Kobe Kobe I’m in Love

Mina-san konnichiwa.

So this week didn’t start well. By about 4 o’clock on Monday I was feeling terrible. My head was pounding, my sinuses were plugged and I couldn’t concentrate on anything. Kaze desu. I had a cold how rubbish, right before all my time off as well. I think I’d just finally run myself into the ground with the long working hours. That or I’d just not been getting enough vitamin C. It’s so hard to get hold of fresh fruit in Japan so I may have been lacking. I’ve basically been chugging the various vitamin C/ginseng /ginger/ anything else that promotes good health, drinks that I could get my hands on, and there are a lot of em.

Anyway I spent most of Tuesday feeling pretty rubbish as well so I wasn’t much help to Daewoong whilst he was mounting samples for his beamtime next week. I helped where I could but my focus was totally shot. Needless to say I was in bed early that night. Not before chowing down on some home made Oden and a dorayaki, essentially a stuffed Japanese pancake.

After a good 10 hours of sleep I awoke on Wednesday feeling refreshed and ready to tackle an exciting couple of days. I’d made plans with one of my colleagues, Sam, to go and visit Kobe for two days during golden week. Kobe had left a good impression on me from my previous visit so I was keen to check it out.

We set out about 9ish and rather foolishly took the wrong train, costing us an extra 900yen, ouch. There are so many different kinds of train running in the same direction its easy to get mixed up, at least that's my story and I’m sticking by it.

We arrived in Sannomiya station, the main JR station in Kobe and it opens up into the main shopping area. Obviously we weren’t sure where we were going and we blundered our way into an  imported goods shop. It was mental seeing things that cost pennies back home at ridiculously high prices, particularly porridge and unbelievably corned beef, both of which cost over a fiver it was unreal. To my guilt I did buy a jar of peanut butter but that is an essential part of my diet. Sadly I was smooth but it’ll have to do.

Our next port of call was the city hall. Sam had read in his guide book that you could take the lift up to the 24^th floor and  get a great view of the city. The  guide book most definitely delivered. The view was spectacular. It’s amazing to think that just over 15 years ago the entire city was pretty much rubble after a huge earthquake struck.

Kobe is actually pretty famous for it's architecture. Not only the new modern craziness of Port Island and Rokko Island, two districts built entirely on artificial islands, but also the old. Foreign traders have frequented the port of Kobe for centuries and as such there are many structures inspired by overseas design. Amongst these are a nice little Chinatown and many European style structures. It was really odd to be walking through the ubiquitous concrete tower blocks and suddenly come across a red brick building.

So view enjoyed we set off for our next destination a Sake brewery. We grabbed a couple of bento boxes for a quick lunch on the train. These things are awesome, cheap, convenient and delicious. Not only that but some of the plastic containers are actually really nice to look at, it seemed such a shame to have to throw it away really.

We departed the train 15 minutes later and set out for the brewery. Actually there were three different breweries in the area but according to Sam’s book this one was the nicest for visitors. On the way we came across a rather pleasant surprise.  The next street we turned down was absolutely packed with people in green jackets puling a huge cart.

“Kore wa nan desu ka?” We inquired. “Danjiri” was the response. I still wasn’t sure so I took a piccie on my fancy new phone and sent It to Yuko. It turns out ‘Danjiri’ is a cart pulling festival celebrated by towns all across Japan. The cart itself is called a ‘Mikoshi’ and is a kind of portable shrine that is hauled around the local area ending at a temple. The Mikoshi was very ornate and also full of drums and bells banging out a rhythm specific to the area. It looked like a lot of fun, particularly when the cart had to be turned around a corner. Totally unexpected and just the kind of thing I love running into.

We stayed and watched a while and then carried on to our original destination. The breweries museum was free to look around and their leaflet was in English thankfully.  The displays were all about he old method of brewing Sake and it was pretty interesting. Although sadly none of the signs were in English, a few explanatory videos were so we could at least get some explanation. The process itself seemed to be highly involved and I can see why good Sake is so highly prized. At the end I picked up a bottle and a bar of soap to give to Bessho-san and Masamoto-san as presents to say thanks.

After having a quick free taste of some Sake we went for a stroll through the streets to try and find a traditional Japanese park. No luck sadly but we did find something better.

I’m normally a fan of travelling alone I must admit. I like the freedom of going wherever, doing whatever and not having to worry about the other person. Fortunately Sam and I are fairly like minded so we didn't really have to worry about each other. Anyway he spotted a sign advertising a backpacking hotel that I’d never of picked up on, I’m so dozy so its nice to have an extra set of eyes.

The place was called Kobe Dears backpackers house. It was run, amazingly, by a guy from Leeds called Andrew. He’d come out here for a month 6 years back to visit some friends and had loved it so much he’d stayed. As it was golden week they were rammed and in fact had only one bed left. He did however offer to put a futon on the floor in the room so we could both stay and h’d knock 500yen off the price. An awesome deal that we weren’t going to pass up, there was no way we’d find anywhere cheaper and I was cool with sleeping on the floor. Andrew was dead nice and gave us some pointers on where to go, what to see, where to eat e.t.c.

So back on the train bound for Sannomiya and into the city centre. We decided it’d be nice to walk through the main shopping streets, through Chinatown and then into Portland, where I remembered there being plenty of restaurants. The shopping street through up a few surprises, namely a rather strange sign for a shop called love boat and a branch of Lush, I was actually mega surprised by that.

China ton was rammed with people. It is only a little square but it was heaving. There were street vendors everywhere selling all kinds of food and omiyage (souvenirs). The sights, sounds and smells were actually a little overwhelming. We passed a really cool little square that had statues of each animal of the Chinese zodiac. It would have been nice to stay and have a look but to be honest there were so many people in such a small place that there wasn’t actually that much visible. I did manage to snag a couple of sesame coated rice balls though, cheap and tasty.

And so to Portland. It wasn’t too tricky to find if I’m being honest, the large Kobe port tower sticks out a fair amount haha. We had a few major road o navigate but there are plenty of bridges passing over them, possibly not the most practicle way of crossing but certainly very cool. The tower itself cost about 600yen to go up, it was nice to look at but the views across the harbor at the base were good enough so we figured it just wasn’t worth the money.

We crossed over the water towards another shopping complex called mosaic. It seemed like harbor land was the place to be as there was all kinds going on. There were some Gaijins (foreigners) dressed up in clown gear performing magic and making balloon animals for the kids at boat terminal.  Just before mosaic we encountered a rather decent female fronted J-rock band.

I couldn’t help but stay and watch for a while. Someone had asked me about the music scene in Japan and I honestly didn’t have a clue. These guys were playing sort of funk infused indie, up-tempo and I guess catchy if I knew what they were saying. Oku no hito (lots of people) had stopped to watch so me and Sam just joined the crowd. They also had a troupe of fire dancers with them and the band went into a nice funk  groove for about ten minutes whilst the fire dancers did their thang.

Eventually our bellies started to tell us they’d had enough and we moved on to Mosaic. Like Chinatown this place was rammed, I guess cos it was about dinner time and it was the major food court. We couldn’t find anywhere that was a) yasui (cheap) or b) with free tables, every restaurant had massive queues outside. There was also an unusual number of Italian restaurants. I definitely wasn’t up for that, why would I want to go to an Italian in Japan? I guess it’s novel for the local people. The only free place was one selling Kobe beef, which at around 4000 yen a dish was out of our price range.

We turned back towards sannomiya as there were bound to be plenty of places to grab some scran. We followed our noses and walked into a little Izakaya on the border of the main street. Well now a predicament. ‘Dare ga ii desu ka?’ what was good? We had no idea since we couldn’t read the menu haha. The owner however was this sweet old lady who was an absolute anglophile and apparently loved LFC (boo hiss). She seemed absolutely thrilled that foreigners had chosen to eat at her restaurant and helped us out. Her English wasn’t bad actually.

We got Tori-don, a one-bowl dish of cooked chicken, rice, cabbage, nori and a raw egg. Everything is prepared individually and then you mix it in and consume. Delish, the flavors were amazing, simple but very hearty and clear. We also got these weird stuffed chicken wings. They were taken off the bone, stuffed with ginger and spring onion, then the bone was put back in like a stick and the whole thing fried in a light batter, very tasty.

Gochisosama deshita (thank-you for the food). After a final brief exchange with the old lady we set off to explore Kobe a bit more by night. We headed toward Ikuta Jinja (shrine) which is apparently one of the oldest n Japan. Like all Shinto shrines it’s an amazing piece of architecture. Sadly it wasn’t open at night but it was lit up fantastically.

We then started to make our way back towards Sannomiya station to get back to the hostel. Kobe is just as cool by night and we managed to find ourselves in the main clubbing district. There seems to be a lot going on here, so I may have to find someone to hit the clubs with.

Right outside the station entrance we spotted a group of people having a Jam session. They had guitars, both acoustic and electric and a few djembe’s. They were playing some really great, improvised jazzy stuff and we took a seat with the locals and stayed and watched. I reckon we were there a few hours as these guys were awesome. After us watching for about 20 minutes or so one of the drummers invited me to join in. I couldn’t say no. It’d been ages since I’d played a djembe and I’d forgotten how fun it was.

Sam had gotten talking to one of the group called Shintano whilst I’d been drumming away. His English was amazing even though he’d apparently never left Japan. He’d been with the group for a while and said he loved the way music brought people together. I totally agree it doesn’t matter your origin, rhythm move a people in the same way. He showed us the way to the station making sure we didn’t meet the last train and even taught us a cool phrase ‘Ureshii aitte’ I’m glad we met.

So back to the Hotel and it turned out that Andrew had made a mistake and the bed we’d booked was in fact occupied. Luckily for us he had left the staff bedroom open for us and said we could stay there for the night. So we in fact ended up with even better bedding arrangements. Myself and Sam had a bit of fun trying to converse with some of the other lodgers in very broken Japanese, I think we managed to communicate a bit and it was a lot of fun practicing.

The next morning we were up early as it was time to scale Rokko-san, after a very improvised breakfast of what I can only describe as giant sugar puffs. Ah watashi wa yama ga daisuke desu (I love mountains). Japan is interestingly about 70% mountain so I plan on scaling as many as possible. First things first we had to get to the foot where we could take a cable car up Cheating I know but most major mountains in Japan are fairly inhabited so there are plenty of roads, buses and what not going up. Plus cable cars are pretty fun.

The view from the top was incredible, even better than the city hall. We could see right out across the bay and into the sea. I couldn’t help but take a step back and gaze out for a while it really was that stunning.

From the cable car station we set off for the summit where there was apparently an amusement park of some sort? Only in Japan right. The weather was gorgeous and I was glad to be out in it getting some much-needed vitamin D. In fact so nice was the weather I decided to tell the next person I came across so. ‘Ii tenki desu ne’ (good weather isn't it). Never underestimate the power of that phrase as a conversation starter in any language.

In fact the old man I got chatting t, again very broken Japanese, was quite the traveler. He had been all over China, out to Canada and all around Europe to. From what I could tell he shared my love of Italy and particularly liked Venice.

 He also pointed out an interesting Buddha statue to us, which was apparently erected to commemorate people who had been involved in a massive airplane crash around the time of the Hanshin earthquake. He claimed he knew a shortcut and soon had us trekking of the beaten path.

The summit was, unusual. As far as I could tell this place was little Switzerland, down to the cheesy swiss music. It was really quite bizarre. In fact the whole of Rokko-san it turns out is a tribute to Switzerland. All the souvenir shops seemed to be selling European memorabilia at outrageous price. It just made me giggle really. We wandered around the summit for a bit, stopping to chow down on some onigiri and then set off to explore a bit more.

The mountain itself is beautiful although It was interspersed with some very random things. An amusement park as I’d said previously, a giant Swiss style lodge and an alpine garden. I couldn’t help but chuckle, most f the tourists where Japanese and they all seemed absolutely enthralled. I guess it’s like people from the west going to a Chinatown.

We reached a cross roads and due to the time myself and Sam finally parted. I was keen to push on to the next mountain in the chain, Maya-san, but Sam needed to head back down, he had some shopping to get done in, of all places, the local Ikea. We agreed to meet at the station at around 6 o’clock, no problem we thought.

Well this is where my trouble started. I carried on following my little map to the next ‘theme park’ called Kobe pastures. It was essentially one giant farm. I think in the heavily industrialized Japan this was somewhat a novelty but again I just didn’t see the appeal. According to my map however there was a temple and a lake on my way to Maya-san so I had that to look forward to.

I reached a fork in the road and started to become confused. The road signs seemed to have no rhyme or reason and I couldn’t make out which way to go. I asked someone the way, to which I was told ‘migi,migi,migi’ (keep going right) and that it’d be about 2 hours on foot. So I did just that.

The directions proved to be wrong however and 2 hours later and 8 miles away I was actually on the wrong mountain. Classic Marcus moment methinks. I lucked out and caught the last bus outside of some park, I’d not seen another bus stop in the entire 2 hours of walking, and made it back to Sannomiya station just in time. What a day. Thank god the weather was good and the view were great.

Kobe mata aimashou (lets meet again Kobe)

Mata kondone Mina-san.

P.s you my note there aren’t many photos of Rokko-san, that's because I’m a chump and forgot to charge my camera, the battery died Wednesday night. Live and learn.