· After the awesome day's snowboarding in Nozawa Onsen it was time to head further south to Kobe and to catch up with our friends Becky and Raukura. The trip itself was pretty uneventful and we arrived just in time to make our way outside and find our pre-arranged meeting place.
The meeting place, believe it or not, is called "Tit Park" and is named that way for a good reason. We've yet to work out if it's called that because Becky and Raukura called it that but it's funny anyway. :) The middle of park is a mound of concrete bricks with a bump in the middle that looks like ... well ... yeah, you get the point!
We hung there for a few minutes waiting for Becky and enjoying how cool Japan is. But then Becky arrived and the next couple of days were a blur of sightseeing, eating and the general hilarity that surrounds every situation involving Becky and Raukura.
The first stop was Don Quixote, hence the name of this post. It's a MASSIVE shop that sells literally everything, including boxer shorts by a brand called something like 'Black Man' underwear ... hehe. We had a decent look around and marvelled at the crazy array of stuff available for consumer purchase. Very cool.
After getting our fill of Japanese window-shopping we decided to head to one of Becky and Raukura's pool hangouts for ... you guessed it, some pool. Everything is so much more interesting when you can't speak the local language! Even ordering a couple of drinks was a funny experience. We hung out there for a while and eventually arranged to meet up with Raukura for some photo-booth action.
Photo-booth action ... ahhh yes. This is where Becky and Raukura transform into face-pulling clowns and man are they good at it! It's a classic pastime in Japan and there are always heaps of people getting series of cheeky snaps taken. The most fun part is the photo-modification that comes after the photos are taken. This is a process that involves selecting your favourite photos then using touch-screens and other gadgetry to modify the photos. The results are snaps that look nothing like the originals! Stars on peoples' faces, wacky glasses over the eyes, hats, makeup etc - it's hilarious! You can quickly see why Japanese people love it - the colours are amazingly bright and everyone already knows how much Japanese people love photos!
The next stop was a cake shop for hot chocolate and cake mmmmmmm. The food at home always seems so boring when you're travelling that's for sure. After cake we booked dinner at a local Izakaya restaurant then went and took more wacky photos hehe.
Now, Izakaya. What is it, I hear you ask? In simple terms it's a Japanese buffet but you don't need to get up from your table. This particular place was 3000 JPY for guys and 2800 JPY for girls (I guess they assume the guys will eat more than the girls!). Those prices covered all you can could eat and drink so we were in for quite a feast. We had gyoza, caesar salad (not very Japanese but still) and a whole load of other Japanese dishes, all ordered by tapping on a wireless touch-screen computer at your table. The food arrives very fast which means you get full pretty quick - it'd be impossible to leave without being full in fact! To drink we had "umeshu", a drink that is now my new favourite. It's plum wine but this variation was probably the thicker "koi umeshu" which is more like a liqueur than a wine. It's sooooooooooooooo good! If you can track it down in your local asian supermarket I can highly recommend it. After Izakaya we headed our separate ways and arranged to meet up with Raukura again another day.
The next morning we got up at a reasonable hour (haha yeah right) then decided to wander up the hill to catch a ride up the local gondola to see the stunning views of Kobe and the surrounding area. Unfortunately the gondola was closed so we had to walk up the hill but the views were stunning nonetheless. On the way up we got to see one of the local attractions, ironically a collection of houses built in the style of very non-Japanese cultures. There are houses from The Netherlands, Denmark, England and many other places. They stand out like crazy amongst the Japanese scenery but they were very cool to see.
The next stop after walking for ages was lunch. We met up with Gina, one of Becky's friends, and headed to one of the local curry joints. Curry? In Japan? Hell yes! The are very proud of their katsu curry, a dish of pork cutlets with rice, all covered with curry sauce. I'd already discovered my new favourite drink, umeshu, and I reckon katsu curry is possibly my new favourite food! They're usually served with korokke, a deep-fried potato cake basically the same as the french croquette. Mmmmmmmmmmm soooo good!
After lunch we were taken to a local Kobe speciality similar to the NZ $2 shop, appropriately called the Y100 shop (100 yen shop). They are the craziest mix of knick-knacks ranging from shot glasses with pictures of Family Guy characters to massive collections of clothing that wouldn't look out of place on the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo.
The next logical stop after a hard day's tramping about was a local Irish bar, one of Becky and Raukura's regular hangouts. The real reason for going there, of course, was for Becky to 'say hello' to the bar staff ... she quite likes them (in fact I think the description was 'the most beautiful man on the planet' or something like that hehehe sorry Becky!). While there we met a couple of other English-teaching folk, this time from Canada. Because we're so slack and haven't written posts soon enough we can't remember everyone's names but one of them was called Suki - quite appropriate for living in Japan! One of the more interesting moments in the bar came about when a guy who had been hanging around outside decided it time to enter the bar himself. He turned out to be Italian and was unbelievably drunk! He basically couldn't stand up and the poor bar staff were left to fend for themselves while this guy begged them for a drink and attempted conversation with every person present. Because of the typical Japanese politeness and hospitality they were very apologetic when he eventually left - as it was their fault. All in all a very entertaining and welcome break from sight-seeing.
After the bar we all decided it was time eat so we went in search of food. Most places in Kobe close around 9:00 p.m. which threw a bit of a spanner in our plans but we eventually found a really nice eatery that served our favourite food - Izakaya style! After eating ourselves silly and downing more umeshu we called it a night and headed back towards Becky's place for some badly needed sleep.
The following day we had planned to jump on the train and head to Osaka but we were way too slack and got up too late to make it there with enough time to make it worthwhile. Instead we bummed around Kobe, did some shopping and met up with Becky and Gina for another interesting food experience - Nabe. It's easiest to describe this as a Japanese fondue although all the meats (chicken balls, chicken slices and beef) along with the vegetables are put into a massive pot containing your choice of soup base. Our soup choice was kimchi - pretty spicy! It's all done over an open flame similar to fondue and as things are cooked you fish them out and consume - soooooooooooo good!
The following day we got up and made it out to Osaka. After wondering if we had got off at the right stop (as always) we wandered about for a while and found a massive ride that looked kinda like a ferris wheel crosses with the London Eye (Google if you're not sure what that is). We tried to buy tickets but the Japanese kanji characters totally stumped us. We managed to get some tickets out of the machine but had no idea what they were for (we hadn't put any money in at this point). Assistance was called for so we asked the local assistants for help but a combination of us not speaking Japanese and not being able to explain that we needed tickets ended up in them gesturing that we should just get on the ride anyway - score! Anyway, the ride wasn't a thriller by any stretch of the imagination but instead a sedate cruise around an oval track that took us waaaay up above Osaka - what an amazing view! Snappy clicky went our cameras and we went crazy taking rooftop shots of Osaka. Very very cool.
The rest of Osaka is very much setup for shopping so we took in the sights of huge Japanese shops before and after eating more Japanese curry - I tell ya, we're hooked on the stuff.
Back in Kobe we met up with Raukura and Becky for dinner at a really cool place we'd been told about a couple of times. It was a vegan/vegetarian joint and it surprisingly good considering I'm basically a carnivore. :) After that we made it down another local bar for a drink with them and one of their local friends, a very cool guy called Ryota. It was a nice relaxing evening during which they related stories of their experiences while teaching at Japanese schools and how they are teaching the local kids stuff in English they probably shouldn't know. They had us in stitches as usual! Becky and Raukura should team up as a comedy duo - they'd make millions!
So that was our last evening in Kobe. Becky is a total legend for letting us stay at hers for as long as we did and for showing us around her local town. Becky is awesome! That'll mean more to her than most people, honest.
Next stop ... Hiroshima.
