“Instead of cutlass-wielding swashbucklers swaggering ashore, tourists stroll on and off brandishing cameras, gingerly stepping between the vessel’s built-in gangway and the dock.”

Client: Setouchi Reflection Trip, the official travel guide to the Setouchi Region of Japan.

Project Description: Write a travel advertorial with photographs.

A Quote

“Instead of cutlass-wielding swashbucklers swaggering ashore, tourists stroll on and off brandishing cameras, gingerly stepping between the vessel’s built-in gangway and the dock.”

The Inside Scoop

Tomonoura is an amazing town with heaps of history, and Ochi Kochi certainly shares in it.

Back in the day, Tomonoura served as a principle port town for sailors plying the Seto Inland sea. But local currents push so hard that, before the advent of motorized ships, you had to wait for the ebb tide to take your leave.

Not surprisingly, the place developed an extensive, let’s say “entertainment district,” to help sailors while away the intervening hours.

The historic building Ochi Kochi’s situated in was just such an establishment in its former years. And for those in the know, the entryway to the building hints at that history. With a garden in front leading to a long corridor which makes it unclear exactly which of the nearby buildings it leads to, patrons would have been able to enter and leave without raising too many eyebrows. But in the end, the SRT thought it best to avoid so delicate a subject since foreign tourists aren’t always comfortable with such matters.

There’s also a historic recreation of a genuine pirate ship which ferries folks about to some of the nearby islands. Wicked.

My Favorite Part

Definitely the pirate ship.

See the results: 
Ochi Kochi Ryokan – A Window to One of Japan’s Most Celebrated Seascapes