visitors can enjoy the view of Matsuyama city and Seto Inland Sea from the castle grounds. With the approximately 200 cherry trees planted on the grounds, it is a popular hanami (cherry blossom viewing) spot in the spring (typically from late March to early April).

Matsuyama Castle was originally built between 1602 and 1628 and was given to the Matsudaira family (relatives of Japan’s ruler, Tokugawa shogun) in 1635.  However, the original five-storied castle was destroyed by lightning and the reconstructed to its current three storied tower in 1820. 

A typical feudal castle, the main circle of defense, Honmaru is located on the top of hill.  Access to the Honmaru is through multiple gates which are well-defended. Matsuyama Castle is one of the few castles with multiple wings.The main keep has a secondary keep and multiple turrets. Visitors can see displays of Matsuyama’s history as well as information about the feudal period within the castle.

Matsuyama Castle Keep
Hours: 9:00 to 17:00 (until 16:30 in December and January; until 17:30 in August) 
Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time.
Closed: December 29th 
Admission: 510 yen

Though the castle is located on top of a steep hill, there is a ropeway as well as a chairlift making the access fairly easy.  
Visitors can view the beautiful hillside scenery from the chairlift.  For more adventurous visitors, it is possible to climb up the hill from the ropeway station or the Ninomaru Garden.  It would take about 15 minutes.

Ropeway & Chairlift
Hours: Ropeway: 8:30 to 17:30 (until 17:00 in December and January; until 18:00 in August)
Chairlift: 8:30 to 17:00 (around the year)
Closed: Opened all year round
Admission: 510 yen (round trip), 270 yen (one way)

Lying at the base of Mount Katsuyama is the Ninomaru Garden. This is the former site of the second circle of defense (Ninomaru).The Ninomaru was the lord’s residence and where his offices were located as it provided an easier access to the city than Honmaru.

However, visitors cannot visit the palace buildings as the buildings no longer exist.  Instead, Ninomaru has been transformed into a park, preserving the layout of the former castle palace through its gardens, elevated grounds and ponds.

Ninomaru Park
Hours: 9:00 to 17:00 (until 16:30 in December and January; until 17:30 in August)
Closed: December 29
Admission: 100 yen

Access Information:
1.  From JR Matsuyama Station board tram line 5 to Okaido (approximately 10 minutes, the fare is 160 yen).
Or
From Matsuyama-shi Station, board tram line 2 or 3 to Okaido (approximately 5 minutes, 160 yen)
2.  From Okaido tram stop, a 5 minute walk through the covered shopping street will lead to the lower ropeway station.
3.  Board the ropeway/chairlift to Matsuyama Castle.