Trip to Kobe

This week has been very eventful for me. Less than four hours ago I returned from a trip to Kobe, which was significant for a few reasons. It was my first time to leave the Kanto area in Japan (after living here for three years!), it was my first overnight trip in Japan, and it was also a trip to say goodbye to a friend and former co-worker, Mary, who is moving back to America at the end of this month.





I left Wednesday evening after finishing work and met my friend, Char, at Shinagawa to catch the Shinkansen. I was fairly excited because it was also my first time riding the bullet train as well. We didn't arrive in Kobe until 23.30 or so, but I wasn't tired enough to go to bed yet, so Char and I went for a walk. We ended up at the grocery store where I bought Ramune-flavored Kit-Kats! After returning to the hotel, I had to force myself to get some sleep, because I knew that my trip would be short, so I wanted to make the most of it.


Yesterday was a big day for me. I knew that it would be my only day in Kobe, so I made sure to carefully plan out all of the places I wanted to visit. I also made sure to get some advice from my friend who lives in that city. All that preparation really paid off, because I was able to do nearly everything that I had planned and even found a few other things that I hadn't expected.



Early yesterday morning I made a visit to a large temple across the street from my hotel. After that I took a little time to walk around the neighborhoods before I met my friends. Char and Mary had different plans than I that day, so I was on my own. After they left to go to Osaka, I went to the port and had a look around. I followed that up with a visit to China Town, where I ate really delicious tantan-men, and Motomachi Shopping Street. I bought a lot of souvenirs for my family, which was good, but the bags were really heavy to carry around!



In the afternoon I took the ropeway up the mountain and visited the herb garden. I usually don't enjoy just looking at flowers, but I had some nice specialty ice cream and then enjoyed walking around the Kitano neighborhood as well.




After that, I returned to the hotel to leave behind some of my bags and rest a little. Later in the evening, I went out to meet Char and Mary for a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant. Very spicy, very delicious food!



The hardest part of my day was at the end. I hated to say goodbye to my friend, but I know that she's ready to move on to something bigger and better. I would encourage any of you who took her classes when she worked here to send her an e-mail and wish her well. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you!



Now that I've taken some time to travel around to another part of the country, I'm already looking forward to my next trip. (If any of you have a good suggestion, be sure to let me know!)


▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【To Be American】2009.05.22 (Fri)