WEBmikey: Japan 2005: Days 8-9

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Japan 2005: Days 8-9
8.29.2005 6:48 PM \| Link	After waking up and having a nice breakfast of fresh fruit, Kumiko had to run off to school - her holiday was over. Matt and I rode the bikes to their garden again for some quick watering. It was still fun to ride, although it was a little scarier this time. Since we went a little later in the morning, there was additional traffic to surprise me - I still really enjoyed the ride, though! After a quick rest and a change of clothes, Matt and I rode the train to Kobe to explore the city and take pictures. Kobe was really nice, with lots of people going about their business and tall buildings to look at with cool pedestrian walkways. The weather was fantastic, so I really enjoyed just walking through the city. I wanted to do some shopping for a few more things on my wish list, so we wandered through a big department store, and eventually down a nice shopping street that turned out to be a success! First we found a nice Japanese wind chime like I was looking for (and Matt handled asking the clerk if we could buy the display model!), and then we went to two fun CD shops (to buy some songs I had written down after watching the videos). The first store was kind of difficult, since everything is alphabetized differently in Japanese (I pretty much understand how it works, but this store was still confusing). They had some good prices on some used CDs, though, and later when we went to a much bigger, modern CD store, I was able to find nearly everything I wanted! We stopped at a nice little place for lunch, and I had zaru soba (cold soba noodles) and Matt had udon, and then we were ready for some serious walking. Matt needed to take photos in a particular Kobe neighborhood to enter a photography contest, so off we went. On the way we found a really wonderful temple that just popped up out of nowhere. It had a great inner courtyard with a pond and waterfall, and I was amazed at how a temple can provide such a peaceful place in the middle of a busy city. We made it to our destination, and this part of Kobe was all steep narrow streets with lots of tourist shops and restaurants - it kind of reminded me of San Francisco. There was a kind of wedding expo going on, so we saw lots of places advertising photos, venues, and so on. There wasn't too much to inspire Matt's photography, but we had a good time together and enjoyed the exercise! We were both pretty sleepy on the train home, and we had a nice rest before heading out to dinner. I hadn't had tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) yet on this trip, so Kumiko found a good tonkatsu restaurant for our dinner. Matt and I met her at Umeda (after her school day), and Bubu was there, too. After we got to the restaurant and got settled, Bubu had a gift for me! I received three excellent handkerchiefs with beautiful patterns on them - they were really nice, and I couldn't thank her enough. Dinner was really delicious (and filling), and Matt and I had a great time reading the English menu, which contained some of the funniest translations ever, including "The pork cutlet whose leaf of cheese was pinched." After dinner we said goodbye to Bubu and went back to Matt & Kumiko's apartment where I did all of my final packing (which was interesting after all that shopping!),watched cartoons and drank whisky. I said goodbye to Kumiko before I went to bed, since she had to be off to school again early in the morning. On my last morning in Japan for this trip, Matt made me a great egg and Spam breakfast, which we ate while watching more music videos. Later we walked to Kumiko's parents place so I could say goodbye, and Kumiko's mom had a nice lunch (udon and an unagi dish) waiting for me. She also had a gift for me - a fantastic table runner (which looks wonderful in my house)! After eating, Matt and I walked back home to get all of my things, and soon Kumiko's parents arrived to drive us to the bus station. It was sad to say goodbye to Otousan and Okaasan, and especially to Matt, who had been such an amazing and generous host and guide! I waved goodbye to everyone from the bus, and only 20 hours later, I was home in Austin, as excited as ever about Japanese language and culture. View photos: Day 8 Labels: japan, photos, trips


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