Kochi, June 9 & Himeji, June 10

Kochi is easy. It was raining hard, and I stayed aboard NCL Spirit for the day. I had a much-needed massage. Like always, the massage was good, but the sales pitch afterward ruins the vibe. The masseuse was trying to sell me on bath salts that would remove the lactic acid from my body. Pure BS. The liver and kidneys turn lactic acid (that's what makes muscles hurt after strenuous activity) into glucose for your body to use as energy. Massages help to move the lactic acid from your muscles into the bloodstream, but there is nothing that you can add to a bath that will leach that from your body. But the massage was good.

I awoke the next morning early. Had a great breakfast and then went to prepare for the tour of Himeji. Himeji is a large city of around 550,000 people. It's gently raining, so I take my umbrella and head out to the tour bus. I'm pleased to see only about 20 people are on this tour. That will make it so much nicer.

The tour takes a 30-minute ride into the downtown area, and in the distance, we can see a beautiful castle on a very high hill. This is Himeji Castle. But we aren't going there yet. We're going to the gardens that are next to it.

The bus parks in a large lot across the street, and we all trudge out into the rain. It's a 10-minute walk to the gardens, and my feet are already wet. It seems like every port I go to, I have to see the gardens. To be sure, they are spectacular, but I'm getting gardened out. These are younger gardens, designed and built in the 1990s, but you couldn't tell the difference between these gardens and ones from the 1600s. Beautiful lakes, streams, and walking paths through the trees and flowers. But the entire time, it's raining. And getting worse. Yes, I knew that I was booking a trip during Japan's rainy season. But this is a LOT of rain.

We head out of the gardens and walk about half a mile to the castle front gate. This is a photo opportunity only. We don't get to go inside the castle. I'm okay with that because it is a VERY vertical edifice.

After viewing the castle, we get a bit of free time to spend at the small shops across the street from the castle. I buy a few souvenirs and find a sit-down shop to have a coffee. Feels good to sit and be in a dry place, even for just a few minutes!

Heading back to the bus, it rains even harder than before. There is no thunder or strong wind, just deluge. Nearing the bus, I, and most of the other tourists, walk through ankle-deep rivers of water in the parking lot. At least the water is warm.

I do have great news, though! Next stop, after a 45-minute ride, is the sake factory. Sake (or rice wine) is made the same way wine is but uses polished rice instead of grapes. Each grade of sake is determined by how "polished" the rice is that is being used. Inside each grain of rice is the pulp. It is covered by the husk. Eating rice, we eat the whole grain. For sake, they remove some of the husk to get to the pulp. The process is called polishing. Most sake is 60% (meaning 40% has been polished away). This is the less expensive. It's called Junmai (June-my). Next up is 40% - Junmai Ginjo. It's not as sweet as the first and has a deeper, more rich flavor. The third is 25%. That means three-quarters of the rice has been polished away, and nothing remains but the very best part. This also means that much more rice must be used to make the same quantity of sake, so this is way more expensive, over $90 a 750ml bottle. This is Junmai Daiginjo. It is soooo good!

We all learned about the process from the 16th generation owner of the factory. The place has been making sake since 1629. They have it pretty well figured out. The building we are in was from 1810. It survived WWII intact. We got to sample all of the sakes and were given a gift of our own sake cup. Pretty cool cup, too. They served with Parmesan cheese, and the pairing was surprisingly good. I bought a few bottles to take home to share with my friends.

We headed back to the ship. Still raining. I had dinner at Le Bistro, the French-style restaurant. It was really good. I sang karaoke with other guests, then called it a night. In bed by 10 pm. I feel so old :-)