Day 19 - Kochi

We woke up bright and early to catch the 8:20 (or was it 8:25) train to Kochi. Since it was quite a distance away, I was able to catch up on some sleep during the 2 hr and 20 minute ride. 

Upon arrival at Kochi, we noticed the prevalence of its hometown child: Sakamoro Ryoma. I first heard of Sakamoto in the Japanese drama JIN and from Gintama. We took a couple pictures around the station before proceeding to Kochi castle. We were fortunate enough to pass by the Sunday Market as we walked towards the castle. I was lookin for the renowned bonito flakes, but didn't find anything too pleasing in my eyes. There was a whole whack of fruit sellers and, surprisingly to me, knive sellers as well. 

Kochi castle was one of the few original castles left in Japan. It was similar, I felt, to the other castles we've been to so far. The amount of English present around the castle was nice, for we were able to understand the significance of the place. 

After visiting the castle, we went to look for the Yamauchi Samurai residence. It took us a while, but we eventually got to the place. It was located quite a distance south of the castle, near what I believe was the city's town hall. 

After visiting those two places, we headed down to their downtown area to look for their specialty dish: katsuo no tataki. There were many restaurants in the area that had the dish, so it wasn't much trouble to pick one. The fish had a very pleasant taste, even when I didn't add a whole bunch of scallions or ginger to it!

After lunch, we proceeded back to the station to head back to Tokushima to look for a particular item. It was also the first time that I experienced a significant delay on the train line. I wasn't quite sure of the cause, though I was able to understand the apologies that the conductor gave for the trouble. We were sill able to catch our connecting train though since it waited for passengers at the transfer station! =D Great service from JR!

Upon arrival at Tokushima, we were unable to find what we were looking for, so we proceeded back to Takamatsu. We had dinner at one of the restaurants at the station. I had another bowl of sanuki udon! It was definitely a lot tastier this time, probably because it was a hot bowl and I was extremely hungry at that time. 

And so marks our last day in Shikoku! We were able to hit three out of the four prefectures. Back to Honshu we go!

The top left dish is the Katsuo no Tataki