Kobe conference

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Being a first year re-contracting JET I was required to attend a three-day conference in Kobe, all expenses paid... bummer! Actually, what could have been a total blast and lots of fun ended up being no more than a business trip, with a couple of nice dinners in the city thrown in for good measure. This was because I took on a professional attitude and decided to get the most out of the conference and its many workshops. Most of the workshops were a bundle of information and ideas, though of course there were the occasional couple thrown in to really test our boredom levels.

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So, like I said I went to the conference events during the day but for the two nights I was there got to have dinner in the city centre (we were stationed in a very nice hotel on an island of sorts with only business type buildings in our vicinity. Kobe seemed like a very nice city, but really not that spectacular. It was just, well, a Japanese city... nice looking, sure, special, not really. The second night out was a lot of fun as a group of us guys ended up having pizza in a small Italian-style-Japanese-owned-pub. We were joined by three random Japanese guys who we had asked for directions to a Jamaican place that we never did find. After a very yummy dinner and a few drinks we found ourselves in a karaoke room banging out the hits like it was 1985! Great fun. After a few hours karaoke (one hour is NEVER enough) we went for a wander before ending up in a hip-hop bar. Hmmm... had a bit of a dance with Tan and Jon, the DJur played a bit of Naughty by Nature.... Hip-hop horray.... Ho... hey... before the group split with a couple of us heading back to hotel for some sleep.

what could have been a total blast and lots of fun ended up being no more than a business trip

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The final day was a bit of a dull affair as after the conclusion of the JET proceedings, which were long and drawn out, we had a decent number of travelling hours before I finally walked in the front door.