Hirome Market — Drinking Hall of the People

Hirome Market is not a market in the conventional sense — it is a 7,000-square-meter indoor drinking and eating hall where 65 food and drink stalls surround communal seating for 400 people. It operates daily from 10am to 11pm and embodies Kochi's famous drinking culture. Locals come here after work, on lunch breaks, and on Sunday mornings, ordering from multiple stalls and passing plates across tables to strangers.

The layout is chaotic: stalls sell everything from tataki to gyoza, yakitori to oden, craft beer to shochu. You order at individual stalls, pay immediately, receive a numbered ticket, and collect your food when called. Seating is first-come, shared with whoever is nearby. The atmosphere is loud, convivial, and unapologetically local — this is what Japanese food halls looked like before Instagram.