2015 Golden Week travel from Miyajima to Awaji②

2015/05/03 - 2015/05/06

After leaving Miyajima, we headed to Imabari in Ehime. I wanted to change my hotel reservation from Imabari to Miyajima, because a colleague of my husband said that it was so amazing to see the change of tide in Miyajima, but it was too late to change. Anyway, Imabari is also interesting and was good to visit.
We took Shimanami road, famous for the scenery of Seto islands, but it was already dark after traffic jam in Hiroshima... It was pity and I was so scared to drive that I could not see well for heavy rain and the lights from cars of opposite lane. I really appreciated to arrive safely there!

エリア 愛媛

• 同行者: カップル・夫婦
• 交通手段: レンタカー
• 旅行の手配内容: 個別手配

We arrived at Imabari Urbain Hotel at almost 21 o'clock. I asked my husband to check what food it is famous for Imabari during driving, and he said "Chicken". So we decided to go somewhere close to the hotel and could eat "Chicken". The receptionist recommended to us 2 Izakaya (Japanese style tavern), but the first one we couldn't find (we found it was one block further the next day), so we went the second one "Isokairaku", grilled food Izakaya.

It is "Torikawayaki" (grilled chicken skin), grilled well and crispy. Generally we (in tokyo) eat torikawa for yakitori or torikawa senbei (fried chicken skin), and it was completely different style and good taste.

Yakitori (grilled chicken with stick), typical food from Izakaya. Chicken tastes fresh and juicy. Yammy!

We liked it, grilled thin sliced pork with chives. It seems that I can make at home also.

The next morning, we went to the Itoyama Park for the view. We came here through the Shimanami road, but it was too late to see around, totally dark and could not see any view.
The view from this park was fantastic and attractive, we thought that we would like to come back again and travel slowly. Even on the bridges there in a road for pedestrian and cyclist and visit small islands.

One of the islands, I could see old Japanese style houses.

We pass through Imabarijo (Imabari castle) and just took photo. This constructed first in early 17 century, but burnt down in Meiji era, now it rebuilt in 1980. We planned to go to Himeji castle, the world heritage, so just quick look for this one and kept traveling.

I only knew the towel is the most famous thing in Imabari, so we visited at the Imabari towel shop in texport Imabari. It was stylish atmosphere and could find many kinds of towels. I bought small handy towel for souvenir.

They exhibit old machines for towels.

In the other building, he demonstrates how to make towels. It was quite big machine, compare to old machines. A bit funny to see, and my husband said cheap turkish carpet should make in this way! (We went to Istanbul last winter).