Shikoku, day 3

After landing in Kochi, we went off to see the castle. Kochi-jo is a nice castle, not one of those ferro-concrete recreations that predominat Japan. The view from the top is supposed to be great, but it started pouring as soon as we entered the castle.

After the castle we met up with my friend Jason from Seattle. A fellow linguistics major, he's obviously a cool dude. Shoring up his coolness cred, he showed us a great time. Took us to the local hang out-- a hanger-like food court with huge wooden tables and benches. This sounds sketchy, but the atmosphere was great! There were tasty food stalls all around, including a great tataki place where we watched a kid sear the tuna over a hay fire. An Indian vendor provided the first good chai I've had in Japan, as well as great curry. There was even a whale stand [more on this in a later post]. Jason invited some friends and we all ate, drank, and hung out for a few hours. Kochi people are big drinkers, as you could see immediately when we walked in [um, at 5 in the evening]. Food, friends, and drinks-- that's our kind of night.

After a few hours, we headed back to Jason's for more relaxing. Met a new ALT, and Jason introduced us to an interesting J-Pop singer. I would like to get into J-Pop, but you have to wade through so much crap before finding something good. Now I have a lead.