Yawatahama

This was one of those days in traveling adventures when you learn to embrace what life gives you, rather than what you expected.

We had a 5-hour, three-train travel day planned, with tickets in hand and reserved seats, to get us from Kochi to Yawatahma, in order to see another castle. Train 1 went according to plan, as did the connection to Train 2. Just as we were settling in for a long ride, it was announced that the train would be terminating at the next station. Oops! There was some unspecified trouble on the line. Everyone piled off the train. We were told we could get on the next one in an hour, but that meant we'd miss the 15-minute connection to our 3rd train. I stood in line at the ticket office to get rebooked, which worked.

We carried on, and did get to our destination where that night's hotel was, but too late to get to the castle in a nearby town.

The compensations of the day were that we had lots of time in the unscheduled station stop to chat with other passengers, some Japanese and some Australian; in Yawatahama, we walked around getting a feel for the town - and it was interesting; and our hotel room overlooked the busy port, so there were lots of comings and goings to watch. We saw ferry traffic! Imagine that! LOL.

We also learned that the surrounding hills were covered in mikan bushes. Fresh mikan juice is delicious. At first, we couldn't make out what we were seeing; some sort of terracing, but not rice terraces. It looked like tea bushes from a distance, but we didn't think that was quite right, so we asked, and we learned.Read more