After a week of busy streets and overcrowded trains of Tokyo, we buckled up and headed out for a relaxing long weekend in Kōchi Prefecture. The beginning wasn't very relaxing, though: we almost missed our flight because of the traffic jams in Tokyo. After calling the airline and asking about our options, the traffic fortunately got better and we barely made it. Haneda Domestic Airport is very efficient and you need to go through security just 15 minutes before the departure of your flight. Even our check-in baggage arrived despite the tight timing, take that Düsseldorf!

Kōchi Prefecture is located on the southern side of Shikoku island. It is Japan's third smallest prefecture in population. Most of the area is mountainous and the people are living on the few flat lands next to the sea. The local capital is also called Kōchi and almost half of the prefecture's citizen live there. Since most of the prefecture is more or less uninhabitable, it is one of the few areas in Japan that has actually lower population density than the capital area of Finland. Based on that desolate dipstick, it is fair to say that Kōchi is countryside. Which is great, because as a maalaistollo I happen to love countryside! Especially Japanese countryside: the rice paddies and well-kept traditionally built houses and beautiful nature as a backdrop create an incredibly relaxing atmosphere.

I had a chance to visit Kagoshima on Kyushu several years ago and I found it very fascinating how proud the people were about their local history. The same applies to Kōchi. Especially the cataclysmic events of the 19th century and Kōchi's role in the events are remembered fondly. Before Meiji Restoration Kōchi was known as Tosa province. Although Tosa was a relatively remote and poor province, local revolutionary hero Sakamoto Ryōma and the samurai of Tosa played an important role in events that ended the Tokugawa shogunate and enabled Emperor Meiji to ascend into power. The rest is history: Japan took a 180° turn from an isolated and backward country towards what is now a modern powerhouse of industry and innovation. While in Kōchi, you cannot avoid seeing pictures of Sakamoto Ryōma absolutely everywhere, even the local airport is named after him. 

I checked the weather forecast before the trip. Google was (as I expected) promising non-stop rain for every day, so I packed in all my rain gear. I hauled a rain jacket, pants and an umbrella in my backpack in the sunny, blistering 30+°C heat for three days until I realized that I had been following the weather in Kochi, Kerala, India. Turns out that September is part of Monsoon season there. Thanks to my wife for bringing the sunscreen, Kochi Japan was nothing but sunshine!

We spent three nights in the prefecture. After a day in the city we started a road trip that took us first to Shimanto River on the mountains, then down south to the beautiful Ōdō coastline on the southwestern side of Shikoku and finally to Cape Ashizuri, the southernmost tip of the island. Shimanto River is known as "the last clear stream of Japan" because it is far from cities and industry, and it doesn't have any dams. It's a great place if you enjoy fishing. Shimanto River has 47 peculiar stone bridges known as chinkabashi. These bridges are preserved as cultural heritage, they have no parapets and they are designed to be submerged when the river is flooding. 

After spending a night along the river, we continued our drive following Shimanto down south. Our next stop was at Kashiwajima, the southwestern end of Shikoku. It is incredible how clear the seawater was! We enjoyed a delicious lunch and after that we drove up to Ōdō observatory to view the scenic Ōdō coastline. We also hiked to a nearby monkey park but unfortunately it was off-season, so the only monkey in the park was pale, old and wrinkly: me. Last stop before reaching our final destination was Tatsukushi coast, where we surveyed some genuinely strange rock formations.

Our final stay was at Cape Ashizuri - the southernmost point of Shikoku. It was perhaps my favourite location. One of the best things about Japan are the hot baths, and our hotel happened to have a rooftop onsen with an amazing view towards the Pacific Ocean. If I could end every day by soaking in hot water, enjoying the vastness of a huge blue sea, I probably wouldn't feel any stress in life. I also got to eat some very yummy tonkatsu and I took my favourite photo of the trip at Ashizuri. Sometimes it pays off to wake up before sunrise.

Our trip ended too soon, and the first rain clouds arrived only when we had already returned to the airport (technically, my forecast was not 100% incorrect!), so all in all we had great time in Kōchi. Kōchi may not be in top-3 of famous travel destinations of Japan, but I would really like to recommend it to anybody who wants to chillax in the nature and enjoy some delicious food while doing that. Anyway, without further ado, here are some snaps I took along the way. 

That's it. Thanks for reading!