Kobe - 16 September

I had a leisurely start to my day since my trip didn’t begin until 9:15 so I was actually able to get breakfast this morning. I was the trip leader for this excursion which meant that I had to take names and make sure we had everybody on the bus after each stop. Not particularly difficult but sort of inconvenient. We had 15 participants on the trip and about 8 city officials accompanying us for the day. A bit of overkill but their intentions were good.

We started the tour at the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institute – a.k.a. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Museum. I have no idea why it has two names but it was an interesting museum. The purpose of the museum was to educate people about the earthquake that hit Kobe at 5:46:46 am on January 17, 1995. It was a 7.3 earthquake, lasted 20 seconds and killed 6, 434 people.

The tour in the museum began with two films; the first was for shock value to give us an appreciation of what a 7.3 earthquake feels like; the second was about the aftermath from the perspective of a 15-year old girl who was buried in the rubble and survived. Taken together, they were very effective. After the films, we wandered around the exhibits. The museum was well designed although we didn’t have a great deal of time to absorb everything.

We were soon back on the bus for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. The tour guide had thoughtfully brought along forks for those of us who are chopstick impaired but everyone, including me, decided to give the chopsticks another try. The food was all seafood! For those who don’t know my gastronomic idiosyncrasies, I don’t like seafood at all (well, unless it is battered, deep fried and drenched in ketchup) and avoid it assiduously. But in the interest of being polite and respectful I ate the mysterious bits and pieces of seafood before me…and lived to tell the tale. I am proud to say that I actually tried everything on my plate (my mother will be so proud too) except for the large, mutant piece of shrimp. I just couldn’t handle that one. One of the faculty members ate it for me. One of the tour guides was sitting at our table during lunch and noticed that I didn’t eat a lot and gave me a chocolate bar so that I wouldn’t be hungry. I know I should have refused it but I lusted after that piece of chocolate and accepted it anyways. I was effusive in my gratitude and hoped that would make up for taking her chocolate away from her.

After lunch, we visited the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum. We saw a film that was basically propaganda about sake. After being brainwashed about the useful properties of sake, we took a tour through the museum that was set up with the equipment and mannequins demonstrating the ancient method for making sake. We spent about five minutes going through the exhibit and it was just about the perfect amount of time to allot to it. After sprinting through the museum I had an opportunity to try sake for the first time. It was really strong and not to my taste but I tried to control the grimace on my face in yet another attempt to be polite and respectful. We finished this stop by doing some browsing in their gift store and then it was time to get back to the bus.

The next stop was Mt. Rokko. It is only 931 meters high but it has some spectacular views of Kobe and Osaka from the top. Well, it would have if it hadn’t been raining. It started raining the moment we pulled into the parking lot so we had about five minutes of viewing time before the clouds moved in and obscured our scenic view. I managed to get a couple of photos.

Our last stop of the day was at the Kitano Meister Garden which is a facility that used to be an elementary school but now houses a small selection of shops and also a place to do crafts. So we were herded into a classroom and instructed on how to make our own Japanese paper fan. I had flashbacks to kindergarten when we made crafts to take home to our parents. I feel like I should save my fan for Mum and Dad and proudly present it to them at Christmas. I can just imagine the “What the hell?” expressions on their faces if I did that : )

Once our fans were made, we had about ½ hour to visit the shops. They were primarily selling food and I eagerly bought their offerings. I got some chocolate that was out-of-this-world delicious. I restrained myself and didn’t get 20 pounds of it even though I wanted to. I also found a small micro-brew beer shop that had I.P.A. and stout. I bought three bottles and hid them away in my bags before any of the students saw me since they aren’t allowed to bring alcohol on board and the faculty can if we are discreet about it. I clutched my treasures to my chest and scuttled out to the bus for the trip back to the ship.

It was about 5:00 pm when we got back to the ship. I thanked our guides and presented them with gifts that had been provided by the field trip organizers on the ship. Once my official duties were taken care of I headed off to my cabin and spent the rest of the evening getting caught up on some necessary chores such as laundry, cleaning out 50 pounds of crap in my purse and other useful but boring things.

We pulled out of Kobe at 10:00 and though I was sorry to see our time there at an end, I was eager to be on my way to China. So many countries, so little time.