Ehime has five museums and a children’s castle where you can spend a rainy day indoors: three in Matsuyama City, and one each in Imabari City, Niihama City and Seiyo City. This guide compares them on adult entry fee, parking, nearest transport and closed days.
In short
- Adult entry is ¥500 to ¥1,000. Ehime Children’s Castle (えひめこどもの城) is free to enter, but its activities and rides cost extra.
- Only the Towel Art Museum says its car park is free. The Sakanoue no Kumo Museum has no car park for visitors.
- The two Matsuyama museums in the city center are a short walk from a tram stop. Shiki Memorial Museum is closed on Tuesdays, not Mondays.
- The planetarium at the Ehime Prefectural Science Museum cannot be booked in advance. You buy a ticket on the day.
Checked with official pages on 5 October 2026.
1. Which one fits your day?
Depends on the place
Only the Towel Art Museum says its car park is free. Click a name to jump to its section. Prices are for one adult (high school age and over) paying the individual price; special exhibitions cost extra.
| Place | Adult entry | Parking | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sakanoue no Kumo Museum | ¥500 (2nd floor free) | None for visitors | Mostly Mondays |
| Shiki Memorial Museum | ¥500 | 22 spaces, ¥100 per 30 min | Tuesdays |
| Ehime Children’s Castle | Free (rides extra) | ¥300 per car | Mondays |
| Towel Art Museum | ¥1,000 | Free | 14 and 19 Jan 2027 |
| Ehime Science Museum | ¥580 (permanent) | 320 spaces | Mondays |
| Ehime History Museum | ¥700 (permanent) | 156 spaces | Mondays |
“Mondays” has exceptions, covered in each section. The Science Museum and the History Museum are open on the first Monday of the month and closed the next day. Parking fees are for ordinary cars.
2. Getting there and parking
Depends on the place
The six places are spread over four cities, so how you travel decides the day. The three in Matsuyama can be reached by the city’s tram. The other three are best reached by car or, for the History Museum, by train and then a short bus or taxi ride.
- Sakanoue no Kumo Museum: about 2 minutes on foot from the Okaido (大街道) tram stop. It is about 15 minutes by tram from JR Matsuyama Station and about 10 minutes from Matsuyama-shi Station. It has no parking for visitors.
- Shiki Memorial Museum: about 5 minutes on foot from Dogo Onsen Station or Dogo-koen-mae Station. From JR Matsuyama Station, take the tram to Dogo Onsen (about 20 minutes).
- Ehime Children’s Castle: by car, about 7 km (15 minutes) from Matsuyama IC. By bus, take the Iyotetsu bus from stop B4 at Matsuyama-shi Station (about 40 minutes, every 30 minutes). The first bus leaves the station at 8:30 and the last bus leaves the Castle at 16:50.
- Towel Art Museum: about 1 hour by car from Dogo via Route 317. The car park is free.
- Ehime Science Museum: about 2 km (5 minutes) by car from Iyo-Saijo IC on the Matsuyama Expressway. A taxi from Iyo-Saijo Station or Niihama Station takes about 15 minutes. The nearest Setouchi Bus stops, Sakuragi (桜木) and Uzuibashi (渦井橋), are each about 2 km (30 minutes) on foot from the museum.
- Ehime History Museum: about 50 minutes by car from Matsuyama IC via Seiyo-Uwa IC. By train, take a limited express from JR Matsuyama Station (about 1 hour) to JR Unomachi Station, then a bus or taxi (about 5 to 10 minutes).
One saving: if you use both the Ehime Children’s Castle car park and the car park of the Tobe Zoo (とべ動物園) on the same day, one of the two parking fees is waived. This applies to ordinary cars only, and the steps involve the zoo’s management office; the Castle’s access page explains them.
2.1 Sakanoue no Kumo Museum (坂の上の雲ミュージアム), Matsuyama City
The exhibition rooms cost ¥500 for adults and ¥250 for people aged 65 or over and for high school students. Junior high school students and younger enter free. You can go up to the second floor without paying; the fee applies only when you enter the exhibition rooms. People with a disability certificate and one carer also enter free. The museum accepts cash, credit cards, e-money and QR-code payments.
The audio guide (¥100) works in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese Mandarin. It takes about 50 to 60 minutes. The museum is open 9:00–18:30 (last entry 18:00) and is mostly closed on Mondays. It also has a closed period every February and March while the exhibits are changed, and the official closure calendar can change. The current special exhibition runs from 24 February 2026 to 3 January 2027.
Food and drink are allowed only in the library lounge on the second floor. In the rest of the building, you may drink from a container that does not spill, except in the exhibition rooms and gallery. There is a nursing room on the second floor, and you can borrow 3 strollers and 10 wheelchairs.
The museum has no car park for visitors, so use public transport or a paid car park nearby. From Matsuyama Airport, take the limousine bus toward Dogo Onsen Station and get off at Okaido (大街道).
Address: 3-20 Ichibancho, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture · Open in Google Maps
Phone: 089-915-2600
Official hours and prices page (Japanese)
2.2 Matsuyama City Shiki Memorial Museum (松山市立子規記念博物館), Matsuyama City
Entry is ¥500 for an individual and ¥250 for people aged 65 or over (show proof of age). High school students and younger enter free. The museum is closed on Tuesdays (the next day if Tuesday is a public holiday), so it is open on Mondays. It is open 9:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30) until 31 October, and 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30) from 1 November to 30 April.
The permanent exhibition is on the second and third floors. The second floor follows the life of Shiki and the history of Matsuyama, and the third floor has a play corner and a haiku-writing corner. An audio guide costs ¥100 per unit and covers about 30 key exhibits in 30 to 40 minutes. The museum accepts credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, AMEX, Discover, Diners), e-money, transport IC cards and code payments. It does not accept PiTaPa.
The car park has 22 spaces and costs ¥100 per 30 minutes.
Address: 1-30 Dogo-koen, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture · Open in Google Maps
Phone: 089-931-5566
Matsuyama City hours and prices page (Japanese)
2.3 Ehime Children’s Castle (えひめこどもの城), Matsuyama City
Entry to the park is free. Activity corners and rides have separate fees. It is open 9:00–17:00 and closed on Mondays (the next day if Monday is a public holiday) and from 29 December to 1 January. It is also closed for maintenance on 2, 3 and 4 February 2027.
For a rainy day, head for the Ai-ai Children’s Hall (あいあい児童館), the building shaped like a Western castle. Its whole interior is a play area with indoor play equipment, mazes, and craft and cooking activities. The first floor has the Children’s Tower (こどもタワー). The second floor has a picture-book corner, a play corner for babies and toddlers, a music room, a nursing room and the Mikyan Digital Art Museum (みきゃんデジタルアートミュージアム), with an augmented-reality sand-play game. The third floor has a cooking room and a workshop. The free space on the second floor can be used for lunch and rest.
Some outdoor rides stop depending on the weather or the course. The park says the bobsled may be suspended depending on course conditions. The Koshiro Adventure wooden course may be closed in rain or other conditions. The park provides a leaflet in English on its official site.
There are two car parks: the Matsuyama side (395 cars, including 10 large vehicles) and the Tobe side (105 cars). An ordinary car pays ¥300 per entry. A large vehicle pays ¥810 per entry (Matsuyama side only).
Address: 108-1 Otsu, Nishino-cho, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture · Open in Google Maps
Phone: 089-963-3300
Official hours page (Japanese)
2.4 Towel Art Museum ICHIHIRO (タオル美術館 ICHIHIRO), Imabari City
Adults pay ¥1,000, junior high and high school students ¥800 and elementary school students ¥600. Children younger than elementary school age enter free. People aged 65 or over pay ¥700, and a person with a disability pays ¥500 (a carer also pays ¥500). You can buy a gallery ticket on the day; no advance booking is needed. If you only want to shop or eat, you do not pay the entry fee.
The museum is open 9:30–18:00 all year; the last gallery entry is 30 minutes before closing. The only closed days listed are 14 and 19 January 2027. The car park is free. The museum lends wheelchairs and strollers and has a nursing room. Pets are not allowed. Its official site has an English version.
Address: 2930 Asakura-kamikoh, Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture · Open in Google Maps
Phone: 0898-56-1515
Official hours and prices page (Japanese; English version at towelmuseum.com/en)
2.5 Ehime Prefectural Science Museum (愛媛県総合科学博物館), Niihama City
The permanent exhibition costs ¥580 for adults (high school age and over) and ¥300 for people aged 65 or over. Elementary and junior high school students enter free. The three exhibition halls are Nature (4th floor), Science and Technology (3rd floor) and Industry (3rd floor).
The planetarium cannot be booked in advance; you buy a ticket at the general information desk on the day. It has a 30 m dome and 300 seats, and one show lasts about 45 minutes. Admission is ¥580 for adults and ¥300 for people aged 65 or over and for elementary and junior high school students. Entry starts 15 minutes before the show, ticket sales stop 5 minutes before the show starts, and nobody can enter after it begins. The October timetable is irregular, so check the official timetable page. The planetarium can sell out in busy periods and in the spring and autumn school-trip seasons.
A special exhibition, “WHO ARE WE: Biology of Observation and Discovery, National Museum of Nature and Science Storage Collection, Vol. 1 Mammals,” runs from 3 October to 23 November 2026. Entry to the special exhibition alone costs ¥400 for adults and ¥200 for elementary and junior high school students. A combined ticket with the permanent exhibition costs ¥700 for adults and ¥200 for those students.
The museum is open 9:00–17:30 (exhibition rooms until 17:00). It is closed on Mondays, except that the first Monday of the month it is open and it closes the next day; when a Monday is a public holiday, the closure moves to the next weekday. Closed days are 6, 13, 19 and 26 October and 4, 9 and 16 November. Eating and drinking are not allowed inside. You can borrow strollers and wheelchairs free at the general information desk (limited numbers), and there is a nursing room. The car park has 320 spaces for cars and 8 for large buses.
Address: 2133-2 Oseiin, Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture · Open in Google Maps
Phone: 0897-40-4100
Official hours and prices page (Japanese)
2.6 Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture (愛媛県歴史文化博物館), Seiyo City
The permanent exhibition rooms (the regular exhibition plus a new permanent exhibition on the artist Utsumi Kiyomi) cost ¥700 for adults and ¥400 for people aged 65 or over (show proof of age). Elementary and junior high school students enter free. The new permanent exhibition room alone costs ¥340 for adults and ¥200 for people aged 65 or over.
The special exhibition “Iyo-Matsuyama Castle: Keep, Palace and Castle Town” runs until 23 November 2026. A ticket for the special exhibition alone costs ¥650 for adults and ¥400 for people aged 65 or over and for elementary and junior high school students. A combined ticket (permanent, new permanent and special) costs ¥900 for adults, ¥650 for people aged 65 or over and ¥400 for elementary and junior high school students. Children not yet in elementary school are free.
The museum is open 9:00–17:30 (last entry to the rooms 17:00). It is closed on Mondays, except that the first Monday of the month it is open and it closes the next day; when a Monday is a public holiday, the closure moves to the next weekday. Closed days are 6, 13, 19 and 26 October and 4, 9 and 16 November. The restaurant in the museum is open 11:00–14:00 (last order 13:30) on weekdays and 10:30–15:00 (last order 14:30) on weekends and holidays. The car park has 156 spaces for cars and 8 for large vehicles.
Address: 4-11-2 Unomachi, Uwa-cho, Seiyo City, Ehime Prefecture · Open in Google Maps
Phone: 0894-62-6222
Official hours and prices page (Japanese)
3. Which one for which kind of rainy day?
Depends on the place
- Letting children run around. Ehime Children’s Castle: entry is free, though activities and rides cost extra. Some outdoor rides can stop in wet weather.
- Tram and a short walk. The Sakanoue no Kumo Museum and the Shiki Memorial Museum in Matsuyama. Shiki is open on Mondays.
- Driving, with no parking fee. The Towel Art Museum, which says its car park is free.
- A planetarium. The Ehime Prefectural Science Museum. Buy the ticket on the day.
- History. The Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture in Seiyo City, with a special exhibition on Matsuyama Castle until 23 November 2026.
4. Common questions
Which place has free parking?
The Towel Art Museum says its car park is free. The Children’s Castle charges ¥300 per ordinary car, and the Shiki Memorial Museum charges ¥100 per 30 minutes. The Sakanoue no Kumo Museum has no car park for visitors.
Can I book the planetarium?
No. The Ehime Prefectural Science Museum does not take advance bookings from the general public. Tickets are sold on the day at the general information desk, and shows can sell out in busy periods.
Which places are open on Mondays?
The Shiki Memorial Museum is closed on Tuesdays, so it is open on Mondays. The Towel Art Museum lists only 14 and 19 January 2027 as closed days. The Sakanoue no Kumo Museum, the Children’s Castle, the Science Museum and the History Museum close on Mondays, with the exceptions in each section.
Can I get an audio guide in English?
The Sakanoue no Kumo Museum says its audio guide (¥100) works in English, among other languages. The Shiki Memorial Museum’s audio guide page does not list languages, so ask at the desk.
Sources (checked October 2026)
- Sakanoue no Kumo Museum: hours and prices, access and current exhibition
- Matsuyama City: Shiki Memorial Museum hours and prices, access and exhibits
- Ehime Children’s Castle: hours, access and parking, area guide, activities and guide for groups (admission)
- Towel Art Museum ICHIHIRO: information and access
- Ehime Prefectural Science Museum: hours and prices, access, planetarium, timetable and special exhibition
- Ehime Prefectural Museum of History and Culture: hours and prices, access, special exhibition and restaurant
