Half-day tour: Kochi Castle & Makino Botanical Garden & Hirome Market
Last updated: August 26, 2026
Kochi in half a day: the castle whose original keep and palace both survive, and the botanical garden honoring Tomitaro Makino, the father of Japanese botany. From Harimaya Bridge the tour climbs Godaisan, where Makino's 3,000-species garden shares the hilltop with Chikurinji — temple 31 of the Shikoku pilgrimage, five-story pagoda and all — and an observatory looking over the city and Urado Bay. Back in town, Hirome Market serves Kochi's beloved straw-seared bonito before the finale at Kochi Castle, then the loop closes where it began.
Itinerary
Departure
- Start point: Harimaya Bashi Bus Terminal
- Stop at: Makino Botanical Garden
- Stop at: Chikurinji Temple
- Stop at: Godaisan Observatory
- Stop at: Hirome Market
- Stop at: Kochi Castle
- End point: Harimaya Bashi Bus Terminal
Frequently Asked Questions
It is the only castle in Japan where both the original keep and the main-enclosure palace still stand together, unburned and unrebuilt since the Edo period — from the top floor the whole castle town lays itself out below.
Tomitaro Makino, born in Kochi, is celebrated as the father of Japanese botany — he named thousands of the country's plants, and inspired the NHK drama Ranman. His memorial garden spreads some 3,000 species across the slopes of Godaisan, with conservatories and paths that reward slow walking in every season.
Chikurinji, temple number 31 of Shikoku's 88-temple pilgrimage, with its five-story pagoda rising out of the forest beside the garden — and an observatory whose deck looks across Kochi city to Urado Bay, where the Pacific begins.
Katsuo no tataki — bonito seared over blazing straw, Kochi's signature dish — eaten the local way at shared tables in the market's boisterous food hall, surrounded by stalls of gyoza, sashimi and local sake.