Today in Kochi is a total wash out.  Bummer.  It is raining when we arrive, and continues on as we disembark and then wait for the shuttle into town.  We are off first even though we know the shuttle isn’t going for another 30 minutes or so.  We want to be in line, because we want to get the first shuttle and then make our way to the castle to try to get ahead of the tours. Since we will be here again when we are on the Quest, we are staying in town today, and then taking the MyYui bus to the botanical gardens on our return.  Which, judging from the weather today is a smart decision. 

We get pushed out of first place by the pushy women who were on some other bus with us and tried to do the same thing.  Have at it ladies.  We’re still on the same bus and just in 2^nd seat position, we don’t care.  Sigh.  The shuttle ride, once we get going, takes about 30 minutes and deposits us at the bus station where there are a slew of tourist assistance folks waiting, including one guy dressed up in some local costume.  Hi guys.  Bye guys.  We’re off, we know where we are going!

First stop, the Harimaya Bridge, made famous from a folk song about that claims it was built by two wealthy merchants to make visit each other more convenient.  But the other story is it is where the monk who fell in love with the peasant woman would come to meet. Either one works for us. Not knowing what to expect, we find the pretty little red railed bridge spanning a little canal, right in the city.  It’s sweet – and probably better when it is dry, but hey, we get what we get and we have our rain hats and new little light umbrellas!

From here we are heading to the castle, and fortunately for us, the main street we can use to get to there is a huge covered shopping arcade running right through the city, letting us stay dry until it dumps us out about 5 blocks away.  Then we’re out in the elements again, walking through the museum parking lot to try to get some coverage, but then we are back out into the rain and wind, entering through the Otemon Gate with the watch room above the door that is designed for soldiers to drop stones down onto invaders.  Once through the gate, we enter into a terrace facing steps – did I mention the 100 steps up to the castle? Oh yeah.  Designed to be difficult to climb (thanks!) but easy to get down (not helpful right now), they were used as a defensive mechanism and are really steep and completely out in the open.  Not so much coverage there!  Plus the added stress of the fact that we are climbing these stairs, getting drenched, not knowing if there is a ticket booth up top here – or if we were supposed to buy tickets from this little shed type place we saw at the bottom.  Ugh. 

We made it to the top without incident and walked through the top floor of the Tsumemon Gate, which has really low ceilings and beams, which we even have to duck down to pass.  The gate leads to the castle courtyard, where we fortunately find the ticket office.  Phew.  Tickets purchased, we take off our shoes, shove them into the provided plastic bags and head into the castle.  Thankfully it is all inside, and also thankfully we are early enough that we are before the tours and virtually all alone in there. Which was totally cool. There are tons of different rooms, including the only Lord’s Reception Suite in a castle in Japan, plus some great 3D artwork depicting the story of Katsutoyo, the first Lord of the castle, riding a white horse he was able to buy with his wife’s help – which is the beginning of the story of all his later successes.

The castle is built in the Shoin-zukuri style, developed in the 1300s, with a group of buildings holding the entrance hall, kitchen and other functions, grouped around large and small studies.  Of course there are the traditional tatami mats lining the floor and sliding doors, shoji screens and rain shutters on the exterior of the building.  Traditional Japanese! 

We wander through the salons and rooms then start climbing up to the tower.  On each successive levels there are displays of old wooden end tiles (some pretty, some creepy, scary) and a miniature model of how the village and castle looked in the early days. Climbing higher and higher, it’s crazy treacherous, up these almost vertical narrow ladder like staircases – we have no idea how any of these tour people will be able to do it!  But once up top, it was really cool – with what would be great 360 degree views – if it weren’t rainy and wet!   Still, there are some really pretty shots out over the castle grounds with the last of the cherry blossoms blooming on huge trees. There is a little ledge circling the top of the tower where you can go outside, but there is also this sign saying to “please refrain from getting wet with rain.”  Well, yeah, ok, then how can we go outside?  Funny!

Leaving the castle, we sit to put our shoes on, and note for future visitors – go outside to the little benches even if they are wet!  When we tried to sit down on the step to the entrance and we got yelled at by the ladies there – one of them even tried to shoo us off with her broom!  Yikes!  Ok, ok, we’re coming outside! In the rain!  As we descend down the stairs, we meet the tours head on – oh timing is everything!  That place will be packed soon and we had it virtually to ourselves.  But as they are now behind us, we get some great photos in the mist and rain.

Having enough of the rain, we cross the road to the Castle Museum and dry off in their little café where we had the best cafe au lait – the coffee was really good, but the best were the cute pictures in the cream!  A bunny – which is big in these regions and symbolizes something to do with the warriors, maybe, because they all had helmets in the shape of a rabbit to symbolize sharp hearing and swift agility, like the rabbit – and the famous samurai from here. Cute.  And the saucers and plates all depict the famous sights around Kochi – the castle, the bridge.  Nice

The museum itself was also nice and interesting – and as a bonus, there were free audio guides on a tablet that has great explanations of a lot of the exhibits!  They had a lot of different local art including some scrolls that told the story of the town, some excellent watercolors and this lovely feathered spear cover.  Yeah, get your minds out of the gutter, we know what you are thinking!!!

The artwork was stunning – and thankfully we had the audio guide because precious little had English translations. But to some degree it didn’t really matter because it was all so beautiful to look at, you really didn’t even need to listen to the audio guide.  Although one gorgeous banner did have a long explanation of the shibai-e screen technique, a type of art unique to the Tosa region, which was what Kochi was called in the past.  These banners are displayed on the ground with candlelight and there are competitions between neighborhoods for the best banner.  Finishing out the art exhibit is the lacquerware, which is always so gorgeous and intricately designed.

After the beautiful art came the warrior outfits – and here there is an actual rabbit helmet!  That was the cutest thing – even though it was for battle. The rest of the helmets and outfits aren’t so cute – more like scary if you ask me. Along with those deadly curved swords.  Brutal.

Our last stop in the museum is the 2^nd floor terrace for great views across the road to the castle on the hill. Nice way to finish up our exploration of Kochi history!

It’s lunch time now!  Back out in the elements we quickly walked toward the arcade, stopping at the Hirome Market, which is made up of a ton of food stalls  with so many choices it can be overwhelming.  We had a mission though:  Katsuo no Tataki which is seared Bonito fish with salt.  Wandering along the stalls it was hard to choose which one to choose, but we finally decided on one, found a seat and ordered. OMG! That stuff is excellent – the best, most tender fish.  Perfectly seared over a wood and straw fire.  It is only found here, in the Kochi region, and OMG.  We’ll just move here to keep eating this every day! After finishing our Katsuo, we also tried the famous Kochi gyozas which were equally perfect.  We love how they cook them all together and they end up being stuck together like a huge kebob of gyoza!

Walking off lunch through the blissfully covered and dry arcade, we found another 100 yen store and bought masks like all the Japanese have! They are really nice looking and lightweight, easy to wear, especially for long periods of time. Not sure how much protection they will offer, but anything is better than nothing when all these fools start hacking away on the bus.  After the 100 Yen store, we also found another store with cheap umbrellas, so figuring better safe than sorry (the umbrellas we brought with us have already had issues with the zipper on the cover getting stuck on the umbrella handle), buying 2 more. We’d been wandering for a while and decided we were thirsty and wanted a beer. But bars are few and far between here, and mostly only open at night. So, what did we do?  We stopped at an adorable little restaurant that had all their plates in plastic outside on a table (we love that about Japan!) and felt bad just ordering beer. So we ordered a sort of bento box kind of thing for snacking with all sorts of sushi, shrimp tempura, pork and Katsuo no Tataki, along with rice and soup and this icky cream corn type thing that is popular here.  Ugh.  Oh, and of course beer!  And bathrooms!  The most important thing of all!

Wandering some more, we passed the Tourist Information center, filled out a survey and got a little prize – a miniature plastic dish of sushi.  Also asked them where we could find hat bread, which looks like a hat and is called Boshi pan in Japanese, a specialty of the region.  They told us about the best bakery around, but also that the grocery store down the street may have some.  We didn’t want to walk all the way to the bakery in the rain (it wasn’t that far, but it was still rainy and icky out there), so hit the grocery store and found a bag of the bread (really cheap) and other supplies.  Since we were close to the castle, we tried to go back for more pictures but it was raining again, so we called it quits and went back to the shuttle and back to the ship before we were drenched again.

Dinner was the buffet for the special Japanese dinner – yum.  And then an early night in the cabin because, well, it’s the violinist again, and we might as well enjoy our nice cabin while we can! Onward to Osaka.