1 / 2Yuzu everythingPhoto: Asiainfocenter / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 2 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Kochi grows about half of Japan’s yuzu, and it shows up in juice, ponzu, kosho paste and soft serve. Buy Umaji village ponzu at Hirome Market stalls or a souvenir shop in town; Umaji itself is a long drive east and is not a port-day trip.
- Short enough to be certain of: 2 hr door to door, so even a tender day works.
- It is not only a photo stop: bonito seared over burning straw, and eaten before the smoke clears.
- 2 hr door to door needs a 4-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Yuzu everything is famous
Bonito seared over burning straw, and eaten before the smoke clears
Kochi grows about half of Japan's yuzu, a citrus too sour to eat and too useful to ignore. It goes into ponzu, salt, pepper paste, honey drinks and everything else the prefecture can think of. The bottles travel well, which makes this the practical Kochi souvenir.
A metre of rice straw burns at around 800°C for less than a minute. The outside of the fish cooks; the inside does not. Everything about this dish is that thirty seconds.
Attributed variously to hygiene and to a lord's ban on raw bonito
The first northbound run — lean, clean, prized for freshness
The returning fish, fat and rich. The other camp's choice
And seared in the open at Hirome Market all day
Hirome Market, any hour. Myojinmaru sears in the open — order shio-tataki and take it to a shared table.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
The city shop of the village co-operative that turned yuzu into a national brand — ponzu, salt and drinks that travel, and yuzu soft-serve. A taxi ride east of the centre; 9:30–18:00, closed Wednesdays.
Open in Google MapsClosest to the berthHirome Market stallsひろめ市場Yuzu products among everything else, inside the market you are probably already in.
Open in Google MapsWhat to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
Eat · ~3h via shuttleKatsuo tataki, flame-seared
Bonito seared over burning straw, salted, and eaten before the smoke clears — Kochi’s defining dish done theatrically at Myojinmaru’s Hirome Market stall.
See the detail
See · ~3.5hKochi Castle
One of only twelve original castles — keep, gates and palace all survived.
See the detail
See · ~3hHirome Market
Sixty stalls, shared tables, day-drinking locals who will toast you — Kochi’s living room.
See the detail