The train then enters the hills and mountains of central Shikoku. More rural and occasionally wild than the mainland. We are travelling on a comfortable express train, the Nanpu. All the express services seem to have names. We are given reserved seats with our passes but I have noticed when we get to the platform there is a bustling and queuing at the appointed spot for the non-reserved carriages as people line up to get good seats. Slightly unnecessary given that the trains are half empty. Our reserved carriage is usually filled with older or business like passengers who are happy or able to pay the extra cost for reservation. Only recently did it occur to me that we might see and meet a different sector of Japan if we sat unreserved (all sorts of word play possible here - go for your life). Our situation is a bit like relying on the people you meet in the Koru Lounge to set you straight about real New Zealand. Who could be arrogant enough to do that?
Kochi is where a hotel clerk found us a room elsewhere after we declined her hotel due to price. Our hotel was a small hike from the station, including a bridge crossing. My guess is that Kochi is an ex delta and the rivers and channels that run through it, and there are many of them, are a result of containment and reclamation.
After checking in to the hotel we had a chat and Rosemary went down to book another night. Our first two nights in one place. The room comes with a complementary drink in the restaurant in the evening and breakfast with n the morning. Our waitress for the drink had her face coated in the white face paint I associate with Geisha. To be honest, the effect was actually slightly alarming. For the morning breakfast service her face was back au naturelle.
Two things stand out for me from Kochi. The first was Godaisan, the Temple and garden complex that is in the hills above Kochi and which you access on a half-price for foreigners bus pass that can then take you out to the coast and back into the city by a different route.
The ride up to Godaisan provides great views of the town and rivers but the temple itself was lovely with many little shrines and the like and hundreds of boddhisatva statues, all dressed with little hats and/or capes and situated between the trees. We sat for a while and could hear the occasional gong and the jingle of the bells on the walking sticks of the pilgrims who dress in white and travel between each of the 88 temples on the island. I enjoy this side of Japan very much.
The other noteworthy aspect of Kochi was the nightlife. At 9pm electronic airport like bells chime and the city turns to night mode marked by the ceasing of the crossing signal sounds which are ubiquitous and persistent. We had our windows open and during the evening there were bursts of Karaoke and shouting and laughing. A boisterousness that is entirely absent in the day. This went on all night (although not in a disturbing way) and looking out the window after 5 in the morning I saw two women and a man, arm in arm, weaving their way down the street and across the road, ignoring the lights (what?!), and the traffic (even more what!?), talking and laughing loudly. This is the famous Jekyl and Hyde nature of the Japanese as perceived from the outside. Orderly and reserved during the day and then, adding alcohol, boisterous and outgoing at night.
Dinner both nights was at a cafeteria style restaurant where you buy the components of you meal individually. There were people of all ages, school kids through to elderly, families and people on their own. There is even a row of tables for woman only, designated by different coloured chairs which, of course, we were sitting in as we slowly tried to translate the sign that was telling us we were breaking the rules.
Kochi is a much slower city than even Okayama. The sky is blue and clear and at this time of year the weather is perfect.
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