Kobe

Feb 12 was a “substitute holiday for Japanese Foundation Day” [actually the 11th], which meant only 1 thing to the girls…roadtrip! at thursday night’s dinner we finally decided which cardinal direction to point our car, southwest towards the Kansai region, more specifically Kobe. It was a fun, refreshing break from home. West of Osaka, Kobe has a population of about 1.5 million, meaning it ranks near the bottom of japan's 15 major cosmopolitan centers in size.

This is evident in the neighborhood feel and the camaraderie that comes along with that. But it’s still large enough to support varied economic and social ventures, like international restaurants, tons of bars, museums, a busy port and shopping galore. we took full advantage of the retail areas where we ran across this cute lil fella.

waiting to stuff our faces...

We ate at a charming, eclectically decorated Italian place with the most incredible homemade pastas; I had the #1 cream sauce ever over pancetta, 3 types of mushrooms and fettucine. Heavenly.
Kobe is bordered to the southeast by water where there’s a memorial to the victims of a huge earthquake that struck in 1995 killing more than 6000 residents. they’ve preserved a section of a pier that collapsed and have tons of pictures and explanations and chunks of twisted metal and broken industrial bolts, etc. on display.

I was moved to tears seeing how humans, in a battered environment and fragile emotional situation, called upon sheer will and unceasing cooperation to rebuild the crippled city.
there is quite a promenade on the waterfront as well.

on it sits kobe tower which offered fine views of the long, narrow city…



there’s also a mad shopping complex that houses an even more insane buffet restaurant. we spent about 2 hours gorging ourselves on monday. i couldn’t get over the array of grilled/fried/sautéed/raw fish and fresh cooked noodle dishes [including a quality, not-too-greasy rendering of squid ink pasta]. the girls nearly lost it over the chocolate waterfall that begged you to drench fruits and cakes and pretzels in it’s warm cascades.
Kobe’s bordered on the northwest by mountains where we spent a day climbing the switchbacks [by car. we are only so ambitious.] and taking in the view and a few easy walks on Mt. Rokko’s 931 meter peak.


there’s a lookout point from venus bridge that’s a popular date spot.



lovers have taken to attaching padlocks with sweet messages scribbled on them to the bridge.

as there were relatively few locks when we visited compared to some photos i’ve seen, i’m guessing they are periodically removed from the bridge’s railings, undoubtedly smashing couples’ dreams and bringing about untimely endings to their relationships.


Back downtown, the evenings found us a little disappointed at the lack of dance clubs [Osaka is only 25 minutes away by train and draws the crowd from kobe every Friday and Saturday nite.] but the bars rocked.

We dined at this gothic jazz spot where the regular entertainers are a crazy, talented couple from Atlanta. Coincidences like that really make japan feel like it’s not on the other side of the universe after all. We also found a dancehall reggae bar that was pumping the genre’s quick, steady beats, which are usually accompanied by an intensely sexual style of dancing. it’s becoming increasingly popular in japan. This place was showing the “ms. dancehall reggae Jamaica” pageant, with some insane body/dance work that was as mesmerizing as it was vulgar. The Jamaicans in attendance were glad to teach us some tamer[?] moves.


there was a perfectly kitschy Chinatown where we munched on street stall food [that’s more hygienic than most of the grub you find in sit down restaurants in the real china].




We spent Monday afternoon searching for the architectural wonder that is the longest suspension bridge in the world, which turned into a hilarious exercise in futility. Lots of wrong turns, traffic, dead ends and then, to our dismay, the damn thing turned out to be part of a toll road expressway meaning it would’ve cost about $60 to drive over it and back. Boo. at the end of some non-road we accidentally ended up on. in a kinda subterranean cargo drop-off area, we caught a peek of the bridge through the metal fence that lined the sliver of a view. i was so hollowed by our pointless journey i couldn’t even be bothered to capitalize on the pitiful photo op.