Imabari Bakeries: Opening Hours and Closing Days for Nine Bakeries (2026), from 6 a.m. Starts to Sunday Options
This is a one-page guide to the bakeries of Imabari: when each one opens, which day it closes, and what it is known for.
It covers nine bakeries in and around the city, from a shop that opens at six in the morning to a hard-crust bakery out in the countryside that is only open four days a week.
Imabari is the city at the Shikoku end of the Shimanami Kaido, the cycling route that crosses the islands of the Seto Inland Sea to Onomichi.
Many visitors spend a night here before or after the ride, and an early breakfast is often the first problem of the day.
The author of this site, who runs an acupuncture and judo-therapy clinic in Imabari, has written up each of these bakeries over the years.
Shops change, so every one of them was checked again for this 2026 edition.
Opening hours and closing days at a glance
The list below is in order of opening time, earliest first.
| Bakery | Hours | Closed |
|---|---|---|
| Bakery Shop Epi | 6:00–19:00 | Tuesday |
| Boulangerie Soga | 6:30–18:00 | Wednesday and Thursday |
| Seikado | From 7:00 | Monday and Tuesday |
| Rilio no Pan | 7:30–19:30 | Sunday |
| Bread Works | 7:30–18:30 | Monday |
| Pao Guitars | 8:00–17:00 | Has a closing day (telephone to check which) |
| Mugi no Ho | 9:00–15:30 | Sunday and public holidays (telephone about Saturday) |
| Pain Culture | 9:00–11:15 and 12:15–15:00 | Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday |
| HARE/PAN Imabari | From 10:00 until sold out | Irregular |
Hours at small shops can change.
If you are making a special trip, telephone or check the shop’s own notices before you set out.
Which bakery is open when
Only two bakeries open in the six o’clock hour: Epi at 6:00 and Soga at 6:30.
If you want bread before an early start, these are the two to remember.
Sunday is when most people ride the Shimanami Kaido, and it is also the day Rilio no Pan, the bakery on the way to the bridge, is closed.
Soga, on the other hand, is open on Sunday from 6:30.
Seikado and Soga are only about 1.5 kilometres apart.
Seikado closes on Monday and Tuesday and Soga on Wednesday and Thursday, so on any day of the week at least one of the two is open.
Reading the table by day, Monday is the day to avoid Bread Works, Seikado and Pain Culture, and Tuesday rules out Epi as well as Seikado and Pain Culture.
Midweek, Pain Culture is shut from Monday to Wednesday and Soga on Wednesday and Thursday, while Epi, Rilio no Pan and Bread Works carry on.
Bakery Shop Epi (Gomoto-cho)
An old-fashioned neighbourhood bakery in Gomoto-cho.
Of the nine, it is the earliest to open, at six in the morning.
The author’s favourite here is the melon pan, the sweet bun with a crisp biscuit crust.
It is the classic version, crunchy outside and soft inside.
The Camembert bread is filled with cheese cream.
Eating it is rather like eating melted Camembert, and it is another one worth trying.
On one lunchtime visit the loaves of sandwich bread had already gone.
The shop can close early when it sells out, so earlier in the day is better.
More about the shop: Bakery Shop Epi
Address: 愛媛県今治市郷本町2-5-25
Telephone: 0898-22-8333 / Open 6:00–19:00 (closes when sold out) / Closed Tuesday
Boulangerie Soga (Minamikoge-cho)
A long-established, traditional bakery in Minamikoge-cho.
It opens at 6:30, and on a visit at around seven in the morning customers were already coming in one after another.
The shop smells of butter as you walk in.
The range runs from sweet buns and savoury breads to sandwiches and French bread.
The author’s favourite is the pão de queijo, the small Brazilian cheese bread.
Of all the bakeries in Imabari he has visited, this appears to be the only one that sells it.
The egg sandwich has a proper egg flavour, and the ham cutlet sandwich is filling.
There is parking in front of the shop, but it is tight for a large car.
More about the shop: Boulangerie Soga
Address: 愛媛県今治市南高下町4-5-28
Telephone: 0898-33-2856 / Open 6:30–18:00 / Closed Wednesday and Thursday
Seikado (Tachibana-cho)
An old bakery near Tachibana Junior High School, known for its gentle flavours.
It is in the author’s own neighbourhood, and he often goes with his children.
There are a great many kinds of bread, and when the children were small they always came home with the character-shaped buns.
His older daughters’ favourite is the fruit sandwich.
The fruit sandwich is popular enough that it is sometimes gone by nine in the morning.
On one lunchtime visit there was a sold-out sign in the window.
Think of Seikado as a morning bakery.
More about the shop: Seikado
Address: 愛媛県今治市立花町2-7-30
Telephone: 0898-23-7135 / Opens 7:00 (items can sell out) / Closed Monday and Tuesday
Rilio no Pan (Minato-machi)
An old bakery directly opposite Ehime Prefectural Imabari Hospital.
It is also well known for sake manju, a steamed bun that Imabari treats as a local speciality.
The bakery takes care over its flour and methods, and much of the shelf is hard-crust bread.
The crust is firm and the inside moist, much like a French baguette.
An unusual one is the hot dog made with hard-crust bread and a sausage.
For the author, who likes firm bread, this is a shop he cannot resist.
Eat nothing but hard-crust bread, though, and your jaw will get tired.
There is no car park, so keep that in mind if you are driving.
For cyclists this is the one bakery on the way to the bridge: routing the ride from Imabari Station to Sunrise Itoyama past the shop adds only about 150 metres.
Remember that it is closed on Sunday.
More about the shop: Rilio no Pan
Address: 愛媛県今治市湊町1-1-4
Telephone: 0898-33-1350 / Open 7:30–19:30 / Closed Sunday
Bread Works (Koizumi)
One of the few bakeries in Imabari that also bakes hard-crust bread, in Koizumi.
It is about 500 metres from the Katayama intersection on National Route 317, opposite a branch of the Ehime Bank.
The baker works alone, so he cannot make a great deal.
On a Saturday visit at around three in the afternoon, the sold-out sign was already up.
Go in the afternoon and there may be nothing left.
Almost every kind of bread comes in a normal size and a mini size of about half.
That suits anyone who wants to try several kinds, and families with children.
More about the shop: Bread Works
Address: 愛媛県今治市小泉4-11-6
Telephone: 0898-31-4677 / Open 7:30–18:30 / Closed Monday / Parking in front of the shop
Pao Guitars (Bekku)
A bakery on the corner of the Bekku intersection, with a room where you can eat what you buy.
Around a hundred kinds of bread are on the shelves.
What the author buys every time is the milk soft baguette.
It is much longer and thinner than an ordinary baguette, crisp outside and soft inside, with a milk cream filling.
The other well-known item is the “phantom” kintoki cream bun, which became popular after it was featured on television.
There is parking for about ten cars in front of the shop, with entrances from two sides of the junction.
You can also sit down in the eat-in area and eat your bread straight away.
It opens early in the morning.
The shelves thin out towards the evening, so morning is the time to go.
There is a regular closing day, so if you are coming from a distance, telephone first to check which day it is.
More about the shop: Pao Guitars
Address: 愛媛県今治市別名中河原232-1
Telephone: 0898-34-7370 / Open 8:00–17:00 / Has a closing day (telephone to check which)
Mugi no Ho (Kinuboshi)
A bakery on the old national road, almost opposite the ACTOS fitness club.
It is run by a social welfare corporation as a place of work for people with disabilities.
The author recommends the blueberry bun with yoghurt cream.
The melon pan is not too sweet, and the flavour of the wheat comes through clearly.
Mugi no Ho also sells from a mobile van.
It has come to the author’s clinic, which makes buying bread for the whole workplace very easy.
The shop is open from nine in the morning to half past three in the afternoon, and closed on Sundays and public holidays.
If you plan to go on a Saturday, it is safer to telephone first.
More about the shop: Mugi no Ho
Address: 愛媛県今治市衣干町2丁目144-3
Telephone: 0898-35-4441 / Open 9:00–15:30 / Closed Sunday and public holidays (telephone about Saturday)
Pain Culture (Tamagawa)
A bakery in Tamagawa, run by the son of the family behind Rilio no Pan.
It is known for the kind of hard-crust bread that Rilio no Pan used to sell.
It is open only from Thursday to Sunday, and closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
It also takes an hour’s break at midday, so plan your time with care.
On one visit, shortly after opening, about eighty per cent of the bread had already sold.
Either wait for the next batch or go as soon as it opens.
It is about a fifteen-minute drive from the city centre, and worth the short trip.
If you like Rilio no Pan’s hard-crust bread, this is a shop to visit.
More about the shop: Pain Culture
Address: 愛媛県今治市玉川町大野133-6
Telephone: 0898-52-8556 / Open 9:00–11:15 and 12:15–15:00 (closes when sold out) / Closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
HARE/PAN Imabari (Kamitoku)
A shop in Kamitoku that specialises in nama shokupan, a very soft, rich style of Japanese white bread.
It is close to the author’s clinic, and his staff sometimes drop in.
HARE/PAN has shops across Japan, and the Imabari branch sells rusks and Danish pastries as well as bread.
The rusks are cut from the loaf in big chunks, crisp on the outside and soft and moist inside.
The item that is most often sold out is the nama donut.
One of the staff wanted to try them, and on that visit they happened to be in stock.
They turned out to be soft and chewy, and more filling than they look.
Kinako (roasted soybean flour) and sugar are said to be the popular flavours.
The shop opens at ten in the morning and closes when everything has sold.
There is no fixed closing day, so if you want to be sure of getting something, reserve by telephone.
Address: 愛媛県今治市上徳1丁目4-40
Telephone: 0898-47-1090 / Opens 10:00, closes when sold out / Closed irregularly / Reservations by telephone
Bakeries that have closed
Two bakeries from the author’s earlier bakery round-up have closed.
Kogane Pan, whose yakisoba bun tasted of the old days, closed at the end of March 2020, and Hidaka Pan, which had a wide range of savoury breads, is no longer there either.
Questions people ask
Which bakery opens earliest? Bakery Shop Epi, at 6:00, followed by Boulangerie Soga at 6:30.
Which bakeries are open on Sunday? Epi, Soga, Seikado, Bread Works and Pain Culture all list Sunday as an open day.
Rilio no Pan and Mugi no Ho are closed.
Is there a bakery on the Shimanami Kaido cycling route? Rilio no Pan, about 150 metres off the direct route from Imabari Station to Sunrise Itoyama.
It is closed on Sunday.
Where can I buy hard-crust bread? Rilio no Pan, Bread Works and Pain Culture.
Is there somewhere to sit down and eat? Pao Guitars has an eat-in area.
Can I pay by card? Pao Guitars accepts cards.
We could not confirm card payment at the others, so bring cash.
What time should I go? In the morning.
At every one of these shops, the popular items sell out early.
Summing up
For an early start, Epi opens at six and Soga at half past six.
If you like hard-crust bread, go to Rilio no Pan, Pain Culture or Bread Works.
At every bakery here, the most popular bread goes early in the day.
Think of a bakery as somewhere to go in the morning, and you will rarely be disappointed.
For everything else on the Imabari side of the bridge, see The complete Imabari guide for Shimanami Kaido cyclists.
Original article in Japanese: 【2026年最新版】今治のパン屋さん営業時間まとめ｜朝6時から開くお店と定休日
