Rilio no Pan: Imabari’s Sake Manju and an Old-School Bakery, 150 Metres Off the Shimanami Route
Rilio no Pan is an old family bakery in Minato-cho, Imabari, standing directly across the road from Ehime Prefectural Imabari Hospital.
It opens at 7:30 in the morning and closes on Sundays.
What makes it worth knowing about is not only the bread.
This is one of the places in town that sells sake manju, a flat steamed bun that Imabari treats as a local speciality, and the shop has been making it as a family business for generations.
It also happens to sit almost exactly on the road you will already be riding.
Why it is worth stopping: a detour of about 150 metres
From JR Imabari Station to Itoyama, where the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge begins, the direct cycling route runs roughly 7.0 km.
Route the same ride past Rilio no Pan and it comes to roughly 7.2 km.
In other words, the stop costs you about 150 metres.
The bakery is about 2.9 km from the station, and Itoyama is a further 4.2 km beyond it.
That is the whole argument for this shop.
You are not making a special trip.
You are buying breakfast on a road you were going to ride anyway.
If you have not yet worked out the route from the station to the bridge, it is described in Imabari Station to the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge: the cycling route.
Sake manju: the flat bun on the sign
Look up at the sign and you will see two words above the shop name: sake manju.
A bakery that advertises a steamed bun above its own name is telling you what it is known for.
Sake manju is a steamed bun raised with rice koji, the same fermentation starter used for sake, which is where the name comes from.
The ones here are noticeably flat, with a thin, smooth skin wrapped around sweet red bean paste.
They are sold in packs of five.
Reviewers who have eaten them elsewhere in Japan often remark that these are closer to bread than to a conventional manju, which is worth knowing before you bite into one and expect something else.
That is not a complaint.
It is the character of the thing, and it is why people who grew up here keep buying them.
Some locals buy several packs at once and freeze them.
What the shop is like inside
People who write about this place almost always reach for the same word: Showa.
That is the name of the era that ended in 1989, and here it means a shop that has never been redesigned to look modern.
Reviewers across more than a decade describe the same thing, a warm, plain, old-fashioned bakery with the bread simply laid out.
Step through the door and the first thing you notice is the smell of flour.
It is not a shop trying to be found, which is much of the reason it is worth finding.
Melange, and what else the locals reach for
The other name that comes up again and again is melange.
It is a soft French roll filled generously with fresh cream, and it has been mentioned by visitors over a span of more than ten years.
People from outside Ehime tend to be surprised by it and ask whether it is an Imabari thing.
Beyond that, this is a neighbourhood bakery in the most ordinary and most useful sense.
There are savoury rolls such as sausage rolls and yakisoba pan, the fried-noodle sandwich that is a fixture of Japanese bakeries.
The plain loaf bread is the single most talked-about item among reviewers, and some customers order it in advance.
Most people report spending under 1,000 yen here, according to the spending figures compiled on Tabelog.
The hard-crust breads, and the son who took them with him
The photograph at the top of this article shows three breads bought here several years ago, and all of them are hard-crust European styles.
At that time this shop was known among bread lovers for exactly that.
The person making them was the owners’ son.
He has since opened his own bakery, Pain Culture, in Tamagawa on the inland side of the city, and the hard-crust range went with him.
So the line-up you find today is not the one in that photograph.
What is here now is the older repertoire the shop has always had: the sake manju, the cream-filled melange, the savoury rolls, the loaf bread.
If you specifically want a serious baguette or a sourdough, the son’s shop is the place to aim for, though it is well inland and not a casual detour from the cycling route.
If you want to taste what a Japanese neighbourhood bakery tasted like before the fashion for hard crusts arrived, this is it.
Getting there
The bakery is at 1-1-4 Minato-cho, directly opposite Ehime Prefectural Imabari Hospital, next to a Daiso store.
By bicycle from JR Imabari Station: about 2.9 km, roughly 12 minutes at a relaxed pace.
On foot from JR Imabari Station: about 2.9 km, roughly 35 to 40 minutes.
From Hashihama Station (JR Yosan Line): about 2.6 km.
Continuing to Itoyama: about 4.2 km, roughly 17 minutes by bicycle.
If you have not picked up a rental bicycle yet, the current situation is set out in Renting a bicycle in Imabari (2026).
Parking is very limited, so this is a much easier stop on two wheels than in a car.
Fitting it into a day on the bike
The simplest way to use this shop is as your first stop of the morning.
Collect your bicycle, ride 2.9 km north, buy your breakfast and something to carry, and continue 4.2 km to Itoyama.
The sake manju travels well, which is the practical reason to buy it rather than a cream-filled roll if you are heading over the bridge.
At Itoyama there is a free observation deck looking down on the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge, described in Itoyama Park.
If instead you are heading for the small ferries, Hashihama Port is on the far side of the same hill, and the udon at Matsu Seimenjo fits naturally into that plan.
For the return, the town’s hot spring Shimanami Onsen Kisuke no Yu is one or two minutes from Imabari Station.
The whole of the Imabari side is summarised in The complete Imabari guide for Shimanami Kaido cyclists.
Frequently asked questions
What day is it closed? Sunday. This catches out a lot of visitors, because Sunday is exactly when people ride.
What time does it open? 7:30. Opening hours at small shops do change, so treat this as a guide rather than a guarantee.
Is there anywhere to sit and eat? No. This is a takeaway bakery, so plan to eat at Itoyama or by the water.
Will the sake manju survive being carried on a bike? Yes. It is flat, dense and not fragile, which is more than can be said for the cream-filled breads.
Can I get hard-crust bread here? Not reliably. That range moved to the son’s bakery in Tamagawa.
Is there parking? Very little. Come by bicycle if you can.
Other food on this side of Imabari
Imabari’s best-known dish is yakibuta tamago meshi, roast pork and a fried egg over rice, compared across the three old-guard shops in Imabari Yakibuta Tamago Meshi: the three classic shops compared.
For noodles, Imabari ramen is the clear, iriko-dashi style local to the city, while Kyoya is the quiet residential-street chuka soba shop that locals fill from the moment it opens.
Original article in Japanese: 「リリオのパン」美味しいハード系のパンと酒まんじゅうのお店｜今治ランチ隊が行く！
