(Day 13) Where's the Beef?

Since today was our last day in the Kansai region, we decided to hit up the remaining largest city yet unvisited by us, Kobe. Only an hour away by train, Kobe is a coastal centre that I knew relatively little about – except that I’ve heard about Kobe beef. This is a reason to visit.

Arriving mid-morning, we found ourselves somewhat disoriented and hungry, so we stopped at a waffle stand for a quarter-Belgian-waffle-sized treat. I think Kobe is famous for this kind of waffle and it was quite exceptional. I didn’t take a picture…strange. We wandered for a while and found a shopping street so we shopped.



After a while it came to an end and we found ourselves in search of food once more…ehhh, we eat a lot. Mother bought a few items from a bakery and I ate konbini food. Yum! It was off next to find Kobe’s Chinatown, which is Japan’s second largest after Yokohama’s.


Here it is! (Along with my finger – bad.)

The novelty to me about being in Japan is that I find pictures of all the cute Japanese celebrities I like doing advertisements for all kinds of objects. Here is cutie Oguri Shun mugging for green tea.





Finding nothing of particular interest, I figured we’d head to the coast next and check out the vistas it had to offer; off we trudged in the early afternoon heat. Seriously…everyday is heat, heat, heat. *sweat*


I love Kobe too. It was really a city with good vibe.


Mushrooms I found that were the size of a Frisbee. Fun.


When I showed my little sister a picture of this, she said it looked like a futuristic cyber city. I can see it.

We made it to the coast with nary a tree in sight. The sun poured down on us relentlessly. I complained a bit. We then sought our first destination there, the Great Hanshin Earthquake Memorial.


They left this bit all broken up as a reminder of the terrible devastation that took place in 1995.


Here we see the two landmarks most shown in pictures of Kobe, the port tower and the nautical museum.

We sat around on a bench in the sun beside a street artist painting and chatted for a good long while, taking in the sounds and smells of the port.



We eventually made our way along the boardwalk to the commercial area of restaurants and shops and people-watching.




A real pirate ship!


Yours truly, marring the shoreline.


This was a really great shopping mall/area that was mostly open air with really cool finds.







When Jen and Chris were in Japan, they kept a blog that I devoured with a keen interest…and when I entered this mall, it almost felt like I’d been there already – I was certain that they’d not only visited this mall, but that they found a great buffet within it’s walls. When it came time for dinner, we found a place and came to find that it was indeed the restaurant they visited! It’s like retracing the footprints of a shadow…









The food was really great and price wasn’t even too bad (partially since we were eating dinner at 4 PM). But…it was seafood, not beef! I want Kobe beef!! I guess it won’t happen this time – I also hear it’s pricey. For Mother’s last daily adventure, it was fitting and we had an excellent time staring out over the port area, soaking in the view. After dinner, I attempted to capture our dinner view for posterity. I think I’m getting worse at these…boo. Please click for a larger version.


That round, humpy building is a hotel…cool! I bet its expensive.

We spent a hour or so doing some shopping in another nearby mall where I found my first pair of….SHOES! I miraculously found a pair in size “LL” that I could jam my foot into so I bought the without hesitation. Kind of a bad idea, since they really are a bit too tight. Oh well…they were $15. I also ended up finding a ‘g.u.’ store, which I really like because they have cute clothes for cheap prices…and it’s call gu. Mother tried some stuff on and I waited.


Whatever you do, don’t wear shoes in the change room!

At 6:30, we decided that we’d head back to Kyoto and pack up for our long journey back to Tokyo tomorrow. How’d this week in Kansai go so fast? Easy…we jammed it full everyday. I’m good for that.

Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo, but I think more interesting things will happen that are picture-worthy. I’ll have more for you tomorrow – promise!