Kochi Ken

For those of you who have never heard of Kochi-ken, Japan (because Kochi in India is Google's preferred "Kochi"), you're missing out on the all-around most beautiful prefecture in the island nation. True, Tottori has the massive sand dunes, and Okinawa has the ocean that stretches on forever. Nagano has snowy slopes in winter, and Hokkaido has the beautiful bike paths in summer. Kyuushuu is interesting with its floating jet streams of steamy wonder and Kagawa's gardens are impressive. But for all-around beauty, for the winning power of nature at its most demure and almost untouched, I don't think you can surpass Kochi-ken. This least-populated (don't quote me) of areas with the most backwater people, people who still hold true to inakan principles like talking to everyone and their brother, has some of the most delightful prehistoric beauty, as though somehow while the rest of Japan marched forward, the savagery of the Kochi landscape was skirted by and left timelessly preserved in its original magical state.

And I haven't even been everywhere yet.

Rocks in Muroto. 

Muroto is one of the few places on earth where you can see the earth's layers of stratified sediment pushed up on the earth's surface. This is because of the meeting of various tectonic plates which on sliding out or pushing in, one atop the other, bends the earth outwards so you can see the layers. Pretty nifty, huh?

Fantastic weather in Tano. Just imagine the house out of the picture.

Misty orange flowers on the mountainside in Yasuda.

 The beach in Kochi city. A long stretch of powdery sand and dangerous rip-tides. Look out children! Don't go swimming here.

 The harbor in Nahari.

Orange flower somewhere. Not at the same misty temple as above orange flowers.

Tall trees on the road to Umaji. 

The view from Umaji village looking down to Yanase.
Not the best lighting, but you get the idea.

From a hill in Nahari.