Kochi is a cute port and city. We decided to explore the city on our own and took a bus into town. From there we decided to walk to the castle and see the markets along the way.
We started towards the Sunday Market and passed the Harimaya Bridge, a beautiful bright red bridge which was built when according to the story, a priest from Godaisan and a girl from Kochi fell in love. Because the priest’s temple forbade relationships, the couple hid their romance by meeting in secret and exchanging clandestine gifts. However, their romance was exposed one day when the priest was caught buying a hair comb for his lover at Harimayabashi. As a result, the couple fled the city to avoid punishment. The bridge symbolizes their forbidden love.
We walked about three more blocks and found the Sunday Market where locals bring their vegetables, fruits and goods to sell every Sunday morning. It offered a variety of local culture to see the vastly different food and crafts.
After reaching the end of the market, we walked to the Kochi Castle and its grounds. as we wandered around we found a group of older Japanese men playing a board game and at a bridge, a young man feeding the local pigeons.
We began our walk back to the ship and heading toward a covered street market. Just before we got to the market, we found a Buddhist Shrine and went into the courtyard to see some of the gates and artifacts.
Finishing up, we walked through the street market, which was like a covered mall. We met some high school girls who asked us if we would like to learn calligraphy, we went with them and practiced before our final try at recreating Japanese characters. We laughed with the girls when we finished.
There were Cosplay characters entertaining and doing photos with the shoppers. It was quite an experience.
We then made our way back to the ship for our next port – Osaka.