R&B Hotel Kobe Motomachi

We arrived in Osaka at 7am after two 7 hour flights and a 3 hour stopover in KL... what is sleep again?
The excitement of being in Japan kept us going all day though, and we managed to fit in a visit to Osaka castle, surrounded by deciduous trees in all beautiful shades of yellow and red (even Bevan thought it was pretty). We also visited Amerika Mura, the square to sit in and ...

Recently I visited the Tajima region in Hyogo Prefecture to see Tajima cattle, the breeding cattle of Kobe beef.

After reading some articles from abroad on Kobe beef, I felt motivated to clear up the myth that surrounds this famous and revered meat from Japan.

Or, it just may be that I wanted to see the Tajima cattle…

It took me about two-and-a-half hours by train and bus to reach the Ota cattle ranch. The train I took is called the "Matsukaze" express ...

... can served hot.
2. The amazing amusement arcades. When you go near them you think they have a broken air conditioning machine because of this huge wave of sound that hits you but in fact its just the noise of hundreds arcade games playing at once. These are all incredibly popular but none of it is for money because its illegal to gamble for money here.
3. The really nice meals that they heat up for you in the convenience stores which are literally everywhere!!
4 ...

... sollte um Loft einen großen Bogen machen (das kann ich schon seit den letzten Urlaub in Japan bestätigen). Da kann man sich Obdachlos-kaufen.... Siehe auch --> http://www.loft.co.jp/

Morgen sind wir auch noch hi** und wir wollen auf den Rokko-yama (ca. 400 höhenmet**), mal schauen ob ich durchhalte. ganbarimasu ^_^ weit**kämpfen...

Auf besond**en Wunsch (von Onko und Tante) hab ich noch ein paar Toilettenfotos (video) gepostet.

... bags! i really want to get rid of it soon! kobe is a nice city near the sea and our small hostel is right by it though we didnt go either to the sea itself or the harbor we enjoyed the sea breeze! the hostel was weird! being that this was our 2nd hostel in japan we were surprised we had to take our shoes at the entrance and got some lousy slippers then we met the owner which is a cute old man with amazingly good yet not so good english then we got up to the room [barly due ...

... it was still a struggle sometimes. John was dismayed by what he called "random English." For example, a sign would say in big letters in English, "Lunch Menu," but the entire rest of the sign was in Japanese. Why even bother? Japanese are extremely fashionable and most of the women wear heels all of the time! An Australian man told me that it is a big problem with female Japanese tourists who have never ever walked on anything but flat pavement. They go to ...

... food is obviously some of the greatest in the world. We eventually returned to Osaka and spent the evening resting, watching more Hanshin Tigers baseball and eating at a pub -- actually one of the best evenings of our trip, despite the fact that Hana and I ended up getting lost while walking around Namba! No worries though -- we eventually found our way back and did not encounter one bad neighbourhood...

... lining the banks of the river. Even though it was drizzling it was still beautiful! Don't worry the rain didn't stop the 'hanami' picnics. People opened up tailgates of their cars, took off their shoes and sat in the back enjoying their bento boxes underneath the trees. This weekend also happened to be Easter weekend, which I had actually forgot about until Katherine said her mom had sent her an easter egg dying kit. So Lily, Katherine and I drove out to Hongu where ...

... out of the station a guy walking by asked where I wanted to go and showed me the way to the hotel, that was mighty nice of him. The hotel is nice, the rooms are tiny though (see pic), it probably measures around 4ft by 9 or 10ft, and the bed is just made on the floor, the duvet cover has a great big hole in the middle too, can't figure that one out. The guy at reception is like the Japanese version of that Spanish dude from Faulty Towers, he is sooooooo funny! I dropped my bags and ...

... called key money here, basically a gift to the landlord for the privilege of staying in his space!), but after January I make it back up with the difference in price and will gain my $270 a month! For reference, Y33000 is about what round-trip airfare to Thailand costs! ;) Another note, I think the move will be best for my friendship with Craig. He's a really good guy and we get along pretty good, but I've been noticing some weird trends with him, as well as some ...