When visiting Japan, one has to eat Kobe beef. And where better than in Kobe itself. We hopped on the shinkansen for the short trip to Kobe. I say “short” but I really mean “quick”. It is 250km between Hiroshima and Kobe but it took us just over an hour on the train. I don’t understand how the Japanese can manage to provide a fast train between all their cities every couple of minutes, while Britain takes almost 10 years to discuss just the planning for one high speed rail line.
Adrie spent a good few hours trying to find the best place to eat this Japanese delicacy and finally settled on a restaurant just outside the train station, so we had a booking for just after we arrived. I am not kidding. We arrived, placed our bags in a locker by the station and headed to the restaurant.
There are all sorts of myths about these cows; how they play music to them in the field, give massages and rub their bellies with beer to produce the high fat content of the meat. All I know is it tastes good and is bloody expensive.
But you only live once so we both ordered the 250g sirloin and a glass of red. We had a choice of appetisers – salmon or roast beef. Er… dumb questions. Beef please. It was as if they were taunting us: “This is the beef you are normally used to, afterwards try the Kobe!”
The meal came with some salad and veg but I was not interested in that and kept my eye on the beef. It was melt in the mouth stuff. No, really! No chewing required. This was, undoubtedly, the best beef we had ever eaten. An hour and a half later we left the restaurant stuffed, leaving a veg graveyard behind on one side of the plate.
In an effort to recover from our over-eating we decided to take the cable car up the hill above the city and walk down. This was not an entirely random choice. At the top there was a really interesting herb garden with a magnificent view over the city. Osaka and Kobe almost form one great conurbation and yet the city doesn’t feel as busy or as crowded.
We found a pretty waterfall on our way down
Even though it was a short stay, we both loved Kobe. It is such a beautiful, new, spacious and clean city.
We strolled around the port area near our hotel and in the harbour we found The World docked. The World is a cruise ship like no other – it is less recreational and rather accommodational. The ship sails the oceans with permanent residents in their apartments who vote on where the next destination should be. It has all the trappings of other cruise liners, but people actually live on the boat, so it comes complete with gym (and personal trainers), hairdressers and a resident golf pro. I could definitely see myself retiring on something like that one day.
We took another walk around the port this evening when everything was lit up. It was very pretty.
We also tried out some new flavours from the local vending machine. Vending machines are ubiquitous around Japan, some can even dispense hot drinks, so we wanted to try something unknown.
Our time in Japan has sadly come to an end, but we both really enjoyed it. Well, I enjoyed it – Adrie LOVED it! I think I would have enjoyed it more if I it was just a little easier to get around with the very little English signage they have and the little English they speak. It is going to be interesting to see how they cope with both the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympics in 2020.
It is such a wonderful country and the people, although shy, are really friendly. So either of those events will be a good excuse to come back. Otherwise I definitely will be back for some genuine Kobe beef.