Day of Kobe

I've heard mix reviews for Kobe. Some have described it as not the best tourist place as there's not that much to do, but a very livable place. It's a big port city, therefore very westernised and it was also the sight of a major earth quake that left 40,000 casualties. Also a friend (Shataoro) of a friend (Jono), has a friend (Saki) who runs a boutique there and recommends that I pay her a visit to show her our jewellery. So a day trip is in order to suss out the city.

I arrived around midday from Osaka via JR getting off at Sannomiy station. The station is right in the middle between the ocean and mountains.

Once I got my bearings the hunt was on for Saki's boutique the 'Arrogant Serpent'.
www.papillonner-web.com
I was given a link to a googlemap in Japanese so I had a rough idea where it was, but after an hour of walking and unable to call through for further directions I decided to try again later in the day.
Once armed with a proper map of the city and advice from the friendly info ladies I was ready to tour the place.


Kobe City Hall Observatory view of mountain/port




Kobe Lampwork Glass Museum
The small 'museum' had some really exquisite pieces.


Kobe China town, it's pretty big but all the shops had uniformed menues.

Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park
This is a reminder of the earth quake with preserved cracked pavement and slanted lamp posts.


Meriken 'American' Park

Exhausted from my wanderings I tried one last time and finally got in touch with Saki. The best things are always hidden. I managed to eventually find my way to her sweet boutique, located down an alley way off of the main arcade.I realised too late that there were pockets of boutiques scattered all over the backstreets waiting to be discovered.

Saki also showed me the way to a hot spot of hip shops on the other side of the track in Tor West. I went to meet up with a CSer Terrance to check out the spot and grab a bite to eat.


The first piece of graff I've noticed in Jap!


Can't help but think of the recent aquarium visit.

We then went to chill at the meeting square with some sweet Hoogan-Das ice-cream.


The night unfortunately ended at the police station after Terrance realised that his wallet was lost/stolen. But the cop was really cool. He even posed for the photo.

Terrance before his wallet got lost/stolen.

All up I only covered a small section of Kobe and wasn't actually in proper Kobe upon close inspection of the map. There are also really beautiful shrines hidden in the mountains. I'll have to save them for another time.