Day 106 in Japan - Under the Train Line

Hung around at home for quite a while this morning recovering from a big day yesterday - Sam and I slept in, then cooked scrambled eggs on toast as a welcome breakfast for Mum and Dad (any excuse for scrambled eggs). When we got going, we headed into Sannomiya. The mission for the day was to walk between Sanno and Kobe stations under the train lines, looking at all of the little interesting shops along the way.

Got to Sannomiya and headed to the shrine. Lucky we did - there were tons of little kids dressed in their finest clothes for the 7-5-3 thingo. Really gorgeous little kids on a sunny day in front of the bright red shinto shrine made for quite a lovely sight. And they even threw in a wedding for us! Thanks, Japan.

Then wandered streets around Sanno station looking at restaurants for a little while. Ended up eating at a nice Japanese-style restaurant. I got Namba chicken, which is like fried chicken with mayonnaisey delicious sauce that I can't quite exaplin right, but there was a bit of garlic, onion and almost a potato saladishness about it. With some kind of sweet, fruity sauce underneath. It was AWESOME! Others got hamburg steaks with various sauces or soups in, on or under them.

After lunch, we headed off to the under train station shops. The shops started out quite classy up near Sannomiya station, but got progressively grimier, dodgier and cooler as we walked west. We had a short break near Motomachi station at some cool looking provincial shop place and Godiva hot chocolate.

Later, we had another break for a park stop, but instead found love hotel, boxing studio, motorcycle chop shop and a gun shop. In that order. Seriously.

We upped the pace a little from then on, because most shops were closed. By the time we got to Kobe station, we were all a little buggered (and desperately needed some toilets), but we could see some intriguing lights just south of the station. We investigated a little, and found ourselves knee deep in Harbourland! Harbourland is a pretty famous tourist and date place, and it was all beautifully lit up for Christmas. We wandered, looked at all of the pretty lights, found a cool kinetic machine (called Din Don) and watched bowling balls and pool balls running around various paths, ringing bells and spinning wheels. We saw a big lit-up Christmas tree and then walked out to the harbour to find Kobe Tower and the marine park reflecting their lights off the water, the ferris wheel and other amusement rides. I was hungry by then, so I made everyone come back with me to Mos Burger! YAY! Japanese burgers restored enough of my flagging energy to get me back on the train home, up the road to our house and into bed. It's such a shame I have to work while Mum and Dad are here - there is so much that I want to do with them!!

Food Highlight of the Day: Godiva chocolate milkshake - it was filled with thousands of chunks of real chocolate! I got a milk chocolate one, Mum got a dark chocolate one, and Sam and Dad both got hot chocolates. They were absolutely luscious.