Mori: A Book Cafe in an Old Japanese House in Imabari (Hohohoza Annex)
For travelers: Mori is a small book café in Komeya-cho, in central Imabari — an old Japanese townhouse that now houses a bookshop and a coffee counter, run as the annex of the local bookstore Hohohoza Imabari. If you want a quiet, very local break from sightseeing or cycling the Shimanami Kaido, this is the kind of place tourists rarely find on their own.
Today I visited “Mori” (which means “forest” in Japanese), a café-and-bookshop in one, kept almost exactly as the old house it has always been.
To be honest, standing in front of it I thought: “What is this place?” A café? A bookstore? You cannot quite tell from the outside.
But step inside, and a nostalgic warmth gently wraps around you.
Because the old house has been left largely as it was, the wooden pillars and the tatami-mat room feel like coming home to your grandparents’ place. The shelves hold secondhand books, new titles and a few crafts — browsing alone is a pleasure, even if you cannot read Japanese.
I ordered the house blend coffee.
It was clean and smooth, and sitting in the relaxed tatami room, I looked up and realized a whole hour had passed with a book in my hands.
Sitting on tatami, reading, with a good cup of coffee — a quietly luxurious way to spend time in Japan.
I am a father of four, so an hour of silent reading like this is honestly a rare treat. The shop also hosts talk events and small live performances. They aim to be a place where book lovers can drop in and take a breath — children and adults, locals and visitors alike.
One practical note: the opening days and hours change every month. Before you go, check the official site or their social media for the current schedule.
Shop Information (as of July 2026)
- Name: Mori (annex of Hohohoza Imabari)
- Address: 4-2-1 Komeya-cho, Imabari, Ehime
- Parking: 4 cars, next to the building
- Hours: Vary by month — check the official site (mori-komeyamachi.com) or SNS before visiting
If you would like to slow down the Japanese way — on tatami, with coffee and a book — this little forest in the middle of Imabari is well worth finding.
Information as of July 2026. Original article in Japanese: https://starlife2016.net/3124.html
