Iyonada Monogatari

West of Matsuyama the Yosan Line has two ways to Ōzu. Since 1986 the expresses have taken the short cut inland through Uchiko, and the old line along the Iyo-nada coast has been left to a local railcar every two hours. It runs along the shore, stops at Shimonada, a platform above the water, and at Iyo-Nagahama turns inland up the Hiji River to the castle town of Ōzu, before tunnelling on to the port of Yawatahama.

The way to ride it slowly is the Iyonada Monogatari, "the tale of the Iyo-nada", JR Shikoku's first full-scale sightseeing train, which has run since July 2014. It makes four trips on weekends and holidays, each with a breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea booked ahead and served at your seat, and every one halts at Shimonada long enough to step out onto the platform. Along the line, people come out to wave it past.

Trains leave Matsuyama, where the overhead wires from Takamatsu end a few stations on, at Iyoshi. Beyond Mukaibara the line divides: the 1986 short cut heads inland under the mountains towards Uchiko, and the coast line, named the Aiaru Iyonada Line in 2014, drops to the sea. It reached Shimonada in June 1935. The station is one platform and a wooden building on a ledge above the shore, and before Route 378 was laid on reclaimed land below it, waves broke under the platform's edge; JR has used it three times on the poster for its Seishun 18 rail ticket.

The coast and the Hiji

At Kitanada the boundary between Iyo and Ōzu cities crosses the platform. At Iyo-Nagahama, once one of Japan's three great timber markets, the line meets the mouth of the Hiji River and turns inland along it. This stretch is older than the coast line: the narrow-gauge Ehime Railway opened from Nagahama to Ōzu in 1918 and was rebuilt to the main-line gauge in 1935, when the coast line joined it. On clear mornings from autumn to winter, cold air pouring down the valley from the Ōzu basin carries a river of fog out to sea at Nagahama, the Hijikawa arashi.

At Gorō, local people dressed as tanuki, the raccoon dog, see the sightseeing train in and out. Past Iyo-Ōzu the line crosses the Hiji on a bridge 269 metres long under Ōzu Castle, where banners are waved at the train from the walls, and runs on through the Yoruhiru tunnel to Yawatahama, which it reached in 1939.

The trains

The Iyonada Monogatari runs on three KiHa 185 railcars rebuilt for it in 2022, in JR Shikoku's first metallic paint. Car 1, Akane no Shō, is the madder red of a sunset over the Iyo-nada, and its end has a large glass door for the view ahead; car 2, Kogane no Shō, is the gold of the sun and of Ehime's citrus, with pair seats facing the sea; car 3, Haruka no Shō, holds the Fiore Suite, a private room for two to eight behind a noren hand-dyed in Yawatahama. The washbasins are Tobe-ware porcelain. Every seat is in the Green Car. The first train, two KiHa 47 railcars rebuilt in the same colours, ran from July 2014 to December 2021.

The rest of the time the coast line belongs to local railcars, about every two hours.

The Iyonada Monogatari makes four trips on its running days: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays all year, and some Fridays. JR Shikoku's calendar is published to March 2027; on a few Fridays only one pair of trips runs. Each trip has its own name and its own meal, and every seat is reserved.

Iyonada Monogatari, from Matsuyama

Iyonada Monogatari, to Matsuyama

Local trains by the coast, from Matsuyama

Local trains from Shimonada to Matsuyama

Good to know:

• The stop at Shimonada lasts about eleven minutes on the Ōzu trip, twelve on the Futami and eight on the other two. Only the evening Dōgo trip sees the sun go down over the sea.
• Shimonada is about fifty minutes from Matsuyama by local train; the 09:45 is there at 10:34.
• Some Matsuyama trains to Yawatahama run inland through Uchiko and miss the coast: take only those signed for Shimonada and Iyo-Nagahama.

Times as of October 2026, from the Iyonada Monogatari's own plan pages and JR Shikoku's station timetables. Check your date on the train's running calendar (opens in a new tab) and JR Shikoku's timetable page (opens in a new tab).

The Iyonada Monogatari is all Green Car: the fare, a limited-express ticket and a Green ticket come to ¥4,780 from Matsuyama to Iyo-Ōzu and ¥5,130 to Yawatahama. A box for three or four in car 1 adds ¥9,000 a table, and the Fiore Suite, all of car 3, ¥33,600 a room. Meals are extra: ¥3,500 for the breakfast or afternoon tea, ¥6,000 for either lunch. By local train, Matsuyama to Iyo-Ōzu is ¥1,080.

Seats go on sale a month ahead at 10:00, at JR ticket offices and, from 2 October 2026, on JR West's e5489 site; the Fiore Suite is sold only at ticket offices. Meal tickets are sold from a month to four days ahead, only to passengers riding the whole trip. Fares checked October 2026 against the train's ticket page and JR Shikoku's fare table; Japanese yen.

The local trains are covered; the Iyonada Monogatari is not. The ALL SHIKOKU Rail Pass, for visitors to Japan, gives unlimited travel in ordinary unreserved seats on JR Shikoku's limited expresses and local trains: ¥12,000 for three days, ¥20,000 for seven. It does not include Green seats, and the Iyonada Monogatari has no others. The Japan Rail Pass covers JR Shikoku too, ¥50,000 for seven days in ordinary class or ¥70,000 with Green Car seats.

For this journey alone, no pass is worth buying: the sightseeing train is ¥4,780 to Iyo-Ōzu and the local train ¥1,080. A three-day ALL SHIKOKU pass can pay when the coast is one part of a wider trip around the island.

Checked October 2026 against JR Shikoku's ALL SHIKOKU Rail Pass notice (opens in a new tab) of 6 August 2026 and the Japan Rail Pass prices (opens in a new tab).

The sightseeing train sets down only at Iyo-Ōzu and Yawatahama, so a day in Ōzu fits between the morning train out and the afternoon train back. Local trains by the coast reach both towns every two hours.

Matsuyama is the base for every trip, and Dōgo, its hot-spring quarter, the place to stay in it. A night in Ōzu's castle town leaves time for the villa and the castle before the afternoon train calls on its way back.

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