Two Days in Kochi

On our recent trip to Japan we were lucky enough to spend two days in the less well known city of Kochi on the island of Shikoku. We didn’t really know much about it (and probably still don’t know a lot!) but we thoroughly enjoyed our time there and are so glad we decided to visit.

We caught the train from Himeji to Kochi which was around a three hour journey. I remember being particularly proud when I asked a Japan Rail worker in (probably broken) Japanese whether “this train goes to Kochi?” and him seeming very impressed and enthusiastic in his response, that yes this was indeed the train to Kochi.

The train trip itself was very beautiful! The scenery was amazing, so many valleys and gushing foaming rivers and rocky green mountains. I wish I had taken some photos, but alas. We also saw snow falling from the sky (from the sky!) as well which was super exciting.

It must have been after 1pm when we arrived in Kochi so we took the street car to a few blocks away from our hotel, wandered past our hotel to the wrong hotel, before returning to our actual hotel and checking in. We decided lunch and exploring the area near our hotel was in order. So we dropped our bags off and headed towards what appeared to be the main hub. Kochi is a lot less touristy than some of the bigger cities so most of the restaurants didn’t have menus available in English as is the case elsewhere. So we probably took about an hour to find a place we were comfortable with, which turned out to be a ramen joint. I don’t remember how tasty the ramen was on a scale of all the ramen we ate on the trip, but afterwards we continued to stroll around and then headed back to the hotel for a nap. Travelling is exhausting, yo.

Around dinner time we headed back out past this bridge, which is apparently famous for being a meeting place for a monk and his secret lover, and posed for some photos.

 Then we began the unnecessarily looooong task of finding something to eat. Once again our conservative side got the better of us and we stumbled into CoCoIchi which is a delicious Japanese curry rice chain restaurant. Shannon thought it was amazing because you could get two types of chicken in the same curry (!!). And the curry was pretty damn good as well.

This marked the end of day one.

Day two we bounced out of bed and peered outside at the fresh, almost warm Kochi morning. Breakfast was chocolate croissants and coffee. 

After which we strolled to Kochi Castle.

 Unfortunately the castle itself was closed until after New Years but we had a great time exploring the surrounding gardens.

 We then headed over to the Yamaguchi’s former residence. I have no idea who the Yamaguchi’s are…I’m assuming some former political leaders…but I now know where they used to live. And it was interesting to see a traditional Japanese home, plus there was a museum like display upstairs so it was worth the visit. Plus it was free of charge!

 We then headed back in towards the town centre and stumbled across some street markets. I picked up an awesome phoenix brooch and Shannon found a traditional one yen coin from the Meiji Era which he dubbed his “lucky” coin and then proceeded to lose a few days later.

After some lunch we headed back to the hotel for a rest. Travelling is hard, yo.

For the evening’s entertainment we had decided upon dinner and drinks. Unfortunately we got distracted by pre-drinks at a place called Jack’s Bar. It had a very homey feel inside and lots of memorabilia from different countries around the world such as USA and Australia. The owner settled us into a corner table that was snugly packed with pillows. He brought us our drinks as well as a small tasting plate of squid, potato pizza and octopus. We ended up chatting with the owner about Australia because he has a friend who lives in Port Lincoln and who he has visited before. He even showed us a photo album of his trip.

After two drinks there we decided to change it up a bit. We were going to have bonito for dinner but we were kind of full from the bar snacks so instead we went and got some taiyaki. Oishii!

We then went into another bar called Hibiscus which I'd seen online. It was on the second floor of a building and was decorated very tropical in tribute to the tropical islands of Japan, Okinawa. It was very cool in there and we enjoyed some more drinks and some shochu, which was strong but tasty. 

There were a few big groups of people that came in and eventually they cracked out the karaoke which was entertaining to watch. After a while we decided we wanted to karaoke as well!

We headed over to Big Echo, a Japanese karaoke chain, and got a room for an hour to belt out a few tunes. I could easily spend a few hours there!

We decided to call it a night after that and stopped at Family Mart on the way home for some snacks.

And that concluded our time in Kochi! Worth a visit if you have a few days to spare!

I heart Japan

Sometimes my heart feels like it’s bleeding when I think of Japan. Similar to a homesickness feeling. It’s normally a short, sharp memory of our trip that brings it on. It could be a whiff of my perfume that I wore in Japan that starts it. Or it could be nothing in particular at all that triggers it. It just happens. 

Today Rosie from The Londoner asked us what our dream trip would be. Easy question for me to answer because I feel like I’ve already been on it! And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

My family don’t seem to have a strong interest in travelling to Japan. My mum and stepdad are more into cruising pacific islands and my dad and stepmum are similarly keen on Fiji, Hawaii and the like. That’s all well and good but I think if they went to Japan they would be pleasantly surprised.

Here are some of the things that I like best about Japan.

Travelling from city to city, from island to island on shinkansen (bullet trains).

Riding on any of the reliable public transport to get around.

Eating my weight’s worth in ramen…

And delicisies.

Visiting temples and shrines.

Exploring old castles and traditional Japanese houses.

Walking the crowded streets and shopping arcades.

Relaxing in onsens and public baths.

The thought of all these things fill me with so much joy!

I’m so eager to go back and not only experience these things all over again for myself but be able to share these experiences with others.

Queens Gardens

A few weekends ago we had a long weekend. On the Monday, Shan and I were feeling a bit restless so we decided to get out of the house. It was a really beautiful day but we didn't know how we wanted to spend it. After tossing around a few ideas we decided to head out and buy some coffees and then see where the day would take us.

It ended up taking us to Queens Gardens.

We'd been saying for ages that we should go and properly check out this garden (Shannon had been in there briefly in the first couple of days we moved to Townsville but hadn't checked it out entirely). I have to say that Townsville is very well equiped with many well maintained gardens scattered throughout the various suburbs and this one may be one of my favourites. Queens Garden is very impressive with a bird aviary, two hedge mazes, a succulents and herb garden and a bunch of other themed garden areas.

We frolicked around sipping our coffees, playing in the mazes and soaking in the winter sun.

Although we only stayed an hour or so we have plans to go back again with a picnic lunch and make a real afternoon of it.

Unforgettable

I like the idea of a blog because it keeps a permanent record of your memories. I spose you could always write these things down as well, but books and paper can get lost. The internet is kinda harder to lose. I'd like to make enough posts so that I can look back and be like "Ohhh yeah! I remember that!"

Shannon messaged me just now to tell me he'd gone out to get a book from his car. He'd left his car window open for the night and when he opened the door....BOOM! A cat. The poor puss must've wanted some place warm to sleep and decided to slip in through the window. Apparently the cat freaked out a bit, upon being discovered, and then eventually bolted out the door. Oh cats. You floor me.

It's these stupid, small, everyday life things that I think will mean the most to me later. I mean, of course, when I look back on my life I will remember all the big ticket items, but I think it's the small things that make up all the substance.


A Townsville sunset during one of my walks near the river



It's maaaa birthday!

Quarter Quell today, guys, Quarter Quell #hungergamesreference

Here's a list of....

25 Things I've Achieved in 25 Years:

1.  Experienced love.
2. DUX of high school.
3.  Finished a degree.
4.  Bought a unit.
5. Travelled to Japan, twice!
6.  Travelled to Thailand.
7.  Travelled to Italy.
8. Travelled to France.
9. Travelled to America (NY and LA).
10. Travelled to Fiji and Vanuatu.
11.  Travelled to Bali.
12. Been on numerous cruises.
13. Moved interstate.
14. Found 3 jobs.
15. Made it into the OC.
16. Graduated high school.
17. Saved two kitties.
18. Saw "Titanic" at the movies nine times.
19. Played soccer for 12 years.
20. Bought a car.
21. Learnt to drive.
22. Made incredible friends.
23. Learnt to walk.
24. Learnt to talk.
25. I'm still alive!!

Last New Years I gave you my heart...

So my friend Mel (who will forthwith be referred to as "my gf" due to a personal joke) and I recently bought tickets to go to New Zealand for New Years this year. This purchase has made me think of last New Years that boyfy and I spent in Kyoto and how awesome it was. The whole four week trip was an insane amount of awesome that we've talked about almost every single day since we got back, but still, let's micro focus on New Years Eve in particular.

We were staying at a really great hostel in Kyoto, Khaosan, and up until the day we arrived there from Kochi on the 29th we had been planning to attend a traditional bell ringing ceremony. Something very culturally rich and rewarding. However, the front desk at Khaosan was advertising a NYE pub crawl. We are Australian. It was a no brainer. (That's not entirely true, we didn't really fully commit until like 5pm on NYE.) But it was run by Japanese hosts! So we were still experiencing Japanese culture. Just modern culture.

Anyway, we met up in our hostel lobby at about 6pm, I think it was, and awkwardly smiled at the other people in our hostel who were coming along. We made friends with one lady who was also from Australia who I mistakenly referred to as Helen-san for the WHOLE night before she corrected me after midnight that her name was actually Hailey. We chatted to Helen-san and our two Japanese guides, Yuki and Roki (I believe) on our walk to our first bar.

I have no idea what the name of the bar was but as part of the crawl we got two drinks and two shots in like one hour so needless to say the early awkwardness had worn off.

I'll tell you what, those Japanese guides certainly know their customers. Roki instantly had our attention when he walked to the middle of the dance floor holding up a bottle of vodka and announcing "SHOTS! SHOTS!" The crowd formed.

After shots we were herded out of the bar to make our way to the club, our final stop for the evening. I know. It was a short pub crawl but it was NYE and Roki had explained that it was just too busy everywhere else to do more.

On the way to the club one of our new Australian friends, Mia, was trying to confirm with one of our new Japanese friends about where we were going. She interpreted his probably very good English poorly and from then on we were headed "to the CRAB!"

At the crab we danced and drank the night away.

Our "I can't believe you're wearing the same shirt" photo. We could believe it. It was planned.

That's "Helen-san" in the middle.

At almost midnight, Shan must have glanced across at the bar and decided "hey, there's no line, what a perfect opportunity to get a drink."

Try as I might to drag him away for the countdown, he was adamant that he needed to get his drink right at the moment. So I counted down and celebrated with my new friends instead. For some reason after we counted down to the first midnight, they rewound the timer so that we had another hour to count down again. I don't know.

Being pacmanned. Definition: when you go to kiss but the other person purposely opens their mouth wider.

We didn't make it to then anyway. We are weak and we were drunk. And we hadn't had dinner.

We left the crab and somehow in his blurred state Shan was able to guide us back to the hostel (skills like a turtle), with a much needed pit stop at Macca's on the way, where we lectured the Japanese people at the table next to us on the correct use of past and present tense "thank you" in Japanese. Honestly, you'd think they'd know.