Sannomiya Terminal Hotel Kobe

... be doing so but I've decided not to other than to state that I'm simply not impressed by this type of upscale product. I just don't see the value. I was more impressed with the Apple store that was in the same district. I guess that I'm simply a provincial 'otaku' (geek)...

For our two days here in Osaka it seems like all that we've done is
eat, walk around, and sleep. In a city like Osaka with such great food,
life doesn't get much better.

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 ...

Meaning to ruin oneself by extravagance in food. Heard another translation - "Eat, eat until you fall down." Why Osaka is my entry point to Japan. It also translates to eating as much Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki as possible. BTW Takoyaki - Octopus balls. Okonomiyaki - Pancake-ish dealies. Oh Osaka.

... Als wir den Weg zum Hotel nicht gefunden haben, hat eine gefragt ob sie uns helfen kann, leid** wusste sie auch nicht weit** und hat kurz**hand ihr Handy gezückt und einfach dort ang**ufen und uns dann hingebracht. Total nett wied** alle. Da gefällt es uns sehr gut, reges Nachtleben mit Hosts an jed** Ecke - Asiasnacks mal and**s sozusagen.
Gehe jeden Tag sehr brav und meine polar Uhr zeigt imm** üb** 2.000 kcal an. Meist so 2.500 pi mal ...

... process was modernized. Video presentations available on demand in English featuring documentary footage of how sake was made in 1928 are presented adjacent to the actual equipment used in the traditional process. I had not previously understood how the starch in rice was converted to sugar for the yeast to turn it into alcohol. Unlike beer brewing in which the enzymes created from the sprouting of ...

... similar to the US? I don't know anything about how they raise and treat farm animals. I do know that they banned the import of beef from the US after mad cow disease was found here. But of course that is more an issue of human health than animal welfare. I also know that the methods they use to kill whales violate their humane slaughter law. But I believe that is the case for just about all humane slaughter laws, as it is extremely difficult to kill a large ...

... which tended to obscure the view. It was nice though to see the ocean and some ships coming and going to port. Kobe is a major port city and, you may remember, was the sight of one of the deadliest earthquakes in Japan's history -- the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in which 4600 people were killed and nearly 240,000 made homeless. It was interesting to contemplate that this happened only 12 years ago ...

... and is a tradition that dates back centuries ago. Because people believe in the god's existence inside the trees they used to make offerings at the roots of the sakura. They made offerings to hope for a good harvest season. Afterwards they enjoyed sake. Many years later an Emperor adopted a similar practice, and held flower-viewing parties with lots of food and sake, many people came to Kyoto (the old capitol city) to enjoy these picnics underneath the sakura ...

... comfortable than an plane. Each person had individual seats which reclined back to about an 150 degree angle and I slept for the entire journey. Tomorrow morning I fly to London. the fact that I'm leaving still doesn't feel real. I feel like I'm on vacation and I'll be back at work on Monday. I wonder if it will feel real in London or maybe it will when the tour starts. When all of a sudden I'm in France and everybody is speaking French and I can't understand them...

... first day of on-the-job training starting tomorrow. ++Late add: Craig brings home this guy named Darren from Australia that he works with, cool guy, a little naïve, but a cool, funny guy. Ironic/funny that the first thing I noticed was his tie, because it was short-tied and ended away above his waist. After hanging out for a while, it comes out the Darin has never had a corporate job before and has no clue as how to tie a tie. So Craig and I try to ...