A big temple and garden excursion
Koichi Temple is one of the 88 Temple pilgrimage bris pilgrimage is a very difficult one as the mountain show some of the challenge.
Rice, one time per year, due to shift of diet to bread and noodles for lunch. Used to do two crops each year here.
The above was stated, as fact by the guide. Hopefully in the comments, Tom or another will verify if the Japanese diet has changed with rice, being less important or even very important, my understanding was always related to the political power of the rice farmers.
Before we leave the temples, a bit about the 88 temples.
https://www.88temples.info/31/
A pilgrimage we contemplated and rejected because of its difficulty.
Makino botanical garden
Not a sculpture garden, but a true botanical one with almost every plant labeled and different sections in this typical of botanical gardens. Later in the trip, we will see sculptured or designed ones.
Very warm today. Very sunny today. Very warm I may have mentioned that.
A tour welcoming party. Just before George took this picture.
Boog's Blog 
The decline in per capita rice consumption is a well recognized fact in Japan – good summary at https://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00257/ – with availability of alternates being a big part of the explanation (IMHO). My brother-in-law, the Niigata rice farmer, has been less impacted as they have always been limited to one crop per year (snow well into May limits planting opportunities 🙂 and the variety he grows – KOSHIHIKARI – is considered the best. Even so, he has expanded his farms operations by growing other, more specialized varieties (black rice being a particularly interesting one) and dedicating part of his fields to organic production.
Shikoku, the island Kochi is on, has always been a bit of the outback in Japan. Historically it hasn’t been part of changes in the rest of the country because of it’s isolation. The 88 temple path is part of that and there are lots of legends about secret ninja organizations embedded in the island’s culture. It was a good place to get away from central authority in the old days.
A very full day! “QB in the mister” would make a great song title.
We are currently crossing a 7 km long bridge in Busan Korea