Friday, March 31, 2023
We departed early for our land excursion today, boarding the “Happy Bus” painted bright yellow and featuring various big-eyed creatures. Kochi, on the island of Shikoku, is a prefectural capital situated at the confluence of several rivers and so, is dominated by waterways. Our first destination was Ryugado Cave on the slopes of Mount Sampo. The drive there took us out of the city and through a valley where we passed many rice paddies of various sizes. During the ride, our guide discussed sake making and passed around a small sake drinking vessel with a hole in its side. The idea is that the hole is covered with a finger when the sake is poured and then must be consumed before setting the vessel back down.
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| Rice Paddies |
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| Sake Drinking Vessel |
After debusing, we walked past a series of shoppes and then had a choice of taking a long series of stone steps or an escalator up the mountain side to the Ryugado Cave entrance; we all opted for the latter. In the cave, we followed a path through tunnels and chambers sometimes passing through very narrow and low gaps requiring stooping at uncomfortable angles. A fellow cruiser remarked that the Nautica showers were good training for this spelunking adventure.
This is the fifth cave that Jane and I have explored in the last year of our travels. Similar to Americans, the Japanese like to shine colored lights on cave formations and give them endearing names such as Jellyfish Stone, Cactus Hill, Bearded Screen Waterfall, etc. In addition to typical limestone speleothems, we saw a stream of clear water and several waterfalls as well as bats flirting overhead. Artifacts found in the cave date back to the Yayoi Period between 300 B.C. and 300 A.D. We viewed an earthenware vessel encased in stalactite from this period. Near the end of our cave visit, we paused to watch a metaphysical film about the cave’s creation and evolution projected on the cave’s ceiling. After exiting the cave, we walked a long boardwalk back to the shoppes that led us through native mountain vegetation. Jane and I lingered studying the identification signs along the route. Then, we walked through a few shoppes before boarding the Happy Bus to travel to our next stop.
