Oh what a difference a couple of weeks can make.  Today is nothing like the rainy, cold day we had when we visited last.  It is dry and warm!  Lovely.  We do our normal morning routine, being ready to be at the gangway the second we are cleared, first enjoying the pier-side welcome the Kobe tourism people give us.  This is the shouting place we remember!  They scream welcome over the loudspeaker and have costumed characters on the pier to great us.  Too fun.

Lining up to disembark, we are #3 and #4 off the ship – our streak is broken!  Horrors.  But we know where we are going and #1 and #2 don’t, even though I tell them where the shuttle is located.  Oh well, their loss.  Even though the shuttle isn’t starting until 10 – which makes for some strategic scheduling if we are going to do what we want today –  and it is a little before 9:30, we still go to stand in line at the shuttle pick up spot, because this isn’t our first rodeo in Kochi. The up side of standing in line for 45 minutes is that we get into a conversation with a lovely tourist bureau lady who is Japanese, but married to a Brit and has lived in Australia.  She speaks perfect English, and is so interested in where we have been, what we are doing today – and just a font of information about Kochi.  We help the guys behind us with information about the My-Yu bus, which we are considering for transport to the Botanical gardens, and generally just have a really nice time waiting around for the bus!

So, the 45 minutes goes by quickly – and actually it wasn’t even that long, because the line is so long, our new Japanese friend gets a bus to start out early and we are in town a little after 10am.  Lovely!  Our sole objective today is to have lunch in town so we can feast on Katsuo no Tataki, the seared Bonito fish we love. We are hoping to get to the Botanical Gardens as well – but we shall see about that – it is playing it by ear time.

Once into town, we literally retrace our first visit! Hey – it isn’t raining! We’re re-taking all our original pictures this time in the sunshine! Plus, we are adding a few!  We stop for snapshots of the cute little anime characters under the marionette (or Automaton) clock, then to the Harimaya Bridge, recreating the umbrella shot, and adding in some photos of the statue dedicated to the story of the love affair between a monk named Junshin and a woman named Ouma (don’t ask, that’s all the intel we have!), then on through the shopping arcade next to a lovely little canal and park area we have now found.  It is amazing what you can find when you aren’t restricted (constricted) by your umbrella!

Continuing on, we climbed back up to the castle, passing some sort of award ceremony or something for little children in the park (they are so adorable in their little yellow hats, white shirts and red shorts), then up, up, up the stairs we go, taking much better photos of the castle without the rain. We are behind 2 tour groups, so we definitely are not going back inside, even if the entire roof area is now open for views across the entire city – nah – no way we’re wading through those crowds! We do manage to get some good shots of us and the castle, and walk down the back side of the castle through the black iron gate  – now that I doesn’t matter if we get lost – finding lovely solitude and a really cool bell on a promenade jutting out from the castle walk.  Down below, we enjoy the beautiful vibrant pink azaleas blooming.

As we take our leave, we actually find a statue we hadn’t noticed before (see previous comment about umbrellas!)  – Chiyo, Katsutoyo’s wife, and a horse.  Katsuoyo was a warrior who eventually became the lord of Tosa (the area now known as Kochi) after Chiyo gave him intelligence about the opposing warring opponents.  The statue represents a legend that says that Chiyo gave Katsutoyo her dowry to buy a horse, and he had many successes after that.  Sweet little fable/legend/history, what have you.

We are still a little too early for lunch, so we decide to shop – we want some more boshi-pan, hat bread, and headed to the grocery store where we bought it before.  Unfortunately they only have bags with 1 boshi-pan, 1 roll and 1 croissant.  We only want the boshi-pan, darn it. I corral one of the workers to try to mime what I want, he takes me to another worker where I repeat my mime and then get out Google translate.  She finally gets it – it is actually really, really fun when someone you are talking to finally understands, their faces light up and they are so excited to answer your question!  And anyway, they won’t have just the boshi-pan bags until afternoon. Well, pooh.  We really want the boshi-pan, but we also need change for the 1 coin store and all we have are 10,000 Yen bills.  Poop.  We keep wandering the store, finally picking up a container of strawberries – it is strawberry season after all – and breaking our large bills down into smaller ones.  We’re ready for the 1 coin store – and we have dessert.  Win-win.

Now into the arcade, where we get some sunglasses for Ed at the 1 coin store, and find some more Kit Kats – although just the orange, wheat ones and something that we think is dark chocolate.  I’m still jonesing for the wasabi and the saki…but….no go here.  Next we decide the heck with it, we’re going to the bakery that the tourist info guys told us about last time.  It is only a couple of blocks away, and why not?  Well why not is they have TONS of amazing bakery items, that’s why not!  Sheesh.   But truly – we won’t be here again, and we love boshi-pan so…..we end up with 2 big boshi-pans (twice the size of the grocery store version), 2 raison rolls and 2 Pao do Queso. Kid you not!  Pao de Queso – it was called something else, but it was the Brazilian version of our favorite bread, so how could we not? 

Ok – time for lunch.  We stroll back down the main city boulevard, checking out any restaurants we see, but none have Katsuo no Tataki, so we hit the arcade and go to the place we found last trip – that wasn’t open at the time – Myojinmaru Obiyamachi.  A traditional Katsuo no Tataki restaurant -complete with a fisherman’s photo enlarged on the storefront above the entrance and the mandatory straw smoker for the fish – it was the perfect place.  A little confusing though because you had to order right when you walked in the door – and while we knew what we wanted from the pictures on the menu posters out front – the actual menu was really confusing.  We finally just told the sweet girl we wanted 12 pieces of Katsuo and 2 beers, and she led us to our table.  What ensued was – again – one of the best meals we have eaten.  OMG.  It was just so good!  We could have had 2 plates! And almost succumbed, but we have Prime C reservations for dinner tonight (that was a little bit of bad planning!) so we really can’t afford to stuff ourselves. But oh, it was so good while it lasted……

Checking the time, we decide that we can’t make the My-Yu bus and the botanical gardens work, it will just be too tight, so we decided to nix the gardens and instead just wander around.  That gave us plenty of time for our strawberries in the park!  Which were juicy and flavorful and some of the best we’ve had.  Perfect dessert on a pretty much perfect day.

Right at the edge of the park is this weird “tourist” center with restrooms and tons and tons of snacks and crafts.  It is more of a local tourist shop than, but it has facilities and that is all that matters.  When we stopped here earlier we had seen those little cheese snacks that Zo likes so much (and made us buy at the 1 coin store, so now we are addicted), but in, of all things, Katsuo no Tataki flavor.  Oh, no….we had to try them, buying one to taste, and becoming equally addicted to this version as well. It doesn’t really taste like Katsuo, but it is ever so good – and we will come back at the end of the day to buy the huge package with 30 or something in it!  Yikes!

Next we head toward the Yosakoi  museum – the museum about the famous Yosakoi festival started here in Kochi.  But on the way, we pass the Automaton clock – and it is almost 1pm!  Yes, we will see it chime!  So we rush (as much as one can rush with long street lights) across the street for a better view.  Talk about a show.  The clock starts exactly on the hour and puts tells the whole history of Kochi!  I couldn’t figure out how it worked, because when it isn’t “performing” it is a flat clock up against the building.  But once it starts, the mechanism pushes it out from the wall and little vignettes come out from behind the clock.  The Yosakoi performers drop from the bottom, moving their clappers to the tune, the bells on the clock face chime, Kochi castle rises up out of the top, Katsurahama slides out from one side, all regal on what looks like the ocean waves, and monk Junshin and Ouma appear on the Harimaya bridge.  It is amazingly cool – and goes on forever! Quite the fun spectacle.

Down another lovely little park lined canal walk, we reach the Yosakoi festival and enter the fascinating museum (free of charge). There is precious little English here, but the few things that are translated give you the basic idea.  The Yosakoi festival began in 1954 originally held to help revive the shopping arcade in Kochi City.  From its humble beginnings, it has grown into a national phenomenon and is now held in over 200 places throughout Japan.  Always held on 4 days every August, each team can choose their own costumes and choreograph their own original dances.  But they all must follow 3 mandatory rules: 1) all dancers must have Narukos (which are clappers that were originally designed as a farming tool in an effort to scare off birds) and proceed forward; 2) songs can be freely arranged, but must include the Yosakoi-Naruko-Odori song; and 3) the Jikata-sha (the decorated band sound truck) must lead the way with the dancers behind it.  During the festival here, there are 9 competition venues and 7 performance dance venues.  The teams are judged at the competition venues not the performance venues.  Seriously, this might be something worth coming back to see!  The photographs on the walls look amazing, and there life-size mannequins with actual costumes, tons of displays on the Narukos, which are actually quite beautiful, and a great video from the last festival with a bunch of different teams competing.  Very fun way to spend an hour or so here in Kochi.

Meandering around more, we find some Narukos at a shop, but decide they are too expensive, and really? We don’t need them….although they might be good for the squirrels…..um, no.  We’ll pass.  Then we hit the weird “tourist” center and buy the big HUGE package of Katsuo cheese snacks, then Lawsons for beer and more snacks – hey! We have a LOT of sea days coming up!  These won’t go to waste!

On the bus, I get a picture of the cool statue at the station (which I kept forgetting to take on the ground) and we are back at the ship easy-peasey.  We do our afternoon things a little early so we can be on our balcony for an afternoon beverage and Pao do Queso, which is really good and just like the original, in preparation for our sailaway because the local tourist bureau is putting on a farewell show for us – and what a show!  First off, they have this great geisha anime figure who poses with anyone left on the dock – including this one woman who must be a passenger who is all dressed up in a geisha costume.  We can’t quite figure that one out…but it is fun to watch!

And then there are the Yosakoi dancers.  They put on a fabulous farewell show!  The dancing, the music.  It is just wonderful and so are all the performers.  We have tons of videos– as well as tons of photos.  And then at the end, when the performance is over, the individual dancers do poses for us on the ship – they see us with cameras and pose when the cameras point to them.  Just fantastic. 

Departure completed, we get ready for dinner and then head to the show – but not before we do a glamor shot of our snack haul!  God – we’ll never fit into our clothes at the end of this voyage!  But it will be oh so worth it!