See all of our photos from Kochi Japan.
This is our third port of nine in Japan. We grabbed a cab outside of the port and headed to Kochi Castle. Our plan today is to visit the castle, the Sunday Market, and the Hirome Market, another huge, multi block covered set of streets that are mostly pedestrian only and full of over 450 shops and restaurants. This is all within walking distance to each other. We were hungry so we stopped into a local restaurant for a quick bite.
Since we got to port after 10am, we decided to hit the Sunday Market next since it closed at 2pm. Lots of produce and junk and most importantly, second hand thrift store booths. We picked up a beautiful vase.
We stopped outside of the castle entrance for a rest and watched the old men playing some sort of Japanese board game. A very nice man brought is a Japanese Coffee, iced coffee in a can.
The castle was about 500 steps up and of course back down, so we just took pictures from the ground.
Next we spent a few hours in the Hirome Market. There was an anime festival going on. Lots of characters around.
We didn’t buy anything but did find a McDonald with a huge line and a Baskin Robbin’s 31 Flavors and so we got a double scoop each. There were tons of people and some cool things just to look at.
We grabbed this cab at the market for the ride back to the ship. He was just waiting for a fare and we walked past him to the end of the market that as we walked back, we was still there so we jumped in.
Back at the port was a craft market as well. We got a few things include an awesome kitchen knife that they engraved Ken’s name in Japanese Characters on. It is 12 layers of folded and hammered steel.
Tomorrow is Osaka where we will catch a train to visit Kyoto for the day.