Kobe Sannomiya Union Hotel

... so it was probably for the best!&#12288;Sarah was bloody amazing, it must be said, particularly her medley of album tracks from Avril Lavigne that no one had heard of! The night ended up a bit messy with Richard and Mike (who had inexplicably adopted a scoottish accent for the final two hours of the night!) wrestling for what seemed like hours on the floor outside the karaoke bar which was a bit weird but a good memory in retrospect.<br><br>Anyway, as you can imagine, the ...

Seconds please. I had to go back to Osaka, one way or another (my return flight was leaving from here). Ate just as well if not better than the first go around. Went to the Takoyaki museum at Universal city walk but it was more tako vendors than museum, not such a bad thing. Had simply amazing Kobe ...

... aloof tiger-striped cat with black stripes on an off-white background. He looked quite exotic. Rowan tried to pay him on our way out, but this neko was having none of it - collecting money was for the hired help!<br><br>After getting our fill of cat lovin', we moseyed out to explore more of Den Den Town...<br><br>-----<br>OKONOMIYAKI!:<b r><br>Much of the fun of Japan was sampling the local and national cuisine. Okonomiyaki is a popular dish with many regional ...

... 12515; &#12531;&#12506;&#12540;&#12531;&#12391 ;&#12354;&#12427;&#12392;&#12356;&#1236 0;&#12427;&#12392;&#24605;&#12356;&#124 14;&#12377;&#12290;&#12384;&#12363;&#12 425;&#30342;&#12373;&#12435;&#12418;&#1 2381;&#12358;&#12356;&#12387;&#12383;&# 12371;&#12392;&#12418;&#21028;&#26029;& #12375;&#12390;&#20986;&#26469;&#21462; &#24341;&#34892;&#12431;&#12424;&#12358 ;&#12395;&#12375;&#12390;&#12356;&#1236 7;&#12424;&#12358;&#12395;&#12375;&#123 ...

... were such a big hit that they decided to put them up every year. This year they estimated about 5 million people passed under the light arches. Another ECC couple who lives in our building told us about the lights so we all went together. It was a bit of a chilly night but a beautiful sight and well worth the trek. 

... heroes like some of our sports stars. I wanted to see if I could take a picture with them, but they were with a group of business men and it isn't common to look at, much less talk to, strangers in Japan. The waiters there yelled there too and I finally figured out one thing they were saying. Thank you is 'arigato goziamas'. Whenever someone would get up to leave, they would all yell, "arigozas" -- obviously slang for thanks! Food My only big gripe on our ...

... walk from the hotel. Higashi Yuenchi Park, Earthquake Memorial Monument and also Flower clock are located along this road. Kobe was hit by an earthquake back in 1995 and more than 5,500 were killed and over 26,000 injured. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2. for about 20 seconds but the damaged was so bad. This happend in January 17 at 5.46am as shown on the clock. This clock was not damaged during the earthquake but it stops running and are now kept in the Higashi ...

... stadium in Asia, seating 55,000. It was originally built to house the National Highschool Tournament, which is a huge deal in Japan, and modeled after Wrigley Field (ivy and all). It's in major need of a facelift though as the seating area leaves little room for your legs, and there are no box seating or large jumbo-tron screens for close-up views of the players. However, the buzz around Koshien was unlike anything at RFK or Camden Yards! The fans bring new meaning to ...

... are fed a daily diet that includes large amounts of beer. They also have music played to them (Mayumi said it was often Mozart). After our amazing dinner we took turns bathing in our private onsen. In the outdoor area you first light an incense holder to ward off mosquitos. You then thouroughly cleanse your self in the outdoor shower. Finally you relax in an amazing hot springs tub. After the food and the bath I was exhausted and passed out around 9 pm!

... than I do! ;) Observation: the rare occasion I watch TV is when they play a movie in English, generally on Sunday night. The strange thing is the time...the movie usually starts at 9:57 and ends at 10:46...its really strange to not be held hostage by commercials like we are in America. They have a commercial about every 12 minutes and there's a maximum of 3 commercials in-between. Another funny observation is women on bikes. No, not biker babes! See, in Japan ...