We caught a shinkansen to Kobe where we met with Shingo, a family friend that is currently living in Tokyo but is from Australia and joined us for a day trip. Our first destination was Mt Rokko, where like Hakone, a few methods of transportation had to be taken to get to the top. We caught a local train, then a bus, then a cable car and then another bus.
We then saw sight of snow! I hadn’t seen snow in a very very very long time. Made sense as the weather up the top of the mountain was insanely freezing.
We then tried to head to a Kobe beef restaurant for lunch. All the cheap and quality restaurants were packed with tourists and tour groups that created waiting lines of over a few hours long. We decided to call up one restaurant that actually did take reservations (Wakkoqu) and luckily, we scored the last 3 seats for the day.. and we only had to wait 20 minutes. Lucky lucky!!
Although the portions were small, it was absolutely delicious. Everything – vegetables, steak, ice cream.
Apparently this is the most famous Starbucks in Japan.. not sure why. Perhaps because it is in a merchant home.
We then strolled around the merchant village – where many foreign merchants once resided in lavish, luxurious residencies. We didn’t bother paying to go into any of them, didn’t really interest us too much.
I did enjoy a show by a busker that had exceptional acrobatic skills. I also paid a local artist to sketch a drawing of Bun Bun onto a wooden pendant.
We then headed to the port side to take a night view of the ocean and Kobe’s Meriken park.
Before we caught the Shinkansen, we stocked up on Kobe goods to enjoy on the train and to give as gifts back home. I stuffed myself with Kobe’s renowned caramel pudding and cheesecake.
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