osaka-kochi-nahari

From Osaka, it is about a 4 and a half hour bus ride to Kochi.

Kochi is one of four prefectures of Shikoku.

We were lucky to get a bus that only had 30 seats, so this seemed similar to business class in an airplane.

Each person had their own foot rests, slippers, and outlets to charge your phone, the seat could recline quite far back too.

There was free wifi on board, even in the tunnels, it was a treat!

After reaching Kochi, we took the local train to Nahari, which is located on the east side of the prefecture.

The train runs through the town and then alongside the ocean.

Too bad the weather was cloudy, the views of the ocean would have been beautiful.

After reaching Nahari, we caught a bus to the Kitagawa Village Monet Garden, a replica of Monet's garden and home in Giverny, France.

Too bad it was late in the day, most of the flowers were starting to close.

All though I did find a piece of "home".

Our main purpose for visiting Nahari, was to see Satoshi's friend, N's exhibit.

N is an architect as well as an architectural photographer.

It was nice to see N's photos of Le Corbusier's works.

I loved seeing all the different flowers around the grounds. This wall vase was so cute!

Afterwards, we had dinner together at Kuimonoya Ai, probably the only place serving food in the area.

Their food was good and everything fresh.

And the portions huge!

My favorite dish was this thick sliced toro futomaki. Enough wasabi to blow out your sinuses, but the pieces of toro were fresh and delicious!

It was nice catching up with N.

The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Nahari was kinda bad, the television worked when it wanted.

But, at least there was wifi and they had just renovated the furo (bath) area.

It was a long day, it was only the start of this adventure but our next day would be even longer...

Hotel Nahari
593-1 Otsu, Nahari-cho,
Aki-gun, Kochi
Shikoku
Phone:0887.38.5111

Kuimonoya Ai
No address or phone number online