This weekend I went to Kochi with Amy and Tomoko. Kochi is the southern prefecture on the island of Shikoku. Since it’s on the Pacific Ocean rather than the inland sea, it’s a popular place for surfing, scuba, snorkeling, and general beach activities. It’s the birthplace of Sakamoto Ryoma, a leading samurai who helped to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and begin the Meiji era, or the era of modernization. He's is the subject of a current NHK drama and is hugely popular in Japan. However, we went for the beaches!
We left Saturday morning and drove through the mountains until we finally saw the seashore. After a nice lunch with a view, we drove a little further and found Ohki Beach, a lovely expanse of sea and sand with blue skies and relatively few people. Amy and I swam around while Tomoko looked on indulgently.
The clouds in Kochi are amazing. They are so huge and bulbous against the bright blue sky, which is reflected in the bright blue water. Occasionally the clouds gather and darken and drop a sudden rain below. We had a number of instances of getting rained on or driving through rapidly changing weather, but even the wet spells didn’t really feel dreary.
Once back in the car, we drove away from the sea and through some misty mountains to get to the Ashizuri Cape, our final destination. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel right on the cape which was white and built like stairs against the rock, so the front lobby was on the top floor and we were on the second floor. Our room had its own patio with plants, a stone bench and a view of the ocean. Sweet!
The hotel also had a pool and hot spring baths, which we took advantage of both before and after our evening meal, a Japanese inn-style fish-filled feast. Amy and I stayed up and had a little champagne before retiring for the night.
In the morning, we ate breakfast, checked out reluctantly and headed toward the actual cape, where we saw some neat rock formations, a small white lighthouse and the beautiful ocean. We headed back north for some lunch before dropping Amy off for her surfing lesson. Tomoko and I explored Shimanto City, which wasn’t much of a city but had a nice museum in a castle-like building that had great views.
When we got back to the beach, Amy was working the board and riding the waves for several seconds at a time! She did wonderfully for having only had a 2 hour lesson, as the following pictures can attest.
On our way home, we stopped off in Kochi City for some yakiniku (grilled meat, but we also had vegetables!) and an hour of karaoke. By the time we got home we were all exhausted, but we had a great time and can highly recommend spending some time in Kochi!
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