Kobe-shi & Dotonbori (Second Day in Japan)

Hi everyone, welcome to my second post. Here I would like to share my second day in Japan exploring the city of Kobe. I woke up early like at 6 in the morning and went out of the hotel in 7. My itinerary told me to go to Kobe so I went there because of that. Because Kobe is like very far from Osaka so I have to bought another train ticket. I went to Umeda station and bought the Hankyu Railway 2 day Pass to reach Kobe at the tourist information center. You have to show your passport to eligible for buying the ticket. Here is the ticket.

Umeda station is the first huge and busy train station I have ever seen. There are so many people and they walked like ridiculously fast! (why not chill man)... I almost got hit by the hordes of people many time.

anyway, the train to Kobe was surprisingly very nice. I meant the train. I really admired the Japanese for their obsession with cleanliness. It's hard to find something that is not clean and tidy here.

So... I have finally arrived in Kobe...

First thing that I did was to search for where I could buy the Kobe City Loop Bus one day pass. My itinerary doesn't have any information about that so I asked the local who speak a very little english about it (using google translate) and she told me that I could buy it inside the bus. So yeah, here is the inside of the bus.

You could see on the picture above that there is this Bus Girl, she gave information about Kobe, attend to the passengers needs and act as a cashier as well. She really does have a super cute voice :p. Now my next destination is Nunobiki Herb Garden located up in the hill. It was not in my itinerary but the bus girl with her super cute voice recommended me to go there. I could not resist such kawaii influence on me so yes I took the recommendation.

Hai! Welcome to Kobe Nunobiki Herb Gardens & Ropeway~

Visiting this place was actually the same as a light hiking to the hill. But no worries we could just take the cable car to go up the hill. Fortunately, I went there early morning so no long queue to the cable car.

The top of the garden is filled with fresh air and wonderful scenery. I also tried for the first time in my life a Lavender Ice Cream........ yeap Lavender. It tastes and smells like lavender. Surprisingly it was really good! you should try whenever you visit!

After indulging my self in a wide open space filled with fresh air while enjoying the lavender ice cream, I went to visit a famous Chinatown in Kobe. It is called Nankinmachi. Well, as usual it is filled with shops selling chinese food and chinese goods. Go take a look at my pic.

Well it is time for lunch! Because mostly these chinese restaurants are selling porks....I decided to find a Japanese restaurant instead. Not that they didn't sell pork but I feel Non-pork menu in Japanese restaurants are much cleaner than the chinese :) . So I found this little japanese restaurant called miyuki and tried the Nabeyaki Udon... It was so good....

The lady who is a waitress at the restaurant asked about where I am from and where would I go next. I told her that I am travelling alone and going to Kyoto and Tokyo for the rest of the trip. She then gave me a worried look on her face :( and told me to be careful. Here is the front door of the restaurant. Quite tempting isn't it. Ah you don't have to hesitate to go in the japanese restaurant because you don't speak the language. They provide english menu eventhough they didn't speak english.

Well after a long day in Kobe... I decided to go back to Osaka to spend my night in Dotonbori. Dotonbori is famous for shopping and food destination. at night it is lit by hundreds of neon signs and mechanized signs. One of the famous signs is the Glico - Running Man Sign. I also tried the takoyaki in one of the famous takoyaki vendor called achichi honpo and sat by the river enjoying the environment. Here take a look.