Matsuyama Iyotetsu Tram Pass
The distinctive colour of the Iyotetsu trams is something you won’t miss while you are in Matsuyama.
You can have any colour as long as it is orange
Japan Rail Pass
Although I did not travel with a Japan Rail Pass this time around, it is possible to use your JR Pass to go to Matsuyama. Just book your reserved seats for the Shinkansen at a ‘Midori no Madoguchi’ office at a JR station in advance like normal. The main station in Matsuyama is the JR Matsuyama Station.
Iyo Railway Co. Ltd (Iyotetsu Kabushiki Gaisha)
The ‘Iyotetsu’ is the only transit company in the city and operates the trains, buses and trams in Matsuyama. If you arrived by shinkansen, the boarding platforms for the buses and trams to get to the downtown portion of the city are outside of JR Matsuyama Station.
For attractions within the city, the tram is the best option as it is fairly frequent and costs only 180 yen per ride. Here are a few observations from my trip.
Tram line 5 is the best for getting to most of the attractions from JR Matsuyama Station (05)
Only Tram line 3 and 5 goes to Dogo Onsen and they both terminate at Dogo Onsen Station (24)
Okaido (19) is the best place to get off to go the Matsuyama Castle via the ropeway and cablecar. The entrance is about 5 minutes walk from the tram stop. Also, Okaido has a shopping arcade with many food options.
Tram line 5 is the only tram that does not terminal at Matsuyama City Station (02).
When the tram terminates, all passengers are required to get off, so check that you have boarded the correct tram as most of them stop at the same places.
From the Iyotetsu website
From the Iyotetsu website
Iyotetsu Day Passes
My trip to Matsuyama was going to span 3.5 days so I was trying to decide if a tram pass was worth purchasing on not. Each ride on the tram was 180 yen and I would probably use it at least 3-4x per day so the math started to favour a four day pass. A four day tram pass is 1700 yen (Dec 2022). The reason that I was staying only 3.5 days was that on my last day, I would take a train from JR Matsuyama Station to Nyuugawa Station to catch my overnight ferry to Osaka. But, more on that in a few days time when I gather my thoughts on it.
The website advertises a physical pass can be purchased at various locations but I opted for a digital pass as it would save some money as well as the Canadian dollar was stronger at the time of purchase. There are two different passes that can be purchased depending on where you need to go. One of the passes is called the ‘ALL IYOTETSU Pass’ which includes more than just using the tram. The other pass is the ‘Iyotetsu Tram Day Ticket’ which only allows access to the trams that run around the downtown part of the city. If you are interested in just Dogo Onsen, Matsuyama Castle and a few other places around the city, then a tram pass is the best way to get around. I would recommend buying one so that you don’t need to fumble for change. One thing that didn’t occur to me is whether or not my Suica transit card worked as an alternative to buying a pass. I think it should so if you have a Pasmo/Suica or any other common transit pass in Japan, you should be able to tap off when you leave to pass for your fare.
The digital passes can be purchased from the ‘Norikae Annai - Japan Transit -’ app from the respective app stores. It can also be used like other Japanese Rail Apps on how to get to various places but I didn’t find it as good as some of the other similar applications.
Unfortunately, I don’t have all of the sequences of how to purchase the pass through the app but have included a few snapshots of what it looked like on my iPhone.
The pass is registered to the cell phone and is activated by the user when ready. Make sure that you have cell phone coverage as the app checks the date and time when using. When in use, the pass looks like the one on the right and the time in the top portion of the app scrolls back and forth. All of the other pertinent details can be checked by the driver driver when leaving the tram. Since it is a fixed fee fare system, the entrance is at the back and everyone pays and exits through the front of the tram.
Not a fan of digital passes
The one hiccup that I had was when I first arrived in Matsuyama. My digital pass was not working which caused a bit of stress. The app does not have a contact number inside the app at that time (Dec 2022) and the only way to contact them was by email. Make sure to click on the button from within the app as it will copy a bunch of important account details to your email.
After sending my details related to my problem by email, I took the city bus to my hotel and checked in. Luckily, it was still the middle of the afternoon and when I checked my app in my hotel room, the company had sent a reply and fixed my issue. The positive that I found out was that since I did not use the limo bus ticket in my app, I was able to cancel and get a refund for most of my money (minus a small admin fee). It was not enough to offset all of my bus travel cost but at least I managed to get most of my money back.
After that, everything ran smoothly and I found the app was easy to use definitely paid for itself from all of my travelling. One morning, I even used the app three times before 9 am, as I wanted to go take a bath at the Dogo Onsen ‘Asuka no Yu’. You can rent towels there but thought it might better spent elsewhere and brought one instead. Since I did not want to carry my wet towel around with me, I decided to drop it back in my hotel room before heading back out again for the day.
