Chikurinji and Kochi Castle

Chikurinji is a lovely temple near the Makino Botanical Gardens. it is set on top of a wooded hill with a view of the city and countryside below. The property is green and has scattered flowering shrubs around.

Chikurinji

The pagoda is large and painted red. It sits above all of the other buildings and is lit up at night. This is a very nice temple to visit if you want somewhere nice to relax. I'd also recommend visiting the botanical garden and observation deck to make a day of it. It is very easy to get to by car but y bus is a bit more complicated. Tourists do get a discount on the bus fare if you show your passport though.

Chikurinji

I don't know if it was a special occasion or not but the colourful flags on the temple building were very different from other temples I have visited in Japan that usually lacked bright colours and had white flags if any on the temple.

Chikurinji

There are small paths around the temple that lead you to areas set back from the temple where natural vegetation is growing around old stone monuments.

Wash basin at Chikurinji

Some of the monuments are dressed up in red bibs and hats. Apparently this tradition was first done to Ojizo-sama (aka Jizo) statues since he is the deity responsible as guardian of children. Parents who have lost a young child place their child's bib on the statue so that the deity will protect them in the afterlife.

Chikurinji

Red is the colour for repelling demons and illness so many other statues can now be decked out in red clothing. Red bibs are now a sign of protecting the deities, such as Inari the deity of agriculture or Kitsune his messenger, from illness so that crops will be safe and grow healthy.

Statue at Chikurinji

The temple was home to some interesting wildlife including spring flora, a large diversity of ferns and a new species of frog for me. As an added bonus I was lucky enough to see the large bright green frogs in amplexus (embrace of mating) in a pond.

Crowdipper (Pinellia ternata)

Schlegel's Green Tree Frog (Rhacophorus schlegelii)

 The lighting was spectacular in some of the trees making them look incredibly lush green. Photos can't really capture the full beauty of it sadly

Japanese Maple

The view from the parking lot was lovely and you could see the city spreading out to the left of the river and the countryside to the right of it. I still cannot explain why the mountains in Japan constantly have a haze to them even on days that aren't humid and shouldn't have smog.

View from parking lot at Chikurinji

I have visited Kochi Castle a few times now but this sunny day made for a very nice walk around the temple, which looked a lot greener than when I had visited it in the cherry blossom season. Rhododendrons and Waterlilies were blooming and the trees were bright fresh green.

Kochi Castle, Kochi, Japan

Kochi Castle, Kochi, Japan

Kochi Castle, Kochi, Japan

Kochi Castle, Kochi, Japan

Kochi Castle, Kochi, Japan

This visit I actually took the tour. English tour guides are available for free after you pay admission to the lookout tower. They just walk you around the lookout tower and the building attached to it.

Kochi Castle, Kochi, Japan

The building includes a reception hall where the lord would sit and you can see the samurai doors where samurai hid behind ready to jump out and protect the lord from any attackers. The doors are quite small and I can't imagine it was comfortable to sit in there. Also I don't know how easy it is to get out of such a small doorway quickly.

Meeting hall at Kochi Castle

Samurai doors beside where the lord sat in Kochi Castle

The models present inside the buildings give you the best idea of what the castle looked like before most of the buildings were torn down and replaces with the gardens and park areas present today.

Model of Kochi Castle

The view from the top of the lookout tower has the wooded area of park areas of the castle and the city appears to be much further below than you would expect since the tower is only a few stories high. Historically the area would be clear so that guards could see approaching enemies. During the tour they didn't give any stories of old battles at the castle but I assume someone had to attack it at one point or another.

Kochi Castle View

The lord of Kochi Castle is said to have rose to power because of his very clever wife who as her dowry bought him a very very fast and strong horse. This lead him to impress people during his military experience and get rewarded with higher status. The statue of her and the horse is one of the few scattered around the castle grounds.

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The canal surrounding part of the castle is full of turtles, however I don't think a single one of the ones I have seen is native to Japan. They were all out basking on rocks on the edge of the canal. I saw about 6 of them in one place!

Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta)

Chinese Softshell Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

Ritsurin Garden and Zentsū-ji

Ritsurin Garden Map

Ritsurin Garden is one of the most famous gardens in all of Japan. It is historical and existed as a private garden to the fuedal lord who created it in 1625. The first section to be built was the south pond area and the garden was expanded by various owners since until it became a prefectural garden and opened to the public.

Ritsurin Garden

The garden is an intricate maze of pathways through various manicured areas. The area on the left side of the map is mostly coniferous trees around the ponds with some sections of Japanese Maple. Small bridges link pathways and create a very intricate walkway system and add to the scenery.

Ritsurin Garden

Ritsurin Garden

Ritsurin Garden

  Wildlife is common in the gardens despite being in the middle of a city. SOme areas are blocked to fish and tadpoles are thriving in large numbers (and of massive size as well). A few species of turles were observed including Chinese Softshell Turtle, Red-eared Sliders and some nondescript turtle that I didn't get a good enough look at to identify.

Tadpole

Chinese Softshell Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

A waterfall in the back of the garden with the forested hill in the background makes it quite obvious what attracted the feudal lords to this specific site in the city to create a beautiful garden.

Ritsurin Garden

Although the manicured scenery has a very Japanese style beauty, there are not a lot of herbaceous plants in the garden and very few 'pretty flowers' to look at. Scattered around the mowed grass were some 'weeds' that managed to survive the cutting. 

Blue Toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis)

 Some flowering trees, including the cherry blossoms, had finished blooming but scattered around the deciduous part of the garden were some Dogwood (Cornus) flowering. Otherwise it was mostly Rhododendron shrubs adding a bit of colour to the garden.

Ritsurin Garden

Ritsurin Garden

The deciduous side of the garden is less open and much greener. It still lacks a healthy understory of vegetation but it has a much higher diversity of trees.

Ritsurin Garden

Japanese Maple has always been a favorite of mine. I love how they grow a bit twisty and how pretty they are when they change colour in the fall. I never noticed before how cute their flowers were though.

Japanese Maple Flowering

After the garden we went to visit a temple (Zentsū-ji). Again we got there at sundown and all of my photos are in the dark. The pagoda at least is lit up at night. The temple is quite old and covers a large area. The grounds are dirt everywhere with no lawn and only a small forested area with some understory. The trees here are quite old and impressive. The wood  on the bu8ildings is intricately carved but still simple as to be not eclectic.

Zentsū-ji

Zentsū-ji

Kazurabashi of Iya

The Kazurabashi of Iya or the Vine Bridge in Iya Valley is a bit of an overstated tourist attraction. It is a small walking bridge that you pay to cross. They even built a pedestrian bridge on the side of the road so you can view the bridge.

Kazurabashi of Iya

Kazurabashi of Iya

The Japanese Wisteria (purple vine in the photos) smells extremely fragrant and although it is very common throughout Shikoku it set the scene very nicely by blooming right in front of the bridge. It smells amazing and pollinators love it so you can almost here their buzz over the crowds of tourits.

Kazurabashi of Iya

I didn't pay to cross the bridge because the view is nicer looking at it but it was incredibly busy and is quite impossible to get a photo without anyone on the bridge. There was usually a line-up to cross and the best was when there was a bit of a lull in customers and I had only a few people or people in dull colours crossing.

Kazurabashi of Iya from behind

The waterfall nearby the bridge is really really close and is just right on the side of the road. It is a small but nice waterfall flowing into a small pool and down into the main river. A lot of ferns, moss and marchanita growing on the rocks with bright green Japanes maples making a nice canopy made the spot look intensely green.

Marchantia

Waterfall near Kazurabashi of Iya

There was a Japanese Brown Frog by the waterfall  that was a lovely treat to see and photograph.  There are a lot of frogs in the genus Rana that look quite similar to this in Japan so I hope my ID is correct on this one. I have been using a Japanese field guide and google translate only works so well with it.

Japanese Brown Frog (Rana japonica)

Muronto Cape

The way to Muronto Cape is scenic when you get to the coastline. The closer you get to the cape the more you see scenic views of beaches and rocky areas but these are spaced out with seawalls and breakers, which I admit look quite stark and unappealing in contrast to the more natural areas.

Shrine along highway 55 towards Muronto Cape

Muronto Cape

The viewpoint at 〒781-7101 Kōchi Prefecture, Muroto, Murotomisakicho has lovely panoramic views of the entire area. Black-eared Kites can been seen riding the thermals here and gliding over the coastline.

Black-eared Kite viewed from lookout point at Muronto Cape

Muronto Cape

The lighthouse isn't much to talk about but it has closer up views of the cape.

Lighthouse at Muronto Cape

The Hotsumisaki Temple is just above the lighthouse. It is one of my favorites so far on Shikoku. It is set surrounded by an old wooded area with large trees. The temple buildings are simple but with intricate carvings. As part of the pilgrimage, the Hotsumisaki Temple has places to stay overnight.

The temple is also home to a lot of wildlife and I was able to see birds and a skink on the temple grounds.

Hotsumisaki Temple

Hotsumisaki Temple

Hotsumisaki Temple

Skink at Hotsumisaki Temple

William very much enjoyed the chance to ring a big bell that echoed though the hills. It sounds lovely and is the exact sound I pictured hearing at the temple.

Hotsumisaki Temple

The coastline is rocky with large formations and an area of thicket vegetation occurring as the area sloped up inland. The vegetation was quite interesting with some recognizable genera and some species that I have never seen before.

There are some trails going along the coast weaving though the thicket vegetation and giving some nice views of the ocean and the rocks. We didn't have to much time so we only did a short loop. It was very very calm the day we went to the cape but I hear that the ocean can be quite fierce at the cape.  I very highly recommend visiting this scenic area and taking the time to visit all of it.

Muronto Cape

Muronto Cape

Japanese Pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira)

Sea Fig (Ficus superba)

Monkey at Muronto Cape

On the way home a detour took us up to a temple in the mountains. The road is winding and you park below the temple and hike up to the temple. The small hike up was nice but we didn't get to the temple until after dark. The temple was very very old and the rocks and statues at the temple had large lichens all over them.

Gate up to temple