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It was an exciting day when we finally get out of Osaka once again to go even West, reaching Kobe.
Again we boarded Hankyu train, which is a more convenient way of visiting Kobe from Osaka. The nostalgic (brownish) colour is one of my favourite. It's cheaper compare to other trains, and the timing is just right when we get to Umeda station. We managed to catch the Express train.
Most poeple started out with going up hill before coming down. This time I wanted to try the reverse because I want to see the sunset from the mountain (which I personally think that I was quite wrong perhaps, wasn't able to control the time well because of 2 kids on toll).
Our first destination was reaching for the Ikuta Jinja (Ikuta Shrine) before anything else. It was near to Sannomiya train station. Actually if you come out from the correct exit, you can't be wrong, As for us, we got out from the wrong exit and time was wasted navigating back to our direction. The "TokyuHand" store with a hugh hand pointing in the direction where the shrine was, so watch out for "Tokyu Hand" if you are going to the Shrine and unsure where it was!
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| Outside the shrine |
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| Not bad huh, within the shrine compound, there stands a not so big lake with colour changing leaves |
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| ...and kinds of berries |
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| Shaking the bell. |
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| Saw this 3 years old little girl coming into the shrine when we were about to leave, so cute right? |
After visiting Ikuta Jinja, we headed back, cut through Sannomiya train station and shopping area again, we headed towards flower clock direction.
We walk along the road towards Sannomiya Hankyu Station again, not so difficult, passing by the Sannomiya Shopping Gai Street, we came to the place where the Flower clock is. Beautiful flowers were seen along the street.
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| Kobe Hana Tokei (Kobe Flower Clock) |
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| Spending some time appreciating the flowers and take some rest |
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| It's already 11.30am in the morning! |
Then we continue towards the "Sea" (South) direction and went up to Kobe City Hall Building to have a bird eye's view of Kobe City.We can see both the South (Sea view) and North (Mountain view) from this tall building. Luminarie structures could be seen as well.
After the view, we came down and walked towards the park. Not covering all parts of the Yuenchi as Luminarie light setting somewhat barricade some parts of it and we were then walking towards wherever there was a path to get out.
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| Kobe City Hall |
We were then on the way to explore the Old foreign Settlement. Many interesting buildings could be seen. Somewhat very Euro-American.
Slowly then we were walking towards Nankin-machi, which was the Chinatown of Kobe. Here we were familiar with most of the food. What attracted us was the queue at 曹家包子馆, so what was so special about it? We decided to join the queue!
（PS： 说真的， 如果你是华人，口味似油包子，包子咱吃多了就不算新奇，所以还是留给老外吧，你懂我意思。）
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| Kind of gluntinous rice dumpling. 不就是粽子吗？ |
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| Check out the price! Reasoonable price. Pipping hot from steamer. At least must buy 4! |
So after cutting through the Chinatown street briefly, we came out from the other end of Chinatown and walked towards Meriken Port Harbour. Again along the street was quite interesting. Foreign Settlement Buildings again.
Turning right and going straight, about 10 mins walk and we reached Kobe Port Harbour.
The first icon you see is the red Kobe Port Tower. We did not go up, but we went in and check what was on there. A few merchandise stores and nothing else. Boy had his favourite onigiri tabao from the convenience shop earlier and we bought coffee from the vending machine. This was lunch after munching the meat buns.
We took some photos and then we walked along the pavement along the Harbour in semi-circle counter-clockwise.
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| Oh this is the City Loop Bus. You can pay a 1 day free pass for this bus. It will take you to various attraction based on a loop map. Check it out at Sannomiya Station. |
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| Uncle feeding the kamome |
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| Pigeon verses Seagulls |
Walking along the Mosiac, went towards AnPan Man museum but did not enter due to time constraint. We wanna go to the mountain side asap as the sky was turning dark soon!
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| A full view from Ferry wheel side. Kobe Port towel, Meriken Museum and hotel |
Quickily, we left from Ferry Wheel side (of Mosaic shopping Street) and walked towards JR Kobe station, but the children were still having fun along the road, posing for pictures especially when they see the cute stone sculptures. They wanted to climb and ride on them. Even when we reached JR station, they were fascinated by the hugh moving screen!
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| Fascinated by the big moving screen inside the JR station |
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| Trying out the "butt warmer" |
And since all were hungry, we took a quick bite. Quick bite turned out waiting for bento and noodle at the station!
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| Quite reasonable right? S$10+ |
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| Mountain lighted up with the word :KOBE" |
And then it was time to head down.
The building of Starbuck was one of the beautiful building up there, very classic. If the time was still early, we would surely take a sip!
Nishimura Cafe was another nice classic cafe. It was actually one of the cafe on the list which I wanted to visit when first planned.
And then we continued to head down and down until we reached this bakery. Breads and bun costs a bomb, "hi-end" stuffs, but still we bought some as "dinner".
More restaurants with "hi-end" price along the way, too luxurious.
We decided to walk towards Tor Road to see if we could chance upon Luminarie without having to queue. The queue was super long and we couldn't afford the time, having to take train back to Osaka.
There, some parts of the Luminarie, which photography were actually prohibited.
Along the way, we ate these Dorayaki pancake!!! Not just the shape of the fish, but come attached with the side of the pan. Yum!!! Then continued to walk again.
Long queue starting almost from Chinatown side, walking towards Daimaru area. Too much barracade which made visitors hard to cut across even if we were not joining. AND you should NOT cut queue, if you want to join the event.
After having few glance, it was time to leave, so we took whichever ways we could, which lead to Sannomiya Hankyu. There, we say good bye to the beautiful Kobe, which I think 1 day is never enough.
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| Going back to Osaka |
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| We reached Osaka, Good Night and Merry Christmas |
