Ozu・大洲

I lived in Ozu in Ehime Prefecture for two years as an ALT from 2012-2014. When I lived there, not much was going on. I used to be in bed at about 8:30pm most nights because there wasn’t really anything else to do. I cycled everywhere, did running as a hobby and had school lunch every day – I was very healthy! I was constantly on cockroach alert and I also had a very real fear of waking up with some kind of centipede walking on me. This happened to two people that I know, so it wasn’t an unfounded one! My rent was something crazy like ¥20,000 a month but I only had to pay ¥10,000. I lived on my own which I loved and it was overall a pretty nice life.

I went back to Shikoku in 2016 to visit my friend but not to Ozu. Then I finally went back in 2025. We stayed at Nipponia (and at this point, Ozu should probably just change its name to that because it’s everywhere). They describe themselves as 「分散型ホテル」which means that random buildings in the town are part of the hotel – we stayed in Atu. I kept getting lost and not being able to find which building we were staying in. We went by Shinkansen and train which took nearly 8 hours from Tokyo (Tokyo – Okayama – Matsuyama – Ozu).

They could cater for vegetarians and we opted to have two breakfasts and one evening meal (there still isn’t much to do in the evenings unless you like drinking or pachinko). I liked the first breakfast better than the second, but I don’t really like konnyaku or seaweed (any variety really).

Ozu (Shikoku?) is really hot and humid but that’s why it’s nice and green. We went to Ozu Shrine and then walked down to Garyu Sanso.

We were the only ones at Garyu Sanso, so we had the attention of ALL the staff. They were really nice and tried explaining things to us but unfortunately, my Japanese doesn’t really stretch to talking about architecture (I’m not even sure my English does) and neither does my husband’s. I understood that the window below shows the moon in it’s different phases and that the ledge (?) bit of the wooden planks changes colour depending on where you look at them from. Luckily, I am very good at just smiling and looking like I understand.

I had forgotten how friendly people are in Ozu/Ehime. It’s such a nice place. I met my friend and we had lunch together and I was really happy to see her. The last time we met was in Tokyo in 2023 (maybe). I thought she was an English teacher when I first met her and was confused as to why she didn’t speak English (although that’s not that rare) but she’s an art teacher, so that makes sense.

Ozu is lovely and you should go if you get the chance.

Emily