Kobe

So just got back from Kobe. What a great weekend!

I got woken up on Saturday morning about 6.30 in the morning by the sound of rustling from inside my cupboard. I was/am convinced it was mukade (large poisonous centipede) but when I opened the door and shined a torch the rustling stopped... freaky. This happened about 3 times over 2 hours and I will probably have a hard time getting to sleep tonight!

So anyway, my journey to Kobe. Not having a car yet, it was looooong. I walked to the bus station, where a friendly looking man helped me with the buses and trains. It turned out he was a government employee in Tokyo, and Aogaki was his hometown where he returns once every season. We talked, me in shitty broken Japanese, him in broken English, about Japan and the UK and stuff, and it was fun. When I left him to change trains at Amagasaki he said 'I had fun with you today.' What a cool guy. (He incidentally was wearing, along with his casual work clothes, a cap made by that company whose logo is the two bare footprints, i forget the name but it's pretty cool and why a government worker is rocking it I don't know but very Japan.)

So anyhoo went to Kobe and finally got myself a mobile phone! (Or Keitai as they call them here.) It's quite big, but ridiculously advanced with a screen with a ridiculously high resolution and crazy menus involving penguins and stuff. It took me ages to get the contract though, as my Japanese is so bad, but the woman in the store knew a couple of words of English and we persevered and after about an hour or so I had my phone! As I left the store she said 'I had fun with you today' too. Not trying to be cheesy or anything, but communicating over a language barrier IS fun. Simple fun. Ate some cool speciality gyoza in this tiny dingy little restaurant right under the train line which shook every 5 mins as a train went overhead. Bought an overpriced but cool patchwork flat cap from a little hat store in an area where everyone seemed to have a cool hat and I was feeling left out. Left it at my friends' place on Sunday morning but it probably looks better on her anyway, my hats always suit others more than me. I am cursed this way.

Went out with the JET lot to a British pub (hehe) which was cool, (they had a roundup of British music 06 and they included Daedalus, I love how music is taken seriously here) then on to a bit of a tacky and slightly sleazy place called Sally's which is a pool hall/little club. As if to prove how sleazy it was, while waiting outside afterwards for my friend I was offered a 'massage' by (surprisingly good looking) ladies of the night on no less than 3 occasions - and I don't even think it was the red light district. Anyway the place was good fun with the crowd we were with. Ducked out a bit early with a friend and had a glass of wine at this nice little place across the road with dark little booths playing old old jazz :o)

We wandered the streets of Kobe, stopping to check out all the Love Hotels (so weird and cool), before at around 2 going for some Okonomiyaki at this little restaurant on the 3rd floor of a building. That's the kind of thing I love about cities.

Came back Sunday morning from Akashi via the same looooong route (stopped at a mcdonalds on the way - it's better: the straw goes slightly off center in the soft drinks and THEY PLAY LOUNGE), and nearly missed my stop due to falling asleep on the train. Sannomiya (central Kobe) is a cool place, I'm sure I'll be returning.

The pics are (not in this order): nice to see Doraemon and Sergeant Frog getting behind the Japanese football team; the little gyoza hut under the railway station where I ate, Kobe by day, Taco (Octopus) bus, Kobe by night, 2AM Okonomiyaki.