The local train seemed to make a lot of stops along the way, otherwise the trip would have been even quicker. Disembarking at the other end I wasn't watching and smashed my head on the way out. Hurt a whole lot. First stop of the day was to take the ropeway (cable car thing) up to the top of the mountain. It's hard to get lost when you can see the mountains towering over the city, although finding the entrance to the ropeway station wasn't quite as easy. As you take off the little cart shakes a fair bit, but after that it's all smooth sailing. The view from the top was decent, you can see pretty much all of Kobe looking down.
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| Looks safe enough... |
We walked back down to the middle station - that's about half way up the mountain if you hadn't guessed, there's a herb garden and glasshouse along the way, great if you like herbs! and flowers! Walking the whole way down would have taken too long, so jumped back on the ropeway for the rest of the way.
Next stop was to check out Harbortown which has supposedly been / is being redeveloped into an entertainment and shopping district. Perhaps it went down in the last earthquake. We had to do some kind of ticket transfer between two train lines / companies that failed spectacularly, the machine just ate the ticket instead! It seemed like we were close enough to Harbortown to walk the rest of the way, through downtown Kobe and the China Town district as an added bonus. The downtown area is a lot less busy than Osaka and not nearly as much sound and lights, also not as much of a tourist town in general it seems, as the guide books say.
Reaching Harbortown was turning out to take a lot longer than expected, I think we almost reached the eastern side of it, but to get around to the other side would have been at least a half hour each way - they should build a train station out there! So, turned back to find somewhere for lunch. Kris wanted to find somewhere that was selling Kobe beef, but didn't have any luck, mostly due to the lack of English menu I suppose.
Finished up in Kobe and this time got the express train back, much quicker. I again went on a solo quest to find a laptop cable, this time at Yodobashi Camera. Just when I was about to give up, success! I have computer power again, what a relief, no more 10% battery life per day limit. Yodobashi is even bigger than Bic Camera, it has a whole floor of games and toys, although far too much of the figurines and model kits for my liking, don't understand why adults are buying that stuff.
After living on Fanta grape soda for the last few days I decided to buy a litre of grape juice instead. Bad idea. 950ml down the sink.
The internet was broken so I went for a walk down Shinsaibashi-suji in the opposite direction - this street just keeps going on forever, it's easily longer than Flinders Street to the other end of the city, all undercover and just shops. I came across a store that was selling Jumbo Pocky! - Pocky in a cereal box for about $15 and a Mister Donut - choose your own donuts store.
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| Giant Pocky ! |
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