Our Afternoon in Kobe

First off, Happy Belated Labor Day to everyone and a shout out for their good work, Ohio State and Virginia Tech! Week One Complete (Tech, NEVER scare me like that again!!)

So we are still playing catch up on our blog... In June, Joel and I took advantage of another ITT trip and spent an afternoon in Kobe and the evening and next day in Osaka. We will split the blog into two parts because, as usual, we took a lot of pictures and had a lot to see. It was about a 5ish hour bus ride to Kobe where we were able to do some shopping, eat lunch, and explore for a few hours before heading to Osaka.

Now Kobe probably sounds familiar because of KOBE BEEF! To be official, Kobe Beef it has to be raised and butchered in only one region in the Kobe area. It is NOT exported, so if you've had what was labeled Kobe Beef in the States, somebody's a LIAR! Also, sad to say, apparently most of the cows that become Kobe beef are not fed beer as part of their fattening diet. I know, so sad - I really wanted that to be true!! LOL - but they are massaged regularly to distribute the fat more evenly which is what makes this type of beef so very tender and tasty... and therefore EXPENSIVE!

Found a church, and a big one at that, right across the street from where our bus parked.

Arrr matey ?

This was one of those tower things where there's a restaurant in the top and it rotates or something like that...

We found the mall!

Kobe is a major harbor town, so it was really pretty right on the water... that hotel has some interesting architecture

Beautiful landscaping outside the mall... and not too much traffic on the road.

Another major shopping center

We wound up hanging out in the Mosaic Mall for a bit and a lot of it was outdoors and really pretty

YES! This is what we were looking for! A Kobe beef restaurant!

Even their lunch options were really expensive - 3300 yen is over $40 US for one meal!

We both wound up ordering a beef "set" which is like a combo so it included a salad, main course, and dessert

The beef! It was super tasty and the sauce was amazing! It wasn't the Filet Mignon though so we will have to go back at some point to try it... we are saving up now.

Ah, the first bite!

A little bit of custard and a cherry for dessert

You know you're in a harborland district when there's a Ferris Wheel

View of the city

I found the Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, only it has guardrails!

Channeling his inner Elvis

Futsol!

This contraption was spitting out fresh green tea... we were able to sample some and it was AWESOME

Can I take him home with us? (BTW, can you tell we found Chinatown!!)

We came upon a traditional Chinese dance with two guys dressed up like a dragon and a live band - this is a shot of people gathering right before the show

One guy is on the others' back. They were amazing with what they were able to do!

He's actually eating a poor onlooker's head :-p

This was the band - the music had a really strong drum beat and lots of clanging cymbals

When did we go to Italy?

I found a giraffe! And I WANT it!

I guess KissFM has taken over the world

Joel and I agreed we would love to go back to Kobe at some point. It was a really contemporary, hip city and there are so many other restaurants we want to try!!