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Published: March 5th 2006
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I awoke, had a sauna and then Jumped on the train to Kobe. Its occured to me that I am familiar with most Japanese cities for the wrong reasons. Tokyo subway attacks, Osaka - wasnt that the general area of a massive mercury poisoning, and Kobe for the earthquake. Ah well.
I arrived at Kobe railway station, which as it turns out isnt really where the action is. Infact the action in Kobe is centred to the north of Kobe Station around the Sannoymiya station area. So no sooner as I arrived was I back on the train (as it turns out an unnecessary step, the two stations are easy walking distance). Having now found my way to the correct station I went in search of accommodation. Kobe is very pretty as a city, and I think it is for this reason that a lot of people choose to get married here. On every corner is a wedding shop, and as I sat throwing ¥10 coins into payphones it appears that the bloody happy bloody couples and their guests had booked up my accommodation. Word of advice - avoid turning up in any city on a saturday night without a
Kobe from the hillside
Mum will never believe I went to a garden, but when you need to take a cable car up and the view is like this... reservation. I finally found a business hotel with a room, which seemed fair enough at ¥7000 (the most ive spent a night so far is less than half this mind...) so I made a reservation, grabbed some sushi for lunch and then went to check in. My room was basic, but it did have a kettle and a fridge, and a bathtub which I had no possible chance of fitting in.
As I planned to only spend one night in Kobe I quickly headed out to the back of the hotel, and up the Shin-kobe cable car. The views were great, and it was nice to get to some greenery after the last few days in Osaka. At the top 400m above kobe was a large herb garden, Nunobiki Habu-koen, with a greenhouse perched on the side of the mountain. If a bond villain was one day a perfumist, this would be his lair. I followed the "hiking trail" down which while initially looking to be a little bit of back to nature soon turned into a concrete path, and all exposed areas were fenced and railed off, often with imitation (i.e. concrete) trees.
Arriving back in the
Jazz Club
They were good, and at ¥1000 a drink they bloody well should be. city I decided that rather than see any sights as such, I would just walk around and get a feel for the different areas, such as the hillside village of Kitano with its vast array of tacky souvenier shops, tea shops, wedding shops and curious "foreign houses" tourist attractions, to the Nankinmachi (chinatown) area with its festival feel, the malls, bars, clubs and restaurants of the Sannoymiya, and the modern sterility of the Harborland Development. It was a really pleasant walk, and Kobe is a city in which you only need Shankses Pony for transport.
I had dinner, and tried to find some decent nightlife. Every bar I went to was empty, literallly. I eventually found a bar offereing live Jazz, and went in to find I was infact the only patron, and before my arrival the 3 piece band had been playing to an empty room. The barmaid spoke english reasonably well, so it was interesting to have a chat about English vs Japanese culture. She proudly showed me a framed map of Kent she had purchased while in England 10 years earlier, a purchase which had no apparant significance to anything other than the fact she bought it in England.
I left the Jazz club and saw immediately ahead of me an "English Pub". Against my better judgement I went in. I looked at the "british" food menu. I have never seen any of it on a pub menu in the UK. Unless serving it on newspaper makes it british.... So that it seems is what the Japanese think english food is. Japanese food on newspaper. I only stayed for one pint of Japanese lager.
I still had the small bottle of Sake that I had recieved on the cooking course, so I decided to have that as a little birthday tipple. I was also fed up with carrying something breakable behind. I generally prefer hot to cold sake, so doing something which Im sure could have ended badly I improved a sake heater using the kettle and to very dodgy balancing. I got my hot Sake in the end, and very nice it was too. I ended my rock and roll day drinking said Sake, watching a Japanese game show and playing Sudoku.
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Suz
non-member comment
Birthday greetings and udon noodles
hey alex, just a quick comment to wish you a very happy birthday. i hope that the sake was suitable. Glad to hear you are loving Japan, it was definately been one of the highlights on our trip. And on the food subject: my all time fav japanese food is udon soup noodles with tempura shrimp. We've been looking out for it ever since. Take care, have fun and keep safe xxxxx