Anywhoo! After our main reason for going was done the first thing we did was go to get some lunch. We opted for the Japanese fast food chain, Mos Burger. Basically their version of McDonalds, but higher quality. I got a burger that had some kind of salsa tomatoey sauce on it. Naomi had a more Japanesey one, the buns were made from rice grilled together and inside it was grilled veggies and seaweed! Actually it was really good. Came with fries and pop as you would expect, on a smaller scale though. Basically a small size for us.
After this we headed out to explore the city for the day. First up is some shots not far from where we ate. There was a small little theme park, this being the most exciting looking thing, that Naomi refused to go on. Then you can see shots of the rather large harbour.
After this I had to make sure we took a bit of a detour to go somewhere I spotted a week or so back. We had to take the train a couple of stops to get there, but it was worth it. After a short walk out, we came to this!
I am not totally sure why its here, but its pretty new. I think he is called Ironman (no relation to the Marvel character). It was awesome, and I couldn't believe how big he was. If you look you can see me beside his leg on the second picture.
After this it was to the old "western area". Kobe is a very international city, since its ports have been open for a long time, more so than other cities in Japan. In the early 1900's and before many people from western companies came here and also built houses. So you can see a bunch of houses, which have mostly all been turned into museums, that are built in European styles. Very fun actually and a tad refreshing!
First up is the coolest starbucks I have ever been too. It is housed in an old American house, forgot what it was used for, that has been turned into a starbucks that all 2 floors were for the place. Pretty cool really. They had a sign outside that made no sense, but thats Japan. You see this everywhere.
Next was over to England House. Again, forgot exactly what this was used for, but now its a museum full of all things British! Lovely.
Outside they had a Jaguar Daimler which I believe it said was customized to drive the Queen around. Not sure if it ever did or not though.
Inside, one of the first rooms you see is the small bar. After that, the full bar! Next is a model of the HMS Victory, nice to see, sitting on a cabinet full of scotch and whiskey. Then a shot of the living room.
The upstairs bathtub was full of corks and a couple of wine bottles. Not sure what that was about. In the main bedroom the had a proper English breakfast laid out. How I miss that. And here is a shot from the dining room after.
The last room was full of Sherlock Homes and other random stuff. Quite interesting.
Outside you can go to the back garden and from here you can see a couple shots of the house itself. As well as a final shot of the Jag!
Next was off to "France House"! It wasn't quite as interesting, full of posh posh stuff as you might expect from the French. Heres some shots of the stuff inside!
Last on our 3 house tour was "Ben's House". I am unsure as to why it was called that, but inside it was stuffed full of..stuffed animals! Very bizarre but quite cool actually. Had everything from an armadillo to a polar bear!
Here is the African Bedroom. A bit odd.
And finally the shot that sums it all up. A rifle resting in an elephants foot (I assume it was an elephant, not sure).
Next we headed up a long road and got to the Austria and Dutch house. By this time they were already closed though so we could not go inside. They had a small store though where you could buy some $50 chocolate..
After this we took a long stroll back into town. Our destination was China town! It was a bit larger than ours back home. Full of food and cheap shops, like you would expect. We thought about eating dinner here, but as we are both scared of eating Chinese food in Japan we thought we could wait. There has been lots of news stories about food poisoning from Chinese food here..
Here are some shots of our walk down the road. The gates aren't quite as nice as ours at home, but the carvings on them are very nice.
So we headed to a Japanese place to grab some dinner. You ordered by buying a ticket for what food you wanted from a vending machine thing..then gave it to the staff. Quite classy. I had a deep fried chicken cutlet, covered in tartar sauce. Miso on the side and rice plus cold tofu. Naomi had a beef stir fry (she likes to say it was real Kobe beef, I am not so inclined to think so) with a salad and rice. It was all really good as per norm!
That wrapped out our whirlwind tour of Kobe. Considering we had no plans other than the first thing we had to do, it turned out quite well I think. I felt homesick for the first time after leaving those euro houses..just felt so familiar. It was odd to be inside them because you start to think..wait..where I am again? Very strange.
The next blog is our last major adventure while staying at her parents house. Going to Universal Studios Japan!
