It's a beautiful night here in Shanghai tonight - plus, we have some new lights to enjoy:
But, on with the programming!
For our second full day in Japan, we took the train another nearby city - the port of Kobe.
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| The Kobe Tower is a highlight of Kobe's seaside skyline |
Japan Traveler's Tip: If you know you're going to be taking trains around, make sure you look at the various JR rail packages that are available at the airport. These can save you boatloads!
The city of Kobe is noted for a number of things. It was one of the earliest cities in Japan to be opened up to the West during the Meiji era (the time setting of my favorite manga/anime of all time, Rurouni Kenshin). As such, one of the biggest attractions in Kobe are the Western
Ijinkan mansions up in the hills. which were built by foreigners from all walks back in the 19th century, from England to Germany, Denmark, and even China. So, we decided to go and visit them!
Looking on the map, it didn't seem like it was particularly far to get to the Ijinkan mansions, so we opted to walk instead of trying to figure out how yet another bus system. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the map obviously wasn't to scale and, as a whole, roads in Japan are often not labeled at each intersection. After asking for directions (a struggle in its own right due to the lack of English), we finally got there nearly an hour and a half later.
Japan Observation #5: The Japanese are extremely polite. Many times, I struggled to figure out if I had the right amount of fare, and the passengers waiting to get off the bus never once yelled at me or expressed any impatience. What's more, most of the time, the Japanese are very eager to help, despite our obvious language barrier. Often, we would ask a store clerk for directions. In Japan, convenience stores are often run by a single employee (this is, after all, the birthplace of Lean operations). Despite this, when we asked for help, the clerk would gladly leave his or her post and take us outside to point the way, even though it was a huge struggle to communicate. Curiously, however, the Japanese are not particularly proactive with their help. They are mostly very helpful when asked, but if you don't ask for it, they usually won't bother helping, even if it is obvious that you are struggling. This happened several times when I was trying to carry our stroller up and down stairs... passers-by never bothered to help, like they have several times in Shanghai.
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| An Auto-Awesome version of the roads up to the Ijinkan |
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| The "Fish Scale" Mansion, named for its interesting looking exterior walls |
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| Panorama from the "Fish Scale" mansion overlooking the city of Kobe. This view was a big draw of the foreigners who built these mansions in the Meiji era. |
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| A mermaid near the Denmark mansion |
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| Eating hot dogs and yogurt |
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| London style telephone booth |
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| We were quite surprised to find Don Quijote de la Mancha y Pancho in Japan |
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| Those crazy Europeans liked to collect some weird stuff |
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| Western-style dining room |
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| The old Chinese consulate |
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| The steep road to the Ijinkan |
After our visit to several of the Ijinkan, we had our first taste of real Sushi in Japan, and it was goooood. It was also priced very well - we found out later, to our great dismay, that sushi in Tokyo cost nearly four times as much - the portions are half the size and twice the price!
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| Superb yet fairly priced Sushi! |
Not satisfied with one authentic Japanese dish, we had dinner a few hours later. The fare this time was quite expensive, as it was the namesake, and world famous, Kobe Beef!
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| First some veggies |
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| Then some scallops |
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| Annnnd, the moment we've been waiting for! |
The Kobe beef was quite tender, but to be frank, I still prefer a good ol' ribeye from Iowa!
Up next, we explore the ancient capital of Kyoto!
