Uwajima Japan Ehime
Japan

34 Cruises availables At departure or passage at this port

Emerald Waterways (10 Cruises)

Lindblad Expeditions (15 Cruises)

Ponant (9 Cruises)


Frequently Asked Questions

Ships tie up at Sakashizu quay, a half-hour walk from the centre. Taxis and shuttles cut that to a few minutes. The town is then easily covered on foot: its attractions cluster between the station, the castle hill and the old shopping streets.
A trial of strength between two half-tonne bulls that lock heads and push until one backs away. No matador and no killing: it is a tradition still kept alive in a few Japanese towns, and it made Uwajima's name.
Yes. Only twelve Japanese castles keep their original keep, and Uwajima has one: a small white three-storey structure, elegant and stocky, built at the very start of the seventeenth century and then held for 250 years by a branch of the Date clan.
The climb takes about fifteen minutes under tall trees and includes some steep steps. It is not a mountain ascent, but you need sure footing. From the top floor the view stretches over the rooftops, the port and the mountains ringing the bay.
A garden laid out in 1866 for the ruling family at the foot of the castle hill: a pond, stone bridges, iris beds and above all wisteria trained along long pergolas. The place is rarely busy, and mostly what you hear is carp breaking the surface.
Because the coast is cut into rias, drowned valleys forming a maze of inlets and peninsulas. Pearl farmers' rafts float in those sheltered waters, and the region is among Japan's leading pearl producers.
In the shops downtown, where they sell at every price, often by the farming families themselves. Even without buying, conversation starts easily and you leave able to tell a pink lustre from a silver sheen.
Two above all. The local taimeshi differs from the northern version in the prefecture: here the sea bream is served raw, sliced over hot rice with an egg-based broth. Jakoten, a flat fritter of ground small fish, is eaten warm on street corners.
One walking loop is enough: the castle hill and its original keep, Tensha-en garden at its foot, the Date museum for the clan's armour and palanquins, then the old shopping streets for jakoten and pearls.
No, it appears on no list of great destinations, and its residents are none the worse for it. This is provincial Japan, proud of its bulls, its pearls and its sea bream, revealing itself without hurry. Cruise passengers remain a curiosity that locals greet warmly.