Day 14: Kobe

The adventure for today was to travel to Kobe for the day. The only thing I knew about Kobe was that it had a devastating earthquake about ten years ago. We had eggs for breakfast and then drove to Matsugasaki station. Kobe is actually only an hour train ride from here. Our first stop was at Kyoto Station to meet up with some of Ai’s friends, Yumi and Yuki. Yumi and Yuki are sisters and they wanted to practice some English with me. We arrived in the city of Kobe at about 10:00am, so the shops were just starting to open around town. Our first stop was China Town in Kobe. We walked through some shops filled with Chinese souvenirs, but nothing really of interest besides the life-size Bruce Lee statue. Mrs. Nagasaku, meanwhile, was standing in line at a famous Chinese dumpling shop. The line was considerably long, but later in the day they say it is about a one hour wait! The dumplings sure were delicious though!!

We walked for a distance to a different part of the city. It was a neighborhood on a hillside with a decent view of the city. We toured the Western-style houses of a German architect, and a U.S. Ambassador. It was strange touring old Western houses in Kobe, Japan. The next stop was much more exciting to me; we took a cab to the Suma Aqualife Park, which is a large aquarium complex near the beach. We got to see all kinds of organisms: mudskippers, sharks, penguins, eels, stingrays, skates, and countless types of fish. The dolphin show was quite impressive. I don’t remember ever seeing a dolphin show that was that amazing. The dolphins did a lot of tricks for us, including jumping really high out of the water and splashing all the spectators in the lower sections.

This lovely Sunday sounds simple, but it was another tiring day. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for all of the great things that I get to experience here in Japan. The generosity and genuine hospitality of the Japanese people is spectacular. In short, I am having a great time and learning a lot, but I also sleep very well at night.