Kōchi Prefecture

And so that precision approach is very appealing to me.

But then at Strawfire, you know, I saw a style of cooking in Kochi, which is one prefecture on Shikoku Island on the southeast of Japan, where they grow a lot of straw, grow a lot of rice.

So they use the rice straw.

They catch a lot of bonito tuna, bonito fish, and they literally simply grill over the warayaki, the straw fired grill, this tuna to sear the outside of it and then slice it.

For anyone visiting Strawfire for the first time, are there any standout dishes, anything that you would never take off the menu because people just love them so much?

There's several, right? So obviously we feature this straw-fired grill, right? It's the essence of our name.

So we do a variety of things beyond just the grilled fish that I spoke about from Kochie.

So we grill avocados over this straw-fired grill, which give those a nice smoky, charred taste.

Muchi, the Ghostly Spirit Wind.

In the Kochi prefecture, when a powerful wind blows, it's called Muchi or "wish".

In the Takaoka region, if the wind passes over rice fields, it will sound like a whiplash.

They say if you get hit by the ghostly wind, you'll get sick.

These are spooky.

In the town of Otsuki in the Kochi Prefecture, the spirits possess the ship's instruments, causing the compass to spin wildly and leaving the crew hopelessly lost.

Once again at night in the middle of a fog and if it's a new moon there's not even any moonlight.

Right.

This just sounds like flowers and incense sticks.

I would just love that if somebody was offering those to me.

In the Kochi Prefecture, General Lord dictates scattering ashes and exactly 49 rice cakes into the waves.

I love those 49.

Yeah.

Another real cool sound and place I saw is called Kyoto Kappa Museum in Kochi Prefecture, which is on the island of Shikoku.

That's cool.

It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Right.

It's from Suige Shuzo from Kochi Prefecture.

Again, it's a Junmai Daiginjo grade, super premium grade.

The rice is Yamada Nishiki milled to 50%, 15% alcohol.

Takahashi was from Kyoto.

Kurahashi was born even farther from the center of Japan, in Koichi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands.

Kurahashi attempted to enter medical school, but failed the exams twice, and resigned herself to an associate's degree in dental hygienics.

Unbeknownst to her family, she secretly applied for a four-year degree in French literature at Meiji University, which she began after she finished her associates.

The idea behind the trend is that residents may be unable to respond quickly in an emergency unless they utilize these shelters regularly.

Rising fourteen-point five meters tall, one such structure, the Ikumi Park Tsunami Evacuation Tower, sits a four-minute walk from Tsukumo Station in Tsukumo, Kochi Prefecture, which is the last stop for the Nakamura Tsukumo section along the Tosa Kuroshio Tetsudo Line.

Tsukumo City has been preparing for a powerful Nankai Trough earthquake as low-lying areas across the municipality are forecast to be inundated by tsunami.

The evacuation structure, completed in 2022, is equipped with stairs and ramps.

The idea behind the trend is that residents may be unable to respond quickly in an emergency unless they utilize these shelters regularly.

Rising fourteen point five meters tall, one such structure, the Ikumi Park Tsunami Evacuation Tower, sits a four-minute walk from Tsukumo Station in Tsukumo, Kochi Prefecture, which is the last stop for the Nakamura Tsukumo section along the Tosa Kuroshio Tetsudo Line.

Tsukumo City has been preparing for a powerful Nankai Trough earthquake as low-lying areas across the municipality are forecast to be inundated by a tsunami.

The evacuation structure, completed in twenty twenty-two, is equipped with stairs and ramps.