2016年01月11日
A Trip to Kōchi
Hello, all!
During the Christmas break I took a very nice bicycle ride to Kōchi! I wanted to cycle the old Tosa Kaido and visit Kōchi, where I'd never been. Kochi was fantastic! I ate some delicious imo-ten and, of course, katsuo tataki. I got to see a yosakoi performance and visit Kōchi Castle. Even the hotel breakfast was great!
Unfortunately, my cell phone died after I took most of my Kōchi pictures. But I do have a few pictures from videos I shot on the ride down. I took Route 126/264 between Tamatoriyama and Omoriyama, and I went so high that I saw a little snow! Here are some of my interesting discoveries. Please click for much bigger versions!
This is a little river in a place called Uriuno in nothern Kōchi Prefecture. It's such perfectly Japanese scenery!
This decrepit bus was just sitting by the side of Route 264, about halfway down the mountain. What a great ruin!
This is near Tosa Town. I don't see that many terraced rice paddies in Japan, although these were fallow.
This was my favorite moment of the trip. Just after the top of the pass, the road goes through this amazing tunnel. It's long, narrow, and has no lights at all! It was like something out of an old Existentialist art film. I loved it! (You can see the Kōchi end of the tunnel at the top of the second picture.)
How do you travel the lovely island of Shikoku?
—Matthew
During the Christmas break I took a very nice bicycle ride to Kōchi! I wanted to cycle the old Tosa Kaido and visit Kōchi, where I'd never been. Kochi was fantastic! I ate some delicious imo-ten and, of course, katsuo tataki. I got to see a yosakoi performance and visit Kōchi Castle. Even the hotel breakfast was great!
Unfortunately, my cell phone died after I took most of my Kōchi pictures. But I do have a few pictures from videos I shot on the ride down. I took Route 126/264 between Tamatoriyama and Omoriyama, and I went so high that I saw a little snow! Here are some of my interesting discoveries. Please click for much bigger versions!
This is a little river in a place called Uriuno in nothern Kōchi Prefecture. It's such perfectly Japanese scenery!
This decrepit bus was just sitting by the side of Route 264, about halfway down the mountain. What a great ruin!
This is near Tosa Town. I don't see that many terraced rice paddies in Japan, although these were fallow.
This was my favorite moment of the trip. Just after the top of the pass, the road goes through this amazing tunnel. It's long, narrow, and has no lights at all! It was like something out of an old Existentialist art film. I loved it! (You can see the Kōchi end of the tunnel at the top of the second picture.)
How do you travel the lovely island of Shikoku?
—Matthew
2016年01月11日
A new hobby
If you read my blog posts fairly often, then you know that I like cars. That's pretty unsurprising given the number of car focused posts I've made over the last year.
Also unsurprising is the fact that cars are expensive - and running a car on track is even more expensive than usual.
So how do I get my car fix when I'm saving up between trackdays? Well, I've started collecting model cars.
The picture is small, but form left to right there is a Toyota Corolla AE86 (this one is from the popular anime Initial D), an R33 skyline GTR in GTLM spec, a racing model Kyusha Kenmeri skyline, a street Kenmeri skyline, and of course, a shakotan hakosuka GTR. Some of my favorite cars!
Also unsurprising is the fact that cars are expensive - and running a car on track is even more expensive than usual.
So how do I get my car fix when I'm saving up between trackdays? Well, I've started collecting model cars.
The picture is small, but form left to right there is a Toyota Corolla AE86 (this one is from the popular anime Initial D), an R33 skyline GTR in GTLM spec, a racing model Kyusha Kenmeri skyline, a street Kenmeri skyline, and of course, a shakotan hakosuka GTR. Some of my favorite cars!
