Old Friends and Jet Lag

Well, we finally started our vacation! After a restless night of sleep, aided by a wonderful bout of stomach sickness that Sumi so kindly shared with me, we were off to Kobe to visit our former teacher Suzuki-san! The Shinkansen was, as usual, a fast, comfortable and easy ride. 150MPH never felt smoother. Arriving at Shin-Kobe Station, we called Suzuki-san from a payphone, which was an adventure in itself. Eventually, Sumi pushed the correct magical combination of buttons, we met up with Suzuki-san, and were off for a tour of Kobe, but first, food!

Okonomiyaki! Pork, cabbage and other unidentified vegetables with a tangy sauce, made better with mayo!

Suzuki-san found a small restaurant that we never would have known existed (or been brave enough to to open the door to!) had we walked right by it. The big one on the right was all mine. I probably should have gone for the small size, but it was worth it! Umai!

Afterwards, we took an automated train (no conductor, entirely robotic) out to a large, entirely man-made island that contains a number of important buildings, like Kobe University, the Kobe Airport and Kachoen (Flower and Bird Park). Kachoen was very interesting. Many tame birds that were free to fly around you (or land on you) that you would never see anywhere else.

(sorry, Blogger doesn't let me show them in rows, just one at a time)

There was a short bird show which featured Sakura, the Owl flying very low over all of us. She was very well behaved. No pellets, no one got clawed (though I got hit by her wing on one particularly low pass) and she posed for the camera very nicely.

In another room, there were a number of Toucans. Sumi had the "honor" of having them eat out a cup from her hand. Those beaks can sever a finger, but they were very gentle and careful.

The flower part of the park was equally as nice, with many different varieties of flora, including a water lily pond, with some enormous pads that could hold up to 100kg of weight!

After the park, we took a walk around Kobe, a very modern city with great architecture and some really interesting pedestrian streets, including many open air shopping arcades. We walked around for quite a while, which may have been a little boring for Suzuki-san, but we enjoyed very much, visiting a small Chinatown, a boardwalk by the harbor and another small, but popular, Gyoza shop for a dinner of Gyoza and Yakisoba.

The Kobe Opera House

Gyoza(pan-fried dumplings) and Yakisoba(Fried buckwheat noodles with pork and seasoning)

 After an exhausting day (for us), we called it a night at the late. late hour of 8PM (jet lag is worse on the second day, then gets better). This is the second time we've visited Suzuki-san in Kobe, and the second time we visited her right after arriving, so we were zombies and probably not all that interesting. We promise next time we'll visit later in the trip so we'll be awake! Arigatou gozaimasu!