Washington Plaza Himeji

... which is a well-journeyed train as you can see from the picture below. I wouldn't say that it is a particularly comfortable train, but its retro-flavor will make you feel like you have slipped back into the good old days.

So, what is it exactly that makes Tajima beef so good?

According to Mr. Okamoto, one of the workers at the ranch, its superb and distinctive regional bloodlines passed down for many years are the primary reason for the excellence of Tajima beef ...

... this computer.　So far we did a bus tour of the main attractions in the city. Now we are looking for a place for fCub to have some Kobe beef. Tomorrow we will probably go to one of the famous shopping areas in Kobe. More to follow tomorrow. Sayonnara, Cubnelaine

... we caught the train back to Sannomiya and bid farewell to our comrades Saffiya and Nichelle.

Since we only had one more night in Kobe, Jess and I decided to retrace familiar territory. So we headed back down to the harbour and had a fantastic night.

It started out with the Maritime museum, which to be honest, wasn't the most amazing place I've ever been. It was interesting, but not great. I was mostly drawn in by the amazing building it's in!

Himeji, Kinki, Japan astralcars

... eat and stopped to watch the dancers for a bit while we at.

Finally, even though we were all having a great time, decided we'd have to get moving if we were going to get to our hostel, by check-in ( which ended at 9pm ).

We had all planned to come back after checking in, but by the time we got settled we were all so tired we just decided to go to bed.

I will continue our Kansai adventure in the next post.

... were quite entertained by the hands of the master in action. His deftly skills ensured the meat was cooked to precision. Slicing and turning the meat, never overcooking unless intended. Each part of the meat is carefully assessed for its qualities and sizzled accordingly. No oil was needed; no artificial seasonings added, just the pure taste of original Kobe meat.

The meat itself was meat but not meat, beef but not beef… the texture of it was incredibly tender ...

Today we ventured to Himeji Castle, it was completely awesome! The view was beautiful and it was well worth the hour train ride to Himeji for it! We explored the castle and saw how they defended themselves in times of gone. We even saw the Suicide Quarter! I cant really say more about Himeji castle because it was very visual! I'll put photos up ...

... which was open to tourists anyway), and we enjoyed the 360 degree views of all of Himeji, and the crossbreezes which seemed to penetrate the windows of this floor moreso than the other floors, making the temperatures on this floor almost feel like they were below 40 degrees. Almost. I can only imagine the heat that the residents of this castle must have suffered through at the height of the summer ...

... ball, a completely buggered prawn and a not-so-tasty purple flower. I say the prawn was buggered because I think it was prepared in a tumble dryer before being crumbed and fried. Never before have I had a rubberised chewy prawn. Terrible. Course 4, pile of potato containing melon cubes, with a tempura mushroom on top, all sitting in some kind of strange jelly sauce. Not a bad dish. I finished this one. By this stage I ...

... a little more walking, and being stopped by a rather frantic women wanting me to translate a mobile phone text message she had received in English, my feet decided that they had done enough miles for the day. I ambled back to the hotel in the most direct route I thought I could take without my map at hand where I finally booked somewhere to stay tomorrow night in Hong Kong - never like to rush these things.

Hey all, been a while i know. Didn't get up to much in my last week in Osaka, still very cold and didn't have that much left to check out. Most of the week was spent staying in and watching movies with Masae who had a week off in between jobs. Played lots of cards and drank lots of.... tea. Also checked out the neighbouring city of Kobe, which is the city that was devastated by an earthquake in 1995. Some of which the remains are still apparent ...