Retired Nomads Part 4: Kochi, Japan – Kochi Castle, Makino Botanical Garden, Chikurinji Temple

March 13

Today we were joined by Art & Gay and Jaye & Kevin (really fun group today) and our guide was Yoshi. (another crappy guide) It was another older man who is doing this as a second career who can’t guide. He literally read from a piece of paper at every stop including a lookout over the city to explain what buildings were where in a city that he lives in. At one point Jaye was finding it on the map at the lookout and telling him what it was.

Welcome to Kochi

walking to the lookout

Godaisan Park Obsevation Deck

In the van on the way to the gardens he kept asking which we prefer gardens or temples. None of understood why we had to choose a favorite. We said we liked them both.

The gardens weren’t really in season, but he had a script he was going to follow, and he would stop in front of a bare plant and talk for 10 minutes about what it would be. There were some beautiful flowering trees and then he took us to a green house. We had already spent way too much time looking at bare plants and dirt and then we got to the greenhouse full of beautiful orchids and other plants, he took off like a rocket and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. We all wanted to enjoy the beautiful plants, and he raced right past them. He said later “they weren’t Japanese”. After spending way too much time looking at plants that were not in season, he says we now only have 30 minutes at the temple.

Makino Botanical Garden honors the late Kochi-born botanist Dr. Tomitaro Makino, known as the father of Japanese botany. He collected many species to create the gardens.

at the Botanical Garden

Yoshi

garden

we had to tell him we were looking at cabbage and radishes

views of the city

the tree trunk looked like it was braided

highway

temple in the distance

the greenhouse

in the greenhouse

Next was Chikurinji Temple, built in 724, and is one of the stops of the Shikoku pilgrimage, and as the bodhisattva enshrined there is associated with wisdom, many students come here as well to pray for academic success. The five-story pagoda is gorgeous, and the tree lined approach through the spectacular old wooden gate, passing by moss-covered lanterns, is incredibly atmospheric. In fact, the grounds are more interesting than the temple itself, and it’s worth a wander to see the small pond and collection of Buddha statues.

nice walk through the forest

Very beautiful. Children’s memorial that he couldn’t explain……If it wasn’t in his script he never had answers and often acted like he didn’t understand a question when asked. I researched it after we got home and found out that it is a memorial Garden of Unborn Children. (miscarriage or aborted)

Garden of Unborn Children

the top statues weren't decorated - possibly older and they have worn away

Gay, Art, Jaye, Kevin, us

After we returned to the van, Yoshi asked us again "which did we prefer, the gardens or the temple". Keven tried his best to make him understand that we just didn't need to choose. He said it was like apples and oranges; I like both apples and oranges and neither is a favorite. He still didn't understand, and we all just let it go.

It was time for lunch, and we went to Hirome Ichiba which is a unique market and food court. While the building may seem small, it houses over 60 shops, many of which are restaurants or izakaya (Japanese-style pubs). Seating is done on long shared tables and benches. Since it was so crowded he wanted us to get seats first and then one could go for the food and the other hold the spots. Unlike yesterday where the guide was so helpful in assisting us with ordering lunch, he was useless. He took one couple first to pick out theirs and then we went. He just kept saying what do you want? What do they have and what are the various things we were seeing? He would just point at something and say chicken or pork. I saw one thing that looked good, and it was chicken of some kind, and I asked if it came with rice and his answer was “do you need rice?” It looked cold and I would have liked to have known if they heat it up but of course he wouldn't have understood.

We finally just walked away from him. Greg got sushi and I set out to find my own lunch. I saw a rice dish that looked good, and it turned out to be Biryani (Indian dish) and they had some amazing garlic naan. The spoke English and it was all cooked fresh and hot, but everyone had already finished eating when I had just gotten mine. The guide comes over and says we need to meet out front. I explained I just got my food and said we would be there asap. (we had 15 minutes before the meet time anyway) We were supposed to have time to shop here but he ran past everything. So, we had no time to really explore the area.

Biryani & Naan

Greg's sushi

Our next stop was Kochi Castle which is one of the few remaining original castles in Japan, meaning that it survived both the Edo and Meiji eras when many castles were destroyed. Even amongst the original castles, Kochi is notable for being one of only three where the original main gate survives. While it is on the smaller side when compared to Himeji or Matsuyama, it is well preserved and has nice displays inside and beautiful views. The castle itself is set in a pleasant park that is a popular picnic and cherry-blossom viewing spot.

Kochi Castle was built by Yamauchi Kazutoyo, a feudal lord who was given the whole province of Tosa for the contribution to the Battle of Sekigahara. In 1601, Yamauchi started newly building the castle on Otakasaka Hill and entered the castle upon completing the main enclosure and the second circle of defense in 1603.

In 1727, a huge fire in the castle town burned down most of the castle, apart from the Otemon gate. It was rebuilt in 1753 in the same structure as when it was first built. After this, Kochi Castle has survived countless dangers, such as natural disasters, the mass destruction of castles around Japan following the Meiji Restoration, and the Pacific War.

We had to remove our shoes and do the tour in our socks. It involved climbing many stairs (around 150 to 200 steps) with some of them more like climbing ladders than stairs. What a workout we got today!

Not much in the blossom department this time of year but an amazing castle. We all just kind of meandered away from the guide to enjoy it at our own pace. Some Plum trees were doing their best for us.

walking to the Castle

Statue of Yamauchi Kazutoyo credited with the castle being built

glimpse of Kochi Castle

Bronze statue of Chiyo, Katsutoyo's Wife

Guardroom Gate

Ninomaru - Second Citadel

Plum trees doing their best for us

Kochi Castle on top of the hill

diorama of what it used to look like

gunshot window is low to the ground so they could shoot lying on their stomachs

views in all directions

Kevin

back at the bottom

Gay and I bought kitchen towels, and she liked the one I showed her after she bought hers and they wouldn’t exchange hers for that one even though she was willing to pay the difference in price. So, she bought the one she wanted, and I gave her 5 yen for the one I wanted and all was good. The guide couldn’t understand why we would want the towels and questioned what we were going to use them for. I said drying dishes. I was told that they are for drying hands. Not sure why they cared what we were using them for…..The guide just stared at it, like why would you want one?

Now we had an hour left in our tour and we were finished. We asked about the shopping arcade we were supposed to visit so he took us back there and gave us like 20 minutes. I got a set of cute Chopstick holders.

back at the shopping arcade

dinosaur seat

it continued across the street

A clock on the eastern side of Harimaya Bridge. Hourly from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Kochi Castle appears at the top of the clock, Yosakoi dancer dolls appear at the bottom, Harimaya Bridge to the right, and Katsurahama Beach to the left—all to the tune of Yosakoi bushi folk music. The clock's illuminated at night. Guess Yoshi didn't see the point in timing it so we could see that. We happened upon it on the walk back from shopping.