Kobe, Japan Travel Blogs

Time Flies
Aug 19, 2007 (18 photos)

... out and throw myself in at the deep end by taking myself to what will be the first of many landmarks which I will visit in Japan - Himeji castle, which is supposedly the most impressive in Japan. So off I went on a local train and then a "special rapid" ...

Dim Sum in Kobe
Feb 11, 2008 (8 photos)

... first sitting of their dim sum course. Bank holiday crowds filled the remaining unoccupied tables. Sitting at a Chinese restaurant in Japan meant I could truly compare the Japanese service with a Chinese experience. We were rushed to our table and a waiter ...

The Road Was Long
Aug 15, 2007

... post-clubbing Chinese meals in Stowell Street in Newcastle seem to have really paid dividends. A must for any would be visitor to Japan. I expect that my chopstick ability will be of grand master level when I go home. At the minute it seems as though I ...

Kobe and Osaka
Jul 21, 2003 (4 photos)

... round the harbour. There was a memorial garden for the victims of the earthquake in 1995 when 6000 people died. I wandered round Kobe for a while, had some lunch and then decided to find the Sake museum. After walking for half an hour in the wrong ...

Kobe
Feb 6, 2003

... clue as to where it was headed (damn that Kanji) and thankfully found it taking us back into town (conveniently landing right by KFC!). Quite a few other occasions found us back in Kobe (i even spent a birthday there) as there are lots of pubs too!

Super Hiro!
Feb 13, 2005 (6 photos)

Encapsulated
Jul 21, 2005 (5 photos)

It is not down in any map; true places never are - Herman Melville Kobe So, we continued to flash our Japan rail pass and moving on from Nara our next port of call was Kobe, via a quick stop-off in Osaka. A historic port and distinct city in its ...

Japanese Rainy Season
Jun 7, 2007 (60 photos)

... stay for a 2nd year and re-contract are treated to a 3-day all expenses paid "conference"/drink-fest in either Kobe/Tokyo, depending on where in Japan you live. Since I live in Western Japan my conference was held in Kobe last week. Each JET's town pays ...

Sakura Season and Japanese Baseball!
Apr 20, 2007 (47 photos)

... the small foreign population has flourished in Kobe and there are around 45,000 foreigners from over 100 countries living there. Kobe was Japan's busiest port and one of the busiest in Asia until the great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, which measured at 7.3 ...

Japan
Apr 29, 2006 (1 photos)

Japan Journal April 16, 2006 I arrived in Japan shortly after leaving China, two short days to be exact. With such a little turn around time between the two countries I felt the least prepared for Japan then anywhere else. All I knew was that ...

All aboard the slow boat to China
Apr 22, 2005 (2 photos)

... terminal and made it through customs without having to give up my gaijin card.  Those customs officials are so gullible.  Ha!  So I'm on the boat, staring out at the Kobe harbour and hoping that any minute now, we're going to leave. 

Kobe
Feb 19, 2009

... up a couple of bottles for the evening too (when in Rome...) Sake found, this left just the small challenge of finding a Kobe beef dinner. Unfortunately, it seems you have to pay through the nose for this (around 60GBP) which was a little beyond our ...

domo-arrigato!!
Sep 20, 2006 (8 photos)

... loudly in the background. Steph and I looked at each other and said, I love this moment. Those were my favorite moments in Japan, and I cannot ever forget the feelings I had on that train, experiencing the morning. When I first came on this ship, I ...

China Town and Karaoke
Oct 8, 2006 (4 photos)

... a few of the things that you're missing by now being here. Consider this an attempt to make everyone realize just how wonderful Kobe is and why you should come visit! ;) While roaming around in Chinatown on Saturday I snapped a few photos to add to the ...

School
Sep 7, 2006 (2 photos)

I'm adding this entry to hopefully answer some questions... I have started teaching- finally. The first few weeks I was here were spent learning about my contracting organization, the area, going through job training, summer school, and Japanese ...

japanese internet cafe
Apr 14, 2006

I don:t have long to talk about japan i will write more on it later, let me just say the place is mad...i am in an internet cafe and they have lazyboys as the chairs and its got 100 computers. life here is intense and walking down the streets is like a ...

A Christmas Card
Dec 22, 2006

... you for teaching us this year.  English became my favorite subject because of you.    Do you get accustomed to Japan?  Japanese adults sometimes look tired to me.  But you look vigor everyday!  You put heart in us ...

Kobe Luminarie
Dec 10, 2006

... show there were endless vendors set up selling festival foods and taking advantage of the hoard of visitors.  The Kobe Luminarie is a light festival that is held in Kobe every year in December for approximately 2 weeks to commemorate the ...

Day trip to Kobe
Dec 18, 2006 (6 photos)

... at two cafés to recuperate from coping with all the Christmas crowds out and about. I took a few snaps with my camera mobile.   Kobe would be busy anyway due it getting closer to the festive period. However, it was even busier than that due to the ...

HEALTH CHECK
Aug 18, 2006 (2 photos)

... good idea to an average employee. To us newly arrived JETs- the idea seemed absurd. We were all required to get physicals in Japan prior to departure and most of us still lack enough of a grasp on the language to understand any of the forms or questions ...

The Erickson's come to Japan
Mar 14, 2008 (36 photos)

They did it! The fam came to Japan (Mom, Dad, and Alana) and they had a great time! I'm soooooo proud of them! Seeing my sister being taught Japanese by my students, watching my dad use chopsticks, and hearing my mother recall the things she learned ...

Bringing the Family back home- Osaka/Kobe
Mar 22, 2008 (25 photos)

... again and took a quick trip to Osaka. Dad had been begging to go to Tokyo all week, so I wanted to show him a glimpse Japan's city life. We were probably in Osaka for less than an hour- but that was more than enough. The crowds were unbearable on the ...

A Tale of One too Many Sakes
Jun 20, 2007 (2 photos)

Yes, visitng sake distilleries sounded like a good idea at first but we did not count on a handful of factors slowing us down.  The breweries were far from public transportation, the heat was punishing, and the samples were nearly 20% alcohol.

Kobe Neighboorhood Day 2
Aug 4, 2006 (5 photos)

... Day 1 involved a trip to get our gaijin cards and tours around our stations. Day 2 involved a tour around Sannomiya (the city area of Kobe) and lots of papers and a Japanese test at the KEC. The tour was a bit rushed but I did snag a few shots of Kobe ...

Enroute!
Apr 22, 2005 (2 photos)

 

The Luminarie in Kobe
Dec 18, 2006 (31 photos)

A couple of weeks back, I posted about the Christmas lights in Japan. As I mentioned back then, the lights here are really impressive. However even they pale into comparison with what must be the ultimate set of Christmas lights in Japan, if not anywhere: ...

The Quake and the Quaff
Oct 31, 2008

Yesterday we made a day-trip to Kobe, site of a disastrous earthquake thirteen years ago in which over 6,000 perished. To learn more about the quake we visited the Disaster Reduction Museum. It begins with a multimedia presentation that recreates the ...

Baywatch
Aug 6, 2006 (30 photos)

... pretty good. There is a suspension bridge that links Tarumi with Tokushima, which looked pretty good in the summer haze. Even though Japan doesn't have the widest selection of beaches, going to the beach is a big summer past time for most young people. ...

To bathe or not to bathe?
Aug 31, 2006 (6 photos)

... around naked in front of a bunch of strangers was not really something I was looking forward to, but onsen baths are very common in Japan and Kirsten and I decided that we would regret it if we didn't at least go and try it. So, all three of us put on ...

Kobe, its whats for dinner!
Jul 16, 2007 (8 photos)

... standards.   Everything looks great but in the back of your head you really wanted a chance to sample that Kobe.  Luckily, as Michelle described, we stumbled on this stand that previously eluded us.  Simply grilled skewers of fatty, ...