Kobe - the culinary journey continues!

After a somewhat hasty departure from Osaka, where we overslept the check-out time, we made our way to Kobe - the city world-famous for its beef. We had high expectations, as both Steffen and Kati's grandfather had only good things to say about the port city from previous visits.

We already mastered the first hurdle in Osaka, as we had to find the right train station, and thus the right train company. In Japan, unlike in Germany, there is not one main train station from which all train lines depart; often each company has its own station. The Shinkansen, Japan's high-speed train, for example, departs from stations that start with "Shin," such as Shin-Osaka or Shin-Kobe. We chose the slightly slower but also cheaper option, the Hankyu Railway, which conveniently departed from Hankyu-Umeda. Within 30 minutes, we reached Kobe, and after a short journey, our luxurious hotel, which we had booked at Booking.com at a bargain price.

Since our hotel was located directly at the harbor, and we had some time before check-in, we started our exploration of the city there and were immediately rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. Soon we came to Philip's highlight: a giant stingray swimming past us in the harbor basin. The entire area around the Kobe Port Tower had been beautifully prepared after the devastating earthquake, which memorialized a destroyed part of the harbor as an impressive monument, and we enjoyed our walk there so much that we returned in the evening. Our next stop was Kitano, a district where foreign merchants who were attracted by Kobe's important harbor had settled. We were able to admire some of these houses on the way, between modern high-rise buildings. Very impressive!

After strolling through Kitano for a while, we continued to the city's spice garden, which was located on the adjacent mountains and offered a great view of the city. We went up with a cable car, which impressed the Japanese but reminded us a bit of ski trips. Here we could admire the smells of all kinds of herbs and fruits that were grown in the garden.

Our last stop the next morning was Kobe's China Town, where we squeezed past a Chinese gate and many street food stalls (most of them offered Peking duck) and ate at a restaurant where we were served Kobe beef from the teppanyaki grill. Of course, we couldn't miss that!

Currently, we are in Kyoto, the cultural center of Japan, to visit the many different temples, shrines, and gardens. We are excited!