Ichi go ichi e
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2009
1
40
50
Trip End
Ongoing
Kobe, Kinki, Japan
Monday, April 6, 2009
We had a really special day yesterday. We landed in the Kobe port and were greeted by a taico drum group.
Funnily, our cabin deck looks smack RIGHT AT the port terminal so we had a good view of the drummers, and the giant neon sign at night.
We had to go through a lengthy japanese visitors process, and then we went on a semester at sea trip to visit a temple in Kyoto and experience a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. We couldn't find babysitting, so Barrett came along. He actually did very well for the first 30 minutes, but then I left with him to explore the temple grounds which were lovely
Taiko drummers
. Matthew said I didn't miss anything even though the ceremony went on for another hour after we left. I am inclined to believe him based on the first 30 minutes. We drove down the streets with the cherry blossoms which ARE in bloom. We're going to do that again today - taking the bullet train to Nara and Kyoto to see the deer and the cherry blossoms. It's pretty special that we're here during this time. The cherry blossoms come out once a year for only 2 weeks max, and they are just gorgeous.
After we got back to the ship, we grabbed a bite to eat at the ship, and I arranged for a babysitter to hang with Bear from 8 until 10:30. Matthew and I grabbed a monorail train to Sannomiya station and walked around for a bit. Was amazing. Crazy city lights, and so much to see (I personally love the vending machines where you can literally buy anything from hot cans of coffee to electronics to toys). We found a bar called the Fuku (means owl) and we were the only ones in there. We spent $30 on 2 very large glasses of sake with giant round balls of ice (cold sake, not hot). We had a wonderful (but broken) conversation with the bartender and barmistress. They were very friendly and we talked about languages, japan, the US, politics and religion all without anyone really being able to speak the others' language.
From there we went to a sushi restaurant. Because we can't speak Japanese, we motioned that we'd like a small meal and we got 5 lovely pieces of sushi and a bottle of hot sake. It was yummy. also expensive, but yummy.
Overall, it was a really great start to our time in Japan. A once in a lifetime opportunity to visit.
