DayTwo

Nihon Genki Yo!

Kobe, Sannomiya

Rise and shine cuz the early bird's the one which catches the worm! So that's the same for us. In order to ensure that we catch the JR train to Kobe, we decided to arrive at the train station at 5.30am. *yawn*

Yup, the train's departing at 6.30am, but we had decided 1 hr in advance should be just fine. That's kiasu singaporeans for you. Well, we had initially intended to allow us some buffer time to get lost trying to find the train station and also to figure out the mind-boggling transport network. Seems like we're pretty street smart after all. *beams*

Mister patiently queueing for the train which probably was scheduled to arrive like 1hr later? But that's the commendable thing about Japanese, they are so darn orderly. My jaw hung open for quite a while when I saw how they queued for trains. Or rather, *ahem*, we were frowned upon when we conveniently (and happily) trudged (unknowingly) into the train without queueing.

Here comes the train, but nahhh..not ours. Luckily the train conductor stopped us, otherwise who knows where we'll end up at. =X

Comeon now, Everybody in orderly twos for the approaching train!

We see the world in our shadows (:

TrainConductor-san dressed up ever so smartly for his train.

I dont know if its me or he's trying real hard to avoid us. Probably cuz we bothered him with too many questions. =X

Hah! Our Train to Kobe finally reached! Off to Kobe we go!

And I've come to appreciate (maybe totally-adore will be a more apt) my JR Rail Pass. No need for confusing ticket purchases. Just flash and go! And judging by the number of JR trips we took, it's so damn worth it! $439 (for a period of 7 days) well spent! The only low point probably accrued to Japan's much-too-established train network. Its quite impossible to avoid taking other types of train other than the JR. So, we still had to fork out a lil bit of money for the subways, skytrains and whatnots.

We bought this cheap and PRETTY bento set at a convenience stall near the train station. We took great care not to splurge on stuff within the train station as it generally screams EXPENSIVE! Well, this bento set isnt exactly that cheap either. Okay, maybe its cheap for average Japanese standards? Anyways, we decided to watch our wallet and our weight (at the same time, much forcibly). Hence, we are sharing the bento set.

The admirable thing point about Japanese is that they are able to make potray every single thing as a piece of art. Even their staple food look so pretty and It sure makes one think twice about consumption

A Japanese we chat up told us about Nunobikinotaki (which is translated to mean : Nunobiki Waterfalls). Since its extremely near the Kobe JR Stn and we had to ride another subway train before reaching our Kobe Hostel, we decided on a crazy itinerary, ie. Trek Nunobikinotaki with our baggage and all before crashing at our hostel.

Here marks the start of our little morning nature trek. How healthy~ Oh gawd, the mere look at the inclination of the slope makes us kinda regret our hastily sponteneous decision. However, a decision made is an action to be completed! So off we continueeee..

Along with many other ojiisans and obaasans (all walking at a pace much faster than ours) *covers face and runs to hide* errr..It must be my heavy luggage weighing me down! *blames it all on the extra baggage* 0_o


Finally caught sight of our first waterfall! And to laoshu's dismay, there're 3 (i think) more to go. This means more walking and higher risk of getting crushed flat by our backpacks. We had niavely thought that the mere act of trekking ard with our backpacks would be sufficient training for our Kinabalu Climb. =X Oh well, we did make it back alive and in one piece right?

Mini Niagara Falls?

Japanese do love dogs, i realised. Just like Taiwanese and Americans, for that matter. You can almost find every Japanese family to own a doggie. And the best part is, they are able to walk their dogs almost everywhere in town. Okay, maybe not so much for Japanese. But Taiwanese and American malls usually allow pets. I was quite surprised when I was surrounded by doggies while shopping in a mall in LA. I still remembered playing with this chihuahua while on board a domestic flight in California. Hmmm, I wonder whether that chihuahua requires an air ticket for itself?




A pretty serene place to spend your lazy mornings, isnt it? Does resemble Taiwan, Hualien's Taroko Gorge a wee lil bit.

After quite a while of walking, we came across this cool bridge with vines coiling all around it. I was pretty excited to see where it will lead to eventually. A pity, i saw the dead end a lil too soon.

I think this is the map of the the whole trail?

Seems like Laoshu is doing pretty okay on one of the many MANY stairways packaged in the trail.

Up, up and away..with his bike?? I'm already like dying with my backpacks choking me! Hmmm..I guess my backpacks may be heavier than his mountain bike?

Looks like Laoshu isnt doing so well already. ascending slopes everywhere, rahhh!

Here comes defending champ...Worm Slayer! *claps*

Then comes the ultimate black horse...Wormy Warrior!

Round 1 ... FIGHT!

Wormy Warrior : You think you big-size, I scared izzit?!! *Pow! Bam! Wham! Slammm!*

And the winner of the World Worm Grand Slam goes to...*drumrolls*...Wormy Warrior!! *claps*

Well, we need to get our mind off the long long road ahead of us, dont we?


Just another 0.6km more to go! susu!

The Dam! The summit is near! I can just hear it calling out my name!

We made it! Hurray! '

(did i mention I so hate stairs now?)

Just a little lesson on Kobe's water supply system, which is cleverly demonstrated in this reservoir park.

Hmmm...I guess this should be the name of the founder?

Obviously, mating insects feeds on our interest

Tranquility of the reservoir

After much time resting in admiration of the reservoir, our eyes caught sight of stairs again! sighhhh

When there's up, there have to be down. So reaching the summit also spells descent for us. As can be seen from the map, cable car service is available but (sad to say), at quite an exorbitant figure. So...being a shoestring backpacker, we decided to embrace the closeness of nature...walk!

The adventurelust in us decided to abandon the average route everybody takes and try out a new trail. Life is boring enough. Sometimes, just a simple turn into the vast uncertainty can spark off some fun and excitement. But, we soon realised that there's a reason why everybody follows that designated route. We landed ourselves on a desolate vehicle road. So what if we are so darn lost?! There is still fun in every corner and we dont even have to look that hard.

Morning view of Kobe Inner City coupled with Carp kites signifying the Festival of Little Boys. Yet, we totally missed it, sighhh. Give me some cute little boys! errmm..sounds abit paedophilic here.

Time for some artsy fartsy wild snaptures before working out poor feet again...

- turning to your fate -

- lone backpacker -

yes, laoshu is pretty tired of this long, dejected road which apparently seems to lead to nowhere.

- desolation -

But every road will lead us to somewhere, always.

and tada! we were led to Uozaki Stn - the home of my fav hostel in Japan - Kobe Dears Backpacker's Hostel.

Introducing the long road into this quiet neighbourhood, which I heavily depend on when searching for my way back to the hostel

And we are probably the only ppl who actually walk to the Train Station, obviously!

Yup! We made it back to civilisation and its time to feed our growling tummies. Got recommended to this bento shop by dear Satoshi-san *awwwwww* (this cute guy at our hostel). Such a brilliant recommendation for backpackers alike. Cheap and good and did I mention large portions of food for the price paid too! This guy seems to be the only one manning the shop which means he's the chef, cashier, runner, packer and whatever other roles that might be needed. Pretty solid one-leg-kicking skills.

Best thing is, this bento shop is just a stone's throw away from our hostel (Kobe Dears Backpacker's Hostel) and all the other sake breweries! Oh i so love Kobe!

just look at THIS! oh man, i'm hungry again!

seems like laoshu is enjoying her brunch! and we so love that black weird appetizer bento boxes usually have. In case you're wondering which alfresco restaurant we are dining at, its the most luxurious smoking bench outside the Sake Factory (yeah, the one that serves free sake samples). With food, wine, alfresco setting and natural aircon, what more can we ask for? *beams*

In a blink of the eye, our bentoboxes turned to this. Devilishly delicious! And best of it all, its such a great value for money!

Yup, this is our fav place of Kobe! wahhaha!! FREE SAKE SAMPLING! and funny old ojiisan who kept filling our glasses with all kinds of sake. I had to tell him STOP like so many times. After a while, he started all over again. Oh mann, i love the yuzu sake!

Time to switch on our brains and start our little sake learning journey. They have a whole series of pictures and equipment illustrating the differences between the traditional and modernised sake production. They even showed a film about sake production, its benefits, history and modern japanese culture. quite cool, though my the first thought that came to my mind was CHAIRS FOR MY ACHING LEGS!!

as you can see, the tour is pretty interactive. Well, i dont really remember seeing a "No Touching" sign. Okay fine, even if there really is one, I wouldnt understand it anyway. lalala~

This shows the modernised and high-techy method of sake production. The machines are basically doing what I'm demonstrating in the above and below pic - grinding of rice and sedimentation

Sedimentation of fermented rice in the olden days.

Just a few of the vast sake collection of this factory

" Hmmm..so you mean there's more sake factories around the area?! More FREE activities?! yuppieee!!"

Pretty flowers of Kobe unite!

anyway, the one on the bottom left hand corner resembles those flowers in Alice in Wonderland!

Come some bustling night life at Ikuta Road! Where we roam around in search for the legendary KOBE BEEF (which we probably would have a hard time debating whether we should showhand just for that miserable piece of heavenly beef).

kooooobeeeeeeeeee beeeeeeef!!!!!! *uncontrollable salivation* Its so hard to convince myself that such paper thin slices of beef costs such a freaking bomb! But the way they packaged it does kinda shout out its unbelievable price tag to me. omg, i'm gonna faint! definitely must try kobe beef! But no, this shop does not offer cooked ones. Search still in progress.

And then we obviously wandered into this international food street where they sell all kinds of cuisines but Japanese! -___-" While concentrating hard zooming in on the stall menus, I got stopped by this weird chinese/japanese/korean/just-some-weird-nationality and he started chatting! I tried telling him (at least 10 times) that i'm not interested in cuisines other than japanese and that i'm in a damn rush for my long overdued dinner but to no avail. And laoshu is nowhere to be found. Now I know she's off in a corner, shooting papparazzi pictures.

We found Kobe Beef! i repeat, KOBE BEEF! As you probably guessed it, due to its high-class price tag, we decided to share. Taste like tataki beef! *slurrrppp*

The mere thought of a need for such regulation does give me the spooks. Means that its pretty dangerous to be a lady at the train station, even at 5pm?!

Takopachi van right outside Uozaki Train station! Supper? heeheee! "Hello stunned-bro, so much food on your hands already still buying takopachi?!!"