Day 9 - Kobe, Japan

On Wednesday, April 30th, we arrived in Kobe, Japan around noon.  Before that, I geeked out and went to this program on the ship where one of the captains came and spoke about what it took to run the ship.  Very cool.

This boat came and dumped a local captain off to help the cruise captains into their familiar port.

We all got off and they bussed us to downtown Kobe.  It was only about a 10 minute ride.

Check out this clock made of flowers.

The streets were actually really pretty and clean.  Different from China.  Japan was cleaner and people were nicer.

We walked the back streets to get the most culture.

McDonalds.  We may have eaten there.  At this point, we needed real food and a bit of normalcy.

Then we tried to take the train but we ended up just walking instead.

We asked a lot of locals for help.

Most of the younger people in Japan are being taught English in school so when we had to ask for help, we asked someone our age or younger.

They have a quiet time from 3-4pm and no one is really out and about.  We ended up finding a bar that would serve us.  

Bunch of crazy Americans.  We paid $9 USD a beer.  Insane.

We met a new best friend.  He just sat there with us all and watched.

This was our waiter.  He had one of us his buddies bring us a bottle of sake.  That was nice of him!

Then we went to place number two and caused another ruckus.

This was in an area that an American couple we met on the street took us to.  They had just moved to Kobe from Boston in January and they were so kind to walk us about 20 minutes to a cool area of town.

These two guys were definitely dancing and singing their little hearts out and they had an audience.  Cracked me up.

Place #3 - Irish pub.  

They all do the peace sign in pictures.  

Then we found our dinner restaurant that had been recommended to us by several different people.  Kobe Steakplace.

Sake was actually hard to come by.  Not many places had it which surprised us.  They call it something different over there so that was our first problem.  

  

Kevin and I each got the Special Kobe Beef Steak Dinner.  Go all out right?!

Half of our table.  It was kinda like an American Japanese steakhouse but when this guy cooked, it wasn't a show.  It was real cooking.

We were so loud in there.  Shrimp, scallops and octopus.  I tried the octopus.  Kevin did not.

This salmon was delish.

Their version of an appetizer.  Under the zucchini is that brown thing..they said it was a potato.  It was not a potato.

BEEF!

Not the soup we are used to.  This was just like vegetable soup instead of the clear soup.

My first piece of Kobe beef.  It literally melted in my mouth.  

They also sauted these garlic chips.  Oh my.  Mouth watering now.  We told him medium on the steak. This was definitely rare but we're glad because he cooked it the way it should have been done.  You could cut it with a fork!

You can see the other half of our group behind the chef.

Then they cook the gristle and put it with sprouts.  

See?  It was really good actually.

Dessert - sorbet - pink for girls, white for guys.

She was the sweetest waitress.

Wearing his wife's glasses.

Hot sake!

It was only 9:30 but we were the last ones in there.

We walked towards another place and it was closed.  Everything shuts down so early there.  These flowers were amazing.

It was along Flower Road in Kobe.

Then we took a cab back to the boat.  They drive on the wrong side of the road and sit on the wrong side of their cars to drive.  Well wrong for us.  Correct for them.

After dinner drink at the Martini Bar on board.  Of course his company had their own napkins made for the cruise to use.

I wasn't feeling the best at this point (head cold) so I took a Benedryl and slept.  The next morning I was much better.  We stayed in Kobe over night until mid day.  I'll tell you about some street food I ate the next day tomorrow.