Takayama So Hanano Kobe

... watch the latest fashion victims.
So, our impressions of Japan after 10 hours here:
- The incredibly friendly and polite people;
- Amusement at the vending machines on every street corner. Beer, chocolate, hot noodles, coffee, cold tea...
- The Japanese guy who asked `Australia, Australia?` and then proceeded to jump around like a kangaroo and then imitate a koala (and ...

... the age of 33 months at the latest, and then they become well-known beef brands such as Kobe beef and Matusaka beef. The newborn calves I saw were beautiful with fine and shiny black hair, and they already had an air of dignity about them fitting of Tajima cattle.

Incidentally, Kobe beef has never been exported from Japan, but apparently this may change in the future. I hope those who live outside Japan will get to taste delicious Kobe beef for themselves sometime soon.

... a quick look around the electronics district but didnt see much more than that. Having slept pretty much the rest of the day we were all ready for a big session of karaoke later that night with everyone else!

We managed to work out a deal with the karaoke bar to have a booth for two hours with unlimited drinks and Jon took it upon himself to order pretty much everything on the drinks menu for all of us. To be honest, there was no way i was going to sing ...

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... to a theater that shows a documentary about the destruction and the long recovery process. The film balances the distress of the city's people with the sense of community it fostered as the city struggled to reconstitute itself. Simultaneous English translation is provided. Next the story is retold in more detail through photographs, artifacts and descriptive materials. The final section has a collection ...

... and transparency at international wildlife conservation meetings. Among other atrocities to nature, Japan is almost solely responsible for the illegal markets in ivory and tortoise shell (sea turtle shell), and for the questionably legal market in whale and dolphin meat/blubber. So, I wasn't very surprised to see tons of people wearing fur, especially trim and especially in Tokyo. I also noticed that there aren't as many wild animals (birds, squirrels, etc.) as there ...

... Instead of utilizing a "tram" system with a car suspended from cables, Mt. Rokko utilizes a "street car" system with a car that sits on rails that ride the slope of the moutainside -- somewhat like a street car in San Francisco. This was quite an extraordinary vehicle -- the car is built at a 45 degree angle with seats set at each "step". All I could really think as we rode the car to the top was ...

... first port city to open for trade with the West in 1868. Ever since there 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 on the Richter Scale. 6,434 people were killed and 300,000 were made homeless. Large parts of the port facilities and other parts of the ...

... kimono. "Kaiseki is a tasting-menu type meal, made with fresh, seasonal ingredients, and presentation is almost as important as the taste of the food," says Heidi Gunst. Mayumi was able to translate what most of the dishes were. Although I don't eat red meat I decided that I would try anything on this trip. We ate Kobe beef (ha ha Chris!) which is renowned for its flavor, tenderness, and fatty well-marbled texture. These cattle are massaged with sake ...

... information on each, the actual root or flower from where the herb originated, and a decanter with a small portion of the herb inside for sample smells. After walking around the common areas for a bit I decide to try to locate a hiking trail...finding one rather quickly, I venture off through the forests of Kobe. This was not an easy hike! I was winding around and around, up steep trails and down similarly steep descents. I had to stop more than once for a ...