Passover, Harborland, and beef.
What should have been a quick train ride took almost two hours.
We dropped off our bags, got changed, armed ourselves with umbrellas, and set out to find the JCC Kobe for our passover seder.
The walk took a little bit of time, we ended up getting lost close to our destination, as the roads and maps can be bit a tricky in Japan.
We eventually reached the JCC and enjoyed a nice Passover Seder with over 200 expats. I didn’t take any photos during the seder, but I can definitely say it was a very unique experience that I was happy to be a part of.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel, it was friday night, which meant that the streets were full of drunk salarymen.
Weary of traveling, we called it an early night, and celebrated Passover by watching “Exodus: Gods and Kings” in our hotel room.
We got an early start, as there was much to explore in Kobe.
I was starving and really wanted to try MOS Burger
Time to explore Harborland!
Next to the water, there were a ton of small shops, we finally identified our egg friend, his name is Gudetama, and he is the lazy egg.
We exited the mall and went the wrong way, which was cool because we saw what looked some retrofuturistic architecture, it felt like Universal Studios.
After a slight detour we found our way back to the harbor.
Next to groups of people taking selfies, we stumbled upon Kawasaki Good Times World. We didn’t go inside because the boat out front was all you really need to see. Introducing…
YAMATO 1: The Superconducting Electromagnetic Propulsion Boat
“Yamato 1 is driven by electromagnetic force generated by superconducting electromagnets. When the magnetic field is produced perpendicular to the boat’s direction, with the electric current flowing at a right angle, the magnetic power acts on the stern. The electromagnetic power generated by the magnetic field and electric current pushes out sea water in the duct backwards and its drag drives the boat. Therefore, this boat has no screw propeller and sails without contaminated the sea. Yamato 1 successfully propelled in the Port of Kobe on June 16th, 1992, for the first time as a boat of this type.”
We reached our destination, Kobe’s shopping district.
After shopping, we had some time to kill before our late dinner.
I was getting hungry and desired a snack, At that moment I discovered the most glorious fried chicken, almost directly across the street.
We dropped off our things and got changed for dinner. We were saddened to hear that all our desired Kobe michelin restaurants were fully committed. During the sakura high season, almost every type of accomodation was booked. Our hotel did manage to get us into a late dinner reservation.
After our many meat course dinner, we walked back to the hotel, we had to get up early and we also wanted to finish the never ending Exodus movie.
We woke to the same mountain fog that was present before we went to sleep.
It was time to explore the last bit of Kobe before heading to Osaka. We went up to Kitano, a hilly area, where we saw the weirdest thing in Japan. They were also singing and dancing, maybe part of a music video, but it didn’t really sound like music…
We did a city loop and packed up for our next destination, Osaka!
