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| Docking in Kobe Japan with Welcoming Band |
We docked at 7:00 AM this morning and had a rousing welcome in the form of a marching band. The band did not actually march this morning. Instead they played John Philip Susa tunes on the balcony of the Passenger Center.
Before we could actually see Kobe, everyone on the shop had to go through Customs where we were finger printed and photographed. It took us an hour and a half to waiting in line before we could get into the city.
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| Kobe Mall |
Our intent was to do a city orientation on our own using a hop-on-hop-off bus service that we had used in some of our other ports, but we could not figure out exactly where the Kobe version of this service traveled. We decided to walk toward a few block to see what was available. We found a market but decided to walk another block before dipping into the market stalls. A block or so from the market stalls was an open air mall that appeared to be constructed by turning one street into a walking only area and partially covering it. The mall was then created by the buildings on either side as one huge mall.
We started a casual stroll down the mall only to run into a French pastry shop. We just had to stop to see if the Japanese could make French style pastries. We quickly discovered
that, like many other things, they have superbly mastered the art of baking French pastries. We also discovered as we continued to walk through this mall, that they have done this not only in one or two shops in this mall, but a couple of time or more on every block in this mall. We are still not sure how big this “mall” is. We walked about 10 blocks in this mall and never did see the end of it.
We started out thinking that we could sample a pastry at the shops we saw, but gave that idea up about 2 blocks into the mall. By the time we had visited 3 French bakeries, a sidewalk shop advertising Kobe steak on a stick, a coffee house advertising a royal milk team drink and fresh chocolate croissants and another sidewalk shop selling Japanese style cream puffs, we had to give up the quest. We spent the rest of the day poking around the shops, looking at the Christmas decorations and listening to the old American Christmas carols.
We started a casual stroll down the mall only to run into a French pastry shop. We just had to stop to see if the Japanese could make French style pastries. We quickly discovered
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| Kobe Santa |
that, like many other things, they have superbly mastered the art of baking French pastries. We also discovered as we continued to walk through this mall, that they have done this not only in one or two shops in this mall, but a couple of time or more on every block in this mall. We are still not sure how big this “mall” is. We walked about 10 blocks in this mall and never did see the end of it.
We started out thinking that we could sample a pastry at the shops we saw, but gave that idea up about 2 blocks into the mall. By the time we had visited 3 French bakeries, a sidewalk shop advertising Kobe steak on a stick, a coffee house advertising a royal milk team drink and fresh chocolate croissants and another sidewalk shop selling Japanese style cream puffs, we had to give up the quest. We spent the rest of the day poking around the shops, looking at the Christmas decorations and listening to the old American Christmas carols.
We gave up trying to find the end of the mall and walk back through a large Chinese area. Julie did find a custard cup that she says is the best she has ever had. Unfortunitly we did not get back to buy more of them either because we could not find the store a second time or we were too far away to retrace our steps or some of both.
Having just come from Shanghai, we decided to find some other than Chinese food for dinner. We had dinner at an Italian pizza shop and then headed for SOGO - one of the large department stores on the way back to the ship. Stores like SOGO in Japan are a similar to Harrods in London - massive with goods and prices for everyone. Like Harrods, SOGO also has one floor dedicated to food. We were late getting to the store and did not realize that 8:00 PM was closing time. We managed to wonder around the food floor and taste bits of many things - all good. We also saw our first $100 fresh cantaloupe next to a cheaper version for only $50 (US dollars). Having eaten more than our share for the day, we headed back to the ship for the night.
Having just come from Shanghai, we decided to find some other than Chinese food for dinner. We had dinner at an Italian pizza shop and then headed for SOGO - one of the large department stores on the way back to the ship. Stores like SOGO in Japan are a similar to Harrods in London - massive with goods and prices for everyone. Like Harrods, SOGO also has one floor dedicated to food. We were late getting to the store and did not realize that 8:00 PM was closing time. We managed to wonder around the food floor and taste bits of many things - all good. We also saw our first $100 fresh cantaloupe next to a cheaper version for only $50 (US dollars). Having eaten more than our share for the day, we headed back to the ship for the night.
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| $100 Cantaoupe |
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