Big Bro's Bootbox

View of Kobe from the Ropeway
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First, we forgot to say in our previous blog that Adrienne used a Japanese style squat toilet! At the ryokan in Tokyo there was a western style toilet, but it was downstairs and our room was upstairs and in the middle of the night who wants to go traipsing around and falling down stairs? Actually, it’s not too bad. As long as there is toilet paper and it flushes, it’s all good.

We arrived in Kobe on Thursday afternoon to stay with Peter and Ani. Peter was there to meet us and led us to their apartment in Hyogo. It’s small compared to NZ apartments, but bigger than a shoebox; a bootbox maybe. Dumping our bags we headed out for a bento box. Oishii! The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and discovering that their toilet seat was heated. We called our Mums and watched About A Boy (one of an extensive library of DVDs our hosts own). Peter had to work in the evening but Ani came home to keep us company and gave us some Umeshu to taste.

The Kobe Ropeway
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We arose on Friday to a beautiful morning and decided to head up the Ropeway. Kobe is set between mountains and the sea and there is a gondola that carries people up the mountain. It was very cheap for such a long ride (Y550 pp) and gave an amazing view over Kobe. We were surprised to find a perfume museum at the top, though we couldn’t understand any of the explanations on offer. The walk back down the mountain was very steep and Adrienne had a short slide on her bum!

Ikuta Shrine
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We met up with Peter near the Shin-Kobe train station feeling warm and fit from our jaunt, ready for Peter to take us for a ramen noodle lunch. We chose to have a set lunch that included some gyoza (little dumplings), pork noodle soup and rice. Yum, and so cheap at only Y750 each! We had a bit of time to spare before meeting Ani at her work, so Peter took us through Sannomiya to the Ikuta Shrine. We had barely entered the grounds when we were pounced upon by none other than TV reporters! Peter in his basic Japanese managed to work out they were asking us if they could film us for TV, but we would have to speak in Japanese. As you can probably guess, we had to turn them down. We think it was because the following day, two movie stars were to be married at the shrine and they wanted to talk to us about it.

Ruins from the Kobe earthquake
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We made our way to St Michael’s School where Ani teaches. It’s a British English speaking school where primary school kids from all sorts of backgrounds go to study. The kids were cute and seemed to really enjoy being there, though I think they preferred being in the playground being in the class!

Rather than catching the train back to the apartment, Peter took us through some interesting parts of Kobe. We walked through Nankinmachi (Chinatown) and tried another gyoza from a place that was famous for them, and then made our way to a small memorial area for the 1995 Kobe earthquake on the waterfront. It was amazing seeing the destruction the earthquake caused. Following along the harbour we walked through MerikenPark to Harbourland. Peter took us into a store that had a pet section at the back. We were shocked to see caged owls, a beaver and a tarantula! The area stank and we escaped as quickly as possible.

Kobe tower
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For another Japanese experience, that turned out to really be Korean, we went out for dinner with Alistair, who Ani works with. This place served food that you cook yourself on a grill at your table. The first thing we tried was tongue, and it was actually enjoyable! Through out the night we tried different meats and vegetables; drank too many beers and lime sours: the perfect formula for an enjoyable night.  A Japanese guy from the table next to us bought us a round of drinks - we reckon it's because Adrienne gave him a wink.  He did say that she was ,"very beautiful"...