Kochi Sunday Market — Attraction in Kochi

Japan’s longest outdoor market, this weekly highlight of Kochi City’s social calendar takes up 1.3km along the Otesuji road.

There are about 300 stalls that line the street, beneath rows of large trees and palms. The stalls change weekly, but there are a few foods that you absolutely should try:

Imoten (sweet potato tempura). It is easy to spot this stand, as it always has line of people waiting for freshy fried bites of Japanese sweet potato.

-Inaka-sushi. Sold in packs, this is a mainly plant-based local version of Japan’s most famous dish, which translates directly as “countryside sushi.”

-Yuzu-flavored foods. Kochi is famous within Japan for producing yuzu, a citrus fruit. A cup of yuzu-lemonade is very refreshing in the summer.

-Fruit tomatoes. You will find stalls selling these super-sweet tomatoes individually, kept cool on ice.

-Imo-mochi (sweet potato mochi). A local twist on the rice dumplings found all over Japan, these treats are made with a mix of sweet potato and mochi rice.

-Hashimaki (chopstick rolls). Freshly cooked savory okonomiyaki pancakes are rolled around a pair of chopsticks, and topped with your choice of cheese or a sunny-side up egg.

Aisukurin. This retro frozen dessert is halfway between ice cream and sherbet, and is one of the prefectures favorite sweets.

Be sure to arrive in the morning or early afternoon, to make sure the best stalls...

Update: September 17, 2025 If you are planning to be here in Kochi for the Sunday Market, please do yourself a favor and make a reservation at Se Relaxer restaurant for dinner. Order one of their specialties, Tosa Akaushi roast beef with Niida rice cooked in an earthen pot. It is delicious. And the crème brûlée is very good as well. One day when this restaurant appears on the Michelin’s guide, it will take a miracle to get a reservation here.

OMG, if you come to Kochi specifically for the Sunday Farmer’s Market like I do, I highly recommend that you stay in a hotel or AirBnb that has a kitchen so that you can fry some of the fish and make soup out of the fresh bamboo shoots that are sold here. The top delicious food that you must get is the fried sweet potatoes. They are so so good, slightly salty and crispy batter on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. There are white peaches and many many more fruits...

I highly recommended to visit this Sunday market. It was quite long and spanned through a few streets. A must when come to kochi.

Taihei Shoten's Imoten太平商店 ぃも天400yen per serving. The tempura was delicious. 3 stars

Stall no. 96 was famous for its country sushi, shitake mushroom, shimotake, inari sushi. This sushi was our greatest discovery and best sushi we ever tried. Although the sushi looked simple and dull but the taste was very great. 550 yen per serving. 5 stars

Stall no. 200 Happy Warabi Mochi 350 yen was delicious. This jelly like dessert was not too sweet, and the texture was perfect. 4 stars

Hat like bread was mediocre at 200...