Kochi

The first stop on the cruise was Kōchi, a city on the East coast of Shikoku.  Kōchi's main tourist attraction is it's castle.  It is also the original home of Sakamoto Ryōma, a leader in the movement to overthrow the Shogunate in the late 19th century.

The ship docked a few miles outside town, and provided a free shuttle to the city centre.  We spent the morning on a ships walking tour in the footsteps of Ryōma, which included a visit to a museum.  After that we had a quick lunch and paid a visit to the castle, one of the few in Japan that is still mostly original and wasn't seriously destroyed in the 20th century.

As we left, there were high quality performances on the dockside from a local performance group "Tosa Omotenashi Kinnoto", and the junior high school marching band.