Kobe
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Kobe,
Japan
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Kobe is not so far from Bentencho so we managed to get here quite a few times, especially as Tracey and I both worked near here on occasion. Its a very "gaijin friendly" area and even has a foreign food store, quite a popular place for the foreigners to reside - not just cause of the easy access to minties of course!
Kobe was hit quite badly by an earthquake way back in 1995 and so much of it is new and sparkly buildings. It also means that each year they have a "light up" festival where they put pretty lights all around the streets in memory of the victims. This is a massive attraction and you have to line up for ages to be able to walk around as everyone in a near enough radius goes to have a look. Somehow we managed to sneak past this horrendously long queue and ran past some official looking people and totally jumped the queue. If you ever see this queue you will understand our feeling of smug pride at being naughty foreign people and leaping the queue.
Kobe is home to the rather exciting sounding "Kobe Harbour Land". Trace and I are both suckers for anything thats titled somethingsomething Land, i think its the explorer in us so we of course headed there, to find a shopping mally type place, something like Darling Harbour in Sydney.
The first time we found ourselves in Kobe we headed straight for a little cable car that takes you to the top of a mountain on the edge of the town and gives you a great view over the place. People kept insisting on taking our photos for us so there is quite a few photos of us grinning foolishly together. We also got on a bus with little clue as to where it was headed (damn that Kanji) and thankfully found it taking us back into town (conveniently landing right by KFC!).
Quite a few other occasions found us back in Kobe (i even spent a birthday there) as there are lots of pubs too!
