March 10

Sleeping in our tent, snuggled into our sleeping bags always feels like we are home. Home currently is where we are! We love traveling and seeing new places and meeting people. We were up before first light and packed up quickly. We both slept soundly. Our host served us an egg and toast breakfast as osettai and offered to take us to the train station which we accepted. The Japanese people are so kind. The station was empty, but since our friend last night showed us how to use the ticket machine, we were able to purchase our tickets and head up to the train platform to wait for our train. The train is without an conductor so glad we know what we are doing.

The sun rises as we wait for the train. It is exactly on time. the doors open then shuts and off we go.

The train is for all people including the Henro in the front with the sedge hat and staff.

We didn’t have to do any transfers so we just had to disembark at the Kochi Station. We booked a business hotel near the train station called Comfort Inn. We were able to do this online thru the Booking App. It was straight forward and easy for us to use. When we are in cities this might be the way to go. We headed to the Hotel to drop off our luggage for the day.

We passed a painted man cover

And a bunch of bikes near the train station. The lack of locks on the bikes reminded us that this was not the USA.

Before we arrived to the Sunday Market we checked out these three statues overlooking the front of the train station .

We knew the market was nearby when we saw the white tents and the crowds of people gathering. The Kochi Sunday Market is the largest Sunday Outdoor Market in Japan.

It was a crisp cool early spring day. We walked up and down the street before purchasing our lunch for the day. It was a difficult choice as there were so many options. We settled on tempura covered vegetables.

The other food that tempted us was the Japanese pancakes. We had to wait till the chef was satisfied they were done well. They were filled with a bean paste or fruit filling. So delicious!

We had fun looking at all of the other items for sale. We bought several kinds of citrus fruit.

And saw the fish that we had eaten at one of the guest house.

And of course there was plenty of bonsai plants for sale.

We saw Andreas here today as well. He and Don are taller than most of the Japanese so they are easy to pick out. Andreas, like us is spending the day enjoying Kochi.

Next stop is to check out the Kochi Castle which has a strong presence located high above the town,

It was mostly used between 1601-1871. We were able to visit outside the grounds as well as check out the interior for a fee.

Lots of people were enjoying the blue sky day.

Inside the castle were actual artifacts from the castle as well as dioramas depicitng early Japanese life.

By three we were were ready to head back to the hotel and get a plan together for the next couple of days, We wanted to do laundry and upon checking the information on the TV, we realized that we could check when the machines were available and when the laundry was finished. We were on the 11th floor, the laundry was on the second so it was great to know that we didn’t have to go down to the second floor to check on the laundry, we just had to turn on the TV. The machines included soap and also had the ability to wash and then dry your clothes in the same cycle.

We knew that we wanted to see if we could get a taxi to take us to where we finished yesterday at temple 31. Don reserved a taxi for 8 in the morning. Now we have to figure out our lodging. With laundry done and a maybe plan we felt that we had accomplished lots today. It was our first day off from walking so it was refreshing.

Accommodation Comfort Inn

No miles hiked, just exploring the town of Kochi.