Traveling to Kobe

Today we went to Kobe! Though before we made it to Kobe, it was pouring rain and thunder and lightning in Yokohama. I was worried that it would be raining in Kobe area, but it looks like rain is expected only for today and Monday and we should have clear skies over the weekend. Whew. Here is a picture from the balcony of my apartment in Yokohama. You probably can't see the rain, but you can see how wet it is on the ground. The umbrellas were pretty soaked by the time we made it to the bus.

When we got to the train station, I accidentally only bought the express part of the ticket and not the fare ticket. So after getting the fare ticket, I thought we were late for the train we paid to take. It turned out that all the trains were running late. We found out later that there had been a 6.8 earthquake and so the trains had stopped running. We were waiting at the platform for nearly an hour and ended up buying a number of snacks and drinks. Here is a picture of the people waiting for the train, including Greg.


















Once we got on the train, we checked out the bento box that we bought from the mini-konbini at the station.  The display looked prettier and it wasn't as yummy as I thought, but it wasn't bad.
 

And so we arrived in Kobe! Here is our shinkansen about to leave the station.

It's so good to be back in Kobe. Even though we aren't able to stay in the house, I booked us a hotel close to the house. [Pictures to come.] We pass through a mall on the way to the house from Shin-Kobe station. We never really took a look around there before, but it might be an interesting place to explore. We discovered a carriage and horses made out of lights and checked it out. I didn't take any pictures of it because I got distracted by the store next to it that sold all things cats. I made the pictures super big so you can see the items in the store.

































I particularly like the top left and right shirts.































Cute!

After checking into the hotel, I showed Greg around the area. We went by the house and said hi then walked down to Sannomiya. It was really busy on the streets at night. We decided to eat at this ramen restaurant that seemed to feature cats. Here is the outside of the restaurant and the lights above our heads inside the restaurant.



















And a picture that they had hanging of... more cats!













 And here is one of the pages of their menu that had little chicks all over it. This dish is egg and rice. ..man I should have ordered this. This is like what I used to have for breakfast during the Hayama orientation.











I ordered the "yasai ramen" (vegetable ramen, meaning it had carrots, onions, spring onions, and corn in it) and asked them take out the chashu and add egg. It was pretty yummy though a little salty. I really like having egg, either boiled or fried, in my soups. Yum yum I like ramen a lot! Vegetarians have a hard time eating ramen because its base is often meat- or fish-based. I want to be able to eat meat though in situations where it's less awkward to just eat meat, so I've relaxed a bit on what I eat and don't eat. Can't quite bring myself to eat chunks of meat, but this is okay for now.