Andrew + Japan = Awesome

Seeing as both Neil and myself have Tuesday and Wednesday off, we decided to head to Kobe on Tuesday to continue my epic quest for shoes, and because we’ve both been told that Kobe is a nice city. We both did some intelligence gathering, Neil came back with the suggestion that catching a bus might be the best way to get there, and at around 100 yen more than the trains, the convenience of not changing trains made it worthwhile. For my part I found out from Bryan that there is a long shopping arcade “near Sannomiya”that is best found by “just wandering”, and Tim told me that Harbour Town is definitely worth a visit.

However, just finding the right bus to catch to Kobe was an adventure in itself. We had no idea what the characters for “Kobe” or “Sannomiya” were, so we had to resort to wandering the Sanda bus stops looking for timetables with fares of 700 yen. Eventually Neil asked a driver who pointed us in the right direction and we were off. The bus took us through the mountains, and then through a long tunnel (with atleast one branch in it, there could be a large network of tunnels under that mountain), and then we were through and in Kobe.

After arriving at Sannomiya we wandered around a block or two trying to get our bearings. Kobe seemed like a nice enough place straight off. When we found ourselves back at Sannomiya station we decided it was time for lunch, and headed into the Daiei (which sells delicious food below Nova in Flower Town where I work). Turns out this Daiei was actually a department store with seven or so floors of wondrous products. Neil bought a T-shirt, and then we went to Wendys for lunch.

At Wendys, I had a chicken burger with chilli mince on it, and sour cream. It was delicious, and I’d give ordering another serious thought if I went there again. Neil and I are getting pretty good at ordering from fast food places now we know what to expect. The trick is to point at the menu, and then say “seto”, otherwise they’ll think you just want the burger. Then the next question is either “What drink would you like?” or “Have here or take away?”. So you just answer “Coca-Cola”, and they’re either impressed by your Japanese, or get the point that you have no idea whats going on, then you’re done.

After lunch we commenced some more wandering, and eventually we found the long shopping arcade Bryan spoke of. After heading down a couple of small arcades, we found the shopping arcade. Motomachi.

Motomachi is so massive, that to correctly identify where a shop is, it needs to split itself into six distinct areas. We entered at Motomachi 1, and emerged tired, exhausted, and in need of a rest, at Motomachi 6. I dont know how long that place was, but you’d have a hard time going into every shop in a day, and thats ignoring all the little side alleys and parallel streets filled with shops.

In Motomachi we found a number of shoe stores, but they were either all small sizes, or priced out of the range I’m willing to pay for shoes, so the quest continues.

After Motomachi, we found a map and realised we were pretty close to Harbour Town (which was 1km off the edge of the map I had, and Sannomiya was in the middle of it), so we headed in that direction. Harbour Town was pretty cool, and not just because they had this:

 

And Harbour Town most certainly wasn’t pretty cool just because of this Travelator/Escalator hybrid:

After a while of wandering through Harbour Town malls, we followed a sign which promised us a “Mosaic Garden”. Turns out it wasn’t an actual garden, it was a theme park. We’re not sure how it worked, we didn’t actually go in, but we could have, there didn’t appear to be any gates. I assume you pay per ride, as opposed to a cover charge to get in. But the theme park was right down on the harbour, so we took the opportunity to snap some shots of the Kobe Harbour.

(Mosaic Garden)

 

(Views across the harbour)

Also of note at Mosaic Garden was this odd man talking to himself through a loud speaker. There didnt appear to be anyone near him, and he didn’t seem to care. He was talking the entire time we were there. I don’t know if he was preaching or trying to sell something, and I have no idea why he was talking even when there was nobody to listen.

 

After leaving Mosaic Garden, we headed back to Sannomiya. It was a long way. And after a repeat of the “Where does the bus leave from” drama, we were on a bus back to Sanda. Kobe was a nice place, lots of shops, a nice feeling, not much in the way of touristy things. We were both totally exhausted, having walked for a full six hours.