Nahari to Kochi

Discovering Bonito

We met for breakfast at 7:30 and had the same private dining room.  A Japanese breakfast was laid out before us and we were invited to help ourselves to Yuzu juice, Japanese tea and coffee.  Simon and I had already had our morning coffee, so decided to give it a miss.  We are not big fans of Japanese coffee. We stirred our gently poached eggs through rice topped with Bonito flakes and steamed fish.  We each had a little pot of mushrooms, lettuce and tofu simmering away - the mushroom looked good, so I added that to the rice as well.  There was also a bowl of salad, some pickled veggies and delicious miso soup. Certainly plenty of food for another big day’s ride.

We were on the road by around 8:30 with an easy ride to Kochi.  We continued to follow the coastline taking back streets where possible until we reached the town of Aki.  We passed the French couple we had met at the guesthouse and then met them again as we stopped for a toilet break a few kms later, so they were making good time! 

We picked up the Kochi Cycling Road at Aki which would take us to the outskirts of Kochi.  Known as the Koran Coastal Cycle path, the route links the old sun aria town of Aki with Konan City, just east of Kochi and built largely on the abandoned Tosa Electric Railway Aki Line’s route and track bed.  Some 18kms long, the path hugged the Pacific Ocean with views of the distant mountains.  However, the beaches were not particularly appealing. We stopped near Kotogahama for morning tea and found a stone table and chairs partly in the shade.

When trying to identify a place nearby for lunch, I found that google maps was specifically bringing up the option to search for Ramen restaurants.  We agreed that was a good option, and found one not too far from our route. Tontaro Akaoka-Ten mainly served Ramen and had a few patrons when we arrived.  The waitress didn’t speak English but we made ourselves understood and ordered a Ramen set.  It arrived with rice, a potato croquette and a big bowl of delicious ramen with two small slivers of pork.  The chef was delighted when I said “that was delicious” in my best Japanese as we paid the bill.

I had also chosen the restaurant as it was close to the Ekin Museum, which I thought might be interesting.  Ekin worked as an offical painter of the Tosa aristocracy until he was accused of fraud and ended up in Akaoka with his aunt. There he created his art in a sake warehouse.  His paintings were vivid and violent and were replicas were displayed in a room lit with candles which are designed to make the paintings feel alive.  We entered with our own lanterns and were able to use QR codes to understand the stories depicted on the screens.  It was fascinating.  There were another couple of rooms and a video with English subtitles that added more context to the artworks. 

It was another 20kms to our accommodation at the Dormy Hotel.  We circumnavigated the airport and wound our way through tiny backroads and paths right to the centre of town. We were able to lock our bikes in the entrance to the hotel under the watchful eye of a security camera.  We had a couple of hours before meeting for dinner, so Simon and I ventured out to find an upmarket grocery store and stock up on muesli and coffee for the next couple of days. 

We went to the Hirome markets for dinner, which consisted of lots of food stalls where you could choose a vast array of dinner options, many focusing on the locally renowned seared bonito fish.  Known as Katsura no tataki, it consists of thick slices of bonito sashimi that have been served around the edges.  The fillets of bonito are placed on a hand held frill that resembles a pitchfork and thrust into a fire fed by the straw of rice plants. I had heard that there was one stall that was meant to do it particularly well but often had a long queue.  There was only one place with a queue and there were only a few people waiting, so I joined the queue and ordered my bonito.  It arrived in a boat shaped dish - almost like a Japanese fishing boat.  It looked and  tasted amazing!

Julie had spied some endamame on another table, filled with Japanese businessmen and asked where to find some.  One of the businessmen pointed to a nearby stall and then insisted that we try some of the local sake which tasted pretty good, so we took note of the label for future reference.  It was only a short walk back to the hotel and we detoured via a FamilyMart convenience store for some ice creams.