Our hotel is just a couple blocks from the train station and where an amazing Tourist Information (TI) Center is found. We head there to pick-up our special tourist bus tickets - a hop-on/hop-off all day ticket for the sights of Kōchi.
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It's quite an impressively presented and well staffed information center for tourist things for the entire region.
We begin just outside the TI center - Gerri shows the driver our paid tickets.
Passing by the community center.
We leave the bus for the short climb up to an observation point.
A short hike away is Chikurin-ji, a Shingon temple and Temple 31 on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage. The temple was founded by Gyōki in the early eighth century. The temple houses a number of important sculptures and its late Edo-period gardens are a Natural Monument.
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Another short hike away (10 minutes) is the Makino Botanical Garden. The garden was established in 1958 with a museum dedicated to Tomitaro Makino (1862-1957), the "Father of Japanese Botany", and also has a research laboratory. Today its collections include Japanese Rhododendron, Acer, Chrysanthemum, serpentine plants, limestone plants, plants of the Sohayaki region, and wild plants of Kōchi Prefecture region.
The garden has very nice looping paths over not-so-level terrain.
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Now finishing up with the greenhouse...
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Apparently this is a thing here - greenhouse staffers take people's young kids and pose them on a lily pad for the parents to take photos. Several kids did not like it in the least - getting turned over to "green monsters" and to submit and commit to the strange floating kid-eating water plants.
We then hop on the next bus out of the garden and take it to some seemingly random stop - a place to pick up strollers who have walked around a lake area - but it's our get-off to walk about a mile to a brand new brewery.
The brewery is up on a plateau over the harbor area containing a great many warehouses and out of view until you get up on the hill. It's only been operating less than two weeks, still celebrating their grand opening.
 |  The beer is good to the last drop. The pizza a good complement - notice the cool wood serving board - you slice it yourself with the groove guides. After the drinks and bites we had to scadaddle back to the bus stop to catch the last ride of the tourist bus to the beach stop. |
The beach is broad and scenic, but for some unknown reason a security guard keeps anyone from touching the water - these people below did try and received the whistle and signal to back out.
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