Wednesday 19th March

8:00am sees us alongside in Kobe the home of the famous Kobe beef of renowned quality so tender it is said to melt on the tongue, no we didn’t have any. Kobe is also the home of a number of Sake brewers, yes we did have some, I liked it Carol didn’t, I had hers too.

Kobe is another place that has suffered earthquakes. In 1995 an earthquake measuring 7.3 destroyed most of the city killing 6,443 and leaving 300,000 homeless. As Japan’s sixth largest city, it must have had a big effect on the country.

We were not on a tour here so we caught the shuttle bus into town 15mins and after a walk round China town (yes all Japanese cities seem to have one) we jumped on the hop on hop off bus, which turned out to be a hop on only as there were so many waiting at each stop we didn’t think we would get back on if we got off. The commentary was by a lovely young Japanese girl who almost sang her commentary (Carol described it as lilting) couldn’t understand a word of it of course, but after a while it began to sound like a lullaby and I found myself drifting off, was she just repeating the same thing? After a full circuit, we got off and needing to find a loo we decided to go into a nearby department store by the name of Daimaru which turned out to be quite interesting, apart from the fact that all the ladies queuing for their loo could see straight into the gents at a long line of men stood facing the wall, bit off-putting to say the least. But while I was waiting for Carol I watched staff entering and leaving the office. Before they entered, they turned and bowed to the store and when they came out they bowed to the store even if no one was watching. Can’t see it catching on in Debenhams somehow.

Anyway, as we were in the store we decided to have a look round and went down to the food section in the basement. It was fascinating, a fantastic variety of cakes and breads and the fish section sold pre packed live giant prawns amongst other live fish. Can’t imagine that catching on in Tesco somehow. After that we decided to walk back to the ship where we wandered around all the exhibits on stands in the terminal. You could take part in the Japanese tea ceremony if you wanted but I thought it too much faff to get a cup of tea so I had a pint of Japanese beer which was surprisingly good, tawny straw colour, but not at all like lager. I spent a while trying to upload some pictures which gave me an excuse for another pint and Carol went back on board. Later an all-girl band started playing traditional Japanese music on those guitars that lay on the floor, at which point I went back on board. Before we sailed we were entertained by two dragons following each other around nose to tail. You could hardly see the people underneath 🙂 .